Stark varg support is the worst

[Beagle]

You have the single worst experience ever reported and is completely at odds with what many others here have reported.

I mean some here are on their 3rd battery, some have had their bike fail in the first couple of hours... but resolution has always been swift. That's why people are asking you questions, to understand how your situation can be so much worse than what anybody else went through.

 

[Chaconne]

i paid on amex platinum for the bike, i just contested the entire charge - no idea if this will work or not, who knows. seems like my best option at this point.

I have no idea how i would pursue legal action since stark is in Spain it will be tricky.
the only way i can think of is to levy the judgement against their payment processor here in the USA, if you manage to get a USA judgement against stark.

an update to the dealer, I spoke to them at length today, they have now had 3 zoom calls with stark regarding the dead bike, they have gotten nowhere and the speculate stark seems to be doing everything possible to try avoid having to ship expensive parts to fix the bike, and the dealer is obviously irritated.

since i started complaining to stark of my bike being close to unusable in nov 2024 and dead in beginning of dec 2024, i still have no working bike, 3 months now.

when it worked it was the greatest dirtbike ive ever ridden. but at this point id rather own any bike that works

I just don't think your dealer is being honest with you or looking out for you. There are numerous cases of Stark shipping multiple expensive parts. Is your dealer an authorized Stark dealer?

If Amex works like other credit cards your dispute claim will would likely go against the seller who transacted with the card. Then they will have to go up the foodchain to deal with getting a refund/return with Stark. That might be your best option.

I am not sure about Amex or how it works, with common credit cards like Visa they are mandated to protect the consumer in contested situations. I have done it with Visa and won a few different times. If Amex is like Visa and you transacted with card at the dealership they probably won't be happy with the 13k charge to their bill and having to take the bike back. Good luck. It is a lot of money to spend on a bike to be unhappy.

 

[Chaconne]

I share your frustration, seems much like me you tell it as it is.

I think it right to let others who might be considering buying a product I have got, how ownership is going, good, bad or indifferent but some just can not accept it I assume they think you are some kind of influancer for another brand. For what it is worth I think influancers are scum and should be taken outside and shot!

As I have said in other posts I think stark are stalling purposely to help soak up some of the warranty period, (or even get you to buy the parts to fix it yourself !!!) at first they seemed fast to send out new parts to fix problems but as that word is out and customers have some confidance in the warranty they are now turning it around in the hope that they did enough early on.

As you imply out of warranty could be hell, I can see what is going to happen now! "We can not connect with your stark but from the issue you discribe it usually turns out to be a issue with the drivetrain" Will be the standard reply which is exactly why you can only buy a complete drivetrain at £3200 not parts (except reduction gears and shaft kit) which is madness, like replacing the whole engine on your 450 because the stator coil packed up.

jasonjm keep up the good work and tell it as it is Ignore the haters, half of them use there starks as garage queens to show off this weeks latest graphics kit and bling so not suprising they never had any problems

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Bro that is completely unfair. Many of us use our bikes all the time and are regular dirtriders. I use my Stark for mostly hard enduro and treat it no differently than my KTM 300 or my WR450F. I don't ride MX anymore but all my machines get severe beatings in the gnarl on a regular basis.

Nobody asking legit questions is a "hater". And in this case there is a dealership involved which is different than your situation.

The Honda call center in India will no better be able to debug your stator coil pack up example than Stark will for many issues on their bikes. This is the problem with buying complex machinery mail order and expecting a call center to be able to debug everything. They won't be able to.

@jasonjm is perfect example of what typically happens likely debugged it the best he could and when unable to get it going he took it to the dealer it was purchased from. And they should service it and either can't or won't and that is the question point for me at least. That is why where are questions about this situation. It is not about "hater".

 

[UKLee]

Bro that is completely unfair. Many of us use our bikes all the time and are regular dirtriders. I use my Stark for mostly hard enduro and treat it no differently than my KTM 300 or my WR450F. I don't ride MX anymore but all my machines get severe beatings in the gnarl on a regular basis.

