I "bought" one of these really cool tech shields in June when I bought my new RF1200, silver. I went to the Iron Pony in Columbus, OH to check out the helmets and intended to buy a Bell RS-1, partly, LARGELY because of the Transitions shield. But the salesman told me that Shoei was just starting to sell a transitions shield, and he said he thought the RF1200 was quieter.
I really like most features of the helmet except a noise issue that I will describe in a separate post.
This post is more or less a complaint about the fact that I paid about $160 in early June with the understanding that the shield would be shipped in August.
Well, a week or so ago I called Iron Pony to ask if they'd heard anything about the ship date. They had to check with Shoei-American then called me and said the ship date woulld not be before September. So last night I sent an email to Shoei-America to ask what was going on and if they had any insight on when they would ship the shield. They replied that they have not told any dealers any anticipated ship dates and that they would tell them when they were ready to ship.
So I wrote back to ask what problem was causing the delay, and, OK - a snarky question on whether they thought it was ethical to sell something that wasn't really available.
Their response:
"The transition shield is not being shipped because it is not available yet. When the shield is done with final quality control testing we will inform our dealers when the shield will be available."
This response isn't very useful or informative. It MIGHT mean that they are having quality problems, or it might be a simple statement that QC is the last formal step before they start shipping. My emotional state changed immediately from annoyed to PISSED.
I understand product development problems and I don't want a defective shield. Maybe I'm just a suspicious cynical type, but I'm wondering if this isn't really more of a licensing problem. I have never seen any announcement that Shoei was selling these. I checked the Transitions.com site. They have older announcements for when they started licensing to Bell and a bit later when they started with Lazer, a Belgian helmet company. No announcement for Shoei. Bell is still selling their version.
Anybody want a slightly used XLarge 1200 for cheap? (I'll probably cool down by tomorrow.)
Oh, and Revzilla has a deal to give you the Transitions Shield FREE with purchase of a Bell RS-1, available until the end of August.
Chris
I really like most features of the helmet except a noise issue that I will describe in a separate post.
This post is more or less a complaint about the fact that I paid about $160 in early June with the understanding that the shield would be shipped in August.
Well, a week or so ago I called Iron Pony to ask if they'd heard anything about the ship date. They had to check with Shoei-American then called me and said the ship date woulld not be before September. So last night I sent an email to Shoei-America to ask what was going on and if they had any insight on when they would ship the shield. They replied that they have not told any dealers any anticipated ship dates and that they would tell them when they were ready to ship.
So I wrote back to ask what problem was causing the delay, and, OK - a snarky question on whether they thought it was ethical to sell something that wasn't really available.
Their response:
"The transition shield is not being shipped because it is not available yet. When the shield is done with final quality control testing we will inform our dealers when the shield will be available."
This response isn't very useful or informative. It MIGHT mean that they are having quality problems, or it might be a simple statement that QC is the last formal step before they start shipping. My emotional state changed immediately from annoyed to PISSED.
I understand product development problems and I don't want a defective shield. Maybe I'm just a suspicious cynical type, but I'm wondering if this isn't really more of a licensing problem. I have never seen any announcement that Shoei was selling these. I checked the Transitions.com site. They have older announcements for when they started licensing to Bell and a bit later when they started with Lazer, a Belgian helmet company. No announcement for Shoei. Bell is still selling their version.
Anybody want a slightly used XLarge 1200 for cheap? (I'll probably cool down by tomorrow.)
Oh, and Revzilla has a deal to give you the Transitions Shield FREE with purchase of a Bell RS-1, available until the end of August.
Chris
