Earthroamer poor customer service

[howell_jd]

Occasionally this has gotten out of hand here (and before) but many of the posts on both sides have been inflammatory - not just on the part of ER owners or ER supporters.

My mama taught me that asking for assistance politely often generates more support than ventilating frustrations although both techniques may achieve the same result. I also agree with JRhetts' and mhiscox's characterization of Liz5264's post above as "graceful and thoughtful."

There are myriad examples on ExPo of the brand-name loyalty that generate taking sides and subsequent accusations and even name calling. It happens, it isn't necessary, but it happens - and we move on because we can...and in the big scheme of things it really doesn't matter much.

If any of my postings have been seen as derrogatory, or diminishing any personal point-of-view, I offer my apology and covenant to "do better" in the future. I haven't in the past, nor will I likely in the future, hide my own enthusiasm for my ER...and I believe I have been quite forthright with the challenges that I have encountered during my ER travels...most of which are encountered universally by those who seek off-road adventure (yes, I have been stuck in the mud, the sand, on a mesa, on a range, etc.)...and I've fixed some of those problems with duct tape, bailing wire, bubble gum (yes, really), solder and spit too - sometimes in the middle of the trail as well as in the middle of the road (amidst traffic and all). Let me get to the point - in those instances, my experience has been that I always had the support of the ER family and ER team...a different support than e-mail information to be sure (and perhaps off-target from the OP topic - again, my apologies for not keeping my initial response as precise as it could possibly have been addressed) but always timely for me.

I like ER and I like ExPo. I don't think the two communities are mutually exclusive - and I suspect that the many ER owners I know agree since so many of us continue to visit, participate, and share our experiences on ExPo. If I am taking liberties with other ER owners' opinions please excuse my presumption.

Unfortunately, I won't get to enjoy my ER for the next 12-months as I head back to sandy regions but I look forward to the vicarious thrill of exploration and adventure through ExPo, Overland Journal, EarthRoamer.org, ADVRider.com, and the many other sites where so many personal friends "electronically" gather. Hope to "see" all of you on the boards! Thanks for your patience, and now back to more regular postings.

Jonathan

[dwh]

If a manufacturer offers the ability to contact them via email then they should ensure they have someone handling this and if they are getting too many junk emails to deal with it then implement a contact form.

I completely agree and have argued this position for decades.



[The following is not specifically directed at you Liz. It's mostly for those who aren't aware, and perhaps, if someone at Earthroamer is lurking about, they'll take it to heart.]


We, "in the business", have known about the problem of email address harvesting for decades. At this point, there are hundreds of thousands of bots up and running and crawling the web at any given moment; as well as many other methods of harvesting - such as grabbing all the addresses from an individual's contact list; and spammers sell their databases of collected addresses to each other on an open market. Once an email address gets into a spammer database, it will NEVER be removed.

The worst case I personally have seen, was an email server with over one-hundred email boxes each receiving over twenty-thousand spams per day. They had published their entire company contact list on their web site, including everyone's email address as a clickable mailto: link. Someone in their sales department had thought it a grand idea. The IT department objected, but was overruled. At the point where I was called in, the only thing to do, was to implement a very strict (spam nazi) server-side anti-spam filter[*] and try to keep a smile on my face as everyone in the company started (loudly) complaining. (As a hired gun consultant called in to deal with the mess, I didn't care how loudly they complained. The CEO was authorizing my checks, and as long as he was happy, the rest would simply have to get over it.)

These days, NOT implementing a contact form is regarded as a novice mistake for a web designer to make. Anyone who puts a mailto: link on their web site is just begging to be spammed into the ninth circle of hell. Unfortunately, there are a lot of novices out there representing themselves as experts. (Which has always been a rampant problem at all levels in the IT field.) Many companies have shot themselves in the foot by trusting an "expert" who was nothing of the sort.

But the reason such things happen is that people running companies are generally not, themselves, IT experts. They simply must put their trust in someone to get the job done. And how are they to know who to trust? They don't. All they can do is give it a shot and hope they don't lose a toe as a result.

Again, I'm not acting as an apologist; this is simply the nature of the beast.


The fix to Earthroamer's current problem is easy. (And unfortunately, even today, often needed.)

Create a new email account to receive contact emails.
Implement a Contact Us page with code to keep the recipient email address hidden.
Delete the thoroughly compromised "info@" email address, which is beyond any doubt in thousands of spammer databases and flagged as a "good" email address. ("Good" meaning; confirmed that actual human eyes will see the spam.)


