Ergomo woes?

[jeffg]

Gita Sporting Goods and Ergomo part ways
Ergomo's unique power meter design
Photo ©: James Huang
Gita Sporting Goods and Ergomo will officially end their relationship effective January 8, 2008, leaving subsequent North American distributorship of the bottom bracket-based power meters in question for the time being.

Gita claims it terminated its distribution agreement due to poor product reliability and inadequate manufacturer support. "This is a really unique situation and an extreme disappointment for us," said Gita President Giorgio Andretta in an official press release. "In 35 years of servicing the US market we have never had a supplier fail to support their product in this manner. The defective return rate now exceeds 30%. We have been negotiating for months trying to get the parts necessary to provide service for the defective units we have on hand. We have prepaid for additional units to satisfy these issues. Ergomo has failed to deliver these units. We apologize to those dealers and consumers that have been affected by this and are truly sorry for the inconvenience they are experiencing. We are continuing to work on their behalf to rectify these issues. We simply can no longer subsidize the product without support from Ergomo."

Matthias A.Gärtner, President and CEO of SG Sensortechnik GmbH & Co KG, Ergomo's parent company, presents a distinctly different view. According to him, it was SG Sensortechnik that terminated the contract with Gita. "Gita did quite a good job initially when they started with Ergomo in North America due to their experience in selling bikes and textiles," he said. "However to be [successful in the] long term with a high tech product like Ergomo you would need to do much more then just distributing/selling Ergomo. You will need to constantly coach and train your customers and the final consumer how and why to use Ergomo. In addition you need to teach and explain why is it so important to install Ergomo according to the specification of the manufacturer. Further on it is essential to give the customers an appropriate support and service not only to sell and install Ergomo but also an excellent after sales service."

Gärtner admits that Ergomo posted an initial US defect rate of 12-15%, but feels that the situation could have been handled differently. "Past experiences Ergomo customers had, where Gita was not able to provide adequate service due to out of stock scenarios or not being deeply enough involved in the coaching/training environment should have never happened," he added. "All customers and consumers who purchased an Ergomo deserve first class attention, service and understanding."

According to Gärtner, the Ergomo return rate "has been reduced substantially since 2007 due to improved electronics and software," though, and a new US and Canadian distributor should be announced shortly.

Regardless of which version of the story is more accurate, Gita says it no longer has sufficient parts to properly handle service and repair of returned units and is directing service, repair, and warranty inquiries directly to SG Sensortechnik:

SG Sensortechnik GmbH & Co KG
Am Berg 32
D-64546 Morfelden-Walldorf
Germany
Telephone: 49-610527310
Email: MAG@sg-sensortechnik.com

[stevep]

giorgio andretta has a long history of involvement in the bike business.
his credentials are top notch. his customer service has always been exemplary in the market for italian/ european cycling products.

i dont know whose fault this is... but i'm betting its not giorgios.

[Dr. Doofus]

the watt geeks aren't so crazy about ergomo

you get different readings depending on where the wire is

the wire can move sometimes

some guys got theirs set up fine, have no problems

others have to yutz with it a lot

giorgio is a guy who will still charge you the original 900.00 list for a 12 year old frame out of the back of the warehouse (unless Al sold it to you for "his" price), but he is smart about what to carry, what to dump, and Gita's customer service kicks butt. wise move by giorgio.

[obtuse]

giorgio andretta has a long history of involvement in the bike business.
his credentials are top notch. his customer service has always been exemplary in the market for italian/ european cycling products.

i dont know whose fault this is... but i'm betting its not giorgios.

what pucci said-
best gig in the industry. great people, great products, great friends. believe me, none of it was gita's fault.

jerk

[BumbleBeeDave]

Gärtner admits that Ergomo posted an initial US defect rate of 12-15%, but feels that the situation could have been handled differently.

Perhaps the best way to handle this would be for Ergomo to get their defective rate below 12% before selling the d@mn things? Of course, that also begs the question of what their initial European market defect rate was/is? Why would their US rate be any different from their rate in any other market? Hmmm . . .

In any event, to have that sort of defect rate on a new product--and just admit it like that--says a lot about Ergomo as a company. Ridiculous . . .

BBD

[Polyglot]

I spoke to Matthias about possibly distributing the Ergomo more than two years ago and did a feasibility study on it. After the absolute minimum due diligence, I then decided that the idea was a non-starter as the required investment was far greater than what you would ever be able to get out of sales. This based upon the fact that you absolutely required a dedicated technician to deal with consumers and dealers. The full-time tech would be needed to simply get the product out on the market. The tech would need to educate the dealers and prepare proper dummy-proof installation instructions. Obviously Matthias believed otherwise.

When Matthias subsequently told me that he was going with Gita, I shuddered when he also told me that Giorgio had said that he already had the technician on staff who would be able to handle it. I am not aware of anybody on Giorgio's staff that would ever be able to properly handle the education part of the product.

I therefore think that the reality of the 'break-up' lies somewhere in the middle. I believe the first person to take blame for the situation is Giorgio for ever embarking on selling the ergomo without undertaking the proper due diligence. Then Matthias must answer for not having a dependable product (normally in electronics, a defect rate of more than one in a thousand is sky high). In the end, the press release sent out by Gita smacks of petty revenge and shows a definite lack of class on Gita's part. Had Giorgio set things up properly, he would have had proper protection from the problems related to the high return rate.

[Grant McLean]

Bikes + electronic things = don't be the distributor



-g

[Polyglot]

Bikes + electronic things = don't be the distributor



-g

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