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My Cube road bike developed a crack in the seat tube so I took it into the shop I bought it from. It's under warranty and the shop said I can expect a replacement frame. It's now been 10 days and I have not received any update from the shop.
What is reasonable and how long is the norm for a manufacturer and shop to sort it out?
depends...
Took Giant nearly 6 weeks to sort my TCR frame when a cable stop broke.
Took Raleigh 3 weeks to give me a new bike when I cracked the bond between the chainstays and the BB Shell on my alloy front triangle / carbon rear triangle road bike.
2017 stock will be arriving at distributors about now. So they will all be busy. From what I hear cube are pretty helpful so its just a question of time.
If you have got an event booked ask your lbs if they have got a demo bike you can borrow.
Otherwise enjoy your Mtb
Speshpaul has it - you're right on model year changeover, so they're up to their eyes in new kit. They've probably also been running down stock of last years' model, so may also be struggling to find the right frame in the right colour in the right size
Not too fussed about the colour as long as they give me a new fork to match.
I have not received any update from the shop.
Have you contacted them?
I did contact them after a week but didn't get an update, just "it normally takes 2-3 weeks".
Warranty is always a 3-4 weeks at least jobby. The bike shop can chase up all it likes but at the end of the day they're the middleman between you and the supplier and it's up to the supplier to send them the frame. I've never really understood why people think bike shops are wasting time with warranty, these things aren't solved overnight, especially this time of year.
Admittedly is takes time to fix problems and resolve issues.
The problem for the consumer is that whilst the issue is being resolved riding becomes far from easy or indeed impossible.
It is pretty hard to go for a ride with no frame, no Rockshox Reverb, no wheels etc. It is even harder to participate in that race you signed up to 6 or 12 months ago. Warranty is great but it is simultaneously a proper ball ache when you need to replace the item/items at your own cost whilst waiting for warranty issues to be resolved, then have to sell the replacement. Or alternatively forfeit riding with no guaranteed end date.
2 weeks for Lapierre to send out a replacement frame after I sent photo's to the bike shop.
Took Cube and my old lbs nearly 3 months. Not sure how much of this was due to Cube or my lbs (they developed a reputation for not being very efficient)
Took 4 weeks for a reverb warranty via CRC and about 6-8 for x-fusion warranty (with lots of chasing) via wiggle.
Smoothest was a ragley frame warranty which was photos and then a week or so later a lot of vouchers via CRC.
On the other hand a customer brought in a Boardman today with a cracked weld, 3 months old. We agreed the warranty, built him a new bike and he'll be riding it this evening.
😀
As always your contract is with the shop, *they* may have to wait for the replacement from the manufacturer/distributor but what they do in the mean time is entirely down to them, it normally is one of these:
A > wait, and wait some more, making you wait as well
B > offer you a demo/shop bike to use until replacement arrives
C > use shop stock to replace your broken part on the spot*
Most shops go for option A as it's the least effort for them and least risk financially on their part.
Decent shops will often go for B, especially if they know warranty turnaround is slow.
Really really good ones will do C, but since that relies on them either taking a financial hit or having a LOT of faith/good relationship with the distributor/manuf.
You can cut them some slack around new model years, availability or speed of replacements, but ultimately it's down to the shop how far they go to keep you happy.
FWIW, 10 days is not [i]unusual[/i], but [i]unreasonable[/i]? that's more a matter of expectation and opinion.
* assuming they have stock, or can order stock, and that it's nothing so niche that that's not an option.
couple of weeks tops. Unless its a special order / built to spec sort of thing.
as amedias says - your contract is with the shop - its up to the shop to replace the item.
I don't think 10 days is unreasonable. 20 would be.
Had a Remedy frame replaced by Trek which took 3 months which did involve getting it from the States, on the plus side I bought a C456 hard tail frame from On One to hang all the bits off while I waited and then slowly bought new bits for when the Remedy frame finally turned up.
N+1 by stealth ...... Result
Of the 2 warranty claims I've had, Trek and Evans were brilliant. They asked for a couple of pictures of the crack and within a matter of days offered me a choice of a Remedy 9 or Slash in place of the Remedy 8 frame that had cracked.
Cannondale and Southwater cycles were on the opposite end of the scale. Months went by with Southwater cycles telling me there was no update and assuring me they were chasing the rep on a weekly basis. In the end I'd had enough and sent a ranty email to Cannondale Europe. Within hours I had a phone call from Cannondale offering me a new frame and matching forks (as they didn't have any black frames to match my forks). Southwater even had the cheek to try and make out that they had sorted it out for me.
BillOddie, interesting comment about wiggle. They've had my Thomson covert for 8 weeks now. Although it's been back to me one but with a new new shiny chip out of the stanchion. Then they managed to send it to the wrong distributor to get it re-repaired.
Bloody frustrating when the only way to chase is via email which usually results in a response (eventually) that looks like it was selected from a drop down menu.
Islabikes were very good too. Couple of days.
I've been waiting for 3 months for a new tyre from Hutchinson. The bead failed while inflating ( well under their max limit )
They're the worst company I have ever dealt with. I gave up waiting so got PayPal involved to return my money.
Fishers had my shock for 2 weeks before they decided to replace it. No stock so a 2-4 week wait which isn't a problem as I have a spare.
New one turned up yesterday 😀 but is the wrong base tune and has to go back 🙁
I have a dilemma atm, been told I was getting a new frame under warranty as there was design fault in this years model and every frame sold being exchanged.
Just received a message saying the new frame will not be sent until I send a photo of my current frame with the top tube and rear triangle sawn in half!!!
I have 4 races in the next 6 weeks, so this isn't getting chopped and having the stress of waiting for a delivery with a race at the weekend!!
Best part of 2 months to get my reverb return sorted via Wiggle. Took around 5 weeks for a new B1 post to land on my desk. Unfortunately either wiggle or fishers had screwed up as I sent a non-stealth back and got a stealth in return! Ended up with a refund and therefore out of pocket as no reverbs available at that price any more (and Wiggle got to keep the B1 post!).
Seems to be a wiggle/dropper post/long wait trend here. Three different brands and three different customers. The common link seems to be wiggle.