Commencal, worst warranty ever!

Just had a warranty claim turned down buy Commencal for a cracked drop out! At first they said it was a scratch then I was told they don’t warranty that type of crack??!! They said it was when the replaceable drop was broken and replaced or crash damage, its never been broke or replaced! Then said was improper use. The bike is in excellent condition with no crash damage and never used for DH or big drops!

Needless to say I will never buy an Commencal ever again! Terrible quality and even worse customer support/warranty. You have been warned!

Big thanks to Real Cycles for giving me a new swing arm for free!! Spoke to them in the afternoon and had the swing arm the next morn. Great customer service and very generous!

out of curiosity is that the importer or Commencal direct?

Only asking cos a friend of mine recently had a cracked ti frame & went to the importer first & they weren’t interested, went to Commencal direct & they said they’ll replace it…

sherry – Member
Big thanks to Real Cycles for giving me a new swing arm for free!! Spoke to them in the afternoon and had the swing arm the next morn. Great customer service and very generous!

Yep, Steve is a legend.

Dealing with commencal direct from down here. No issues whatsoever

didn’t the importer change last year? Wonder if attitude to frames prior to them gettign paid for selling them is different?

Commencal direct. At first said they would sell me a swing arm for 350/400 quid then in a final email said I could have it for around 200. Good deal if it was my fault but I can honestly say it definitely wasn’t. All they seen were photos.

That is the second frame I cracked. The first was after 3 months, waited around 6/7 weeks for a replacement. When the second one cracked it was a matter of a few weeks out of warranty. Commencal said no straight away until I pointed out that I had waited longer than what my warranty had expired by for the replacement.

That’s when they they would check validity of what I said against the emails of proof I had to send them. That’s when they said they don’t warranty that type of crack. The bike has barley been used and in great condition. The 2 bike shops that checked it even said so! I would say around 70/80 hours of usage.

I defo want be buying another Commencal. I was warrned from other people who had broken them to stay clear. Wish I had listened.

What model of Commencal are we talking about here fellas?

Have had a Ramones for a couple of years now. It seems like the sort of bike that would break the rocks at the bottom if you threw it off a cliff – or is it a ticking time bomb?

Just to ad to Prince J’s post above (how’s the leg?):

It was my ti frame that cracked – a 15cm split running down the seatstay, along the original tube seam. I was not the original purchaser and had no paperwork, so thought I was doomed.

After a very short email exchange direct with Commencal, a new frame was offered – a 2012 updated version of the ti frame, but none in my size were in stock. They offered me the first of the new batch, but that would be several weeks away (and now has an ugly formed downtube and less sexy dropouts). I didn’t fancy the wait, so the sent me a shiny new carbon version instead.

It turned up yesterday, complete with EC90 carbon post and a headset, as my old ones wouldn’t fit. Just finished building it, and it’s looking good. Just need to fit a new shifter and she’s ready to roll.

I couldn’t fault their warranty department, all sorted within two weeks.

After reading the first post, I can only hope your keyboard manufacturer will warranty it, so you can get a working full-stop key again and not have to keep using the exclamation mark 😉

To play devils advocate, what’s the crack look like? How do they know it’s not abused?

Kaysee, out of interest which ti frame did you have which failed? Was it a ti flame?

I felt that I got good service from Madison when they were importer, back in 2009 (when they were in the midst of all the Meta 5 cracking debarcle).

They were short of replacement frames so were responsive enough to strip down a new complete bike to get me one.

Benman – yes, it was a Flame Ti. A real shame, as it was a stunning bike to look at, and I’d wanted one for ages before I picked this one up. 10mm longer in the top tube and no cracked seatstay, and it would have been the perfect bike.

IA, I would assume they know its not abused by the otherwise excellent condition of the frame with no damage whatsoever apart from the crack.

All of the assumptions they made made were completely unfounded and annoyingly wrong. When someone tells you that you broke it because you crashed or rode it on DH runs etc it pisses you off a tad. They also said we haven’t seen fails there, so based on that it was my fault! A high load stress area of the frame cracks I wouldn’t imagine its not that uncommon.

