Apollo Phantom Advice

PaulN

I have a brand new Apollo Phantom a week old that looks beautiful but does not work. It drove briefly but it would not get more than a few miles before it would just go dead. this occurred about 3 times. It would do this while showing it is almost fully charged on the display. Now when I turn on the key and try to power it up, the display comes on and it just cuts out or i get no display at all. One thing I noticed that may be a problem is there is no value in P-code 15 (controller cutoff voltage) It’s 00000. The function buttons will not allow me to change that value to the correct setting which should be about 42 or 43 volts. Is there maybe a “reset” to factory settings function or some other way for me to change that value? Is there a service center in the greater Toronto area that could look at this for me?

I’m unimpressed with the response time of the support team at Apollo. Maybe I should have got the Ghost model, because I feel like I am being Ghosted by them now… It’s becoming very frustrating to purchase their flagship product, and have this kind of lack of support from them.

ApolloSupport

PaulN Hi Paul! Apologies for the delay here, I see that you are currently communicating with Trent/Maxwell from our team. They’ll reach out to you right away to sort this out - thank you for your patience here, we’re just dealing with high volumes currently but rest assured we’ll sort this out today for you. Thanks Paul!

AirCanada143

PaulN if it walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. Clearly this is one review that Apollo scooters suck. I was looking at a few of their models but they were all inner tubes. Inner tubes are a deal breaker for me. I’m still on the hunt for my first scoot and doing tons of research. For me it’s either going to be car tire tubeless or solid tires. I’ve had too many bad experiences with inner tubes on bicycles in the past tons of flats.

JulienMaraud

PaulN How did it end up for you? I have the exact same problem with my phantom 52v. The battery dies at 46.4v when it should die at 42v. 43v with a security margin. So I am loosing close to 30% of battery and I also have my P15 setting stuck at 000.

adamwelch

PaulN yeah if it was sold to you with cut off at zero. refund..lithum batteries for escootes die and stay dead

DrScootLittle

Hi Paul,

If the controller cut off voltage was set too low, then it’s possible that the scooter allowed itself to run low enough to damage the battery.

How long have you been waiting to hear back from Apollo?

They have a pop-up store in Toronto, but I think it’s only for test rides, not service https://apolloscooters.ca/pages/book-a-ride-toronto

-Paul

PaulN

DrScootLittle

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion and your trying to help me out. The display showed about 54 v- ish volts when it cut out and died on me. So the cut off should be well below that. I haven’t driven it for more than 20 kms in total. Now it won’t turn on at all. If I plug in the charger the fully charged light shows green after 10 minutes and if i leave the charger plugged in, the voltage shows 58.3 volts. As soon as I unplug the charger and try to turn the key and start it with the M button, the display flashes for less than a second and then goes black.

I haven’t heard back from them since July the 8th, today is the 13th - someone named Maxwell, suggested to try two things i tried already and that was the end of the support so far.

Your last suggestion is a good one, maybe i should book an appointment then show up with my dead scooter? There is no phone number to call only an on-line booking it seems.

Apollo released a brand new video yesterday on YouTube. I am try to contact them through the comments section there as well as that is what they suggested in the video,

Thanks again,

Paul

PaulN

ApolloSupport

Hi Apollo support.

Those volumes certainly do seem high. I do appreciate the effort put in after you saw my post here. Things seemed to be set in motion quite quickly.

So… i will confirm here as well, that I have returned the scooter as agreed today using the UPS label provided by your team. It is on its way, picked up this afternoon. I would just appreciate a fast reply back to my last communications with your support team confirming when the new replacement one will be sent to me.

IMO, prioritizing your support desks response time is something that you need to work on as a future project as well. I am in an industry that provides service across Canada, with a very busy support hotline and queue. If one of our team promised a return call or response within 24 hours, and there was no response within that 24 hour promise, this would not go well here. Marketing sells your first “widget”, service sells the second and third ones… This is not just a slogan.

