I bought some new V-brake pads from a bike shop recently for my partners bike. Last week she said the brakes were making a funny noise and when I returned home at the weekend I took a look at the
brakes. As you can see from the pictures below the pad seems to have been incorrectly manufactured, with the metal backing plate that should run along the spine of the pad is actually inside the friction material.

This has unfortunately gouged two grooves into the sidewall of the rim so I obviously went back to the bikeshop with the problem. They were very good about it and offered me free replacement pads and a discount off a new rim as the damage to the rim is 3rd party damage and is not covered by the warranty of the brake pads.

I’m wondering where I stand on this legally as a consumer? The pads are defective and will be replaced but is this right about the limited liability to ‘3rd party damage’? If I bought a new telly which then caught fire and scorched my wall-paper inside the first month I’d expect not just a replacement TV, but also some to be responsible for the redecorating. Isn’t this the same case?

Thanks in advance.

DAVE

Dunno about the damage to the rim (consequential loss, needs to be expressly excluded AFAIK).

In fact what loss have you suffered? Rim still works OK yes? Gets worn down by brakes in any event?

I think ‘consequential loss’ is a bit of a tricky area, tbh, you may need more ‘robust’ legal opinion than you’ll get on here if you plan to start an argument with the bike shop…

Seems to me to be a reasonable response from the bike shop. These are your people to check with

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/
but as there are a whole series of factors to consider such as how old was the wheel, would someone normally have noticed before damage was done and so on I doubt it is clear cut

pretty much any warranty does not cover consequential loss, so even though your burning tv might damage wallpaper, i don’t think the tele company has to do anything other than replace you tv.

same applies with the brake pads, and I think the bike shop has been very fair.

I think the bike shop have been perfectly good about it, if you want to argue with someone make it the manufacturer of the pads.

However I’m not sure that’s so unusual – I’ve replaced a few sets of pads like that, as soon as the unpleasant noises started the pads were out and changed – no rim damage to speak of?

It is the shops responsibility coffeeking. Thats who the contract is with

Warranty is not the same as your legal rights cp. If you have a legal right to damages for consequential losses ( and I don’t know how far this extends but you can recover consequential loses to some extent / in some cases}) it cannot be excluded by anything the manufacturers says

looks like two skelfs from the rim embedded to me!

They were very good about it and offered me free replacement pads and a discount off a new rim as the damage to the rim is 3rd party damage and is not covered by the warranty of the brake pads.

Thats pretty fair without seeing the rim, if its a worn rim anyway then they have been very good. If its a brand new rim then I would expect a discount on the rim and free labour on fitting it. I wouldnt expect the rim for free as the cost difference between OEM and standard off the shelf is a big lump to a bike shop.

Cheers guys.

The bikeshop were very good to their credit but I just thought I’d check general opinion/wisdom before accepting anything and thus closing other avenues of redress.

The problem is the groove the pad is worn is quite deep and the wheel will probably need rebuilding as I don’t want the front wheel on my significant others bike failing in traffic. It was the pad that’s done the damage (the other 3 braking surfaces on that pair of wheels are fine and I trued the wheels at the same time as fitting the pads so I know they were in good order then).

It just seems a bit unfair I should be left out of pocket and time but I guess it’s not the worse thing in the world. I spent the weekend with some nurses who work on a children’s terminal cancer ward and that definitely makes you realise soggy Monday mornings aren’t the worse thing in the world!

Cheers to all that have contributed.

DAVE