Dealing with Zipp

il_principe

Dealing with Zipp

The other day I noticed a puncture mark in the rim of my rear 404 Firecrest. The wheel is just over 1 year old. Returned to Wiggle who sent it to the supplier for inspection. Supplier is saying that the damage was 'caused by impact from another object.'

They are saying I have two options, neither of which I think are anywhere near satisfactory:

1) to purchase a replacement wheel
2) have rim re built with new rim, new spokes and nipples, labour and carriage at a cost of £625

Now no one has ridden those wheels other than me. The bike lives in my flat, has never been crashed and I have certainly never hit the wheel against another object. I didn't even notice the damage until I was cleaning the bike. All I can think is that maybe something pinged up off the road and caused the damage - which seems unlikely.

Has anyone on here had to deal with Zipp before? I don't think they are being reasonable given the wheel has a 2 year warranty. But I can't really see what I can do!

styxd

Send it to a carbon repair specialist, they'll fix it for you for not much money.

foggymike

I've had stones pinging up and hitting rims, spokes and frames and I guess with those rims you have more chance of taking a hit than many but I suspect you'd know about it! Do you have a picture?

The repair cost is steep IMO when you consider how easily this kind of thing can happen. There are lots of people with wheels like yours who are scared to ride the things! Given what you've already spent it's a shame they don't offer non-warranty repairs at cost during the warranty period rather than taking a further profit on the parts/work

giant_man

But that isn't why you have a 2 year warranty surely? You should be covered by their warranty, but I've seen and heard of this far too much, it's their word against yours .....

foggymike

If it was there when new or caused by a manufacturing defect then warranty, otherwise it's time to get the wallet out. I guess the OP is saying he thinks it was there from new?

smidsy

Warranties do not generally cover accidental damage, purely manufacturing defects.

You have used the wheels for a year so something being flicked up off the road (by you or someone else) is not exactly hard to believe.

The real lesson here is just how costly it can be to repair factory wheels.

Seems to me that you are expecting too much from Zipp on this occaision.

drlodge

Don't think you're in luck unfortunately. A warranty is simply an offering made by the manfacturer with various clauses to limit their self imposed liability. In the main, they will hold themselves liable for manufacturing defects and certainly after 6 months the onus turns to the consumer to prove that the problem is an inherent defect. In this case, ZIPP are claiming its not an inherent defect but caused by some external factor. Unles you can prove otherwise, I wouldn't hold out much hope.

il_principe

smidsy wrote:

Warranties do not generally cover accidental damage, purely manufacturing defects.

You have used the wheels for a year so something being flicked up off the road (by you or someone else) is not exactly hard to believe.

The real lesson here is just how costly it can be to repair factory wheels.

Seems to me that you are expecting too much from Zipp on this occaision.

It's not hard to believe something flicked off the road. It is hard to swallow that something did so with enough force to put a hole into a bloody expensive carbon rim.

smidsy

Conversely it is hard for Zipp to believe a 'puncture' mark can be caused by something they are responsible for (i.e a manufacturing defect).

So as hard as it is to swallow you can surely see their view.

foggymike

I think we need to see the damage - the word puncture does conjure up a hole made by a dart rather than a stone, for me anyway!

il_principe

smidsy wrote:

Conversely it is hard for Zipp to believe a 'puncture' mark can be caused by something they are responsible for (i.e a manufacturing defect).

So as hard as it is to swallow you can surely see their view.

I'm not saying they are responsible, I'd just hoped they might be a little more reasonable in terms of costs/options to replace. Like how for example Canyon offer a crash replacement scheme to their customers. I'm just left with a bad taste in my mouth. That's a £1000 wheel that has lasted a year...

il_principe

Here's the damage:

drlodge

Il Principe wrote:

Here's the damage:

If I was ZIPP, I'd be saying that's not dovered under warranty, simple. But it must hurt that the wheel only lasted a year. See if you can get it repaired somehow.

il_principe

Yeah, I'm gonna give HQ Fibre a call...

sloppyschleckonds

Holy sh1t

ddraver

None of this is surprising unfortunatly - they re very good wheels, but they re made from cotton wool and more fragile than a Ming Vase

Sorry, man, but this is not Zipp's fault

keyser__soze

Had the same bad experience with a front alu/carbon 404. Zipp wanted more to rebuild with a replacement rim than I could buy a new front wheel for It seems their cheap crash replacement/rebuild policy only really applies in the US.

smidsy

I would be less worried about the replacement cost and more concerned about seeing an optician if you only noticed that when cleaning :-)

I feel a trip to Wheelsmith (or similar) is your destiny.

merkin

Didn't you take a slde recently in Richmond Park? Wasn't on that bike was it?

sloppyschleckonds

merkin wrote:

Didn't you take a slde recently in Richmond Park? Wasn't on that bike was it?

Its certainly more than something flicking off the road.

I agree with SMIDSY


*F L I C K I N G is a swear word?

Monty Dog

Impact / crash damage - there's simply no way that could be down to a manufacturing fault.

rolf_f

Given the way that small stones can ping out to the side like bullets when you run over them, any time spent riding in a group could probably easily result in that sort of damage I'd have thought. Penalty for investing so much money in something so easily damaged. Probably easy repair as others have said - at least if it wasn't for all those dimples......

il_principe

merkin wrote:

Didn't you take a slde recently in Richmond Park? Wasn't on that bike was it?

I did, but not on that bike or those wheels.