Warning: Nightmare ebike repair experience at WOW Electric Rides in Calgary (Ghosted, held my bike hostage for over a month)
Hi everyone,
I need to vent about a horrible, incredibly frustrating experience I just had with WOW Electric Rides here in Calgary. I want to warn the community so no one else has to go through this.
I bought a used Span V1 ebike on Facebook Marketplace, and it recently got an Error 30. Since I bought it used, I wanted a professional to look at it. I messaged WOW Electric Rides asking if they repair all types of ebikes. They said yes, told me they would transport it to their service center to check it, and quoted me $45 for a diagnostic fee. I dropped my bike off on April 6th, expecting a professional checkup.
After a week, I heard absolutely nothing. I messaged them to ask what was wrong. They apologized and said they would give me a quote "sometime this week." Another week went by—nothing. I messaged them again on April 23rd, and they completely ghosted me. They didn't even reply.
Finally, after weeks of total silence, I went to the store in person. The staff looked at me and casually said, "It's very hard to find a part." Right then, I knew they didn't know how to fix it and were just wasting my time. I told them I wanted my bike back and that I would come collect it.
This is where things got unacceptable. They told me I couldn't have my bike back yet because they needed to "wait for the trailer to fill up" before they could transport my bike back from their service center to the store! I was furious. They were holding my property hostage just because they were too lazy to drive a trailer to bring it back to the customer.
My dad and I lost our patience, shouted, caused a massive scene at the store, and straight up threatened to take them to small claims court. Only then did they get scared. They suddenly promised they would bring the bike back immediately, and I finally got my bike back on Tuesday.
Guess what? They didn't charge me the $45 diagnostic fee. Why? Because they clearly never even touched my bike. They didn't do any diagnostic work at all. They just let my bike sit in their warehouse gathering dust for over a month while lying to my face and ghosting my messages.
I am so incredibly mad about how unprofessional WOW Electric Rides is. If you have an ebike in Calgary, please be extremely careful about who you trust. Avoid places like this that ghost you and treat your expensive property like garbage.