First service and warranty

sandy771

I am due my first (free) service on my Trance and my LBS say that this will take 10 days. I dropped it in on Monday and as of today it has not been looked at. They tell me that I must have the service done with them to maintain warranty and cant do it any quicker. My problem is that i ride three times a week and I dont want to miss 3/4 rides.

I spent last weekend in Wales at Llandegla/CyB and Machynlleth and prior to going had a service from a non Giant bike shop who could do teh job on the day i dropped it off so i am happy that other than any damage that may have been caused over the weekend (no offs) that all should be OK.

Frankly I would be happy to get it serviced again elsewhere and pay for the privelege if i could get it back on the same day (assuming nothing major is wrong).

Do I need to have a first service done by a Giant service shop? do I actually need a first service to keep the bike in warranty?

cooldad

Sounds like bollocks. Should just be able to book it in for the day they can do it. No reason it has to sit in the workshop gathering dust.

cooldad

ps no idea about the warranty, but I've bought bikes online and never worried about the service, which is just a fiddle about (adjust things) really. Can't see it having any effect on the warranty. But open to correction.
Bikes don't need a service as such though, just regular maintenance and fettling.

cooldad

pps rubbish LBS

Stu Coops

Totally agree you just take it in the day they need it and generally pick it up by close of business the same day unless they have encountered problems and had to order parts, as for your warranty email Giant as I am led to belive that as long as it's a Giant dealer you can take it anywhere.

And to be honest a shop that spouts crap like 10 days ain't worth bothering with..

sandy771

Stu Coops wrote:

Totally agree you just take it in the day they need it and generally pick it up by close of business the same day unless they have encountered problems and had to order parts, as for your warranty email Giant as I am led to belive that as long as it's a Giant dealer you can take it anywhere.

And to be honest a shop that spouts crap like 10 days ain't worth bothering with..

Have spoken to Giant and was told that there is no real need for a first warranty service as I have had it checked elsewhere.

Nearest alternate Giant dealership is 70 miles away.

blister pus

What they should say is: "Sorry, fully booked up for this week. Bring it in when it's quiet if you need it day after, we'll give you a bell next week sometime and arrange something"

That's what mine does. All perfectly flexible and sensible.

YeehaaMcgee

10 days! Shocking!
You could turn around a fighter jet in 10 days for chrissakes!

cooldad

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

10 days! Shocking!
You could turn around a fighter jet in 10 days for chrissakes!

You could but they are really sh1t on narrow trails. Heavier and more expensive than an Orange 5 as well. Just.

YeehaaMcgee

Frigging awesome at getting air though.

cooldad

That is very true.

Anonymous

10 days! Likely the service is a clean up, change pads, adjust a few things, reindex the gears, maybe change gear cables. Couple of hours, if that, for someone who knows what they're doing (so for me... 10 days ). Give it a day as typically a workshop guy may be working on several things at once and allow for tea brakes etc.

If they strip and grease the pivots etc, another hour or two.

The maintaining warranty thing, not sure. The warranty probably isn't worth the paper (or email) it's written on anyway and as well as shop warranty you have statutory rights and manufacturer warranty. The former covers you to expect things to work and wear as expected for a typical product life. If the frame snaps in a year and you've used it within its design limits, then no matter what they say about where you service it and whatever warranty is valid or invalid, the law is on your side and they must fix it. And then the manufacturer warranty probably doesn't specify that you must get it serviced by one of their dealers, though might (like some car warranties).

sandy771

deadkenny wrote:

And then the manufacturer warranty probably doesn't specify that you must get it serviced by one of their dealers, though might (like some car warranties).

I believe the law has changed here recently, perhaps dyi can advise, but I thought car manufacturers can no longer insist on dealer services to maintain warranty.

supersonic

Warranty is in addition to your rights - not the same as your consumer rights.

10 days is a lot. Sometimes you have to leave a bike, but 3 days max I would say.

Andy B

We do our customers 1st free service within a working day

Bring the bike in to us in the morning and you'll have it back in the afternoon

Sometimes if a customer is from another town we'll do the service whilst they grab a coffee from one of the coffee shops in town (our coffee is proper workshop grade shite!)

Stu Coops

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

10 days! Shocking!
You could turn around a fighter jet in 10 days for chrissakes!

mintedox

Is this LBS more into road bikes? I ask this because I bought a bike from a roadie shop last year and after the sale was done he didn't really want to know anymore. Internet people seem to get on with their LBS so I was pretty miffed

craigw99

i can confirm car services no NOT need to be carried out at a dealer - (I did motor trade for several years) - im sure its anti monopoly /restriction on trade or somthing like that, the person doing the service work just needs to use official manufacturers parts to keep the warranty valid. im sure this could be transfered to any bike warranty issues president has already been set imo.

hard-rider

I don't know about Giant but for my Scott you can increase the warranty from 3 years to 5 years if the bike is serviced by an Scott service agent annually. There is no service requirement for the standard 3 year warranty.

Also 10 days is really taking the pee.