A quick overview (full gory details from emails at the end, for anyone having problems sleeping this afternoon)
I bought a KS900 post at the tail end of last year. Wasn’t fitted initially as I’d stripped the FS to build the HT, and as it was muddy kept riding that… Anyway, built up the FS earlier this year and fitted the post. Within a few rides I was having issues with the saddle not being straight when it came back up, pointing 15 – 20 degrees to the side instead. Sent it back, post was “repaired” and returned. Some vague explanation of guides coming loose and needing to be reglued. Within a handful of rides, post does the same again. Getting fed up now, send it back again, asking for refund / exchange as it’s still faulty and has been back almost as much as it’s been on the bike. Eventually get a reply saying it’s my fault the post is broken, due to lack of maintenance and jetwashing. It’s never been jetwashed and is regreased after most rides 😈 I get it back, and guess what? It’s still broken. Any suggestions?

From: STEVEN TRUST >
Sent: 31 March 2011 10:19
To: David Whitehouse
Subject: RE: Enquiry from Superstar Components

Hello David, is there any news on my post? It’s been back 2 weeks and I’ve not heard anything.

Regards,
Steve.

From: Neil Wilkinson <nw0648@tibolts.co.uk>
Subject: RE: Enquiry from Superstar Components
To: steve.trust@
Date: Thursday, 31 March, 2011, 11:59
Hello we are sending the post back today. Pure said it had failed due to lack of maintenance. It was full of muddy water and looked like it had been jetwashed.

Neil

From: STEVEN TRUST >
Sent: 31 March 2011 15:29
To: Neil Wilkinson nw0648@tibolts.co.uk
Subject: RE: Enquiry from Superstar Components

A lack of maintenance!
1. it’s only been on the bike since the New Year. The red collar is removed after most rides and new grease applied underneath to the shaft. What extra maintenance is required over that period??
2. I don’t own, and have never used a jet wash on any of my bikes, and certainly not the bike the post came off, as when it’s muddy the hardtail comes out.
3. It’s the second time the post has been back for the same fault this year, the first time it was “fixed” as the guides had come loose or similar. No mention was made then of lack of maintenance, or being full of water. It’s had a dozen rides or less since then, so how can it now be a lack of maintenance?

To be honest I’m really disappointed by this, I’ve used brakepads, wheels and 2 sets of pedals from you guys, and have always recommended you to others. When the offer for this post came out I forwarded it on, and several of my riding friends also bought them.
This post has had less than 20 rides since new, is regreased regularly and is never jetwashed (as I said above, I don’t own one). It has been back twice with the same fault. The first time you stated something had become loose and fixed it, great. It’s now happened again, but this time it’s my fault? How is the post spinning due to a lack of maintenance, and realistically how much maintenance am I supposed to do?!? So am to understand you’re posting me back a broken post?

Steve

At least you got a reply from them! Thats good going.

Biscuit anyone? I’ll put the kettle on.

Lemon and poppyseed cake here, anybody?

Gravity Dropper and tea milk no sugar thanks.

You would have thought that some, fairly straightforward, lessons about customer service might have been learnt from last time around. Love the buck-passing (‘Pure said…’) as well.

They’ll put themselves out of business pretty soon with this once word gets about
Heard tales like this before, not good and dosnt inspire confidence in their products, tbh
I got a i7 that went back after one ride, seems fine now but I’m not holding my breath on longevity

hardy har 😉

milk no sugar here…

and advice on anything apart from biscuits?

(edit)
a sensible post!
It’s not good service, the post wasn’t right pretty much from the start, but I get different excuses to avoid doing anything… Should have waited for a reverb

I use one of these for a fraction of the price and hassle. 😉

No pic here neilsonwheels, I’m guessing a seat qr? ❓

and looked like it had been jetwashed

Haven’t Superstar used that standard fob off, carefully considered answer for problems before?

Isn’t that the standard response from them?

I’d have a look at it yourself.

There’s a good guide on repairs and service here.

http://www.watermanatwork.com/Land/Cycling/BikeShop/KSAdjSeatpost/KSAdjSeatpost.html

No pic here neilsonwheels, I’m guessing a seat qr?

Sorry… 😳

Its really simple. You have rights under the sale of goods act. Use them. Small claims court for your money back.

He does make me laugh pretending that there are two different companies with loads of different depts. who does he think he is fooling.

Its not as if there is not loads of previous evidence of his shoddy business methods – he has done this repeatedly to people since the beginning

poor service from Superstar

You expected anything else? I’ve vowed never, ever to buy anything from his shitty litle parts business ever agin.

OP that gave me déjà vu to an email exchange over a pair of wheels I got from them a couple of years ago, I just resolved never to buy anything from them again and to strongly discourage any one I know from doing the same. Prior to this I had used their stuff and would recommend them. I guess this is the rub, whilst it works their stuff is cheap and they are good, but when it goes wrong this is what you get. I guess most stuff bought works fine, so they will keep going and some folk will always rate them. Given how much I spend on bits, their model of customer service seems a bit short sighted to me, but I guess they must be doing well enough to not give a ****.

khani – Member
They’ll put themselves out of business pretty soon with this once word gets about

you would think so wouldnt you, but then again despite massive problems with cheap brake pads and a frankly laughable customer service fiasco regarding a crankset/BB, add to this neil/fruits online pr campaign……..

but people are still tempted to save a few pennies in the hope that they dont get shafted

They’ll put themselves out of business pretty soon with this once word gets about

you’d think, but the pile it high, sell it cheap, deny all responsibility approach keeps dragging the punters in despite all the negative press…

sv – Member
Gravity Dropper and tea milk no sugar thanks.

