Good old Evans

A mate’s ‘Rocky Mountain’ bought from Evans had to go back to them after 6 six weeks from new as the freehub was slipping under power.

Chatting to him last night and Evans have sent it back to Canada for inspection by Rocky Mountain.

This seems ridiculous to me but what do I know…

What does the masseev think?

That’s a joke, but probably more Rocky Mountains fault than Evans. RM should give Evans some scope to sort obvious and simple faults out without the customer having to wait for it to go back to Canada.

the whole bike or just the wheel?

a whole new wheel would be cheaper for them than shipping both ways in either case…

6 weeks and assuming evans agreed slipping then I would have asked them to swap a wheel off a stock bike and let them wait on what seems like stupidity

I’ll bet he’s looking at an Orange Five next time…

They seem to be happy to deal locally with issues in Oz (a few wheels randomly started dropping spokes) return to RM would normally be for something they wanted to know more about rather than a check??

Rocky Mountian dont make wheels so it sounds a bit weird, a servicable part from a usual wheel brand should just be fixed under warranty. However thats just my opinion, anything could be happening!

surely the shipping costs would be more than the cost of replacement?
did he get a demo bike while he waits?

Rocky Mountian dont make wheels so it sounds a bit weird

Actualy, I think they do? Didn’t they used to come with a sticker on the rim saying which employee built it? Obviously that doesn’t apply if it was crossmax or the like.

No bike/wheel offered or asked for.

Sounds like he just kind of offered the bike over and left! 😯

Formula hubs btw…

Sounds like he just kind of offered the bike over and left!

So either he’s not in that much of a hurry, or he’s as stupid as them. I’m struggling to care.

A mate? Hmm, this sounds a bit chinese whispers going on here. None of it is hardly Evans fault though, they’ll have to do what the importer asks for the warrantee.

Evans are the importer?

They are built over there for some of them.

Rocky mountain hubs or bought in?

Didnt Evans stop selling RM? Do RM presently have a functioning UK distributor?

mmm, interesting, they only have two RM bikes on their site now, rest are listed as discontinued.

There is a UK distributor for RM now and you would of thought that Evans could just repair under warranty?

I’m struggling to care.

Me too. Still doesn’t make it right.

They must want to check it is wheelly Canuck-ered 🙂

Or if the wheel was actually mountie-ed properly? 😆

I’d be turning up with the ‘warranty with the retailer’ line and asking for a replacement/loan bike/wheel whilst they sort it out with their supplier.

No chance I would of allowed that to of happened….

Its like saying… car breaks down and under warranty… car sent to Germany to be fixed.

I think somebody is not telling the whole truth here .

A mate? Hmm, this sounds a bit chinese whispers going on here. None of it is hardly Evans fault though, they’ll have to do what the importer asks for the warrantee.

+1

There is a UK distributor for RM now and you would of thought that Evans could just repair under warranty?

I can see why they wouldn’t, not their fault it broke so get RM to pay for it.

Its like saying… car breaks down and under warranty… car sent to Germany to be fixed.

+1

I took my Cannondale to Evans once to look at the dropout wearing away and asked for it to be looked at as a warranty claim.
I went back in 2 days later to say could I get the pedals off it as I needed them for my spare bike.
They said bike had been sent to Cannondale Europe (Netherlands I think) so I bought replacement pedals for the spare bike.
When it ‘came back’ from Cannondale I was shown a copy of the faxed note with Cannondale’s assessment of the problem.
I was confused why they’d faxed the note if the bike was with them. Turned out the bike had been in Evans all along…

Probably numptiness rather than deliberate lies but Head Office apologised profusely and gave me vouchers to the value of the pedals I’d bought, and I’ve barely been back there since…

So your mate’s bike may or may not be in Canada…

Rocky Mountian dont make wheels so it sounds a bit weird

i agree with thisisnotaspoon…i had a pair of sun rhyno lites on deore disc hubs that (according to the sticker) had been hand-built by rocky mountain…they came off a rocky mountain that had had its wheels upgraded at my LBS. they were brilliant wheels.
maybe these were the same and thats why rocky mountain wanted them back…but sending the whole bike seems a bit odd unless they think there is some issue with the rear of the bike that could be a contributing factor

RM wheels may have a ‘Wheeltech’ sticker on them, signed off by an ’employee’, but considering that the wheels are in the same bike box as the rest of the bike when it is shipped from Taiwan, I think they use the term ’employee’ very loosely 😀

It’s along the same lines as their frames BITD having ‘Made In Canada’ stickers on them, when in fact most of the were made in the Far East and shipped over to be ‘finished’ i.e. have the stickers put on 😀 Ah marketing……

FWIW a warranty on a product rarely means that the retailer has to supply a replacement while you wait for the item to be fixed.

