Any luck with RGM?

[seattle##gs]

I am inquiring about a belt drive for an Atlas but so far they've been really slow to respond. Is this normal? Are they also very slow about shipping?

 

[marshg246]

I am inquiring about a belt drive for an Atlas but so far they've been really slow to respond. Is this normal? Are they also very slow about shipping?

I wanted to order some things about three weeks ago. There is no "Add to Cart" button so I wrote them about it. This is the second time - wrote them about three months ago too about the same thing. I have a Trade Account with them. I've received no answer to either. I need more things that only they have, most importantly the 520 rear brake drum (062764N). They have 10 in stock according to the site - I would like 6 but cannot add them to my cart!

In the past, I added to cart, they shipped within 2 workdays, and the order took 2-3 days to arrive if there were no customs issues.

I also you got you and some of your customers parts from them with no issues but I'm not positive that they are still in business. I suppose I could call but I generally don't spend the money to call Internationally.

 

[Andy Higham]

RGM have massive IT problems at the moment. The website is effectively a catalogue only. The email is hit and miss.

Look up the parts you need on the website, write them down in front of you and give them a ring. You can pay by card and parts will be with you in a couple of days.

 

[marshg246]

RGM have massive IT problems at the moment. The website is effectively a catalogue only. The email is hit and miss.

Look up the parts you need on the website, write them down in front of you and give them a ring. You can pay by card and parts will be with you in a couple of days.

Hit and miss by international phone is not appealing. Anyone that cannot answer an email probably can't understand my southern US English well enough to get an order right.

I don't even accept phone orders from people in the US because they ALWAYS end with errors - mine, the buyer, or both's fault. I often discuss all someone needs and the have them send an email or even text if they don't use email. Then I send a quote for approval. My margins in parts sales are WAY too little to afford errors and returns due to errors. Returning something to the UK after paying huge shipping and 25% customs is just ridiculous. A 50 GBP part today costs around $125 USD delivered.

If I get a little free time I will offer to fix their site - it's not rocket science for someone the proper expertise!

 

[Bonzo]

Over the past month I've placed three different orders with RGM. I've only managed contact by telephone. The first order took 3 attempts to get somebody to answer, the other times someone picked up and manually/verbally took the order. First writing down my name & address and then taking the part numbers and amount required for the items I want, followed by taking my credit card details. It's completely old school and more than a little frustrating, however my 3 orders arrived at my door. Eventually. (Recent storms have disrupted the postal service - so no fault of RGM's)

Operating an old school, spit & sawdust parts supply business is all very well, given that's pretty much how our bikes were built in the first place, but not having any modern website link to their stock is a proper ball ache.

1. What the stock levels indicate on their site doesn't mean that is the actual number of items they have available. I've purchased a couple of parts that old had '7 in stock'. They still show '7 in stock'. Another '1 in stock' - turns out there were none. They won't know as they're taking your order and you won't know until (the rest of) your order turns up.

2. IF your order doesn't turn up, i.e. it gets lost in the post, there is no tracking available. You have no 'order number'. You have to keep a note/list of what you ordered and when and then call them again and keep your fingers crossed.

3. Worst thing for me. When your box arrives, you unwrap it to find your lovely parts - but there is no itemized receipt showing the part numbers, amount or what price was charged. Nothing to keep in your receipts file. I asked Roger to make sure he includes an itemized print out as I can pass this on to the next owner along with the paperwork for every other item I've bought for the bike since I've owned it - his response was along the lines of "Aah, it just takes too much time to print them out."

These frustrations along with many parts no longer in stock, it does make we wonder if they are winding down? I hope I'm wrong.

I still want to use RGM (along with AN) but I don't know if I can be bothered again until they sort out their website and fingers crossed they can get it sorted sooner rather than later.

 

[Andy Higham]

The information I have is, there was a massive outage around December and the provider is unable/unwilling to resolve the issues

 

[Bonzo]

I think on one of their paper 'bulletins' that comes with the order, they said the company running their website were charging £1000 a month

 

[B+Bogus]

I've been emailing orders in and they've been turned around within the week.
The email address I was given over the phone was nortonrgm@gmail.com - none of the others work.
The lad I spoke to was clearly quite new to the job, but was pleasant enough and things arrived in good order, albeit with no tracking numbers to follow.
I've always got the itemised receipt with my orders, so maybe a one-off?
Some stuff shown as in stock on the website evidently wasn't, but I'll continue to support them when I can.
Hopefully they'll get their issues resolved.

 

[marshg246]

I think on one of their paper 'bulletins' that comes with the order, they said the company running their website were charging £1000 a month

Holy hell! My web site, database, and SSL certificate cost me under $600/year (around $37 GPB/month) and that includes the servers I use and maintain. So, I guess their programmer is charging about 963 GBP/Month and not doing the job. I charge my biggest customer less than that, act as their Chief Technology Officer and Chief Security Officer, do 100% of their programming and ensure no outages more than a few minutes. The web sites (three of them) and 107 programs I wrote and maintain are WAY more code than RGM's site.

