Wonky bottle cage mounts? - frame warranty?

alihisgreat

Noticed that the bottle cage mounts on the downtube of my bike are misaligned. The Bottle visibly sits offset to the right of the downtube and you can also clearly see that the seattube and downtube cages don't align.

Swapped the cages to check, took it back to the bike shop who also agree its out of line...

... however Orbea have refused to warranty the frame? Am i being unreasonable to think that this would fall under the warranty?

barongreenback

Not unreasonable at all. And a shame Orbea are refusing to look at it. Did you buy direct or via a retailer? If it’s the latter, the retailer is responsible for sorting it out.

sloppyschleckonds

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

... however Orbea have refused to warranty the frame? Am i being unreasonable to think that this would fall under the warranty?

It's not actually faulty, but it could be a defect. The shop should be doing more to help. How long have you had the bike?

First.Aspect

Why not (carefully) ovalise the holes in a bottle cage and save yourself a lot of aggro?

Matthewfalle

First Aspect wrote:

Why not (carefully) ovalise the holes in a bottle cage and save yourself a lot of aggro?

because the bike shouldn't be like that. why start bodging.

Shop should sort it.

alihisgreat

Had the bike ~6 months. Didn't notice at first as its not the kind of thing you assume to check for when you buy it. Bought from a retailer (chain), not hard to figure out who as not many stock Orbea but won't name and shame yet.

Bike shop contacted Orbea (who said they wouldn't replace it) and have said "there may be another option" (which i assume is the bike shop taking the hit and providing me with a new frame) but are being slow with getting back to me.

First Aspect wrote:

Why not (carefully) ovalise the holes in a bottle cage and save yourself a lot of aggro?

Bike shop offered to get the mechanic to try and make it sit straight... but if i decide to sell the bike on in the future I may have issues if the frame is defective. Can't sell it on in good faith without telling the buyer which may result in a lower price. (and if i do sell it without telling the buyer then they will want their money back when they notice!).

Sounds like i'm not being unreasonable so i will lean on the bike shop a little and see what happens. If not its on my credit card so can always try and claim through that if worst comes to the worst.

sam_anon

To what extent are they wonky?

Is it really worth it?

alihisgreat

sam anon wrote:

To what extent are they wonky?

Is it really with it?

When you look at it, its clearly wonky. Not a case of it being just a little bit off.

webboo

I have an Orbea Orca Silver 2013 model I think. It has external gear cables and the down tube cable stop sheared off. The shop was off the opinion that Orbea should replace the frame which came with a life time warranty. Orbea just pop riveted the stop back on and riveted the one that hadn’t sheared off.
Orbea didn’t back down on this so I was left with option of taking the shop to small claims court or at least threatening them with it. But on what was a two year old frame I wouldn’t have gained anything, so I justed ended up with repaired frame.
I would be very reluctant to buy another Orbea although I really like riding the Orca.
Also when I bought the mechanic at the time said Orbea were a nightmare to deal with. He now has his own shop and turned down their dealership when they came calling.

sam_anon

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

sam anon wrote:

To what extent are they wonky?

Is it really with it?

When you look at it, its clearly wonky. Not a case of it being just a little bit off.

Well it's your time/bike/money so only you can decide what to do, but it might be worth weighing up the hassle against the time you could be spending on more beneficial things.

cougie

I'd never have noticed and it's taken you 6 months to spot it. It's hardly stopping you from cycling ?

londoncommuter

You could try and shame them. Cervelo seem to have similar issues from time to time and replace the frames e.g.

https://forums.cervelo.com/forums/t/133 ... ageIndex=2

https://forums.cervelo.com/forums/p/117 ... aspx#79951

If Cervelo are "happy" to warranty then Orbea should step up.

flasher

Once the cages have bottles in do you really notice, life's to short to worry about stuff like that IMO.

alihisgreat

Flasher wrote:

Once the cages have bottles in do you really notice, life's to short to worry about stuff like that IMO.

Yeah as I said it’s noticable or I wouldn’t be bothered.

Shop “modified” the bottle cage to get it to sit straight which is a reasonable short term solution. They also offered £100 back so need to decide if I accept that or try and claim through my credit card.

