Cell Bikes

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rustguard
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby rustguard » Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:21 pm

Mugshot wrote:Well the one time that i went to cell one of the floor staff was tried to sell me a frame that was to large.
1st and last business with them.
where was it to big? alot of bike shops sell frames smaller but not too often bigger

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black4tress
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby black4tress » Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:09 am

Hi,

Have you actually taken the bike into the store for them to assess it. Explaining a fault on the phone and trying to negotiate a resolution is sometimes harder on the phone for both parties and it may be best to bring it in and get their mechanic to assess it.

btw - I rarely get great service from any store (maybe I don't look like your average purchaser) but I can say that Ashfield cycles and Concord sports have been exceptional. My 2cents
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toff
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby toff » Thu Apr 09, 2009 5:30 pm

Talk talk talk. Something is wrong with this bike, and Cell Bikes are not going to give an objective assessment. Chances are that most of us could take one look at the bike, work out what has happened, who may be at fault, and the best course of action to remedy the situation. We can't though. We can only speculate.

In my humble opionion, Danielle, you should go to any bike shop of your choosing, with your bike, and let them see the problem. If the part is faulty, and you've got your receipt, I can see no reason why the new bike shop can't sort it out under warranty. If the problem was due to bad luck or improper use, then you may have to pay a few bucks, but you won't need to pay anywhere near $400 to get it fixed, and you'll learn what went wrong, so that you can avoid it in the future. If it was the fault of Cell bikes, then you'll have an expert's opinion backing you up. You'll find that this is invaluable, and probably necessary if you are taking the complaint to the Office of Fair Trading.

That's what I would do, anyway.

If you still want to get a new bike, can I have your old one? I live around the corner from Cell so I'll pick it up! :lol:

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gorilla monsoon
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby gorilla monsoon » Thu Apr 09, 2009 5:51 pm

If the bike is only two months old doesn't warranty cover it anyway? I would have thought it to be an automatic fix, no questions asked and an apology for the inconvenience.
Or are bike warranties different to everything else?
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Chanboy
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Chanboy » Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:06 pm

Warranty doesn't generally cover mis-use, which is what I believe Cell are arguing. This one is a close line. The right thing to do would be for Cell to replace the parts (simply for the sake of good publicity - regardless of who is at fault).

However, we do not know the full story here, none of us where there to witness how the bike was ridden. All I can say is, that if it was ridden as normal, no accidents, then this almost certainly has to be a manufactures fault and should be covered by warranty.

On the other side of the coin, Cell may have already reviewed the situation and found obvious evidence suggesting otherwise that we are not aware of in this thread.

Unless one of us are actually going to go check the bike out ourselves, I doubt there is any more help we can offer. Good advise has been given and its up to the OP to take the next action now.

(or someone from Cell Bikes is on this forum and wishes to comment, which I doubt they would anyway - as they should have already been in direct contact with the OP).

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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Danielle » Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:11 pm

Hi all,
Nothing to update but just wanted to thank everyone for their advice and info. I can assure everyone that I have not ridden the bike in anyway other than the usual (how else can you ride a bike?), and I rode it to and from work only, so no off-road stuff either.

I've since had a closer look at the damage and as far as I can tell (and others who have looked at it too), the chain has jammed somewhere and wrenched the gears off, snapping the derrailleur in half (it's mostly plastic). I've decided to take the bike to a shop in Glebe for a professional opinion. I strongly believe that the fault lies with Cell Bikes. Either the parts were faulty to start with or the bike hasn't been assembled properly. A professional opinion will hopefully back me up in that.

With any luck, I might have the bike back on the road in a week or so. If not, Toff - I'll let you know...
toff wrote:If you still want to get a new bike, can I have your old one? I live around the corner from Cell so I'll pick it up!

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vitualis
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby vitualis » Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:21 pm

Just to be sure, you weren't at any time pedalling backwards while coasting?

The guys at Inner City Cycles are pretty friendly but it can be hard to really know what lead to the failure after the fact. As per sogood, the tension in the cables of a new bike does change with initial use and that will affect shifting. If the bike was initially shifting well when you bought it then it was set up correctly.

I wouldn't give up on your bike. Presumably, you need a new chain and derailleur and maybe some repairs on your rear wheel all of which will be substantially cheaper than getting a new bicycle. If it was a cheaper Cell bicycle, then the frame will be made of fairly sturdy aluminium alloy and so most likely will have survived the failure.