I'm 75, not in great health and restore motorcycles while do my IT work. Not sure I have time to take on their work, but I may talk to them. If they used the same professional technologies as me I would have it up and fixed in 2-3 days, but they don't - they use non-professional mythologies that I would have to translate.

 

[L.A.B.]

$600/year (around $37 GPB/year)

$600US dollars is about £440GBP?

 

[Andy Higham]

Decimal point migration

 

[L.A.B.]

I'm 75, not in great health and restore motorcycles while do my IT work.

Surely you should be retired by now, not burning the candle at both ends.

 

[Jwvert]

I called them Tues over the same ordering issue. Broken IT system, was bouncing emails as well. nortonrgm@gmail.com works for placing orders

 

[seattle##gs]

YIPE!!

 

[Andy Higham]

Last Friday afternoon I rang them with an order, arrived Monday lunchtime

 

[marshg246]

$600US dollars is about £440GBP?

Sorry, see edit: "$600/year (around $37 GPB/month)" Context is that it 1000 GPB/month so I was getting it to month.

 

[marshg246]

Surely you should be retired by now, not burning the candle at both ends.

The alternative is sit and watch TV until I die - nope!

I somewhat retired in 2020 in that I got rid of most of my IT customers, but then Norton people started coming out of the woodwork wanting bikes and help. When I focused mostly on Triumph it was mostly one at a time with no hurry. Right now, I'm juggling five Nortons and taking 1-5 calls a day for help so my op tempo (military term) has gone up since I "slowed down".

What I really should do is not post here - I make too many typos and then have to deal with them!

 

[marshg246]

Decimal point migration

No, brain fart - it's edited.

 

[marshg246]

Over the past month I've placed three different orders with RGM. I've only managed contact by telephone. The first order took 3 attempts to get somebody to answer, the other times someone picked up and manually/verbally took the order. First writing down my name & address and then taking the part numbers and amount required for the items I want, followed by taking my credit card details. It's completely old school and more than a little frustrating, however my 3 orders arrived at my door. Eventually. (Recent storms have disrupted the postal service - so no fault of RGM's)

Operating an old school, spit & sawdust parts supply business is all very well, given that's pretty much how our bikes were built in the first place, but not having any modern website link to their stock is a proper ball ache.

1. What the stock levels indicate on their site doesn't mean that is the actual number of items they have available. I've purchased a couple of parts that old had '7 in stock'. They still show '7 in stock'. Another '1 in stock' - turns out there were none. They won't know as they're taking your order and you won't know until (the rest of) your order turns up.

2. IF your order doesn't turn up, i.e. it gets lost in the post, there is no tracking available. You have no 'order number'. You have to keep a note/list of what you ordered and when and then call them again and keep your fingers crossed.

3. Worst thing for me. When your box arrives, you unwrap it to find your lovely parts - but there is no itemized receipt showing the part numbers, amount or what price was charged. Nothing to keep in your receipts file. I asked Roger to make sure he includes an itemized print out as I can pass this on to the next owner along with the paperwork for every other item I've bought for the bike since I've owned it - his response was along the lines of "Aah, it just takes too much time to print them out."

These frustrations along with many parts no longer in stock, it does make we wonder if they are winding down? I hope I'm wrong.

I still want to use RGM (along with AN) but I don't know if I can be bothered again until they sort out their website and fingers crossed they can get it sorted sooner rather than later.

So, now imagine that from the US. For one thing, the shipping company often gets the duties wrong and there is no way to tell if you don't know what you were sold! Because of the high shipping and duties of 25% plus fees, it is impossible to return anything - no way to get the duties or shipping back so when they send wrong things, you eat them.

Ordering fasteners from them has been a crap shoot for a long time - wrong threads, wrong lengths, etc. for instance I ordered some of CE28 (stainless crankcase to barrel studs) from them. The crankcase end of the front center was so long that it touched the cam!

 

[Bonzo]

Holy hell! My web site, database, and SSL certificate cost me under $600/year (around $37 GPB/month) and that includes the servers I use and maintain. So, I guess their programmer is charging about 963 GBP/Month and not doing the job. I charge my biggest customer less than that, act as their Chief Technology Officer and Chief Security Officer, do 100% of their programming and ensure no outages more than a few minutes. The web sites (three of them) and 107 programs I wrote and maintain are WAY more code than RGM's site.

I'm 75, not in great health and restore motorcycles while do my IT work. Not sure I have time to take on their work, but I may talk to them. If they used the same professional technologies as me I would have it up and fixed in 2-3 days, but they don't - they use non-professional mythologies that I would have to translate.

I had to check in case I had imagined it but no, it was real...