carrea vulcan snapped wheel

richie wake

Was ridding the veerders last night in the fod , not going nuts but coming off a right handed burm? if thats what there called, im suddenly face planted into the ground.
me ok but front wheel at the joint broke of and buckled the whole wheel , also derailer bent/trashed.
bike is only 3 weeks old halfords are telling me its not covered as i used bike off road and is caused by an impact.
I have contacted customer service who have since said they will fix derailer but wheel i have to pay for ?
any advice, should i push for a full refund and plow more money in for something better
should also state front brake failed and was replaced on friday.

supersonic

It sounds like it has had an impact to do that - have you got any pictures of it?

Darkstalker420

I would be tempted if the rim failed at the joint. (I have to say what the hell do they think you are going to use an offroad MOUNTAIN bike for!??). I hate it when company's try to worm out of a problem. I would look at the pictures on Halfords site i would bet good money that they show people riding MTB's offroad..... Maybe you should point this out to them.

As Supersonic said it would take a good impact to fold a wheel or snap it at the join. Give them hell and say they need to replace (if it was caused JUST by riding and NOT jumping etc) it as it could have killed you imho.

Thanks.

richie wake

Thanks for the replies, cant take pic as in halfords now, can assure you never had an impact, or been jumped still a noobie . Only thing i can possibly think is I have been pulling/trying to pull wheelies? would this cause the wheel to be weak. The break is a clean split right on the joint

Chunkers1980

Sounds faulty to me as it is clean at the join.

Chunkers1980

Ps, I wouldn't give them hell, that doesn't get you as far in the first instance.

richie wake

how would you recommend to deal with it? go for money back, or keep bike but get them to fix it all under warranty?

supersonic

Post a pic so we can give advice. Until then is very hard to say. I want to see the failure.

jairaj

richie wake wrote:

how would you recommend to deal with it? go for money back, or keep bike but get them to fix it all under warranty?

Assuming it is a warranty case then if you're happy with the rest of the bike just get the wheel fixed and off you go. There will always be some manufacturing faults, not everything will be 100% perfect. The Carrea brand is not a bad one so the rest of the bike should be OK.

richie wake

ok thanks for the replies

dmorton

The Carrera Vulcan 20" Hard-Tail Mountain Bike is ideal for both flat and rough terrain riding.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_810709_langId_-1_categoryId_165499#tab1

Failure after 3 weeks is a manufacturing fault. Judging by the weather the last three weeks I doubt anyone has been riding that much, was this one of the first times out?

Go back to Halfords and ask to speak to an adult, ideally the store manager (not who ever is in charge that day/shift, the person in charge of the store overall).

Get some pictures on here and there are plenty of people who can tell you what's happened, and if it is a fault.

Read up on the the sale of goods act http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/sale-of-goods/understanding-the-sale-of-goods-act/your-rights/

Don't accept any fob offs!

richie wake

As an update , thanks to all for advice, I insisted with halfords costumer care that i was entitled to a refund under not fit for purpose, after them arguing saying i would have to take it further by contacting trading standards .Only when I mentioned the 28 day purchase agreement, they said i would have to return to the store and store manager would authorise it. Back at store manger rings costumer care to authorise and they reject it saying it was impact damage.
Manger then makes suggestion that they fix wheel at cost and sort out derailer and chain and give the bike a good going over. So all in all only cost £15 and the wheel is of better quality.
At least I got bike back..

Darkstalker420

Hmmm! Seems like you did ok (but it still cost YOU money!) for what i would say was a faulty wheel (if what you say is true and you were just riding and NOT jumping/doing fat dropoffs). Can i ask what state the tyre and tube were in? True you got your bike back but if it was me it would be the last time i set foot into that branch of Halfords.

Pity you couldn't have taken the wheel to a "decent" LBS and asked for there opinion. Im not sure what spec the wheels on the Vulcan are but i will say this. For a while "back in the day" when i used to throw my bike around much more than now i ran a pair of single walled cheap as you like wheels with galvanised spokes and nasty "roadie" like hubs and the amount of abuse they took and never flinched makes me doubt the "quality" of that particular Vulcan wheel.

Still as you say you can get back out now (now the god damn rain has ceased..... For now).

