My letter to Touratech!

Hello Dominique and Herbert,

Touratech must hate travelers so much that they make it impossible to order stuff while they are on the road.

Ordering in Holland is nuts. I the past I ordered at the website in Germany and my order went as an email to a Dutch BMW dealer in Holland. Then someone, was ordering again in Germany, with a lot of mistakes. Of course they don't fix their mistakes and don't ship out of Holland!!!!!!!! For this stupid services I need to pay 4% more then the prices in Germany?????????????????. I drove at my Honda Africa Twin to this BMW dealer. All sales persons jumped at me and telling me that I drove an old bike, and need to buy their BMW. They explained me that they give extra services. I asked if I could test a new seat for my HONDA AFRICA TWIN, no I could only buy and not give back, so definitely not testing it. This is maximum irritating.

I can order in Germany, but not deliver out of Germany.

Ordering in French is hell because I don't speak French very wel. I can not pay with my Dutch credit card. The only other way of paying is with an French check, its 2014 and they still work with this insecure way of payment. And of course I don't have French checks. !!!! But this is the only way to get stuff delivered in France!!!!

I'm dutch, and traveling in France.

Touratech is really hating me!

For this reason avoid Touratech as much as possible. And If I buy something, I always remove their name of the product.

So what will happen now?? I don't now. I start to look for other stuff at other sites, I give up completely.

If a traveler is on the road and needs parts, forget Touratech, They hate You.

And now I hate You!

Bye,

Guus

You're surprised that TT are sh!te!?

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TBS.com

It sounds that everyone knows already, except me.

No I feel even more stupid that I tried to order again with TT.

It's a very frustrating day today.

A simple solution would be to not buy the stuff, you don't need most of it and the rest has alternative suppliers.

Try these guys:

https://sites.google.com/site/pooratrek/home



Andy

They won't respond to a mail like that. I wouldn't in any case.

Alternatively you could try the Belgian TT distributor, he speaks dutch and probably will ship to FR or NL as he's a good guy... just an idea...

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I don't know how TT have setup the whole thing, but it looks like franchises, and they dictate the minimum price - price wise I think the UK is the most expensive.

I've had both good and bad experience in regards to how they treat their customers; it looks like it's only in Germany it's possible to spare parts like half a pannier rack (but that might have changed in the last few years).

One have to give it to TT, they have figured out how to convince all adv. bike riders (or hopefuls) that you're not a real man (or woman) if you haven't spend all your savings in buying bling from them. They have useful stuff, but also a large amount of useless stuff..

As for seats; Kahedo's own branded seats are mostly cheaper (and better), and they do sell seat directly to end customers.


Casper

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I´m sure the folks at TT Germany would have found a solution if you would have asked. Whilst I have occasionally not been exceptionally impressed by their stuff (at other occasions I have), I have always during the last six years found the TT staff by mail, by phone and in person (be it at their store at HQ or at bike fairs) very friendly and solution-/service-oriented. I have dealt with them on a high number of occasions to equip my Africa Twin, my KTM 1190 Adv R and my wife´s Transalp.

You will have to understand and accept that their business model is to have distributors in certain countries which they most certainly have to protect due to contractual obligations, through which they do regular business, which is everything but odd (French specialties such as payment are well known to any traveller trying to purchase gas from a gas station outside daytime Monday through Friday without a French payment card); but it would utterly surprise me if I would not be able to receive help for e.g. urgent spare parts and accessories from my local German or the local national TT shop if I am on the road abroad. Should your Dutch TT distributor prove to be unhelpful (I cannot see from the Dutch website nor from Google Maps that at the TT Netherlands address the TT distributor is in fact (only) a BMW dealer) - I am surprised you did purchase from the German website although TT offers a Dutch website for its Dutch operations anyways - a call into TT HQ would most certainly have helped. Have you ever contacted TT France regarding their ability to serve you in English?

Regards
Chris

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I hear your frustration !

I thought the EU was all about free trade for people in Europe but Touratech seem to have their own rules.

If I want Touratech stuff by mail order I have to buy from Touratech UK - but then it pains me to look at the UK pricing vs other countries.......

One bit of good news, however, is that some Touratech stuff is available via your friendly local KTM dealer - and it can be quite a bit cheaper !

For instance the alloy pannier boxes are (from memory) about £30 or £40 cheaper (each) than if you buy from Touratech. But if you want a lock set for the boxes they are way cheaper from Touratech !

It's worth shopping around !

They are bound by their distributorship contracts not to ship to any other country than their own.

If the Belgian guy ships to France, and the French distributor finds out about it, the Belgian guy can get his cash cow cut off, and Touratech Germany will either make him pay a big fine or will cancel his distributorship and appoint someone else.

Its a very strict franchise.

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As Walter mentioned it's a franchise. The EU is a Tax union (and many other things) which means that you only pay value added taxes in the country where you buy the product. But the manufacture is not bound by any laws to sell to you...


Casper

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I only wonder : "what is the EU stands for? What does EU means ?" In this case !

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"where the traveller goes, nobody knows ! "

EU = European Union
EC = European Community, which was the the predecessor of the EU

In this case the the EU have nothing to do with anything. TT is a company which runs it's business how they decide.

Casper

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www.c-note.dk

So, as suggested by others already: If you don't like how they sell/distribute their products, go elsewhere (there are plenty of other vendors who ship Europe and Worldwide) or don't bother at all, as most of the TT catalog is just tat anyway.

If you really do "need" TT stuff, check the companies who make items for TT (like Kahedo) and buy it direct from them, probably for less. TT just adds their logo and adds a premium to the OEM price.

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TBS.com

It's worse up here, price for an IMO:

Germany: 449€
UK: 617€
Norway: 781€

It would have been cheaper for me to order the part to a hotell in Kiel, bring my gf with a cruiseship to Kiel and spend a night at the hotell then to buy it in Norway.
I even had to wait more then a month for the part, it was in stock in Germany...

Anyway, I wrote a mail to TT and got no answer.