When I made payment bfor Series 1 back in November I had option to select either DOT or Portable.
I needed both so I chose DOT on order page and made immediate additional payment for portable charger.
But their online is never synched to their offline - on the delivery floor employees. They had no idea that I had ordered both even though I had been continuously reminding their CS team as well as the person who took appointment for delivery. When I showed them my online transaction they tried give me any available PC to me and that got stuck in my vehicle and the vehicle went to permanent sleep mode with key not working. The delivery folks were performing CPR on my vehicle on my delivery day in front of me. Desperately man handling the stuck connector to somehow remove it from the port as it (PC) was actually meant for another customer and that customer was waiting for it to take it and leave. My delivery was much worse than you. where I witnessed the the scratches happening on my series 1 when an unprofessional delivery executive nicked my vehicle to the adjacent in front of me and behaved as if nothing happened.
CEO was busy reading first time Media ads on Ather while I had to witness the abuse on my vehicle!
The Portable also has vents for heat dissipation, the the internal brick is mounted on a solid aluminum plate, which I guess works as a heat spreader. There are very few differences between Dot and Portable, and they are purely cosmetic:
The plastic enclosures around the brick are different, obviously
The Dot has a pigtail connecting to a LED mounted on the plastic enclosure while th Portable has a built in LED.
The Dot has some sort of a plate with a hole screwed onto the fan (which makes no sense whatsoever), while the Portable has a proper grill in the same place to protect the fan blades.
That’s it. Even the length of the input and output cable is identical.
I made the payment from EC and on that time itself i have requested for the PC instead of DOT. you can also call customer service and make the request if you want to change to PC else by default u will get DOT only.
This is bad - Had I known there was this option, I would have preferred the portable charger itself. Not that I’m unhappy with the Dot charger, but the flexibility of a portable charger is something I would have preferred. There was no option to select the PC online - Had to take the Dot as mandatory option
Even when I asked in the EC, they told we can’t take the portable instead of Dot and have to pay for it. Looks like there is disconnect at all points.
I’d still trade by Dot charger if I have an option today purely for the flexibility that it offers
This post dated October,2020 , does say either Dot or Portable was an option to pick at time of delivery. I remember even in Open House this discussed and clarified. Not sure how did you’ll miss this option of opting for either.
I repeat: the option wasn’t provided on the order form. The person who called me to confirm delivery did not ask for my preference of charger either. I sent my employee to collect the scooter, and he wasn’t offered a choice either. What I saw on the order completion form - which is that the Portable was an accessory - is what I was given to understand.
Expecting people to glean important information like this - which should be clearly presented upfront - by looking under every rock is irresponsible on the company’s part. Not everyone has the time or proclivity to attend an Open House.
Agree This is what that is happening. Actually they give information, they accept their software bugs and mistakes also. But they does not communicate well so that every one knows the exact information. Their faulty communication has to be improved. Else only those follow forum, open house will know things others will just know what they hear and later get disappointed and frustrated (fair on their part if we are in their shoes).
Ather is not hiding anything, but not communicating well is the concern as far as I feel.
This is like saying “he is not lying, but simply keeping quiet about the truth”
Simple question: why is this information not clearly mentioned on the main site or during the order process? What does it take to modify a couple of webpages with ACTUAL useful information?
Where was the option to pick a charger? At the time of payment, only Dot charger is shown and you don’t have any other option. Also like I said, I have enquired at the EC and was told portable charger is an add on and cannot be exchanged for Dot charger. So now who’s responsible?
Like @blackworks said, not everyone has the time to attend events. And just because one doesn’t attend it, they can’t be held responsible for this. Rather Ather is responsible for getting this information out clearly, starting with the inclusion of this option at the time of payment.
I am sharing my experience, as I did spend decent amount of time on understanding what I’m paying 1.70L for, and did my share of research. Also, I’m from Mumbai, and we bought our scooters from dealership setup here in Mumbai by Ather. We did get a call before when we made our payments, to confirm our choice of charger.
I do not expect everyone to spend as much time as I did, but the fact that I’d read into details when I’m spending such a huge amount on a scooter. Ather team should definitely work on making these details more clearer at time of purchase, communicating these messages should be something they need to work on.
Yes you are allowed a choice but the final payment link doesn’t give you the option. Please call up customer support and, for good measure, send an email as well informing them of your request.
Online payment would be valid for Chennai and Bangalore. In @vijaykongi’s case, he’s from Hubbali, so you’ll have to let the dealer know of your preferences when you complete the payment.
On the portal yes. We still recommend the Ather Dot for home charging, hence that’s the default option. If someone cannot get the Dot installed or only want the portable charger, they can request the CS team for it.
I think what @abhishek.balaji is saying is. It’s not really an option between the 2 and more like ather recommends you to get the DOT and if you can’t then you would have reached out to ather CS anyway. If you had no use of the dot you wouldn’t even accept it right ?
Okay this is what I think ather will justify. But. This seems a bit shady and looks like someone screwed up in a few cases by not mentioning that it’s a possibility.
Unlike the 450 Pod and Portable chargers that were as different as chalk and cheese, here it’s the same stuff in two different enclosures, and the Dot charger has no reason to even exist, let alone for someone to recommend one over the other.
