Ordering a Tern electric folding bike for home delivery

[frugalbiker]

I was thinking about ordering a Tern Vektron S10 folding electric bike just before the store closures.  Then, you closed and the Tern was removed from availability for home delivery.  I was told it was because of "liability" issues regarding assembly.  Now I see they are available again.

Questions:

1. If you assemble and test pre-shipping (in the distribution centers during the store closures), why was there a liability issue?  And what happened to overcome this issue such that they are now available again?  And, naturally, I assume assebly and testing includes the Tern Vektron S10 bike.

2. Tern offers an extended 10 year warranty IF the vendor pre-assembles and tests for the customer.  I assume they need proof of this.  Will I receive a document that supports this which Tern will accept?

3. Based on other customer comments, should I assume that the "estimated delivery date" that is included with the order confirmation is NOT necessarily valid for my bike order?  And that I will not really know what the date will be until I hear from you?

Thank you!

[REI-JohnJ]

@frugalbiker Thanks for reaching out!

The Tern Vektron S10 is such a cool bike; customers love it! To answer your questions:

1. You are correct, the assembly and test ride procedures do apply to all bikes we ship direct to customers, including the Tern Vektron S10. We're sorry about the confusion around the availability of this bike model. Before our store closures, we only shipped certain bikes direct to customers’ homes. When we made the transition to making more models available to our customers through direct shipping, we had to evaluate our processes and ensure that they are adequate to support each model. Once we confirmed this was the case, the bikes were made available for home delivery.
2. Yes, you will receive a digital copy of the purchase agreement stating that the bike has been assembled by an REI technician.  
3. Yes, our bike deliveries are taking longer than normal and may even extend beyond the estimated arrival date provided at checkout. We thank you in advance for your understanding!

Hope this helps!