Rutland Cycling

Rubystar

Anyone had any experience dealing with warranty issues with this company. I have found them very poor so far and virtually impossible to contact. I had a cracked brake surface on a Mavic Aksium wheel and returned it to Rutland cycling in early June. The wheel has seen 6 months of use. Two weeks later when I contacted them to enquire on progress they had done nothing about it. The wheel was just sat there with the excuse that they were waiting to see my receipt! which they had seen when I brought the wheel in! They told me the wheel had to go back to France. The warranty manager promised faithfully that they would have the replacement by July 20th. So far nothing and zero contact from them. Have tried numerous times to phone and leave messages but no-one calls back. Managed to find a contact number for Mavic UK. Spoke to someone there who told me that they can't deal with these issues as they are sales only, and Mavic in France won't speak to customers at all! I am regretting dealing with Rutland Cycling and wondering whether buying a product that contains wheels from a company that refuses to have any contact with their customers is a good idea! It appears once again the customer is shafted. The manufacturer passes the buck and the dealer doesn't appear to give a damn. Where do I go from here?

rubystar

bendertherobot

The receipt thing. Did you buy the wheel from them?

Rubystar

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19666123#p19666123]bendertherobot[/url] wrote:

The receipt thing. Did you buy the wheel from them?

Hi. The wheels are part of the bike as new, which I bought new from them.

rubystar

rokt

I'm lucky that I haven't had any warranty issues with Rutland Cycles.

I have recently purchased a Trek mountain bike for my son and I must
say the entire experience hasn't been a good one.

Needless to say I won't be going back anytime soon.

Mattcee

Which store did you deal with as theres 3 or 4 close together I think?

StillGoing

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19666472#p19666472]Mattcee[/url] wrote:

Which store did you deal with as theres 3 or 4 close together I think?

2 stores; Whitwell and the Giant store. I haven't found either of them to be any good when I've gone there looking for stuff. In my experience there's only the odd member of staff with any knowledge. Knocking stuff out to families that have just ridden the circumference of the reservoir on a hire bike and decided cycling is a good idea seems to be their limit.

rokt

philthy3, I think you're "bang on " with your assessment of Rutland Cycles.

Mattcee

I think it depends on which of the staff you get although they do seem to be short staffed.
I used the Giant store twice this Summer to buy 2 different bikes. One of them was a positive experience with the member of staff being very helpful and I left satifised.

The other wasn't so good. Lack of staff left me hanging around the one staff who was with a couple. He must of seen me waiting around as I was interested in the same bike he was discussing and stood by them for a while.
I then browsed a few other bits, 10 mins passed and i went back and once he was done... and he served someone else who just turned up. I was on the verge of leaving but finally someone else came and served me but that member of staff wasn't great.
When I went to pick the bike up a couple of days later, I had the same problem again trying to get hold of staff. No one on the main counter nor service counter and just one person serving people on the bike hire till and more waiting around.

For the service side of things, I got charged £50 (+ extra for fitting) for a chain which I thought was expensive seeing as it sold for under £30 pretty much everywhere else online but as the bike was in I went ahead with it.
Gears still aren't smooth though.

A relative also bought a bike from Whitwell and he said he wasn't impressed at all.

jchester1990

Hello, customer service manager at Rutland Cycling here. Unfortunately ourselves [and other retailers] are reliant on the supplier with warranty cases as they are the ones who issue the warranty rather than ourselves. This means we do often have to wait for them to make a decision. I am sorry to hear that you haven't heard back from our warranty team though; if you have sent an email to warranty@rutlandcycling.com then they should be back to you shortly. Feel free to call me directly on 01572 332032 though if you'd like to discuss this directly. -James

kangarouge

I think these last comments by the Rutland Service Manager are an attempt at dodging responsibility. It was the shop which sold the goods and therefore entered into a contract and clearly it is them which may have supplied goods which were sub-standard (in hindsight). It is surely for them to make the rectification not Mavic. Stating they are reliant on Mavic seems tosh. Though I agree with him in implying that other retailers follow a similar path.

Many retailers are happy to take the consumers money but not interested in any problems when they occur. Fortunately for us not all retailers try and duck the issues like this, hence they receive our continued custom. Rutland would do well to learn a lesson from the ops. experience.

kajjal

It looks like a simple sale of goods act issue. Cycle wheels are expected to last longer than six months unless they have been damaged outside normal use or ridden alot harder / further than their intended use. The shop should offer you a replacement after all this time of not contacting you and deal with the warranty themselves separately. You seem to have given them sufficient time to reasonably sort things out.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Our two hybrid Saracens (my frame now dead, better half's bike stolen 10 days ago) came from their Ebay store for a great price, did not have any need to contact them for g'tee issues.

Monty Dog

Wheel doesn't go back to France but to Mavic UK Service Centre so that's spurious, if the wheel rim has cracked after 6 months then the claim is with the shop under the Sale of Goods act and it's down to Rutland Cycles to put you right, don't let them flannel you otherwise. If you bought the bike using a credit card, then worth getting them involved by raising a dispute - they're pretty hot with this stuff.

AndypG800

I have had a similar issue with a set of Mavis bought from Rutland cycling and they were very good with me. They sent off the rim under warranty but also gave me a set of there demo wheels(model up from mine) to keep me going and allowing me to complete a couple of sportives that I had entered. Got my wheel back with new rim about 4/6 weeks after dropping them in and had no problems since.