Frame warranty issues

webboo1

Has any body issues with frame warranty. I bought an Orbea Orca Silver last year which I have been very pleased with, one of the reasons I choose this frame was the life time warranty.
However in September this year the rear mech cable stop/boss at the top of the down tube sheared off when I changed gear. The shop where I bought it from contacted the Rep who asked them to Email a photo which they did and 2 weeks later Orbea asked for it to be shipped back to them. Two weeks ago the Rep brought it back to shop and his words to the Manager were " you won't be happy with this" as Orbea had returned it to the Rep with the stop now pop riveted back on.
The shop refused to accept this as the stops were laminated as part of the frame this clearly stood out as a repair which even it worked, it would instanly lower the value of the frame.
The shop have been very helpful during this process and are now considering legal action against Orbea.
Is this how life time warranties work or are other bike companies more customer helpful.

sungod

warranties work exactly as they are worded, you'd need to read the orbea one to see what it says, on top of this you also have rights under consumer law (against the shop, not orbea)

unfortunately for the shop, they are the ones legally responsible to you, so it's their problem to resolve, nothing you can do other than refuse to accept it

i do wonder if it was orbea themselves that did it, or the distributor?

at this point i would try a polite message direct to orbea explaining your dissatisfaction - avoid mentioning any possible action by the shop, that's nothing to do with you, just say you've told the shop you do not accept it

if things go legal you could be without the bike for a very long time, and the outcome would still depend on whether the beak thought the pop rivet repair was reasonably meeting orbea's obligations to the retailer

webboo1

The shop refused to accept the repair as satisfactory are asking Orbea for a new replacement frame as it has a chunk of carbon fibre missing.
Orbea offer a life time warranty on their frames and as I put above the distributor thought Obrea were trying it on when they repaired.
I know about the legal thing I was enquiring whether getting fobbed off on warranty issues was a bike industry thing or unique to Orbea.

Monty Dog

Pop-riveting of the cable stops is quite common, so provided the repair is done correctly then they may have fulfilled their warranty terms in terms of an effective repair, particularly given the frames over a year old - you automatically aren't entitled to a new replacement. However, it is the shop you have the binding agreement with and they don't think the repair is sufficient, then it's up to the shop to make good.

rolf_f

I assume we are talking as per bottom right? I wouldn't be happy about that being pop riveted on. If the manufacturer is fussy enough that they think that a product would be better with a fancy solution like that rather than the usual plain stop, then they haven't got much argument to think that a pop rivet is going to be an adequate solution!......

webboo1

Yes we are talking bottom right. Given the price of the frame new would be around £2000. So a year old worth £1000 but with a pop rivet repair would anyone pay more than a couple of hundred if anyone would even take the risk of buying it off you. So even though the frame/bike is functional it is sort of worthless to anybody but you.
This years frames now have internal cables despite Orbea previously claiming their version of external cables was better than internal cables.