2 cracked frames in 2 years = very poor quality frames.

It was a nice riding frame when not broke.

It was a meta 6 by the way. 2010 model.

Commencal is the new ‘Cracknfail’.

Whay anyone in their right mind pays anything at all for Commencal beats me… no end of them break, and Commencal’s customer service – well, those 2 words don’t seem to compute for Commencal.

My LBS has stopped selling Commencal bikes. I’m not sure whether it was down to the frame failure rate or the change of distributor.

I’ve seen 2 totally destroyed Commencal frames in the shop waiting warranty claims. One had snapped clean through the shock mount, top tube and seat tube.

They must have the worst record of any manufacturer for failures. A brand to avoid especially 2nd hand.

neninja – Member
They must have the worst record of any manufacturer for failures.

I can think of one – much smaller – frame manufacturer who would appear to have a much higher failure rate.

What druidj says. And I can think of one very very famous much bigger brand with even much higher failure rate… But you never hear of it.

A brand to avoid especially 2nd hand.

Thanks for that. For the record my 07 Mini DH has had five hard years of nothing but DH, jumps, drops and crashes and is still going strong.

It’s not for sale btw. 😀

Benman – yes, it was a Flame Ti. A real shame, as it was a stunning bike to look at, and I’d wanted one for ages before I picked this one up. 10mm longer in the top tube and no cracked seatstay, and it would have been the perfect bike.

Hmmmmm best keep an eye on mine then. Where was the tube seam that failed, on the back or front of the seatstay?

Druidh and juan, who?

Druidh and juan, who?

… and what’s their warranty cover like ?

benman – it was on the outside top edge, cracked from 1cm above the dropout, and continuing for 15cm up to the slight bend in the stay. It might depend on the tube orientation when they form it after welding though. It wasn’t obvious to look at until I started trying to find the annoying creak.

Cheers Kaysee will check that out tonight. Any idea what model year your frame was?

I lost a 2009 Meta frame to the seat-tube weld crack after about 10 months. Real Cycles replaced it with a 2010 model, very promptly too. It hasn’t put me off buying another Commencal, as long as the dealer is good, I’d put my money at them.

I had great service from Skyline Cycles->Madison->Commencal when my 2006 meta broke – got a 2008 frame pretty quickly.

When that cracked, they offered me a discount frame replacement which didn’t seem such a good deal once the cheap frames came on CRC a while back.

Real Cycles offered me a great deal on a s/h swingarm, but then I found what might be a crack in the front triangle – didn’t seem worth it.

I suspect that rear swing arms are available as most failures are in the front triangle, but I could be wrong!

it was on the outside top edge, cracked from 1cm above the dropout, and continuing for 15cm up to the slight bend in the stay. It might depend on the tube orientation when they form it after welding though. It wasn’t obvious to look at until I started trying to find the annoying creak.

Bloody hell! That is almost exactly the same place as my Ti Flame has just cracked. Mine’s on the outside of the driveside seatstay, 1cm up from the dropout and is 4.5cm’s long.

Currently trying to sort the warranty claim.

So who are the other manufacturers with high fail rates? I’m in the market for new frame and don’t want to go down the same road! Spill the beans?

In 4 years reading every post on the commencalownersclub.com thats the first one of any commencal model from combi to furious that I’ve heard of failing at the dropout, also only one of about 5 2010’s I’ve heard of failing (they changed factory in 2010 after 2009’s problems) and first time I’ve heard a warranty claim refused – even though technically it was out of warranty (excluding obvious cases of abuse)
three coincidences……?
I’ve an 08 Meta and an 09 Ti Flame, maybe I ran over a lucky rabbit at some time but both have seen plenty of abuse all over the UK (incl running 120mm forks technically too big for the flame) and have been absolutely spot on
I’ve also seen many people get replacements for out of warranty frames

Not all 2009 frames are bad. Had one go myself and the quality of welding is notably worse than a friends frame of the same year.

