"Action Needed: Secure Your VARG EX Delivery Date"

[DirtSurfer]

Stark is asking for the bike to be paid in full, months ahead of the bike being available to the public.

Not only is this a break in the contract (I've paid a deposit to receive the bike), but more importantly the message it sends is "we need cash to continue operations". Neither is good...

Question: Is this the experience the V1 adopters had? Does anyone have any useful knowledge of why they've decided to go this route?

Not confidence inspiring...

 

[Swank171]

We did not have this. I still have 100$ down on my ORIG dec 17 21 order. I was able to get one faster through ordering it from a dealership as a NEW order in JAN of 2024 from a dealership in OR than getting my ORIGINAL ORDER FROM 2021! Hahah.

That aside and to answer your question….we did not get asked to pay in full until we were contacted for production. once contacted you HAD TO PAY in full to have bike produced. Definitely never had any “operations in danger” messages.

Note on this topic:
The industry is in a tough spot. I mean look at KTM…the US rates and DXY strength is crushing every other market as the US is passing all the inflation that has been created the past years on to the rest of the world. Typically we see a market crash 6-12 months after first rate cut following the feds rate hiking cycle. Puts us pretty close to the standard correction. Hope STARK can hold on until the 4th quarter and we will see the market free up again in 26. Bummer to hear this but I’m sure they aren’t making up stories. We have see the big 5 try to crush stark and we also saw them successfully crush Alta. Really wanna see them succeed.

 

[Beagle]

That's new for the EX, Anton talked about it a little bit in there

Edit: starting at 1:10'35

Paraphrasing here,

"If you pay a deposit you booked your slot in the queue, but when you pay in full that's when you'll have a prioritized slot, if you have a lot of people paying in full, they will get the slot before you. The reason is that with the MX in the beginning we started asking the payments too late then it made delivery a bit of a mess, where people had their production slot but if we hadn't received the payment, but we had received payment from someone else, we hadn't built that bike. That's why we prioritize fully paid bikes now."

They are supposed to communicate a deadline to inform when you need to pay in full in order not to lose your spot.

Gotta say we have seen the issues he's talking about for the Varg (some paying in full waiting longer than others) so basically they decided to ask for full payment a little earlier than before to streamline production.

If that's about 1 month that seems reasonable to me but more transparency at the time of pre-order could have been missing.
Of course if you don't want to do that you can still wait a few more months and buy it from a dealership, that's not mandatory to go through that, all depends if you want it early or not.

 

[Theo]

we did not get asked to pay in full until we were contacted for production. once contacted you HAD TO PAY in full to have bike produced. Definitely never had any “operations in danger” messages.

Maybe Stark is ready to start the production of DirtSurfer's bike, then.

 

[Swank171]

Maybe Stark is ready to start the production of DirtSurfer's bike, then.

I’d like to think so but based on the context he gave it doesn’t sound like it.

 

[Beagle]

I’d like to think so but based on the context he gave it doesn’t sound like it.

Edited my answer above giving time stamp to get Anton Wass explanation about this.

 

[Philip]

I wouldn't worry and pay what they are asking, if you want the bike. Stark Future is not strapped for cash, they are not going bankrupt, they have asked for full payments in the past, and it appears that they are once again offering delivery scheme bypassing the dealer delivery.

 

[AL_V]

Stark is asking for the bike to be paid in full, months ahead of the bike being available to the public.

Not only is this a break in the contract (I've paid a deposit to receive the bike), but more importantly the message it sends is "we need cash to continue operations". Neither is good...

Question: Is this the experience the V1 adopters had? Does anyone have any useful knowledge of why they've decided to go this route?

Not confidence inspiring...

If you are not in a hurry for your bike, don't pay yet...
But at some point, you will have to pay in full before it is delivered.

 

[DirtSurfer]

great replies, thank you all!!!

Agree on the transparency thing... asking someone to pay a non-refundable deposit (so they can get priority) then later saying "if you want priority, you need to buy it now, w/ an April delivery" is... different.

That said, I planned to pay for it anyway, and it sounds like I'd need to do that well ahead of actually getting any ride reports on them ("pay for us to build it"). In the end, this is likely more about me being old school (I test drive the car I'm about to buy) than anything else..

again, appreciate the feedback, it's what makes these forums great..

 

[svtride]

I put my order in for an EX through a dealer who has 3 ordered already (their 2025 allocation). They matched whatever the Stark Future website stated costs were. No more. Dealer did request a refundable 500$ deposit. Dealer thought if I backed out he’d have no problem selling bike, thus the refundable provision.
Perhaps this is a way around the pay-in-full heartburn and wait for month (s) for delivery???

 

[markanddona]

If you’re financing the bike then you should be fine and your place should be held.