Nobody asking legit questions is a "hater". And in this case there is a dealership involved which is different than your situation.

The Honda call center in India will no better be able to debug your stator coil pack up example than Stark will for many issues on their bikes. This is the problem with buying complex machinery mail order and expecting a call center to be able to debug everything. They won't be able to.

@jasonjm is perfect example of what typically happens likely debugged it the best he could and when unable to get it going he took it to the dealer it was purchased from. And they should service it and either can't or won't and that is the question point for me at least. That is why where are questions about this situation. It is not about "hater".

But no one in the right mind is going to buy a Piston. rod, crank. cams, crank cases, clutch, complete gearbox, any many other mechanical parts to fix an electrical issue are they?

The stark drivetrain bolts together much like an engine, what is wrong with pulling it apart replace the faulty part or parts and rebuild it just like you would with an engine.

 

[jokerio]

I have always had great support and service from stark on several occasions and I have been an owner of a Varg since November of 2023 !!
I haven't got one bad thing to say about them or the product.
Thank you Stark for existing !

 

[Chadx]

But no one in the right mind is going to buy a Piston. rod, crank. cams, crank cases, clutch, complete gearbox, any many other mechanical parts to fix an electrical issue are they?

The stark drivetrain bolts together much like an engine, what is wrong with pulling it apart replace the faulty part or parts and rebuild it just like you would with an engine.

Nothing is wrong with pulling things apart and replacing faulty part of rebuilding. No one is arguing that. If they would rather replace entire units under warranty, that is fine by me, but at some point, when bikes age out of warranty (which none have yet), I would hope they offer more parts rather than entire units. But we see that with motorcycle and vehicle brands already today. Not as bad, but frustrating that you can't get certain parts of a unit when something goes bad.

Anyway, in this situation of the bike not starting, the dealership, backed by Stark, should be replacing parts to get it working. Our question is why isn't that happening (when the vast majority of similar situations, Stark and the dealership have worked through it). Or what road blocks are they facing? Not knowing what is wrong isn't justification for inaction and I'd expect the dealership to be replacing parts that Stark is providing under warranty to get this bike working. The bike not turning on and not being able to be diagnosed doesn't let Stark, or the dealership, off the hook to fix it. They would typically start replacing parts under warranty to determine the issue. Just asking why that isn't happening and very curious why this situation is being handled so different than typical. I personally take in everyone's experience and add that to the memory bank. Based on the what others have reported in similar situations, this is an anomaly. That is no consolation to the person it's happening to, of course, and so I'm curious why this situation is being handles so different.

 

[jasonjm]

I just don't think your dealer is being honest with you or looking out for you. There are numerous cases of Stark shipping multiple expensive parts. Is your dealer an authorized Stark dealer?

If Amex works like other credit cards your dispute claim will would likely go against the seller who transacted with the card. Then they will have to go up the foodchain to deal with getting a refund/return with Stark. That might be your best option.

I am not sure about Amex or how it works, with common credit cards like Visa they are mandated to protect the consumer in contested situations. I have done it with Visa and won a few different times. If Amex is like Visa and you transacted with card at the dealership they probably won't be happy with the 13k charge to their bill and having to take the bike back. Good luck. It is a lot of money to spend on a bike to be unhappy.

the dealer story matches exactly what stark tells me, stark always says "we have another call with the dealer this week on zoom, they have multiple bikes we are working on"........ again, i believe the dealer 100% and nothing stark themselves say contradicts anything the dealer says. its weekly zoom calls that go nowhere. just a few basic troubleshooting steps on a dead bike and then setting a zoom call for next week to diagnose further.

and i want to clarify at first stark blamed me for taking the bike to the dealer as i could have sped up the troubleshooting if i had worked on the bike myself according to them. then in later emails stark claims its good i took the bike back to the dealer as "Unfortunately, resolving this issue remotely without a full diagnosis is not feasible. At this stage, the bike requires physical intervention, which is why local support is necessary"