Not from my mates experience on Fri. 1sst ride and no worky = 1 very unhappy bunny 😥
Back to shop for refund(£200) on Sat, not heard outcome yet.
In my eyes it is poorly constructed. The adjuster knob would appear to spin too easily/freely and is slackening off, hence the reason it will not lock. The protective boot is a very poor fit and is bound to let water/debri in and the post will wear/fail as the above SS one imo 🙄

I really fail to understand the need for one of these expensive pieces of poorly constructed rubbish 🙄 We ride the same trails and I rarely find the need to drop my seat but he and another mates reckon they “need” one of these things ❗

He does make me laugh pretending that there are two different companies with loads of different depts. who does he think he is fooling.

TJ – do you know how many people actually work there? I don’t, but suspect ‘not many’.

I really fail to understand the need for one of these expensive pieces of poorly constructed rubbish We ride the same trails and I rarely find the need to drop my seat but he and another mates reckon they “need” one of these things

Boys and their toys. Innit.!

I saw his stand at fort william whilst the world cup was on. There was only two people working there I think.

Never had a problem with them myself.

When he first set up it was just him – and he would claim that there was a maintenance dept, a warranty dept etc. He might have some employees now but that is one of the tactics he uses to sound bigger than it is

And funnily enough, I use one of those cheap Hope seatpost droppers and it broke the other week. I stuck it in the post with a returns form and about 4 days later it was back on my bike having been fixed.

Awesome

At least we have Neil’s direct e-mail address to send the octopron to now.

i’ve learnt my lesson and won’t use them again, I’ve got wheels and pedals from them and no problems (runs off to touch wood. and no sniggering in the back) Several friends have their posts and have used them with no problems. I got a friday afternoon one unfortunately and am having to find out the hard way what their customer service is like

Cheers singlespeedstu, I may give that a go. From the pics it looks like the guide bushings are moving from one slot to another, I may try KS direct and see if they can be replaced.

superstar’s big “2 year warranty” banner on their website makes me laugh given so many people’s negative expriences and reputation for fobbing customers off-as others have said doesnt stop people buying from them though. Wouldnt touch them with a barge pole, but I’d second TJ’s argument not to be fobbed off, your contract is with the supplier not the manufacturer (which is a standard tactic from retailers, to suggest the manufacturers warranty is the only fall-back), but I’d also get in touch with 2Pure (assuming thats who they mean) as they have a good rep for sorting out problems with Joplins.

mungechick – nothing to do with 2 pure who are a reputable company with a good record for customer service

Superstar has sister company called pure racing.

Nope, Pure are the sneakily named subsidiary / trading name of Superstar. Which oddly sounds very similar to 2Pure who DO look after their customers. Imitation is the sincerest for of flattery after all!

gotcha, so as well as possibly soiling another company’s reputation, when he writes “Pure said” he means “I said”… Genius.

My i900 went back twice over the last 19 months and was fixed and returned with no problems.

Mine now works perfectly but the first time I sent it back, they said “You caused the problem when you serviced it”- I serviced it on their instruction to try and fix the problem which was there from new! So not being a time lord I thought that was a bit off. Then, put it back in the bike and discovered it was exactly the same as it was before. But to be fair they did sort it quick smart the second time.

And yep I got “We sent it to the distributors” too.

mine was fixed ok but not really a fan of superstar after the general rubbish communications. Called Pure Racing (next door office) to ask them to get superstar to pick up the damm phone as I was trying to get a KS post for the mega at very short notice after my lbs sold the last 30.9 took 10 e-mails and a day on the phone to get hold of them…. this after buying off the shelf wheels that were not assembled that arrived well after I really needed them….

don’t get me started on the brake pads still trying to get a set to stop dragging the back 10 rides in…

Well, after threatening legal action and including the emails in my OP (plus the initial ones when it was sent back) I’ve had the folling response –

Hello im not sure what you mean from your description? If you are still
having problems send it back and ill get pure to have a look at it for you.
The post has been completely rebuilt with new parts, so should be as new?

Neil

I’ve explained yet again the issues and we’ll see what happens. I’m reluctant to post it back again for a third time, as the chances of it actually being fixed seem pretty remote…

Well, for anyone who’s interested…

I posted the faulty post back to SS again, and after over a month’s wait I’ve been sent a new one. No explanation or appology, but at least this one works.

Looking for a skinny dropper for the hardtail now, any better ones than the HiLo? strangely enough won’t be buying a KS one.

Gravity dropper FTW.

I greased mine in August, might do some more maintenance before the alps this year. It works, end of.

Dave

What i would find more frustrating would be him referring to ‘Pure’ as a seperate entity to superstar and that he has to ‘get them’ too look at it, what with his own eyes?!

Same Guy, same company: looky looky: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61207735

Seen so many complaints about this company on here, is there a competition on at the moment between CRC and Superstar for the worst possible customer service? Just been browsing through there terms and conditions and it states that he charges his VAT at 17.5%, so does that mean if you buy anything from them and you get VAT receipt through at 20% you are due a refund?

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did he not tell you that you absolutely have to use Lithium grease or it wont work ??

i had the same experience with them a couple of years ago, with KS900, took over two months to get it sorted, blamed me for not servicing it etc… when i finally got it back it was like new, then about 2 weeks later they gave me phone call to tell me that they weren’t going to warranty replace it or fix it, as they reckoned it became faulty due to my lack of maintenance… i replied with a confused voice “but you have already sent me a replacement” they double checked my details, which apparently where correct, then told me they would get back to me.. they never did… think i may have won a watch on that one 🙂

to be honest ive bought another one recently, works a lot better than the Crank Brothers J3 i had,which exploded oil into my seat tube, there pedals are really good,i like there Kevlar pads, and there rear bolt through quick release is good value for money too…. not too mention there brake discs, o yea there double chain device works well if you change the grease in the bearing with marine grease……….