[Closed] Questions about buying Pikes from EU online stores

If you want a UK warranty you buy from the UK.

I buy Reverbs from bike-discount.de. I had to send one back under warranty - had no issues at all, they were excellent. Sent direct back to Germany.

Now the euro/dollar exchange rate has taken a hit, Ze Germans aren't all that much cheaper than UK prices. I'd just buy here.

I bought a pair of Pikes from Alltricks - if there is a warranty issue I'll have to send them back.

you can send them to fishers so long as you find a shop to do the paper work. I had to send my pikes back to bike-discount for a warranty repair. was a piece of piss to do it and free too. took the same time including to and from germany as my friends pike that went fishers.

Now the euro/dollar exchange rate has taken a hit, Ze Germans aren't all that much cheaper than UK prices.

granny_ring - Member
Now the euro/dollar exchange rate has taken a hit, Ze Germans aren't all that much cheaper than UK prices.

?

I'm thinking he means that the Germans have had to put their prices up as they're having to pay SRAM more money because of the conversion from EUR to USD.

But the pound has also taken a corresponding hit against the dollar too so no difference overall. I recently had to work out whether to buy dollars from my UK£ account or my Euro account. It worked out exactly the same

I was looking at 27.5 pikes t'other week, £490-500 was the going rate everywhere, Germany, France and UK. So I bought a mint set from the fine classifieds over there ---> 😀

(Alltricks.fr came on here giving the above explaination so I assume it's the same for all the euro guys http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/cheapest-pikes )

I thought the whole point of the european single market was that regardless of which country in europe you bought the product the warranty is valid in any other european country.

So pikes bought in germany should be warranty able in the uk. That was my experience with a ccdb air i bought in germany and then had warrantied by tftuned in the uk.

I've returned stuff (Lupine) back to bike-discount.de under warranty, they provide a paid shipping label, cannot see why forks would be any different,

I've bought Pikes from them also, sold them on since though

I was in Freedom Bikes in Brighton a couple of weeks ago and they said that they can now match anyone's prices on Rockshox, even the cheapest German prices (I'm guessing something has changed about SRAM distribution/pricing). If my hardtail had a big enough headtube I'd be ordering a Pike to match the one on my full-sus!

I thought the whole point of the european single market was that regardless of which country in europe you bought the product the warranty is valid in any other european country.
So pikes bought in germany should be warranty able in the uk. That was my experience with a ccdb air i bought in germany and then had warrantied by tftuned in the uk.

Your warranty is with the retailer though. Yes you can send a ccdb to tft, as they are the UK service/warranty place for cane creek shocks but your lbs wouldn't be obliged to do anything (if you didn't buy it from them) though some do, for a fee. Helpfully, most lbs' will have a fishers account so could help you with pikes but don't have to. That's ze germans/le french/whoever you bought it from.

your warranty is with the manufacturer unless the retailer gives you one.

I was in Freedom Bikes in Brighton a couple of weeks ago and they said that they can now match anyone's prices on Rockshox, even the cheapest German prices

Yep, LBS's (if they are RS stockists) now have a chance to match online prices from anywhere in the EU so please consider giving your local shop a shout. They won't be able to advertise prices competitive with the Germans but if you have a specific quote, they should be able to help (and still make a small margin for themselves). Will be interesting to see how it works out.

That should be good news for all involved. I'll keep that in mnd for my next build.

your warranty is with the manufacturer unless the retailer gives you one.

Right.

Yep, LBS's (if they are RS stockists) now have a chance to match online prices from anywhere in the EU so please consider giving your local shop a shout.

your local LBS can price products at what ever they want. nothing has changed. its up to them what sell the items for.

your local LBS can price products at what ever they want. nothing has changed. its up to them what sell the items for.

And still make profit? Often the UK trade prices are different to euro ones (the certainly are in the IT industry)

And still make profit? Often the UK trade prices are different to euro ones (the certainly are in the IT industry)

I can't answer that

Bought mine from bike components. Sent back to them via pre paid courier. Took 2 weeks turnaround. Pretty painless experience and cant imagine any uk retailer would have been much quicker

your local LBS can price products at what ever they want. nothing has changed. its up to them what sell the items for.