 

[Bosch]

I ordered my EX on 10th Dec - Deposit only, with a estimated delivery date of 17th Feb.
Stark pretty quickly told me if I paid in full I could secure a 10th Feb estimated delivery slot.
I ended up paying the full amount on 19th December as I had to move some funds around first.
I now still have a estimated delivery slot of 17th Feb.
I am based in UK and will update when I get my next update.

 

[markanddona]

I ordered my EX on 10th Dec - Deposit only, with a estimated delivery date of 17th Feb.
Stark pretty quickly told me if I paid in full I could secure a 10th Feb estimated delivery slot.
I ended up paying the full amount on 19th December as I had to move some funds around first.
I now still have a estimated delivery slot of 17th Feb.
I am based in UK and will update when I get my next update.

I’m in US and mine is 3/2.

 

[gatbagel]

great replies, thank you all!!!

Agree on the transparency thing... asking someone to pay a non-refundable deposit (so they can get priority) then later saying "if you want priority, you need to buy it now, w/ an April delivery" is... different.

That said, I planned to pay for it anyway, and it sounds like I'd need to do that well ahead of actually getting any ride reports on them ("pay for us to build it"). In the end, this is likely more about me being old school (I test drive the car I'm about to buy) than anything else..

again, appreciate the feedback, it's what makes these forums great..

This is partly an Ekho dealer issue. I “bought” mine, put a few thousand down and financed the rest through them (FreedomRoad) and I got an email a week ago saying I had to complete the purchase or else I would lose my place in line…

At the Ekho site, the VIN is not assigned yet so I can’t secure insurance. If you don’t have insurance, the funds won’t be released to Stark. The email said, if funds weren’t released and the bike paid in full, you would lose your place in line. So it was this recursive loop.

Eventually, Stark customer service replied that they mistakenly sent that email out to people who financed the EX and that rest assured, my spot in line was still secured…2 March expected delivery still.

Apparently, FreedomRoad will release financing once the VIN is assigned and then I can get insurance.

Seems to me this was a little mix up between Ekho and Stark. I’m in Ohio, I don’t know if all states require the VIN before being insured but Ohio Progressive certainly does.

 

[DirtSurfer]

In the event anyone is still watching this thread, I'd like to report back that Stark did a classy thing and called me to discuss the matter. That conversation was honest and candid.. a great representation of how to navigate a journey that's still getting the kinks worked out. (No startup is perfect, it's about owning it and making it right).

Bravo Stark.

 

[markanddona]

This is partly an Ekho dealer issue. I “bought” mine, put a few thousand down and financed the rest through them (FreedomRoad) and I got an email a week ago saying I had to complete the purchase or else I would lose my place in line…

At the Ekho site, the VIN is not assigned yet so I can’t secure insurance. If you don’t have insurance, the funds won’t be released to Stark. The email said, if funds weren’t released and the bike paid in full, you would lose your place in line. So it was this recursive loop.

Eventually, Stark customer service replied that they mistakenly sent that email out to people who financed the EX and that rest assured, my spot in line was still secured…2 March expected delivery still.

Apparently, FreedomRoad will release financing once the VIN is assigned and then I can get insurance.

Seems to me this was a little mix up between Ekho and Stark. I’m in Ohio, I don’t know if all states require the VIN before being insured but Ohio Progressive certainly does.

Allstate does also

 

[AL_V]

I don’t know if all states require the VIN before being insured but Ohio Progressive certainly does.

Any insurance company is going to require the VIN before providing coverage.
Otherwise, how would they know what exact bike they are covering, and how could they process a claim or prevent fraud?

 

[Flypigs]

Greetings and first post here: I ordered my EX on Dec 14th and got the same "Action needed to secure your order" email on January 14th. The connection between Stark and Ekho (the US distributor, I think) is a little clunky and I think that is what caused the email from Stark. When I reached out to Stark to ask about the email they gave me a quick and apologetic response.

Side note: The Stark website shows different production and delivery dates than the Ekho website. When I asked Ekho about the difference, they said that the Ekho's estimates are more accurate and that my order is still on track.

I'm still expecting that my delivery will be a month later than the estimate (March 10) because there are so many new processes in play: production of a new model, a surge in orders (I think), threats of tariffs, and registration differences in 50 states. If it is delayed, I can't be too upset because I knew the risks when I ordered a model that hasn't started deliveries yet. But I'm super excited to ride it when it gets here!

Has anyone in Europe started receiving EX'es yet?

Pete

 

[Beagle]

Has anyone in Europe started receiving EX'es yet?

I think first deliveries were originally scheduled for early February, we'll see how it goes.
If you were to order today, estimated delivery is 7th of April (2.5 months), so this looks like February delivery are still a go, not long to wait to find out.

 

[mike61]

Good Morning!
I paid my Varg Oct. 15th 2023 then scheduled Dec 23rd > delivered Nov. 14th 2023
The shipping from Barcelona to Northern Germany (Hamburg) were 4 days!