Long story short, I bought a new bike in May from a direct sale company.

3 months in one of the suspension pivots developed a problem, I shipped the bike back and they repaired it. 3 weeks later the same issue occurred.

I contact them and they say given that it’s the second time, they’ll replace the entire frame. Once they have the new frame they’ll let me know and I can ship the old bike back and they’ll get everything swapped over.

I initially reported this issue to them on the 30th September, I received the email saying they’d be willing to replace the frame on the 12th October. Since then I’ve contacted them to ask if there’s any update. On the 24th they said the new frame should hopefully be there by the end of the week (28/10/2011).

As of today I’ve still not heard anything, and I’m kind of bored and frustrated with chasing them, which is something I’ve had to do a fair bit since the first time the issue occurred.

I knew this was a potential issue with direct sale, but to be honest I didn’t think it would be this bad.

Any other advice on what I could do to speed things up? Should I just keep chasing by email and phone?

Luckily I have another bike so I can still ride, but if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have been able to ride for over a month…

I’d just tell them that I wanted my money back which is your right ( assuming a UK company)

It’s a German company with a UK service centre, so I’m not sure how that works with UK law. I’m guessing it’s not quite the same…

Dunno -more complex. see if there is anything to help on the consumer direct website

robodan – Member
It’s a German company with a UK service centre

*crosses names off list*

*down to two*

honourable, can ya not believe it? 🙂

Robo, is the frame in stock? If its one of their popular models thats sold out they might be sruggling to source the replacement and be waiting for a production run container?

Last years model, so I’m not sure if it’s in stock or not.

I suppose I’ll give it another couple of days and send another email…

I suppose I’ll give it another couple of days and send another email…

I also bought a bike from one of the german direct sale companies

I had one ride on it before I noticed a crack in the frame

It took close to 10 weeks until I received my bike back with a new frame.

I’m not naming the company as in the end they sorted it all out and everything has been put back on the new frame very cleanly.

Also I may need to send it back again at some point in the future, and the bike was much cheaper than anything you could buy from a bricks and morter shop in UK – so I guess you have to accept there may be some short comings in terms of service…

I think the moto from this story is dont buy a bike from a direct mail order company unless you have another bike you can ride for when anything goes wrong with your direct order bike…..

I think the moto from this story is dont buy a bike from a direct mail order company unless you have another bike you can ride for when anything goes wrong with your direct order bike…..

So all the savings made with the cheaper prices have are lost by purchasing another standby bike?

What is needed is a UK company offering a similar product at similar money.