warranty issue?

daveenglish

Okay, back in october I purchased a rather expensive (in my book and possibly overpriced) carbon xc race bike from a seemingly well known and reputable high street chain tha is Evans. I bought the bike for racing on. I used my old Boardman FS as a training bike so that when I swapped over to my carbon bike, I would feel the benfit of having a pretty light 29er race bike.

The bike has covered less than 200 miles. over the essex countryside which isnt exactly hilly or extreme. Last weekend I intended to do a race and on the day whilst making things all clean, i noticed a healthy crack which ran from the non drive side chainstay all of the way around to the front of the bb shell. I didnt fancy riding it, let alone racing on it. I called Evans and explained the situation. they told me to bring it down. I showed the manager the bike and he was as surprised as me. 200 miles, no scratches, dings or chips, everything in good nic. He said he's have a look and send pictures off to the manufacturer.

today I hear back from Evans, the manufacturer wants the frame to look over. The frame is being stripped (at my expense i'd imagine) and then sent to them for a look over in Germany which is going to take "a considerable amount of time - minimum 3 weeks".... this seems a bit unfair to me! firstly the bike is practically new. it's never been crashed, dropped, thrown or jumped on. it's meant to be my race bike but hasnt seen a single race yet. and now I have to cancel all of my events because some german bod wants to see for himself, a crack that evans has already shown them. This shouldnt even be an issue should it?? if I did crash a bike that would cause the bottom bracket shell this amount of damage then surley I'd not be walking anymore. we are talking a 2 inch crack here not any hairline stuff. A propper crack!

Ive called Evans customer service and they said they'd have to wait and see what the manufacturers want to do. I questioned this and said that the bike for whatever reason has failed. it's obviously not up to the job. they declined to comment and said that they would chase the shop and see what's going on (Ive just told them what's going on!!???) anyone else had similar problems?? do i and should I really have to wait????

supersonic

How long have you had the bike in months?

owenlars

I suspect that you probably do need to let everyone on the supply side look at it and determine that it is a defect. The good customer solution from Evans would be to lend you a bike whilst they faff around deciding what to do.

I bought a Touche from Pearsons and after three months they had to change the BB and Will Pearson let me have a Carbon frame Touche whilst they carried out the work. Funnily enough I bought another bike from them a year later.

Ask Evans if they want to show some good customer service and let you borrow a bike for a couple of weeks.

batmo

supersonic wrote:

How long have you had the bike in months?

daveenglish wrote:

back in october I purchased...

I make that seven months.

Kowalski675

Shame, it would be a lot simpler if it was under six months.

supersonic

At seven months, it is up to the consumer to prove to the retailer that the goods have an inherhent fault when the gooods were manufactured. They have not asked you to do that yet - so far the retailer is letting the manufacturer look for an opinion. It probably will all work out fine, BUT, they must resolve in a reasonable amount of time whatever course they chose.

SteveH28

A crack should not appear in 7 months but did you tell Evans you bought it to race on? If you did then the manufacturer may want proof that you have not raced it in those 7 months.

tortoise not hair

Your contract is with the retailer not the manufacturer.

It should be them that make the decision on what to do next & for them to follow that up with the manufacture if they feel fit.

You paid them the money, they have made the profit, push them for an answer & or speak to Trading Standards.

supersonic

Not quite. The contract is with the retailer yes - but they have every right to use the manufacturer (as they make it) to deem whether there is a fault, should it be necessary. However, given in this case 6 months has passed, if the retailer does not think there is an inherhant fault, it is up to the consumer to prove a fault was inherant. Before 6 months a fault is deemed to be inherant regardless, and it is up to the retailer to prove otherwise - again, they can use the manufacturer for this purpose, and nearly always do.

The retailer has not demanded that that ther consumer prove this. The only problem here is time scales.

daveenglish

no, I havent told Evans that I'd be racing on it. It's not even seen any quick riding yet. It's been out for around 200miles and most if that has been muddy single track. even some of the down hill sections around here needed to be peddled on(Not down hill as in "boxer forks required" down hil!!)
What annoys me is that has i used the bike solidly for about a month, the crack would have shown up. and as it stands Evans havent offered a loan bike or give any indication to how long it would be. They said "3, 4 weeks maybe a month or so" wtf!!?
sorry not happy with that at all

EH_Rob

have you actually asked them for a loan bike in the meantime?

daveenglish

Yup! asked them twice now.
Ive just spoken to a solicitor at work and he said to put everything in writing, describing the level of use it's had. Stating that I dont beleive it was fot for purpose. It's advertised by the manufacturer and evans as a Carbon XC race bike and to date it's not been used for any such event and I pointed out that If it had been used in a race it would have been a danger to me.

Ive asked them for a timescale and again asked for a loan bike. we shall see....

supersonic

Forget the 'fit for purpose' argument for now - is not applicable. You have had the goods long enough for them to be deemed accepted and, if they are proven to be faulty, the retailer has every right to offer a repair or replacement. But this has to be done in reasonable time, and if isn't, you can demand compensation.

If a repair or replacement is not feasible they can offer a refund, subject to a reduction based on how long you have had the goods.