True (usually) but in order to make a profit they have to sell for more than they buy for. UK trade prices on RS have until recently been higher than some of the EU sites are selling for. There has been a recent change - which only the trade would know about - to allow LBS's to price match online suppliers.

I can't answer that

Probably best you don't go making daft statements about things you don't know about then eh?

are other SRAM products the same or just RS?

Probably best you don't go making daft statements about things you don't know about then eh?

my comment is not daft, its EU law.

my comment is not daft, its EU law.

Correct. EU law says that manufacturers can't tell retailers what to sell products for. They can however, tell them what to buy for and 'sales 101' says that if you want to stay in business, you have to sell for more than you buy for. And what the UK shops were buying for was a fair chunk more than the Europeans.

So yes, UK retailers could match prices before (legally, without fear of reprisal from sram) but if they did they would lose money. Still sticking to the 'not daft' line?

are other SRAM products the same or just RS?

For now it applies to RS forks and Reverbs, and Zipp wheels.

poah - Member
your warranty is with the manufacturer unless the retailer gives you one.

In that case probably best to send them to
World Headquarters

Chicago, Illinois U.S.A.
SRAM, LLC
1333 N. Kingsbury, 4th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60642
or
European Headquarters

SRAM Europe Sales & Services BV
Paasbosweg 14-16
3862ZS Nijkerk
The Netherlands

Warranty is dealt with via the retailer, any UK shop can be nice but many will ask for a handling fee to cover the costs, part of the cost of covering warranty comes from the sales. If you don't buy it from the LBS don't expect any love when i goes wrong.

Sent my Revs back to Fisher via TF Tuned (Thanks!) which I purchased from Probikeshop (a French outlet).

Absolutely no issues with the warranty work. So I guess the EU thing (might even be worldwide) is honoured.

I recently bought some revelations from all tricks, & only paid £260 delivered ,so the price out weighed the warranty issues to me,besides you'll be having them serviced regularly by a specialist anyway won't you ??.

Warranty is dealt with via the retailer, any UK shop can be nice but many will ask for a handling fee to cover the costs, part of the cost of covering warranty comes from the sales. If you don't buy it from the LBS don't expect any love when i goes wrong.

warranty might be dealt with the retailer but it is not provided by the retailer.

What was I saying about daft statements?

The principle should be the same as when you buy a car, albeit I know that the 'scale'is vastly different.

Ie - If I buy a new BMW from a dealer in manchester, and then 6 months later it breaks (due to an issue which is covered by warranty) when I am driving through Italy, the nearest dealer for BMW in italy is obliged to repair under the warranty, even though you didnt buy it from them.

It shouldnt be any different for a set of forks, although I accept that you may have difficulty getting your LBS to honour that obligation. But part of being an official dealer for a manufacturer is the obligation to uphold the warranty for the product regardless of where it was bought from (as long as bought within europe).

It shouldnt be any different for a set of forks, although I accept that you may have difficulty getting your LBS to honour that obligation.

It shouldn't cost the LBS anything as warranty work is then claimed back from the manufacturer....that's how it works elsewhere anyway, as an example I bought a Suzuki motorcycle from a dealership in Kent as they were cheapest, the ignition barrel seized after a few months, took it to my closest dealer in Hampshire who did the warranty work and then they claimed back from Suzuki-UK, it doesn't cost the franchise/dealership anything....I assume an LBS that is s dealer for SRAM operates the same way?!

Not sure on the UK but not here in Oz, mate has spent a heap on posting fox shocks back over the last couple of years.
Stripping frames done on his time rebuild the same.
Remember the original Lyrik 2 step? Must have been heaps in postage on those.
Different business models exist if the dealer doesn't pay then it comes out of the difference between Trade & Sale that everyone thinks is profit...

Not sure on the UK but not here in Oz....

UK(europe) model is different, its typically a pan european warranty for a product bought in europe - ie valid anywhere in europe, sometimes the manufacturer may choose to offer a worldwide warranty, ie valid anywhere in the world, but I think thats few and far between with any product.

As various people have stated, the dealer should not lose out on dealing with warranty work, they should be re-imbursed by the manufacturer for any time spent dealing with warranty.

I'd like to see some confirmation that there is a reimbursement, as said it doesn't happen elsewhere can't see why they would reimburse in Europe.