Very upset

It depends. 20mm of more travel on a worse quality fork could make the bike worse. Which is why I think it would be helpful to be specific in the make / model of both the bike and the replacement fork. I know it might seem a bit techy to get into those details, but if (say) they are replacing a Suntour XCR 80mm fork with a Rockshox Recon with 100mm of travel, that'd be great. But if it was the other way around, you'd be getting a worse deal.

Be as specific as you can, you'll get more help and guidance that way, at the moment its difficult to help you as you could be missing out on a good arrangement for the sake of some cosmetic issues, or you could be being completely diddled!

Its a bike for a 13 year old - its gonna get scratched and scraped - just let him go out and ride. He's not got long left of the school holidays.

It's not hard

If they were faulty then tell them to feck off and either replace with correct forks or refund the bike.

If it was mis-use then either accept their offer or buy a new fork.

The crucial bit of information that you have not said is what the actual fault was and whether it was a faulty product or misuse.

I think I can answer 2 of those:-
1 - gt aggressor expert 2017 (probably this one - http://www.jejamescycles.com/gt-aggress ... -2017.html )
2 - original fork is described on there as "FORK All Terra CH-565, 26mm Stanchions, alloy Lower legs 80mm travel for 27.5 with V-Brake mounts"
3 - we don't know, but on the basis that JE James are offering to replace FOC, I'm assuming a fault.

as the OP cant say what the orginal fork fault was I will asumme as we should all he does not know. in which case the OP cant be helped by us.

Harold47 wrote:

Well the forks arrived today so my husband took them with the bike to a local bike shop and they are too long so the man is talking about adding washers to make it all fit. Seems strange to me.

If it's a new fork, the steerer tube will be longer than expected so it can be cut to length. Different sized frames will have longer or shorter head tubes ( the bit the fork goes through) so you can either cut it or add spacers (big washers so to speak) at the top so the whole assembly can be tightened. This is quite normal on a new fork never fitted to a bike previously.

Harold47 wrote:

The forks were deemed faulty because the seal was loose. They checked and offered the replacement. The replacement does not fit and I'm not convinced that adding several washers is safe. My son is also very upset as apparently he now doesn't have the susoension lock and reload on either side.

No bike shop is going to bodge up a bike just to make it fit making it potentially dangerous. The shop who supplied the fork are not going to offer an incompatible replacement. I am still convinced (unless you can provide photo evidence to the contrary) the washers you speak of are probably just spacers. All bikes come with them new to some extent. A new fork will have a very long tube at the top as it will not have been cut yet. The only other place washers would be used is in the brake cable or disc mounting. That's not dangerous and I doubt they would be the reason it supposedly doesn't fit.

Ultimately if you're not happy, go to Citizens Advice Bureau and get legal advice. But tbh it sounds like the job is being done satisfactory.

This sounds like a classic case of trying to do the right thing (i.e. buy a bike which isn't "rubbish" from a retailer who should know enough) and then ending up scuppered because your own knowledge base doesn't help you argue the point when things do go wrong. It's how I generally feel when a car mechanic tells me something is broken and needs replacing - I know so little about the workings of a car that they could be completely fooling me, or I could be missing out on alternative options simply because I am less well informed than the mechanic.

As doomanic says, it does seem that the fork they've provided may be a lower spec, despite them telling you it was the same but just with a longer travel. I think that's what I was hinting at when I said I couldn't find any forks with the name you gave (or with the name as fitted to the bike per the specs) which had 100mm travel.

It depends how much you want to fight JE James. Your son will probably never use the lockout, and the pre-load adjustment does relatively little on forks like those fitted to that bike. So he might not miss out on anything, and the trade off is 20mm more travel potentially.

In terms of the bike shop fitting it with "washers", I think they mean "spacers", and that's perfectly normal - if nothing else it allows for some adjustments to make changes to the steering etc. But when you get it back, post some photos and the folks on here can take a look.