Cheers.
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herzog
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby herzog » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:18 am

Danielle wrote: the chain has jammed somewhere and wrenched the gears off, snapping the derrailleur in half (it's mostly plastic).
The only way I can visualise that happening is where the rider kept trying to pedal after the chain had jammed.

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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby R12RT » Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:14 pm

herzog wrote:
Danielle wrote: the chain has jammed somewhere and wrenched the gears off, snapping the derrailleur in half (it's mostly plastic).
The only way I can visualise that happening is where the rider kept trying to pedal after the chain had jammed.
With a LOT of force....

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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Aushiker » Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:43 pm

herzog wrote:
Danielle wrote: the chain has jammed somewhere and wrenched the gears off, snapping the derrailleur in half (it's mostly plastic).
The only way I can visualise that happening is where the rider kept trying to pedal after the chain had jammed.
Actually it can happen so quickly that you don't realise until it is to late, e.g, pushing down as you climb a hill. BTW I am speaking from actual experience of this. Have you ever experienced it?

Andrew

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herzog
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby herzog » Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:58 pm

Aushiker wrote:
herzog wrote:
Danielle wrote: the chain has jammed somewhere and wrenched the gears off, snapping the derrailleur in half (it's mostly plastic).
The only way I can visualise that happening is where the rider kept trying to pedal after the chain had jammed.
Actually it can happen so quickly that you don't realise until it is to late, e.g, pushing down as you climb a hill. BTW I am speaking from actual experience of this. Have you ever experienced it?

Andrew
Sure I've had chains come off and/or jam. In fact it happened to me as recently as yesterday while riding some bumpy singletrack. I *didn't* keep crunching the pedals though - that's a pretty much surefire way to break something.

What should be done in these cases is dismount and carefully re-seat your chain. Then lift the back wheel and turn the cranks through a couple of full turns. If everything is moving smoothly you're good to go!

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Aushiker
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Aushiker » Sat Apr 11, 2009 1:38 pm

herzog wrote:I *didn't* keep crunching the pedals though - that's a pretty much surefire way to break something.
And that is my point ... you appear to making assumptions which would appear to not come from actual knowledge of either event. As in my case it happened on the down stroke and pretty much instantaneously I had a broken RD. I didn't continue to stomp on the pedals as you seem to imply, but came to a stop ASAP. However, the RD was broken before I had a chance to do anything to avoid it. That could have easily been the case here as well....

Cheers
Andrew

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zoom bean
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby zoom bean » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:17 pm

Aushiker wrote:Actually it can happen so quickly that you don't realise until it is to late, e.g, pushing down as you climb a hill.

Andrew
Totally agree with this. It happens before you know it. You can see the aftermath in the final photo in this thread of when something very similar happened to me.

Fortunately the shop I purchased my bike from happily replaced it under warranty, although it did take a few weeks for them to get the part in.

Best of luck getting yours sorted Danielle. I've had a similar experience to you with Cells after sales support and now steer clear of them.

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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Fenix » Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:15 am

How much could a repair like this cost anyway... surely you can just take it into cell and ask for a 50% discount or something... kind of sucks but at least you'll have your bike back.

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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby zero » Wed Jan 12, 2011 12:56 pm

Danielle wrote:Hi all,
I'm very new to cycling and recently (2 months ago) bought a bike from Cell Bikes in Stanmore. I want to resist the urge to launch into a tirade against them here, so I'm hoping you could all give me some advice. I've had a lot of problems with the gears since I got the bike, which have caused the chain to snap once and, last night, caused the whole back gear box (I know that's not what you call it on a bike) to wrench itself off the bike! Sounds catastrophic I know. Just wondering if this is something that's easily fixed or should I be insisting on a full refund? I'm worried about riding the bike again as that's twice in two months that I've almost come off it at high speed because a part of it has broken off!

Any advice?
Thanks.
I've broken 3 rear derailuers and spat numerous chains. All of the instances happened with shimano chains fitted by either clarence st or inner city. Sometimes its the cheese that is substituted for actual metal in the derailuer pins in cheap mechs - ie shimano alivios - I can't imagine the cheaper plasticy items are even as strong as alivios, and alivios are not strong...

When its the cheesey metal the mech snaps and it all hangs loose - chain may well survive.

When its the chain joining pin coming out - the give away sound is a once or twice per revolution noise or once per revolution skip as the pin touches things, and this usually winds up with the mech being snapped when it snags in the rear cage AND going into the rear wheel whilst climbing. New riders often don't notice the noise because they don't know they can adjust their barrels to fix noisy engaging on the rear derailuer, so its just one more noise amongst all the others. Shops will often tell you it was a stick or a rock or your bad gear changing and not their apprentice buggering up the chain fitting in the first place.