1) i get that complex machinery breaks
2) i understand fixing things from another country is not going to be easy

but then conversely if you don't want to fix the bike, or you cant fix the bike because you don't know whats wrong with it (especially if its in a shop with pros who work on bikes all day long - what better place could the bike be for repairs), after months i should absolutely be offered either a refund or a new bike.

i dont know of any product where its ok to offer a 2 year warranty and then leave said person without the product for more months than i actually was able to use the product, and not offer any resolution or ETA on a resolution. I have never had this experience even in so called 3rd world countries

again, you all believe whatever you want - that is 100% your right, i am just giving everyone a heads up of my personal experience (believe it or not) before they buy this bike. you best pray your bike doesn't break, and I just shudder to think what happens when out of warranty

 

[Beagle]

I don't understand why the dealer doesn't shove in your bike a new battery from one of their bikes, just for troubleshooting?

I mean someone here reported that their dealer had swapped a battery like that just to ensure faster fix and then Stark sent the dealer a new battery for its own bike.

Or just send a new battery and powertrain to the dealer to let them troubleshoot? It seems like the obvious thing to do, it's not acceptable to lose months over something that seems so easy to do.

 

[UKLee]

The time my stark was totally dead it was the VCU, stark told me this quite quickly and sent me another which had rubber mounts instead of being solid mounted, might be worth suggesting this to them because a guy the other day had stark tell him the drivetrain was the problem but he read someone else with the same problem was told it was the battery which he replaced and it fixed it, this guy told stark this and they came back to him saying actully we now think you are correct....what hope is there.

 

[Foss]

You can now officially rebuild the powertrain components… but this involves closely troubleshooting the bike and having a brain with patience.

SMX1-PT-SPCS-KT
Countershaft replacement kit

So I guess OP resorted to fraud, we can mark this as resolved and agree to not waste anymore energy into this matter lol.

 

[jasonjm]

I feel dumber for visiting this forum.

Peace out all.

 

[UKLee]

You can now officially rebuild the powertrain components… but this involves closely troubleshooting the bike and having a brain with patience.

SMX1-PT-SPCS-KT
Countershaft replacement kit

So I guess OP resorted to fraud, we can mark this as resolved and agree to not waste anymore energy into this matter lol.

You would need a hell of a lot of patience to fix what is clearly an electrical issue of some kind with a shaft and gears.

 

[Foss]

Thank god I am an engineer lol. If I cannot fix the critical electrical components using solder with some flux, my next best option is just buying the replacement part.

Also you can swap the inverter portion out if needed (logic boards and fuses above powertrain). Only component you cannot purchase from stark is the VCU; in the past you could. And the reason why is the 4G SIM needs to be registered my guess. To reiterate, every part can be sourced from stark except the VCU, so the dealership is lazy af and does not want to fix the bike; negligence end of story. Give me their contact information and I will chew them up for you lol.

Or just you can be like my two other buddies who gave up on the bike and sold it. Why keep wasting your energy here and move onto the combustion motor. It seems too complicated for most, I get it. Have fun with the 4 stroke rebuilds if you think this is a headache. ‘A’ class racers are swapping out top ends every 10 hours.

SMX1-PT-14Z-G2-KT
Powertrain unit conversion kit (Gen 1 Inverter to Gen 2 Inverter)

 

[Chaconne]

The stark drivetrain bolts together much like an engine, what is wrong with pulling it apart replace the faulty part or parts and rebuild it just like you would with an engine.

Agreed. You are right. I think the only thing stopping folks is the warranty. Once the warranty is up everything will be pulled apart and up on youtube for all DIY'ers to fix their own bikes. Warranty introduces a ripple here in the US at least.

By providing a warranty the company gains a right to determine what they will support. It is very common here for labels on new products (like electronics) to specifically state that the warranty is voided if things are tampered with by an unauthorized person. I am not sure if that is the same in Europe. By introducing dealer this further complicates things.

