gauchedamned

I had ordered and paid for a rack on October 3, 2016. It is now October 11, 2017. I still do not have my rack, despite many patient emails to Lane Kagay at Cetma Cargo. Yes, it has now been over a year wait, and still don't have a rack. I have received maybe two replies from the dozen or so emails that I have sent out promising delivery. Will I ever get this item? Who knows. I'm about as chill a dude as they come, but even chill has its limits. Just thought I'd chime in with some relevant dates for this thread.

Leukybear 

I ordered a CETMA rack during his 2015 sale. I had a similar experience.

Except I was a bit more proactive in being sure to reach out to Lane during the paypal buyer protection period.

It took me a month a half to get mine. I reached out to him a month after ordering as his/ CETMA's social media was filling up with customers thanking him for their new racks from the sale.
I knew something was wrong at this time as a multitude of people were receiving theirs, I hadn't even received a tracking number yet.


Since you've been so patient, you're pretty much SOL on getting your money back and 100% at the will of Lane now.

Big Pond

Call him. He’s active on twitter and F/B. Reach out there as well. If you get no response, look in to the FTC. Good luck.

TimothyH

From the CETMA website...-Tim-

osric

I recently stumbled across this web site: Cetma Rack Reviews
Apparently there are *lots* of customers, including me, who have been scammed by him.
He recently deleted his Facebook page, deleted a bunch of Instagram posts with customer complaints, and stopped posting on Twitter. He doesn't answer his phone and he rarely responds to email.
I wonder if @gauchedamned ever got his rack...

Bikerider007

BBB F Rating on that page LOL! @gugie in Portland area builds racks and seems to know the community. Maybe he will chime in.

gugie 

Don't know about this guy. The rack design is pretty simple. Waiting a helluva long time for a rack is one thing, being incommunicado is another. Seems to be an all too common theme, however - bike guy builds up a business, then disappears.

johnnytheboy

gugie 

Don't know of the guy. It seems not that uncommon for a framebuilder to be running a reasonably successful business, at least to have some repute, then at some point just skip town. I can think of two examples of different framebuilders in Portland that did just that leaving some customers high and dry after taking a large deposit.

REDMASTA

Some people are good at making stuff but suck at running a business. Not uncommon it seems, in any industry. I went through something similar with a "reputable" custom leather maker. Paid in full and waited patiently. Half a year went by and at first would get responses that he was behind, this and that happened, and eventually no replies at all. After a year I had pretty much given up and was going to just dispute the charge, then out of the blue my order showed up in the mail .

So who knows, maybe one day you guys will get your racks...or maybe not. If you've passed the year mark it might be time to see if you can recoup your monies.

Bikerider007

Thanks Mark, that sounds like Contractors in Phx.

Leukybear 

Very common happenings.
Another example is freight baggage, a former courier/ messenger bag business that still has a cult following among the SF messenger community, that did what is described above to their customers. The sole-owner of the business had his demons though.

CBee

hairnet

It's taken me a while to get myself to respond to this thread because I don't really want to talk about someone on BF, but seeing him drop his online presence is alarming.

The same might be happening with Lane. I knew and worked with him for a short while when he was based in LA he seemed very much to prefer working as a one man operation (He even says "one man show" on his IG). He had people working for him occasionally to produce the racks while he continuing building the cargo bikes because he had quite the backlog of orders. For all I know the stress could have become too great as demand continued to grow. I sincerely hope he's going well and this eventually gets resolved because he worked very hard to build Cetma. My time with him was brief but I really liked the guy.

Leukybear 

Flipside is, one of Freight Baggage's former employees/ a friend of mine, started his own little business making freight baggage/ chrome inspired bags. He used to sew for both those brands and really knows his stuff on making a solid heavy-use bag!

https://www.instagram.com/trevor_beanes_studio/

Dontgetcetma

It’s been two years now since I made the mistake of paying Lane Kagay for a Cetma cargo bike. He’s lied, and promised, and stopped returning any calls or emails. Whatever his issue is, the guy is a bike thief.
Save your money.

TugaDude

I just saw this thread and I have no idea who the person in question is and whether there are communication issues, but his website appears to be live and up-to-date and he has been adding blog posts, the most recent was March 9th, where he said he had moved his shop to a new location.

veganbikes

So you took the time to register for this forum and find a post that went dormant in 2018 to post that?

Odd one but OK. According to the website he is active and posting and I have known people who have gotten CETMA racks without problems (haven't seen his cargo bike in the flesh but don't know anyone who has gone for one yet near me). If you have issues you might take it up with the Better Business Bureau or go to court if you actually have substantiated evidence otherwise you just seem like a nutter ranting on the internets or maybe a competitor just out to slander. Not a good look.

Mikefule

Noted that the OP registered in the same month as they made their first post on this thread, and their only other post (in over 3 years) was also on this thread. Then Dontgetcetma registered a name that is directly aimed at Cetma, and made a first post on this very thread, which had been dormant for over two years.

My first thought was that the OP and Dontgetcetma were the same person, except that Dontgetcetma refers to "two years", and the OP posted over 3 years ago.

There are ways and means of pursuing complaints and seeking redress. This is not one of them.

As someone who has dealt with this sort of vitriolic nonsense from "a certain type of customer" every day for many years, I despise it. This is not what this friendly cycling forum is for.

gauchedamned

No, i just got an alert to this dinosaur in my inbox. I actually did get my CETMA rack a few months after raising a stink, so the thread and another that i created on RDDT at the time helped motivate Cetma. I'm not a regular on bikeforums, but come here occasionally for some advice and other threads. I rarely post. The good news is, albeit a frustrating process, the rack itself has served me well and i have made good use of it since receiving it. Honestly it's indispensable. I sure do hope you eventually get your rack. It's a shame it has to be this difficult. Regards,