[*] In case any email admins are watching: My preferred tool for this is ASSP. It's an SMTP proxy that watches incoming SMTP connections, analyzes the incoming message as it passes through, does a Beyesian comparison against "known spam" and "known not-spam" databases, and if it decides the incoming message looks more like spam than not-spam, cuts off the SMTP connection with a reject message. Thus the incoming spam never does finish getting delivered to the server and never ends up in any mailboxes on the recipient server.

One of the few truly excellent free, open source softwares in the world.

http://www.magicvillage.de/~Fritz_Bo...D91C-8000001C/

[cellularsteve2]

Liz,
Being from Australia, I wonder if you could comment on your thoughts of the EarthCruiser or ATW. Either in this post or a new post. I am curious why you are considering a US company. Is it the Ford platform you prefer? I am excited to see that EarthCruiser is now in the US giving us more choices.
Thanks.
steve

[Liz5264]

Hi Steve

We are in contact with Earthcruiser and ATW, amongst others, as part of our current investigations. Both of which remain on our shortlist. As for ER, Ford and a US company, it is more that because this will be our permanent home for hopefully 20+ years, we want to investigate as many options as possible. That way we should end up with the most appropriate vehicle for us. Given our plans, it does not really matter where in the world we start, so if the best vehicle is in the US or Europe and we can sort out the admin details, then we will start there. Obviously purchasing from Aus would be more convenient for the initial setup, but is not the most important criteria.

I just wish we could get a LHD vehicle built here!

Liz

[Kardec]

As Earthroamer's first customer it's probably appropriate for me to speak up. I have never had any reason to fault their customer service. Perhaps I am forgiving, don't need to be coddled, or don't need to be treated like a VIP but I'm pretty sure that I have never waited for a return phone call except when someone was actually thinking or researching whatever I asked about. Fine experiences, though no one was chasing me around to pour me a glass of wine or wipe my feet. I'm also certain that your typical Aussie customer has no unreasonable expectations. I lived down under for a year and I don't believe I ever ran into an Australian who took him or herself too seriously.

I love the ER and mine is now far from new my warranty is long over and I have no financial interest in the company. No vehicle that you actually live in is going to hold up without constant maintenance and the more luxurious the unit is the more it is going to degrade with the wear and tear of living and travel. If anyone is looking for a machine that will degrade the least over time then the choice would probably the most spartan truck and camper that can be tolerated. The less veneer, upholstery and hardware the better.

Having watched the company since before it was even housed under a big piece of blue plastic in a boat yard near San Diego I have to say that the current vehicle is a testament to their customer relationships. They are very responsive and have been exceedingly open to learning from and growing with their customers. Great vehicle. I love it. However, if I lived in Australia I would examine other, local, options. There are many fantastic machines made in Oz and, if I remember correctly, one reason the Dick Smith truck did not go home with him was the unwillingness of the Australian Govt. to accept various aspects of the Ford truck ... like left hand drive.

I would unconditionally recommend the vehicle and the company personnel. I do business all the time where email does not go through, nothing replaces voice to voice or face to face!

[Kermit]

I just wish we could get a LHD vehicle built here!

Liz

You can get RHD conversions, why couldn't you do LHD conversions? Australian legal reasons?

http://www.corvette.com.au/performax/default.asp

Liz,
Being from Australia, I wonder if you could comment on your thoughts of the EarthCruiser or ATW. Either in this post or a new post. I am curious why you are considering a US company. Is it the Ford platform you prefer? I am excited to see that EarthCruiser is now in the US giving us more choices.
Thanks.
steve

I would think a Mercedes based chassis would be a better platform for World travel than a Ford F-Series.

[rblackwell]

These are precisely the reasons we switched from Earthroamer to GXV - Mercedes chassis (Unimog U500) , Vario-pilot - both LHD and RHD - just slide the wheel and pedals across the cab

I have not seen an ATW up close but the Earthcruiser is IMHO definitely a "live beside" vehicle not a "live inside". Also personally I would not want the fabric pop-top.

You can get RHD conversions, why couldn't you do LHD conversions? Australian legal reasons?

http://www.corvette.com.au/performax/default.asp



I would think a Mercedes based chassis would be a better platform for World travel than a Ford F-Series.

[haven]

I moved posts about vehicle height to their own thread. Please continue the discussion here
http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...dition-Vehicle

[Jim1960]

In those far out regions, washboard roads are the norm. They will beat the hell out of any vehicle over time. Every small problem in the book from a loose dashboard to leaking seals will eventually occur. There is no vehicle on earth that will not break down eventually in those conditions. So what ever vehicle you pick, make darn sure you have available parts around the world to fix it.

F.Y.I. There is a nice Unimod Global EXP in San Diego for sale $189,000.00 see the current RV trader.