I have a problem with my Marzocchi forks (stanchion/steerer creaking in crown) that are still under warranty. I have emailed windwave the distributor twice, what is a reasonable response time for them to email back? It has been around a week with no reply!

It’s a novel idea, but phoning them might get a quicker response.

phoning them may get a quick response, but don’t expect it to be a useful one

Take them to the shop you bought them from and get them to return them to Windwave. Distributors will generally only deal with the trade, not with joe public.

Tried to call them last Saturday with no joy, I cant call mon to fri due to work!

Purchased from Merlin cycles online and they suggested contacting Windwave directly. Is it policy to rubber ear emails about warranty?

Your warranty is through the shop you purchased them from. As mentioned above most distributors/service centres wont deal with Joe public for warranty issues and you will need to go through the place of purchase.

Its a possibility they are OE forks from merlin so thats probably why they are trying to avoid dealing with the issue themselves with windwave..

Return to POS, your contract is with Merlin, not Windwave.

Tried to call them last Saturday with no joy

You’ll never get anyone at weekends.

for the other angle, I have a pair of MX Pro SL’s that I bought from crc. After about 5 months they developed a bit of bushing play, I called Windwave and they were very helpful – they arranged a pick up from my work, stripped the forks and replaced a few bits and sent them back, all within 3 days – perfect service.

As above … They (merlin) are responsible for any warranty issues even though they try to say otherwise… Trading Standards are more than happy to confirm this fact

Stop confusing warranty and your rights under the sale of goods act – the two are different – warranty is discretionary and above the legal minimum provided by the sale of goods act.

You want to act under the sale of goods act then the retailer is responsible. You want warranty then you jump thru whatever hoops they set.

I have found windwave very helpful and answered e mails quickly and helpfully. Try again

TJ – you are waffling please talk in plain english –

Windwave are helpful i agree but :

if a shop IE (Merlin) sells a product with a warranty then they (Merlin) are responsible for handing the warranty claim… End of

Moda – totally wrong. You are confusing warranty and your rights under the sale of goods act.

The sale of goods act gives you certain rights. The retailer is responsible for this.

Warranty is discretionary and provided by the manufacturer or importer and is over and above the rights under the sale of goods act.

So if you want to act under the sale of goods act to claim your statory rights then your argument is with the retailer. If you want to activae warranty rights that are over and above the sale of goods act rights then you have to jump thru whatever hoops the manufacturer and / or importer set up.

Warranty is nothing to do with sale of goods act. the sale of goods act provides a basic level of protection, some manufacturers offer warranty terms that are greater than these rights.

TJ – you are waffling.

Often the warranty will give a level of guarantee that is below what you are entitled to under the sale of goods act – in the hope that you wont know your rights and just take it as read. An example of this is the one year warranty on electrical goods and the average six year fairly expected lifespan which your statutory rights give you.

If the forks were bought from Merlin – they are legally obliged to deal with it. End of story.

You may be quicker to deal with Windwave directly though – even though they don’t have to deal with you.

Can you guys not understand the difference between your statutory rights under the sale of goods act and any extra rights granted under a manufacturers warranty?

It really is simple. I’ll try to explain once more.

The sale of goods act gives you certain statutory rights. If you want to use these statutory rights then your argument is with the retailer.

Some manufacturers offer warranty rights that are greater than your statutory rights.

If you want to act under the sale of goods act you go to the retailer. If your product has a manufacturers warranty that provides greater protection than the sale of goods act and you want to act under that you go to however provides that warranty.

The OP did not provide enough details to know if he had a claim under the sale of goods act.

Cheers for the reply’s, Im pretty sure the forks are not OEM forks as they came with Marzocchi packaging and owners manual etc. I will need to try and call them as emailing them is getting me nowhere fast. I have emailed 3 times now with no reply. If they don’t deal joe public then I think they should at least have the courtesy to let me know so I can pursue another route instead of being left in limbo! Is it possible just to get a refund after around 10 months use?