PaulN

I finally have this guy getting some rides in for me 😀 It hasn’t been the best experience with Apollo but it is a decent scooter so far after 300kms of riding on it. I hope Apollo gets their customer service together.

justin

PaulN Great photo! Hopefully a happy ending to experience with lots of good times ahead.

PaulN

Me too, I picked up the neck brace safety modification yesterday at UPS, I’ll mount it tonight maybe take a photo of that as well.

PaulN

AirCanada143 Hi AC 143. I can’t simply say the scooter “sucks”. Only that Apollo needs to vastly improve customer service.
Also like the first year of a new model car, there are issues. The scooter overall is pretty robust, I believe they tried to find a way to sell a $2500.00 scooter that has a lot of good ideas behind the design, that ran into complications. (The stem + locking system is really good for example) They are a bit of a victim of their own marketing successes as well. Not being able to deliver on their promises coupled with a global shipping crisis for deliveries from China and other places.
Having three scooters (Mantis 10 Pro, the Phantom and a Ninebot ES2) and riding for over 2000 combined Km’s over this summer, I have been able to make my own comparisons. I also haven’t had a flat yet and I have been riding over some pretty rocky and gravel covered surfaces at times. IMO if the tube is inserted correctly and you fill the tires up correctly and carefully, making sure they don’t pinch the tube in the rim, you won’t be flat prone. That feature alone shouldn’t be a decision maker for anyone to purchase one scooter over another.
I don’t think there is a perfect scooter price/quality/features/service yet. I believe its still a new niche category of transport that every 6 months has outdone the design of the previous 6 months. Look at the Vsette 10+ now for example.
P.S. for anyone interested, I made a separate post on the neck brace modification with pictures on this forum.

DavidSchrimpf

Any time a company representative with actual power passes you off and says their support people are going to take care of you, what they just did was put on a meaningless public performance and they know it. Of course they’ll nudge the support folks, who will just tell you to try stupid shit you’ve already tried, and whoever is behind “ApolloSupprt” will have done NOTHING except put on this little show for us.

I’ve been admining community forums for over 2 decades and this is why I always recommend forum owners explicitly DISALLOW participation of this kind. Should be deleted or highlighted as a bad customer service experience with NO reply. A performative reply is no reply.

Apollo folks, either help or stat the eff out of community forums. Don’t put on little shows.

PaulN

DavidSchrimpf Thanks for this reply David. I believe you cant get away from a lot of unbiased/suppressed postings now because of all the “affiliate link” connections. For example people posting their scooter videos with a $200.00 off coupon code link of which they will get a commission from now may promote a brand in a different light because its $10 or 20 bucks in their affiliate sales pot.
I have had factual but negative comments deleted because of this connection. If someone spends 8 hours filming and editing a video, they certainly don’t want someone voicing a valid complaint about what makes them money on their platform. This to me is disingenuous but in our world today totally expected. (But people won’t know this unless it’s pointed out)

PaulN

JulienMaraud
I think we had two different problems Julien. Mine was practically dead right out of the box. It fully charged quickly then it drove for about 5 km’s and died and I had to walk home. did that twice more but less distance before dying (and less waking and pushing an 80 pound scooter home). I then returned scooter # one to them. They did not try to troubleshoot with me. Then it was a long wait until scooter 2. So long that I bought a Kaabo Mantis 10 pro because as you know summer is short in Canada.

Currently I have been screwing around with their help desk to successfully install their upgrade kit which gives me an error 8. This has been a whole new other fun experience. So much so that once i figure out how to get the code cleared and get them to send me another throttle or even competent assistance, that I will sell “the best scooter of 2021” The Apollo Phantom - used,, move on from that experience, and purchase a Dualtron or something other than an Apollo product.

My Mantis 10 Pro has been flawless for over 1000 kms now, except a squeaky stem, but that is a simple annoyance vs. the “Apollo experience” over the last 2 years. Good luck put in a service ticket with Apollo and hopefully they will help you faster than the help i am getting currently. 3 weeks now, For what is most likely a very simple fix.

