Manufacturer standards and engineering

[dave3210go]

Engineering standards are regulated with national codes of industry practice. Its something that can be missed by the retailer when a warranty repair or replacement assessment is considered.

When a customer returns a steel bike frame with a fault that has been seen before, its time for an engineers qualified assessment: is the strength and property of the material flawed in manufacture, or has it failed through normal use?

Metal fatigue is cumulative, but a fracture around, say bike frame weld fillets, might be indicative of poor quality control of the production process. Since this fault recurrence is specific only to the brand is it a material failure? If yes, due to neglect of heat treatment to stress relieve, harden and temper, after fabrication the standard of manufacture has failed to meet industry code for quality control.

Which reflects poorly upon industry practice for that manufacturer .. quality assurance is regulated and subject to legal remedy.

I've put my case because generally the bike frame warranty is lifetime guarantee free of defect in materials and workmanship at manufacture. Do you agree?

[find_bruce]

I am confused as to what you are asking Dave. If you are saying that your bike broke during normal use & the manaufacturer / retailer are trying to weasal out of it, I would have thought you would be better off relying on your statutory warranty under the Competition and Consumer Act that the bike was not fit for purpose