Cracked brand new bike!
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby dan_1983m » Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:52 am
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby dan_1983m » Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:57 am
Thanks Derny, this sounds like the way forward!Derny Driver wrote:Dan there is a solution.
Ok so you made a mistake, youve admitted that. These things happen.
First thing to do is to realise that the LBS who sold you the bike dont give a rats about your problem. They are too busy to have time to chase this up for you. So what you have to do is go straight to Giant Australia with a letter, email, phonecall or all 3. GIANT is the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world and they value their reputation. These frames come out of Taiwan at a cost to Giant of probably less than a hundred bucks. Just ask Giant Australia for a new frame and they will give you one. Get a friend or bike shop to transfer all the running gear onto the new frame.
In your letter, make the following points
Explain what happened, admit your mistake and tell them that you are not seeking a warranty replacement. Ask them if they could please send you a new frame if you send the cracked one back to them. This is preferable to having a cracked or repaired frame floating around on the market or on the road bringing bad kudos to the Giant brand and highlighting the design flaw which allowed this to happen. Tell them that all your friends, bike club members and 20,000 people on the BNA forum are horrified that such simple mistake could destroy a Giant frame and want to see whether Giant will be generous and fix the problem or not.
Think about it Dan. Will the world's biggest bike frame manufacturer want the bad press for the sake of a frame which will cost them virtually nothing to replace?
I myself bought a second hand Malvern Star C6 on Ebay, checked it when I picked it up, paid and took it home to find the frame was cracked. Lifetime frame warrany for the original owner, but not for me. I had the same dilemma. Repair it? Keep riding it? LBS / MS dealers didnt want to know but a friend told me to ring the MS head office in Melbourne. I wrote a nice email, got a phonecall the next day and they replaced it within a week. Old fashioned service. They were happy to get the cracked frame out of circulation. In return they now have a very loyal MS customer and I would buy the Australian product with their committment to customer service over overseas products any day. My nephew bought an expensive Cannondale frame from the UK, it has developed a problem, and he has nowhere to turn except to his wallet. You have GIANT Australia. Go straight to them.
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby Summernight » Thu Mar 28, 2013 11:18 am
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby SmellyTofu » Thu Mar 28, 2013 11:34 am
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby trailgumby » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:37 pm
One of my colleagues had a similar experience with Giant last week with his roadie. They have him for life, now, I reckon.Derny Driver wrote: ... outstanding service stories from Giant and Malvern Star...
In contrast, one of my racing buddies had the Lefty fork blow up on his Scalpel29er over the weekend at the Mont 24, with loss of air and left-right free play, less than 50km after they themselves serviced it for him for the *exact same fault*.
On that previous occasion they accused him of abusing the fork, submerging it etc, which I think was a pretty long bow to draw, although I must admit it felt rough when I had a quick play pumping the handlebars before it failed the first time. They wouldn't warranty it. 50km later, exact same failure. They gave him grief, saying you must be doing something wrong, he said "Like, what? I've been riding my backup bike becasue the weather's been so poor, I've done one trail ride since on this bike - on a dry track!" Still waiting for an answer on that one.
They have earned themselves a reputation for being prickly and it is no coincidence that there are no longer any shops on the Sydney Northern Beaches who will promote the brand. Sure, some have accounts but none carry floor stock of their mountain bikes, and only Le Spit that I know of carries their road bikes.
When speaking about their poor reputation to a Cannondale rep at the Mont, I raised the issue in the Cannondale Lifetime Warranty thread about their attitude to fatigue service life of carbon frames. He said off the cuff "12-15 years" but as we know this has been contradicted in writing, and their formal view is that it is (paraphrasing) "5-7 years for aluminium frames, less for carbon". He made an intersting comment about Cannonale having a cult following. My view is that is true, and they are abusing it.
Apparently they've been through two CEOs and one head of marketing over the last 2 years, and the current acting head of CSG Australia is the head of the Asian distribution operation.
Will be interesting to see what if anything changes.
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby Nobody » Thu Mar 28, 2013 2:22 pm
I don't know whether Giant have me for life, but at least a couple on these forums have had steel Giants for life (20+ years). My son has outgrown mine so lent it to a friend long-term and saw him going in the opposite direction on it in SOP this morning.trailgumby wrote:One of my colleagues had a similar experience with Giant last week with his roadie. They have him for life, now, I reckon.Derny Driver wrote: ... outstanding service stories from Giant and Malvern Star...
Hard for me to imagine a company with a nick name of Crack'n'fale as having a cult following. But then I have different values to the average WW-techno-geek, to whom 3 years is a long time to own a bike.trailgumby wrote:...and their formal view is that it is (paraphrasing) "5-7 years for aluminium frames, less for carbon". He made an interesting comment about Cannonale having a cult following. My view is that is true, and they are abusing it...Will be interesting to see what if anything changes.