If the goods keep failing, then you have grounds for not fit for purpose.

The problem always comes back to 'reasonable time'. I would want it turned around in less than two weeks: I would really push them about this in your letter.

Have a read of the Sale of Goods act and cut and quote the neccesary bits.

Good luck!

daveenglish

So that's 2 weeks since my bike limped back to Evans Cycles. Apparently the crack had never been seen before and they have sent the frame to the manufacturer in Germany for inspection.
Ive asked Evans how long the inspection will take and they said

"Unfortunately we do not have an update at the moment, Your bicycle will be inspected in order of their booking in system, as soon as we have any information for you, we will advise."

Sorry but is this normal.... no timescales as to when the bike will even be seen and I'm expected to wait??? they must have hundereds of bikes coming in through the door!

Evans customer service is really very poor!!

supersonic

No, it is not normal, demand a timescale or threaten trading standards!

daveenglish

I've just lost my rag with them a little bit. The frame only left the shop yesterday. So the lakeside shop decided to sit and think about it for a while. I asked the lady if i could speak the next person in charge assuring her that it was nothing personal and she said "sorry but they're all in meetings".

I can see where this is leading!

supersonic

Yep, they are taking the p*ss now!

pdw

As above, point out that the you will be expecting compensation from them for the unreasonable time that you are without the bike, as per the Sale of Goods Act.

daveenglish

Evans up date!

after reciving the call on friday to say that my frame had only just been sent to Germany and that Evans Cycles "are not in the business of giving away free bikes" I sent Peter Kimberley (head or retail i think) and nice long e-mail telling of my disgust at Evans as a shop and ASI as a distributor. I pointed out that Evans had immediatley sought to prove that the damage on the bottom bracket was due to accidental damage rather than a frame defect. I also pointed out that when the frame was brought in, myself and the shop manager both agreed that we had never seen a frame fail to this extent. The shop manager told me that it would be stripped and inspected and sent to Germany. after a 2 week wait and chasing Evans then proudly tell me that it's being sent to Germany.... well done, but that should have been last week's news.

anyhow, Sam Leyton (Evans customer service manager) decided to take some time time out and try to address these issues. She apologised for the "free bikes comment" I told her I wasnt in the business of buying a bike that lasts less than 7 months... she said she'd look into what was said. Sam then agreed to give me an update on what was happening tomorrow, or early wednesday.

The Rookie

As your post would be readily findable, I'd suggest at least giving Sam some time to sort it before slinging insults....otherwise what incentive does she have having already been called what you just said (giving you a chance to edit it!)

daveenglish

well, Hat's off to Sam, She did exactly what she said she would do and gave me an update today. New Frame is in the post! She didnt have a cause for the frame faliure yet but would ensure that the Lakeside store are kept up to speed.

Thank you Evans! faith is slightley restored

daveenglish

hahaha! Ive given up the fight now.

I got a very exciting call from customer services last night to say that my frame was in and ready to be built.....BUT!

My original frame was Blue white and slate grey. The replacement is Red, white orange and carbon. Dont get me wrong, it's a nice-ish frame and evans have been good stripping and rebuilding everything but this bike is going to look shocking with white, blue and grey handlebars, stem, seat post and seat.

ah well! we'll see I guess

daveenglish

replacement frame came in on Friday. due to holidays and sickness, they only managed to get around to putting it together today.

I recived a voice mail at 13:30 this afternoon telling me that the frame has a problem. I call them back and was told that the replacement frame cracked around the bottom bracket. Ooops!

seeing that this is the second frame to crack in the same area and leaving the same result, can I ask for a different bike??? or a refund??? I really dont trust the frame now

cooldad

I would hope so, but going back to your earlier 'clown bike' post - the moral of the story is all bits should be black.

daveenglish

hehehe! Clown bike isnt wrong!
yeah there's a reason why most things are black I'm hoping they send something with less colours on it this time. Evans have been very quiet since they called so fingers crossed they are coming up with something worthwhile instead of a bitsa-bike

balmybaldwin

Evans are really bad at this sort of thing, if they want to play at selling posh bikes, they need a fleet of loan bikes incase things go wrong. Having bought there last August, I've been without my £4k bike for 6weeks of the time I've had it for various warranty issues.

Moral of the story, I'm never spending another pound with the shysters

daveenglish

Frame number 3 is on the way so we'll see what happens. Evans have agreed to fund some of the parts that will need changing. From evans point of view they dropped the ball for the first two weeks but they've been pretty quick since. The manufacturer have been pretty poor though. despite seeing the pictures of the original frame crack they thought it was Impact damage. When they got the frame back for inspection it was confirmed that it was a manufacturing defect. so far it's been nearly a month. I'm assured that all will be ready this weekend.

fingers crossed lol

adamfo

daveenglish wrote:

Frame number 3 is on the way so we'll see what happens.

Sounds like a batch of faulty frames. Do the right thing and name the make and model :idea:

bennett_346

May as well name the make and model now.

daveenglish

I'll wait until it's underneath me if that's okay. Not rocking the boat just yet