Also have a cracked combi, but I vaguely remember that might have had a lifetime warranty.

Iain1775, coincidences that you have came to! Just because youv not heard about it on an forum doesn’t mean to say it hasn’t happened before or more than 5 2010 frames have broke, as I’m sure they have. I know how I have ridden my meta 6 and its well within the remit of its capabilities.

No one likes to hear of the bikes they own being criticized. As I’m sure you dont. But I have a few bad experience in a short time with the brand and think it is unacceptable. Particularly when they blame me for a crack that I know I didn’t do through crashing or stupid riding IE DH or massive drops/jumps.

What about the yeti 575 2012, any good?

Sherry coincidences I came too from evidence gathered from one one the most active ‘brand’ forums out there with many thousands of members, and on which has been posted alot of stories (probably over 100) of cracked frames and warranty issues not one of which has been a dropout
It’s fair to say it is a pretty decent worldwide sample and probably the best idea hou will get without actual figures from commencal
I don’t really care what’s said I’ve seen and heard the issues I know they happened but I’ve also witnessed the warranty service others have recieved which, apart from delays when they where really overloaded and Madison where messing people around, seems to have been good 99% of the time, you say it’s the worst what are you comparing it too?
My experiences, I personally know someone who had a bike out of warranty replaced despite it being knowingly ridden with a crack for nearly a year, I know someone else who had theirs replaced despite it having had the wrong forks fitted and someone else who was well documented as jumping 8-10 foot drops just before it broke (a meta 5) again replaced
That to me isn’t the worst service? Maybe you where just unlucky, maybe you didn’t approach it right, I dunno, I’m just saying there is normally two sides to every story

One of the guys I ride with broke his drop out in the same fashion on his 2010 Meta 2 weeks ago. Life’s full of coincidences.

Get one of those Pitch or Enduro frames going cheap from Bikescene.

The worst warranty ever? First time it broke they replaced it, second time it broke, outside the warranty, they didn’t.

So you argued the toss about lost riding time from previous replacement and eventually they offered a roughly half price replacement, outside the warranty.

Not a superb example of customer service on their part by any means, but the worst warranty ever?

As for the 2012 Yeti 575, couldn’t tell you first hand but a mate is waiting on a cheap frame to arrive. His old one cracked just inside the warranty, they offered to replace the main triangle or sell him a cheap 2012 full frame, that would come with a new warranty, so he went with a new warranty/frame. Hasn’t arrived yet…

So who is Commencal’s importer now? 6 months ago there wasn’t one when I had a broken Super 4.

I think the current importer is Decade.

Tracker1972, I think your missing my point. Irrespective of it being in or out of date that isn’t the issue. Them saying we don’t warranty that type of crack after plenty of excuses is. And yes I do think it should still be covered within the warranty. Even if it is technically out of date by 2 weeks. Iv been mtbing for near 20 years now and had some great, good and bad experiences with bikes and gear. I can honestly say I have never had 2 frames fail from the same brand never mind in such a short period of time. Iv had my fair share warranty issues over the years and I can honestly say this has been the worst.

Iain1775, not sure what your agenda is, do you Sell Commencals or something ha ha. I sent pleasant emails to Commencal and done everything they requested. Even when they said no I didn’t say anything rude or abusive. The fact is they based everything on unfounded assumptions that were wrong.

Worst warranty ever? Yes it is for me!

08 Meta 5 with triple clamps still going strong here!

By your own admission the warranty period had ended two weeks prior, so how is it a warranty claim anyway?

out of warranty is OUT of warranty be it 1 day or two weeks 🙄

When my ’09 Super 4 cracked I received a new frame very quickly, a 2010 which has given no trouble since. It looks very slightly different to the original which bears out the post above about C changing factories. They must surely be aware of the damage done to sales by a dodgy rep so I am surprised they are reluctant to warranty a drop out crack.