Any news from Ninebot US?

[litewave]

Has anyone else heard anything from NinebotUS about availability of the Z series? I signed up with them nearly a year ago, and have received no updates, and no responses to emails in recent months.

Their contact form now requires a phone number to send them an email just for general enquiries.

 

[Rehab1]

That is strange. Not knowing who would be a distributor for the Z in the US I signed up as well. So glad I purchased mine from Jason.  I know there are well over a hundred people on Ewheels waiting list. Given their company name you would think NInebot US would have been allocated a few Zs from corporate. 

[steve454]

I check that site occasionally and have noticed over the last few months that they no longer stock the E+, only the newer S1.  They seem to be shifting their focus to the two wheel PEV's and the go kart kits.  Speedyfeetuk still stocks them.  Even EBay shows them to be mostly out of stock, weird that they still carry the C+ which is even older.

Z10 expected by Ian to be in stock Christmas 2018.  https://www.speedyfeet.co.uk/blogs/news/ninebot-one-z-availability  It seems they took down the preorder from the website.  

[houseofjob]

I think we all signed up for that notification send, as that was one of the first US notification sign-ups for the Z at the time of the HK product unveil last November(?).

 

FWIW, only MyInmotion.com, aka InMotion USA, has any direct affiliation with its China HQ counterpart. All others AFAIK, NinebotUS.com, GotwayAmerica.com (RIP), MiniMotorsUSA.com, etc., are just 3rd party distributors with very convincing domain names.

While John of NinebotUS in Livingston, NJ, has been a very good Ninebot/Segway distributor AFAICT, he seems to have fallen victim of the Ninebot-Segway distributorship dissolution awhile back. As Ian of SpeedyFeetUK, one of the most well-known English-language Ninebot distributors, suffered the same fate, even he has yet to secure Z distributorship for the UK/Europe, not sure if he eventually will be able to.

eWheels.com is still the US exclusive distributor for the Ninebot One Z I believe. And the current new production manufacture lines of Ninebot One Z's seem to be strained, what now that the release is worldwide; readily available supplies are most likely earlier Chinese stock.

 

Due to the Segway-Ninebot merger, the lines of communique and distribution are not what they used to be with Ninebot Beijing HQ it seems, as many countries are without official Ninebot One Z distributors. 

The US Segway property is clearly the more dominant entity and higher priority than the Ninebot side, as evidenced by the recent Segway-branded (not a hint of Ninebot branding) Drift W1 YouTube campaign. Funding sponsored video 'reviews' by that many 1M+ sub YouTube influencers must have cost at least 0.5 - 1 million USD.

In comparison, the Z had basically zero marketing.

[houseofjob]

4 minutes ago, steve454 said:

I check that site occasionally and have noticed over the last few months that they no longer stock the E+, only the newer S1.  They seem to be shifting their focus to the two wheel PEV's and the go kart kits.  Speedyfeetuk still stocks them.  Even EBay shows them to be mostly out of stock, weird that they still carry the C+ which is even older.

The One 16" series is most definitely EOL, highly doubt Ninebot HQ is offering support now.

 

4 minutes ago, steve454 said:

Z10 expected by Ian to be in stock Christmas 2018.  https://www.speedyfeet.co.uk/blogs/news/ninebot-one-z-availability  It seems they took down the preorder from the website.  

The ETA XMas update bullet point pre-dates the posting of this page (3/8/2018).

Seems something failed to happen here, especially as all the international shipments of the Z are leaking out now via other channels (mainly AliExpress for Europe).

[Marty Backe]

7 minutes ago, houseofjob said:

I think we all signed up for that notification send, as that was one of the first US notification sign-ups for the Z at the time of the HK product unveil last November(?).

 

FWIW, only MyInmotion.com, aka InMotion USA, has any direct affiliation with its China HQ counterpart. All others AFAIK, NinebotUS.com, GotwayAmerica.com (RIP), MiniMotorsUSA.com, etc., are just 3rd party distributors with very convincing domain names.

While John of NinebotUS in Livingston, NJ, has been a very good Ninebot/Segway distributor AFAICT, he seems to have fallen victim of the Ninebot-Segway distributorship dissolution awhile back. As Ian of SpeedyFeetUK, one of the most well-known English-language Ninebot distributors, suffered the same fate, even he has yet to secure Z distributorship for the UK/Europe, not sure if he eventually will be able to.

eWheels.com is still the US exclusive distributor for the Ninebot One Z I believe. And the current new production manufacture lines of Ninebot One Z's seem to be strained, what now that the release is worldwide; readily available supplies are most likely earlier Chinese stock.

 

Due to the Segway-Ninebot merger, the lines of communique and distribution are not what they used to be with Ninebot Beijing HQ it seems, as many countries are without official Ninebot One Z distributors. 

The US Segway property is clearly the more dominant entity and higher priority than the Ninebot side, as evidenced by the recent Segway-branded (not a hint of Ninebot branding) Drift W1 YouTube campaign. Funding sponsored video 'reviews' by that many 1M+ YouTube influencers must have cost at least 0.5 - 1 million USD.

In comparison, the Z had basically zero marketing.

Well put.

Don't you feel special having your very own Z10, considering the scarcity of this wheel? I know I do 

[houseofjob]

3 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Don't you feel special having your very own Z10, considering the scarcity of this wheel? I know I do 

I don't need a wheel to make me feel special ha! 

[Electric Dreams]

Okay so this is what Ninebot US has to say. Not a direct quote as I called them about a 1.5 weeks back.

US HQ has no plans on bringing the Z10 as it requires certification they don't have plans of acquiring.

All Z10 would have to be acquired either from Ninebot China or from resellers 

 

Regarding Warranty:

Warranty would not offered to Ninebot Z10 sold out of China. The ENTIRE unit has to be shipped back to China for a warranty repair, you CAN NOT just ship back the broken/non working part. What that means is that if you've bought a Z10 either the seller has bought the parts through their own profit margins as spare parts for them to either replace for you or for you to replace for yourself, or to ship the wheel back to the HQ in China to be fixed then back out to customer again.

 

[steve454]

14 minutes ago, Jack Frost said:

Okay so this is what Ninebot US has to say. Not a direct quote as I called them about a 1.5 weeks back.

US HQ has no plans on bringing the Z10 as it requires certification they don't have plans of acquiring.

All Z10 would have to be acquired either from Ninebot China or from resellers 

 

Regarding Warranty:

Warranty would not offered to Ninebot Z10 sold out of China. The ENTIRE unit has to be shipped back to China for a warranty repair, you CAN NOT just ship back the broken/non working part. What that means is that if you've bought a Z10 either the seller has bought the parts through their own profit margins as spare parts for them to either replace for you or for you to replace for yourself, or to ship the wheel back to the HQ in China to be fixed then back out to customer again.

 

Thanks for the information.  That makes sense. 

[steve454]

It kind of irritates that Ninebot advertised three levels of the Z series, and then all you can get in the US is the Z10.  But France got the Z8.  I would have bought th Z6. Oh well.