I know this thread is waning towards dead, but I thought I'd add my PowerTap service story for anyone who may care.
Between my wife and I we have 2 PowerTap wheels of the Generation 2 variety or so. (one is a Pro+ and the other a Pro). My wheel started calibrating low (consistently around 430 when it had been consistent around 500 in the same environments) and I decided to call and send it in for service.
Tuesday, "Week 0". Called PowerTap in Madison and noted I had a wheel that likely needed service as it was calibrating low. They provided an address to send it to, a reference number and mentioned they should have it "about a work week". I should note, after 2 calls I noted that I was essentially on eternal hold, so I started to actually use their "leave a message" feature for my future calls. I dropped the wheel off at UPS that evening, but too late for pick-up.
Thursday, "Week 0". PowerTap received my wheel -- I am in MN so it only took ground 1 day.
Friday, "Week 1". I had been waiting patiently, but had not heard anything yet about my wheel shipping, or a call with my final pricing / asking for credit card number... etc... I probably should have had one in their system from the first call, but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to give it to them once they were done with service. Left a message, which was returned within 5 minutes. Stated they were a little backed up, and the wheel would get in Monday or Tuesday.
Friday, "Week 2". Another week had gone by without any word on status, or request for payment. This time I left a message around 11 AM, but only had the call returned at nearly 5 pm that the wheel was done and they had a mis-communication internally that no one had called to get payment to ship the wheel back. I missed this call because I was out for a run, unfortunately it was so late in the day by the time I got the message I could not return the call to supply payment.
Monday, "Week 3", 8am. I called and provided a credit card number to charge my order to, everything seemed like a "go".
Tuesday, "Week 3", mid-day. I assumed I may receive the wheel that day, but decided to send a "contact us" e-mail via their web page asking for a tracking number and/or shipping status. I guess my last few weeks of inattentiveness caused me to question when they'd really get it sent out and I was getting tired of the wheel being away.
Thursday, "Week 3". I still have not heard anything from PowerTap via my e-mail, but when I arrived home I had a door tag from FedEx -- Signature in person required. If I had the tracking number earlier I could have had the package held somewhere for pick-up, but I did not. I now called FedEx to arrange it to be held today. With the door tag number I was able to see the package was shipped from Madison on Wednesday. Why did it take 2 days to ship if it was "done" and paid for 8 am Monday?
--Edited to fix, I had the last 2 notes down as another week had gone by, it was the same week still (3). Sorry--
So in summary:
-Responsiveness is highly lacking, my lesson learned is to poke them much more often than I did.
-I can't say if I had called more often I would have had better service, but (assuming I get the wheel today) I will have been without it for 3/4 of a month. That's really crazy.
The technology has been generally solid for me in my use, but I have been on the fence about switching to Quarq or Stages in the last few years. If / when my wife's PT needs service, I will strongly consider switching to another type of meter and brand -- this experience damaged my opinion of the company.
Between my wife and I we have 2 PowerTap wheels of the Generation 2 variety or so. (one is a Pro+ and the other a Pro). My wheel started calibrating low (consistently around 430 when it had been consistent around 500 in the same environments) and I decided to call and send it in for service.
Tuesday, "Week 0". Called PowerTap in Madison and noted I had a wheel that likely needed service as it was calibrating low. They provided an address to send it to, a reference number and mentioned they should have it "about a work week". I should note, after 2 calls I noted that I was essentially on eternal hold, so I started to actually use their "leave a message" feature for my future calls. I dropped the wheel off at UPS that evening, but too late for pick-up.
Thursday, "Week 0". PowerTap received my wheel -- I am in MN so it only took ground 1 day.
Friday, "Week 1". I had been waiting patiently, but had not heard anything yet about my wheel shipping, or a call with my final pricing / asking for credit card number... etc... I probably should have had one in their system from the first call, but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to give it to them once they were done with service. Left a message, which was returned within 5 minutes. Stated they were a little backed up, and the wheel would get in Monday or Tuesday.
Friday, "Week 2". Another week had gone by without any word on status, or request for payment. This time I left a message around 11 AM, but only had the call returned at nearly 5 pm that the wheel was done and they had a mis-communication internally that no one had called to get payment to ship the wheel back. I missed this call because I was out for a run, unfortunately it was so late in the day by the time I got the message I could not return the call to supply payment.
Monday, "Week 3", 8am. I called and provided a credit card number to charge my order to, everything seemed like a "go".
Tuesday, "Week 3", mid-day. I assumed I may receive the wheel that day, but decided to send a "contact us" e-mail via their web page asking for a tracking number and/or shipping status. I guess my last few weeks of inattentiveness caused me to question when they'd really get it sent out and I was getting tired of the wheel being away.
Thursday, "Week 3". I still have not heard anything from PowerTap via my e-mail, but when I arrived home I had a door tag from FedEx -- Signature in person required. If I had the tracking number earlier I could have had the package held somewhere for pick-up, but I did not. I now called FedEx to arrange it to be held today. With the door tag number I was able to see the package was shipped from Madison on Wednesday. Why did it take 2 days to ship if it was "done" and paid for 8 am Monday?
--Edited to fix, I had the last 2 notes down as another week had gone by, it was the same week still (3). Sorry--
So in summary:
-Responsiveness is highly lacking, my lesson learned is to poke them much more often than I did.
-I can't say if I had called more often I would have had better service, but (assuming I get the wheel today) I will have been without it for 3/4 of a month. That's really crazy.
The technology has been generally solid for me in my use, but I have been on the fence about switching to Quarq or Stages in the last few years. If / when my wife's PT needs service, I will strongly consider switching to another type of meter and brand -- this experience damaged my opinion of the company.