Wippermans don't magically improve wear rates, but I've never had one snag, and never spat one out, and never broken an RD with one. The only drawback for me is searching the garage for where I've managed to flick the master link to when fitting :)

As far as inner city goes, I've had some random chain events and advice from them. The worst includes a shimano chain that pulled a pin after 200kms and very few gear changes, and them telling me the replacement chain I bought elsewhere was 60% worn at 200kms onroad usage!. To their credit when I took my roadie in to get serviced, they told me the chain was 100% worn, which was accurate when I took it off at home to change it - so now I take their part wear estimates with a grain of salt, but seems like I can trust their fully worn estimates.

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Sepoy
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Sepoy » Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:08 pm

Fenix wrote:How much could a repair like this cost anyway... surely you can just take it into cell and ask for a 50% discount or something... kind of sucks but at least you'll have your bike back.
Not sure how you found this thread, but it's almost two years old now
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Fenix
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Fenix » Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:56 pm

Haha yeah I noticed just after I replied... I'm planning to get a bike from Cell this weekend so I was googling to see any good or bad experiences people have had with them.

I'm sold on the progear RS30 they're selling for $659 thats got a Sora in the front and Tiagra in the back. Even with all these fancy parts and a cheap pricepoint I know the bike ain't gonna be the most amazing thing in the world, but it seems like a steal at $659.

I've called them a few times over the week and asked the same questions to make sure that I wasn't told something incorrect by the first guy by mistake (nothing annoys me more than when you ask warranty details and then you go to confirm when you purchase and they go.... we never said that... so yes I'm a bit paranoid but they all seem to say the same thing). Anyway it's got a 5 year warranty on the frame and 1 year warranty on the parts. Free checkup after 4-6 weeks and a discounted $49 service in 6 months.

I figure for the price it'll get my ass on a bike for a year and from there I'll know what I want in a REAL bike and can take the plunge into something better.... If I can sell the progear for $200 down the track then awesome, if not I'll have it as a backup.

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goneriding
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby goneriding » Fri Jan 14, 2011 2:40 pm

I've had one of their entry level branded roadies since 07 and have accumulated close to 40,000 km's on it. I had one component failure which they replaced, on the spot, without any question. I guess the question is whether I got what I paid for? My opinion is that I actually got a bit more given the hiding that the bike has taken as my commuter and occasional weekend ride and the fact it is still working.

The only complaint I have about them is that sometimes the advice can be a bit variable. To get around that ask for Tank or John. They are helpful and will give you what you need. Service wise, I've got no complaints.

Re the Progear bike, a guy I work with bought one (the 105 model from memory) for commuting and hasn't made any complaints about it.
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Fenix
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Fenix » Fri Jan 14, 2011 2:59 pm

Hey,

Good to hear.... in the grand scheme of things I know it's a $650-$700 bike so I'm not expecting to be soaring the roads like the dudes with 3-4k bikes and I don't expect it to last 5-10 years.

I just want something that I'll enjoy and is not going to break in 6 months... and if it does, then I want the place where I bought it from to be accommodating about it.
From what I've read and speaking to them directly it seems like everything will be sweet.

Cheers for the additional feedback.

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Nate
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Nate » Fri Jan 14, 2011 3:44 pm

goneriding wrote:I've had one of their entry level branded roadies since 07
+1 - got their team bike & after a few issues (rim tape, loose screws, underinflated tyres) nothing in 15k of riding

Fenix
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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby Fenix » Sat Jan 15, 2011 6:39 pm

I picked up the Progear RS30 with about $300 worth of accessories (sheesh).... Went for a 15-20km ride... seems sweet enough to me.

Hopefully it'll pass the test of time.

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Re: Cell Bikes

Postby GraemeK » Sat Jan 15, 2011 7:24 pm

Bought a 105 equipped road bike for my wife 12 months ago and have had no problem with it - all the components are industry standard and work fine but if you buy a bike on line as I did you need to be able to service it yourself unless you want to take it back to the shop.

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Re: Cell Bikes poor customer service

Postby HV1974 » Thu Dec 12, 2013 9:32 pm

I have a cell mountain bike and have been buying accessories online for many years. Have been really impressed with goods and service until recently when I had a problem with a part and questioned cell about it. The Customer service guy was quite itimidating with his response and dismissed the issue as my fault. After a few emails I simply gave up reading his sarcastic responses as he offered no help. Customer Service people need to realise that no matter how many years a client has been with them, treating them with disrepect once, can result in a lost customer.

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