 

[Chaconne]

the dealer story matches exactly what stark tells me, stark always says "we have another call with the dealer this week on zoom, they have multiple bikes we are working on"........ again, i believe the dealer 100% and nothing stark themselves say contradicts anything the dealer says. its weekly zoom calls that go nowhere. just a few basic troubleshooting steps on a dead bike and then setting a zoom call for next week to diagnose further.

and i want to clarify at first stark blamed me for taking the bike to the dealer as i could have sped up the troubleshooting if i had worked on the bike myself according to them. then in later emails stark claims its good i took the bike back to the dealer as "Unfortunately, resolving this issue remotely without a full diagnosis is not feasible. At this stage, the bike requires physical intervention, which is why local support is necessary"

1) i get that complex machinery breaks
2) i understand fixing things from another country is not going to be easy

but then conversely if you don't want to fix the bike, or you cant fix the bike because you don't know whats wrong with it (especially if its in a shop with pros who work on bikes all day long - what better place could the bike be for repairs), after months i should absolutely be offered either a refund or a new bike.

i dont know of any product where its ok to offer a 2 year warranty and then leave said person without the product for more months than i actually was able to use the product, and not offer any resolution or ETA on a resolution. I have never had this experience even in so called 3rd world countries

again, you all believe whatever you want - that is 100% your right, i am just giving everyone a heads up of my personal experience (believe it or not) before they buy this bike. you best pray your bike doesn't break, and I just shudder to think what happens when out of warranty

How about asking that dealer if you can attend the zoom call with Stark --I sure as hell would if I had been without my bike for as long as you have (demand it man don't let them off the hook the dealer or Stark). Most of us here are just trying to figure out why this is happening to you that's all. I have had a good Stark dealer experience --same shop sold me KTMs in the past and treated my Stark purchase no differently.

Like I said before, if my new KTM came with faulty fuel injection and wouldn't start I would march it right back and they would fix it no if and or buts. And if they didn't know how to fix it, they would contact the factory and figure out how to get it fixed... Guaranteed.

 

[FYR]

Was it ever clearly stated that the OP did purchase the bike through the dealership he has the bike at? I don't recall that ever being said. There's still just too many unknowns/variables to be throwing a wet blanket over either Stark service or the dealership. Regardless, I hope the guy get's this fixed and settled... and finds happiness in the world

 

[AgileMike]

I don't know the OP or any of the backstory. However, I can say my experience with Stark Support has been extremely positive and the exact opposite of OP. My Stark originally had a loose connection with the water pump wiring, and would throw an error code after about 5 minutes of riding. It took two interactions with support (via email) to get it corrected, and soon after they released a software update that showed an error code if the water pump wasn't plugged in properly. Now that I understand how Stark's cooling system works and the sounds it makes, I could have fixed the problem in 3-5 minutes myself. I was just very ignorant of basic Stark functions when I first got the bike.

I purchased a second Stark used from a buddy, with about 10 hours on it. The VCU had an issue after a software update at about 50 hours. Again, took two interactions with email and a mobile Zoom call. Once Stark figured out it was a VCU problem I had a brand new on at my house (Idaho) in 2-3 days. Took about 10 minutes to replace and the bike has run great since.

I did have some suspect wiring on my chargers that I fixed myself and didn't involve Stark support (thanks to this board).

My opinion of Stark support:
1. The only issue is that they are based in Sweden. It's a 7 hour time difference from my time zone (Mountain in US). This can make email a little frustrating, as it's typically next business day to hear back. They ALWAYS responded to me next business day.
2. Their support personel are the most quailified I have every spoken with. I think the guy on the Zoom call was a full blown engineer. Normally when I call support, I get a mouth breather reading from a script with any other company. Not so with Stark, their support is super knowledgeable.
3. Once they diagnosed the issue, they shipped me a replacement part very quickly and at no charge. Try that with KTM, Honda, Kawi, etc. There is basically zero warranty on dirt bikes from any other manufacturer.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that the OP had had some extermely negative communication with Stark leading up the email he posted. He throws up the last email when they basically tell him to pound sand without any context.