Let’s say I buy something from the LBS and it breaks. Will the warranty be valid if it turns out the shop bought it from CRC and sold it onto me?

Warranty is with the shop you bought it from

Your first point of contact is the shop you bought it from. It’s up to them to resolve the issue.

Yep warranty via the shop, their problem.

Well that sounds simple enough but isn’t it the manufacturer who decides whether something is a warranty issue or not? If the shop sources through an online retailer is it effectively secondhand and therefore out of warranty or does it not count if businesses buy from each other.

Not your problem in theory. You bought something from a shop, it’s their responsibility to sort out the warranty, how they got hold of it is not something that should affect you.

Also, what happens if the shop goes out of business in the meantime?

The manufacturer might decide if the fault lies in design/manufacture. If it does then the shop you bought it from would have to replace/fix it – possibly at their own cost. That’s the risk the shop takes in buying it that way.

still up to the shop. Warranty is not so much the issue (warranty in itself is a bit of an abstract concept tbh) – it’s fitness for purpose and if a shop sells you something it should be fit for its purpose for a reasonably foreseeable timescale. Irrespective of whatever they say the ‘warranty’ is.

Which is why for example TV’s with eg: a one year warranty are essentially pointless – because ‘the man on the clapham omnibus’ can reasonably foresee that a TV should last for considerably longer than a year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/money-saving-tips/11296784/Shops-accused-of-denying-six-year-warranty-right.html

Doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get full repair or replacement for an extended period, as you will have had use for a period.

thepodge – Member

Warranty is with the shop you bought it from

warranty is with the manufacturer not the shop. Some manufacturers ask you to go through a shop e.g fisher. the sale of good act/EU law covers the shop not the manufacturer.

warranty is with the manufacturer not the shop. Some manufacturers ask you to go through a shop e.g fisher. the sale of good act/EU law covers the shop not the manufacturer.

This is what I thought. I understand that I’d be covered by the sale of goods act but I’m wondering if the manufacturer could say that the part is out of warranty because the shop didn’t source the part through the normal channels.

just take the product back to the shop you bought it from and they can deal with any warranty issue. Its not really any different from buying from a distributer.

Where do CRC et al stand with their ‘grey’ imports for that matter? I had always thought they bought these from manufacturers who had excess stock of components after building their bikes, is this a similar scenario?

CRC will just give you an equivalent at the time

I get what everyone’s saying about it being the shop’s responsibility but to me it seems like there’s going to be a difference in the way that a shop who sourced the part through the distributor and the shop who sourced the part from an online retailer would deal with a problem.

A shop who sourced a part through the official distribution channel would be quite happy to send the part to the manufacturer who would then say yay or nay to a warranty claim. There’s probably not going to be any need to resort the the sale of goods act.

A shop who sourced from an online retailer on the other hand would not be able to send the part to the manufacturer (I assume, this is the part I’m not sure about). Therefore it’s up to the shop whether they give me a refund or not. Since they’ll be out of pocket if they give me a refund it would be fair to say that they would be far less likely to say the part failed because of a manufacturer defect. Then you will have to resort to the sale of goods act.

As a consumer it would be nice to know where the part I’m buying was sourced.

Everyone just keeps asking who they got it from until someone replaces or says no.

Doesn’t matter who it came from or who the manufacture is.

A shop who sourced from an online retailer on the other hand would not be able to send the part to the manufacturer (I assume, this is the part I’m not sure about). Therefore it’s up to the shop whether they give me a refund or not. Since they’ll be out of pocket if they give me a refund it would be fair to say that they would be far less likely to say the part failed because of a manufacturer defect. Then you will have to resort to the sale of goods act.

I see where you’re coming from but I doubt any shop that was actually sourcing its stock from CRC would want to admit to it publically! Unless they were of the David Hinde school of customer service I suspect they would just replace it without too much fuss, small risk to take for being able to source your stock cheaper and quicker than your distributor can get it to you 🙄

Essentially the LBS are just a customer of CRC and it’d just get passed up the supply chain