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby AUbicycles » Thu Mar 28, 2013 2:46 pm
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby Bob_TAS » Thu Mar 28, 2013 2:49 pm
Come over to the Nikon darkside. You'll never look back.AUbicycles wrote:Don't you love being accussed by the retailer for something you didn't do. Even 10 years later I still get agitated as the problem with my manual Canon SLR where the technition accused me of putting my finger in the shutter - why would I want to do that? After paying a hefty fee, I havn't purchased another Canon yet.
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby AUbicycles » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:02 pm
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby kukamunga » Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:36 pm
If this is the case, the bike shop have not done their job properly as a Giant dealer, and if they do not support you, tell them that you will go over their heads and tell Giant Australia directly that they never provided you with the vitally important seatpost manual, were never instructed not to adjust the saddle, and you didn't feel comfortable with the seat height.....dan_1983m wrote:.....but did not get manual for the vector seat post which seems to contain the critical instructions on how to not crack your frame.......
Like I alluded to earlier, bike shops are doing themselves a disservice by not providing all parts and manuals to customers as provided to them by the supplier for each particular model of bike*- and by this I mean everything including all manuals, bells, reflectors, QR skewer instructions, frame protection and warning stickers etc..... You'll be surprised at how many shops don't do this
(*Yes, a lot of 'average/standard/general' bikes are much the same as one another, and can get away with just a 'generic' owners manual)
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby InTheWoods » Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:52 pm
Yep that is probably the best way to *try* to get it fixed/replaced without cost to you if that's the way you want to go. You'd especially have a case if they didn't fit the bike up for you in the first place, ie provided you with a bike without fitting it for you, and no manual for dealing with the seat post. I would presume that Giant would blame the bike shop, and unless Giant are really nice would expect the bike shop to wear the costs.kukamunga wrote:If this is the case, the bike shop have not done their job properly as a Giant dealer, and if they do not support you, tell them that you will go over their heads and tell Giant Australia directly that they never provided you with the manual.....dan_1983m wrote:.....but did not get manual for the vector seat post which seems to contain the critical instructions on how to not crack your frame.......
Although there is still an element of common sense here, that you shouldn't try to force a post into a tube that is smaller than the post... And as already raised, there is the question of whether or not Giant should pre-cut the seat posts on the XS, S and M size frames if that wouldn't remove the option of valid high seat heights.
What size frame was it? How tall are you? Just wanted to look up if you've been sold the right size frame in general...
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby AUbicycles » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:59 pm
If a non confrontational solution oriented approach is possible, it is worth starting with that.
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby dan_1983m » Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:40 pm
Lesson learned! 1) dont adjust anything 2) read manual
I think the fact that there was no manual for the seatpost would have helped to resolve the issue, but it didnt come to this, so all good!
Now to get out and start riding!
thanks for everyones input!
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby MichaelB » Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:55 pm
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby you cannot be sirrus » Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:45 am
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby sogood » Fri Mar 29, 2013 12:13 pm
Good outcome!dan_1983m wrote:Lesson learned! 1) dont adjust anything 2) read manual
But it should be, 1) Read manual. 2) Adjust by following official instruction.
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby MarkG » Fri Mar 29, 2013 1:37 pm
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby Nobody » Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:34 pm
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby MarkG » Fri Mar 29, 2013 10:01 pm
I know some douchebag WA store does as they cried to Specialized AU cos I bought my Venge from a non WA Specialized dealer. They got that information straight from this forum.Nobody wrote:Can't help but think this thread had something to do with it. Makes me wonder how many industry people shadow these forums.
My mate then got reamed by Specialized for "encroachment in to WA territory" .
End result- I will now buy my Specialized gear online, purely to spite the WA specialized dealers
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby London Boy » Fri Mar 29, 2013 10:37 pm
Better not to buy Specialized at all. I like Specialized gear, make no mistake, but I loathe their business practices. They try to control the retail market, understandable to the extent that it protects somewhat their dealers, but at the same time it leads to anti-competitive behaviour.MarkG wrote:I know some douchebag WA store does as they cried to Specialized AU cos I bought my Venge from a non WA Specialized dealer. They got that information straight from this forum.Nobody wrote:Can't help but think this thread had something to do with it. Makes me wonder how many industry people shadow these forums.
My mate then got reamed by Specialized for "encroachment in to WA territory" .
End result- I will now buy my Specialized gear online, purely to spite the WA specialized dealers
Their gear is not significantly better or worse than anyone else's, so I don't sweat it. I just buy other brand kit.
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby jasonc » Fri Mar 29, 2013 10:58 pm
edit
this thread says otherwise
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=47774&start=25" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Cracked brand new bike!
Postby Baalzamon » Sat Mar 30, 2013 12:30 am
Yep...MarkG wrote:I know some douchebag WA store does as they cried to Specialized AU cos I bought my Venge from a non WA Specialized dealer. They got that information straight from this forum.Nobody wrote:Can't help but think this thread had something to do with it. Makes me wonder how many industry people shadow these forums.
My mate then got reamed by Specialized for "encroachment in to WA territory" .
End result- I will now buy my Specialized gear online, purely to spite the WA specialized dealers
No way will I be buying specialized EVER from australia after can't even buy interstate.... Shipitto, comgateway are my friends in this regards so specialized US will get my business
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