My Commencal Titanium has cracked. It's a 45mm crack in the driveside seatstay that starts 15mm up from where the seatstay meets the dropout brace. There's a picture if you look in my history under the "Nooooo" post.
After almost 3 weeks Commencal have come back to me and told me that they want me to post the frame at my expense to Taiwan for repair.
Can I contest/reject their decision?
Rock>YOU<Hardplace
That sounds pretty outrageous. Conventional wisdom is: Return it to wherever you bought it from. And what is the distributor saying?
If it's within warranty it should be back to the shop who send it to the distributor who then do whatever. There's proper Euro law stuff on this now.
TJ to the thread...
You should deal with the shop you bought the bike from. It is their job to deal with commencal on your behalf not for you to deal with them direct. Seems to be a recurring issue with commencal.
It's not your problem - it's your retailers problem.
Get them to sort it out.
The shop through which you bought the bike has a legal obligation to ensure the goods are ok under the SOGA, the manufacturer may offer a warranty on top.
How old is the frame and read the small print of all warranties, you may be ok or you may not. As they say the devil is in the detail.
You may have to pay for the frame to be repaired, or you may not.
The retailer have been bang on TBF, I'm doing the chasing on it cos I'm a doley so have plenty of spare time at the mo.
Frame was bought when Commencal were imported with Madison, they're now brought in through Decade.
LBS spoke to Madison who suggested that I deal direct.
I'll bet they did - easier for them. Fine if you're happy to do it but at the point that they're asking you to fork out money for the repair you need to tell the shop to sort it out - they can chase Madison for who pays.
Well out of order IMO, how on earth could this not be a warranty claim?
HI MATE
you are possibly one of the rare dude who is cracking a ti frame, so you deserve a new one then.
Ok...get the invoice of the bike or frame and bring everything back to the shop where you purchased everything.
Then the guys from the shop should:
1 - send some pictures of that frame to the manufacturer and wait for an authorisation to send it out, for replacement(or repair....they generally give a new one. If they repair it, Commencal is a cheap shitty brand)
2- send the frame to commencal straight away, for replacement
I see stuff like that everyday and there is no way you have to send it to taiwan to your own expense....
It's all about customer service and behaviour of the customer
hope that will help
Sounds like you have been very patient and understanding, don't let them shaft you though.
Maybe time for a bit of lateral thinking. Madison make a nice ti version of the Latitude.
😉
It's rotten when importers put customers off by saying the manufacturer won't help, companies have to take responsibility for the brands they represent - not just be happy to take the money.
No matter who is the new commencal uk dealer, u bought it from madison and your invoice is proOf of warranty....they have to do a goodwill gesture to you or talk to the new dealer.
There is no way the customer deal with the warranty on his own, when the retailer is still trading
I manage to warranty a top fuel 9.X 2009, no invoice, carbon, cracked in the middle of top tube....weird....happy customer got a new one from 2012! amazing job from Trek i have to say
Im sure UPS ship to Taiwan 😛
Keevsbike - All done already.
It's been a frustrating process so far tbh, even with me doing the chasing, Commencal haven't got back to me regarding the issue without being prompted at any stage.
I was fine with that but I feel this is too much. I can't see that there's any chance that the frame will be back to me within the next 8 weeks and I have to pay for that pleasure!
You don't spend £1400 on a frame for this kind of service in my opinion.
Lesson learnt, next time I get a Litespeed but I'm never buying anything from Commencal again.
You didn't actually buy from Commencal though - you bought from your LBS - you've just given them far too easy a time and they're taking the piss now.
Get onto the shop - I'd argue that you've got a cast iron case now that Commencal have accepted it's a warranty issue - and don't accept anything other than them sorting it out.
Scruff - I've had a quote from DHL, £100 including the insurance!
Theres no issue with the shop clubber. trust me 8)
In fact, the shop are just giving the idle doler something to focus on....
If it were me, I'd have my money back from Madison and have a new sumfink...
Well that remains to be seen - too many shops just try to get out of their responsibilities by saying that the warranty is with the distributor or manufacturer when it isn't.
Can't really add to the 'get the LBS to sort it all out'
Take the frame to them and tell them exactly what outcome you want, they can blame whoever they want, the the buck stops with them so don't be fobbed off with sob stories about different importer etc.
That's their issue not yours
on a side note - I'd buy a cheap frame to bide you over for the foreseeable
LBS now on the job
Commencal have said that they only offered to let me send it to Taiwan to speed up the process.
The only option they're offering is the repair tho. Surely that can't be good for the frame?
Arguable. They have the right to repair or replace though so they're not doing anything untoward.
How old is the frame? Up to six months it is assumed to be a maunfacturing fault, older than that yo have to show it is a manufacturing fault.
If you are using SOGA its repair / replace / refund - your choice. If manufacturers warrenty then its whatever they say it is.
The age of the frame is fairly critical to how it goes down
My Foes was repaired not replaced, had to send it to USA and pay import duty. Then it cracked twice more and went in the skip.
so a possible lengthy holiday in Tawain? Sod off! How old is the frame? If less than 2yrs I'd expect replacement NOT repair. Its a ti mountain bike frame, I'd only expect a repair if it was out of warranty and they were doing my a favour.
That was nice of Madison to suggest that course of action....
Perhaps see what their MD has to say on the situation, I'm sure he'd love to hear from you:
Dominic.Langan@madison.co.uk
NOt sure it's Madison's fault?