Not an ideal solution and very disappointing that Orbea won’t rectify this. It’s a shame as the bike is great, but I won’t be getting another Orbea after this one!

crankycrank

IMO Orbea should replace or make it right somehow such as offer to pay for a pro CF shop to correct it. Not offering anything is very shoddy customer service and the shop that sold it should not be responsible for correcting this situation for Orbea at their cost but to their credit it's nice of them to offer. For the cost of your bike it's not unreasonable at all to expect it to be perfect from the factory.

londoncommuter

It's horrible when people use social media to force companies to "do the right thing" when actually it's the customer who's in the wrong but in a case like this when it's 100% their fault / no grey area of is it crash damage etc why wouldn't Orbea sort it out?

Even ignoring their legal responsibility, for the few hundred quid it costs them for a frame why let it get to this? Easy to ignore threads where the owner probably stacked the bike or a hanger mysteriously went into the wheel on it's own but this is just a fault. Who cares how serious some people view it, all that matters is what this owner thinks. It's a fault. Anyway, rant over.

svetty

I get that it should be straight but unless the bike is sold as having perfectly aligned cages it could be argued that there's nothing actually wrong with it - it has 2 perfectly functional cages as per specification. I'd gladly take the £100 and ovalise the cages to minimise the mis-alignment.

fenix

£100 would buy you a nice top or pair of shorts. I'd go for that. Much more beneficial than perfectly aligned bottle cages.

veronese68

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Yeah as I said it’s noticable or I wouldn’t be bothered.

That is the problem. You didn't notice for 6 months so it's not too bad, but if you're anything like me now that you have noticed it you can't un-notice it and it will always bother you.
From their point of view I can see the logic is that it doesn't stop you riding the bike and enjoying it as it's only a minor cosmetic issue. So they offer some money back as good will thinking that's plenty. I can see the sense if it's viewed from their viewpoint. But from your point of view it shouldn't be like that and now that you've noticed it does affect your enjoyment of the bike as it's wrong and it does bother you. That's not unreasonable either, so as it's not right and it is a manufacturing error they should put it right. As the answers to this thread show these things bother some people more than others. If it bothers you then you should pursue it as it will always bother you, if you can sit on it in your new £100 shorts and fell happy about it then take the money and run. Only you can answer that last bit.

alihisgreat

Yeah its irritating.

Unfortunately a combination of 1) illness and 2) using my old bike through the winter meant that i wasn't paying much attention to the new one.

I'm also put in a difficult position in that i got a very good deal on it as a 2017 year model.. so even if i can get a refund via my credit card it doesn't help me replace it like-for-like. Plus i'll never get the £180 i spent on my bike-fit back...

I'm going to keep pushing the shop and Orbea, and file a section 75 claim with my credit card and see where that gets me.

I don't think £100 as a goodwill gesture is sufficient for the potential impact on the value of the bike, and any future inconvenience (e.g. if my bottle cage needs replacing i either have to modify a new one myself, or return to the shop and get them to do it again.)

fenix

As soon as you take the bike out of the shop it's halved in value. I really can't see that the resale is going to suffer that much with your wonky bolts.

I think your time would be better spent just riding the thing.

alihisgreat

After I applied more pressure to the shop and told them i wouldn't accept the £100, they've managed to get Orbea to agree to sending out a new frame (so problem solved hopefully). The right outcome.. but was more hassle getting there than it should have been.

cycleclinic

The problem for the shop if they replace it but cannot warranty with Orbea that would be a really bad week. The other problem is while all of the above that has been written is true, once the bike has been handed over and accepted, issues like this need to be reported within a resoanable time (legally), 6 months is not reasonable so the retailers does not have to do anything so what they have offered is good will.

If you had reported this within 2 weeks it would be different. That is why it has been hassle for you but at least your sroted now. You still have to rebuilt the bike though.

imafatman

It's annoying to pay money and end up with a small defect like this. I would say it's fairly inconsequential but it also makes you wonder how good their QC is if their bottle mounts aren't even straight. Surely they are created with a jig and so should be 100% accurate every time?

I would be mentioning this on their Twitter/Instagram page and hope that someone higher up gets wind. They should just swap the frame out for you. It would cost them peanuts.

imafatman

thecycleclinic wrote:

If you had reported this within 2 weeks it would be different. That is why it has been hassle for you but at least your sroted now. You still have to rebuilt the bike though.

Consumer rights act 2015 gives you 6 years cover for manufacturing defects like this.

If you find the issue after the first 6 months you must prove that it was faulty when you bought it, clearly a frame defect like this was factory made so the customer would have no problem proving that.

If you find it within the first 6 months it's assumed it was and therefore up to the retailer to prove.