Thanks.

diy

£15 is neither here nor there, so its a reasonable result.

A couple of points.
- Anything developing a fault this soon after purchase is deemed to be faulty at the point of sale. Its not enough for the seller to allege impact/crash damage. They have to prove it.
- Trading standards are not the arbitrator of these things. Retailers know that TS are snowed under and will point you in their direction to delay and to avoid you following the correct process, which is ultimately to issue a county court claim for your losses. (google money claim online).

The correct stance to take is to reject the bike as faulty - get a refund and start again. Sellers terms and conditions are irrelevant, this is basic consumer rights stuff.

I'm actually amazed that halfords had the parts and skill to carry out this repair, so its sounds like your branch is better than most.

supersonic

If it was a fault, and not a dirty big crash ;-)

Balaclavas

As Supersonic has suggested, this may be a big win for the op. I for one have no idea what went wrong with the wheel in the first place. I can't imagine which joint has snapped. If the op means the rim has broken allong the seam where the two ends are joined then I can only imagine a huge impact or serious crash caused that. If its spokes, then that is a cheap and easy wear and tear repair and something that can easily happen when you get it wrong enough in a corner.

FunBus

I think you did alright there - you damaged your mech etc etc when you came off and you got it all sorted for £15. No offence, but the story does sound like the one used by 99% of customers in that you were 'just riding along' and the wheel collapsed. Granted, the wheels arent top notch on the bike, but they're not rare, that same spec of wheel will be rolling under 000's of other bikes, so if there was a manufacturing fault, i'm sure you wouldnt be alone with your face in the mud! Yes, there can sometimes be batch problems, but for the joint to fail it would still take an impact.

As for stating public liability 'rights' and 'acts' to staff - i would never say that was the way to get what you want unless it's your last resort. If i worked there and you came in all guns blazing i know i wouldnt go out my way to sort you out....come in and be decent and honest to me, i'd do all i could for you

diy

supersonic wrote:

If it was a fault, and not a dirty big crash ;-)

Which they have to be able to prove - otherwise its deemed to be faulty. I thought you got this last time I explained it? The normal process in making a civil claim is that the Defendant puts the Claimant to "strict proof".

i.e. you say its faulty, I say prove it. Here they can't do that, because the burden is on the seller, due to the time. The OP says its faulty - his evidence is fact unless they can prove it isn't. Courts like it nice and simple one person is right and one is wrong. Its up to one or both to disprove the default position.

Here due to the time, the OP is right until proved wrong.

FunBus

Lets not get carried away here - it's a front wheel, not some multi-million pound law suit.

I'm not saying who was right or wrong (because i've not seen the bike), but i can see it from both sides and if you stood in front of me as a customer saying 'prove it' with your broken bike with clear crash damage (to mech) then i'm pretty sure you wouldnt get much of a better deal out of me, in fact, im sure most would tell you where to go.....and do you really think this would make it to court when it was £15 at cost??

richie wake

supersonic wrote:

If it was a fault, and not a dirty big crash ;-)

I can only say that I was riding verdeers in the forest of dean which most is a blue route, no drops or jumps, yes a little air , but at the time i was striating up after a right hand berm the ground was fully flat and firm. The only warning sign of the crash was when I was ploughing into the ground head first :shock:

richie wake

Ridden verdeers twice since getting bike back all seems spot on with the bike. But if 1 more thing goes wrong I will , ask for a refund again and if they refuse I will ring credit card company to lodge a dispute and get money refunded that way.

supersonic

Have you got the manuals and stuff? Bikes take a lot of looking after - you should be routinely checking bolts, making adjustments, cleaning, oiling etc. I'd invest in a good tool kit if you do not have any.

richie wake

supersonic wrote:

Have you got the manuals and stuff? Bikes take a lot of looking after - you should be routinely checking bolts, making adjustments, cleaning, oiling etc. I'd invest in a good tool kit if you do not have any.

Na never got the manual , forgot to ask, if for some reason a spoke was lose would that cause it?

supersonic

Yep, will unbalance the wheel. Something else that else checking every so often.

I'd go back and ask for the manual. I'd probably say that if you had it to start some of this may not have happened... and can you have some free tools?