MichaelT

JulienMaraud I have a similar problem to what you are describing. My phantom cuts out at 46V with the ‘error 6’ code. This error has occurred during acceleration after being ridden for approx. 20km. Did you end up getting your problem sorted?

CiprianStanciu

MichaelT any luck with this? Did the v2 upgrades fix the issues?

Fulkaffe

If apollos scooters are so bad why does esg staff recommend them?! 🤔💰❓

PaulN

Fulkaffe It’s called “affiliate” sales and links. If someone clicks a $50.00’s off link and makes a purchase the person will get compensated for his time to make the review/video. I’m sure many of these reviews are simply “paid advertisements” and there is some kind of benefit or compensation for making glowing reviews of mediocre products.
BTW my post from May 24 above… Today is July 29th still not resolved, still waiting for a replacement part.

ItsAqua

PaulN that is really sad 2 months and no help from Apollo. Honestly Apollo scooters are pretty nice like the phantom V2 and ghost and the new city pro personally thought of getting the phantom from fluid but the ghost would be the scooter that fits my budget unfortunately fluid doesn’t have the ghost

ItsAqua

PaulN

Fulkaffe

PaulN But aren’t we supposed to be able to trust ESG staff? 🤔

BrentHenderson

PaulN hi Paul had the same problem with Apollo bought my scooter. Halfway through the summer was great. Then the front wheel broke right off for no reason after watching videos of this happening to other people on YouTube they’re showing that this would only happen in extreme cases from doing drops off curbs and stuff like that I’m in my 50s I don’t ride like that, it almost could’ve killed me with the whole front steering breaking right off. Send it back course they wanted me to pay for the shipping I’m like no so they sent me a box and shipped it back package nice gets there. They tell me I didn’t package it good and broke something. I’m like no so they took about three months send it back and it doesn’t work. Things were broken. They asked me to send it back. I sent it back. Waited a total of 11 months I think sent it back. It was totally damaged like my lock that was on the scooter they left it there , they broke my headlight all because they didn’t package it properly. They bent the back brake bra bracket so I ended up going to a private guy re-bent. It still got things broken but driveable and now I get that same code. I have written it twice since I got it back , like you say summers are short in Canada so it’s been sitting in my apartment finally got a nice day two days in a row says I have 3040 km left and it dies didn’t see the code the first day the second day saw the code before it went blank first day had to walk it all the way home so I can take out a cab now I go into the settings when I plug the charger into it and it shows that I have a third of the battery left so I go into the settings and check the codes for the voltage and the voltage is set for 48. I believe it should be set for 52. That’s the voltage battery I have , if you have an answer for me, that would be great would not buy an Apollo scooter ever again. Service sucks can’t phone anybody how to send these stupid tickets in. They decide to get back to you whenever they want nobody local NBC to talk to to troubleshoot every questions with another answer problem never gets solved, and their big thing is , send it back to Montreal and will look at it and wait and wait and wait

PaulN

ItsAqua Nice post Aqua.
Have a look at Apollo’s official YouTube video from Friday night. I posted a comment on there and they replied. Today my display mysteriously is being shipped btw I believe as a result.

On one hand i really want Apollo to succeed. I really believe they have people there that have conceptualized a good range of scooters. I think many of us look at the video’s and we are sold on buying one. I know i was. The phantom was presented as the top of the food chain for the $2000 to $2500 scooter category. But their own success is killing their secondary sales and resulting in these negative posts all over the internet. Everyone at Apollo has been kind and apologetic, I will give them that. I have heard those apologies for a year now on multiple QC issues. I’m patient because I have 4 scooters and tools. So a down scooter is an annoyance to me.

However.. for someone sold on the hyped up videos who saved up their hard earned money that RELY’s on their scooter for real life daily transport, it’s a whole different story. What if I was a student that was driving to a summer job each day. They would have no scooter for 3 months. That IMO is not acceptable. (I’m a 5 hour drive from their head office, ½ hour away from their pop up store, don’t forget)

Lets all hope that Apollo can get it together and be truly one of the best scooter companies out there one day.