I’m not clued up on consumer law but shouldn’t a fix or replacement be offered and dealt with in a reasonable amount of time?

To me a reasonable amount of time for that problem I would accept no more than a week.

(Not a consumer law professional)

contract of sale is with retailer and customer, nothing to do with the supplier to Evans. If the bike has quickly broken, its up to Evans to sort it out with their supplier. Telling customers “its going back to supplier or manufacturer for assessment is typical B.S. the bike industry likes to tell to clueless customers

I would quote “goods not fit for purpose” and ask for a new bike, or a full refund, well within your rights under consumer law

I used to work for Evans btw, and have heard all kinds of B.S. told to customers with such problems on newish bikes

contract of sale is with retailer and customer, nothing to do with the supplier to Evans

That is not strictly true. Evans themselves will not, ultimately, be footing the cost of repair assuming it is given as a warranty claim. Ok so quite often the shop will make the call as to whether an item is a warranty job but that part will then be sent back to the supplier prior to the shop getting it’s money back on any parts supplied or work carried out. Granted, in this instance, it is odd for a manufacturer to want to get a wheel back. However RM are presented in the UK so I doubt it would go to Canada.

That is not strictly true.

Yes, it is strictly true in consumer law. The bike shop/OEM relationship isn’t consumer. Evans have to honour the repair/replace for the customer. How they get reimbursed by their supplier is of no issue to the retail consumer.

I had an issue with my Rocky Mountain Vertex bike after about 4 months, basically one of the internal cable guides came unbonded inside the frame. I found Evans pretty good to deal with over it. I dropped the bike off to them, they sent photos to Rocky Mountain who agreed there was an issue and sent a new frame to Evans. These also upgraded the frame to the top of the range 2013 999RSL version. Evans rebuilt the bike up and it has been fine ever since. They also fitted new cables throughout which saved me a job 😀 It did take a few weeks to sort, that seemed to be mainly the shipping, which coincided with Christmas. I had another bike, so luckily wasn’t in a mad rush back for it.

I got the impression that their dealings with Rocky Mountain aren’t as straight forward as they used to be since they stopped being the importer.

contract of sale is with retailer and customer, nothing to do with the supplier to Evans. If the bike has quickly broken, its up to Evans to sort it out with their supplier. Telling customers “its going back to supplier or manufacturer for assessment is typical B.S. the bike industry likes to tell to clueless customers

Probably 90% of the items that have been returned to wherever I’ve worked have been returned to manufacture/distributor for inspection before a decision has been made to offer refund/replacement/tell them to jog on.

I would quote “goods not fit for purpose” and ask for a new bike, or a full refund, well within your rights under consumer law

Evans are also well within their rights to inspect the product, How does the shop assistant know its not neglect/crash damage.

It doesn’t sound like the process was explained well by Evans, or your the OP’s mate got the wrong end of the stick.

I would quote “goods not fit for purpose” and ask for a new bike, or a full refund, well within your rights under consumer law

Maybe a bit early for that huh.. even so, a bust freehub = a new bike / refund? After a 2nd broken hub, perhaps it’s worth discussing a different wheel.

OP, I’d ask your mate to clarify all this via a call to Evans and maybe you can re-post here.
I could be wrong but I very much doubt anyone in the supply chain would ask for a wheel to be sent back to Canada for inspection – think of the time and shipping cost vs the wheel value. More likely that someone mistook ‘back to RM (uk)’ for ‘back to RM’= ‘on it’s way to Canada’.

doubt they sent it back, RM dealer in canada quoted £380 shippng 1 way to UK…

Mate received bike back today, all is fixed. Will find out the details of the tale when I next see him.

I hnk to fair to say it probably never left Evans workshop, never mind the continent… 😉