Around 21,000 cargo bike owners furious over loss of Babou: “Scandal!” | RTL News

“Shameful!” Jos de Wit from The Hague has only one word to say about the recall by cargo bike manufacturer Babboe. He is one of the people who will receive a new cargo bike. But six months after the recall was announced, he still has not had a recall. From his new housing estate on the outskirts of The Hague, it now takes him about two hours to get to the supermarket – with his baby in the stroller and the toddler in his hand. “Before, there was a baby in the box, add a toddler and off you go.”

Bernadette Newland misses her cargo bike the most. She has a daycare centre in Terwijppel, Friesland, but her six-seater bike is still on the sidelines. No inspector has yet come to check it before she can get back on the road. “Of course I’m angry, frustrated.”

Watch Bernadette's video below.

In February this year, RTL Nieuws revealed that Babboe cargo bike frames were regularly breaking in half. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) imposed a sales ban on the cargo bike manufacturer, and a recall followed due to the safety being insufficient. Almost all Babboe owners are advised not to go out again.

Papoy promised to collect 22,000 cargo bikes from their owners and replace them with new ones. The two-wheeled City and Mini vehicles, both regular and electric, were recalled. In addition, several other types of cargo bikes — especially three-wheelers — had to be inspected before they could hit the road again.

More than a thousand cargo bike owners complained to RTL News

Research by RTL Nieuws into the recall campaign, which began six months ago, shows that almost no progress has been made. The RTL Nieuws research team is in touch with almost 1,100 cargo bike owners. Of these, only a few dozen people say they are satisfied with the recall. Only 32 cargo bike owners say they now have a new Babboe cargo bike. Only 27 out of almost 1,100 owners say their bikes have been checked and are ready to go back on the road.

“My cargo bike, which is less than a year old, was checked and rejected. So now I have to wait again. I have done less than 84 kilometers on it,” laments the owner of a cargo bike, for example.

Hundreds of cargo bike owners complain about the low value of the voucher they received, which will not cover the cost of a new bike for a long time. They would often prefer to get cash. “It is worthless,” a cargo bike owner responds to the amount offered in credit. “The 600 euro voucher is of course a joke and will not give me another cargo bike.”

Babboe’s lack of communication is also often lamented. Cargo bike parents repeatedly can’t get hold of Babboe and are left in the dark about how long a replacement bike will take. According to Babboe himself, this could last until the end of this year.

Papui has promised to collect 22,000 cargo bikes from their owners and replace them with new ones. If the bike is less than five years old, owners are allowed to request a new one. But according to the latest figures Papui is willing to share, fewer than 800 people have received a new cargo bike. More than 21,000 people are still waiting.

Furthermore, an unknown number of people own a different model. Such as the Big, Max or Curve. Almost all of these owners have not been helped yet, because they are not allowed back on the road until their bike has been inspected and approved by a papal inspector. Papoy notes that they only received the green light from the regulatory body to carry out these inspections in the summer. According to Papoy, the process is now “in full swing,” and an external company has been contracted to speed up the process.

Baboo is leaving its customers out in the cold, according to the consumer association. According to the consumer organization, this “definitely violates rights.” “First of all, the six-month deadline is too long,” says company spokesman Gerard Spierenberg. “You have to have the product repaired or a new bike delivered within a reasonable time. If you can’t do that, you have to come up with an alternative, for example a different product.”

Since Babboe is part of the larger Accell group, it must offer several alternatives, such as bikes from other brands, according to the consumer association. The consumer association has sent a letter to Babboe. They are demanding that the cargo bike company quickly come up with a better solution.

Spokesperson Uneke Dekkers of Accell/Babboe wants to provide few details about the current status of the recall. The company says it wants to “help as many people as possible as quickly as possible.” But the company doesn’t want to reveal, for example, how many people are working on the recall.

According to the Consumers Association, Papoy is not doing enough. “It is Papoy himself who has caused these problems. They have been supplying faulty bikes for years. And they continued to do so even when they knew there were all sorts of things wrong with them. Should we now blame the consumers…?” a spokesman for the Consumers Association wonders aloud. “I don’t think so.”

The criminal investigation into Babawi is still ongoing.

A criminal investigation is ongoing into the Dutch manufacturer of cargo bikes, Baboi. RTL Nieuws previously reported that company employees had hidden broken bikes in vans, before the inspection by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. The editors have an audio recording in which a manager says he had “stored” the bikes. The public prosecutor has not yet announced whether there will be a prosecution.

Listen to the audio recording in the next item.

The NVWA has recently expanded its investigation into the tyre breakage issues to include three more cargo bike manufacturers. The brands Vogue, Cangoo and Bakfiets.nl are now also the subject of an “ongoing investigation”.