At least they haven’t called the Police and accused you of harrassment yet http://americanbicyclegroup.wordpress.com/

They called the police for starting a couple of threads? WTF????

how is it harrassment to say what they have done accurately reported?

shandcycles – Member
Just thought I’d chime in with a clarification on our “Lifetime” warranty we offer.

Because of the historically ambiguous use of the term “lifetime” and whether it applies to the lifespan of the owner or the frame, we supply all our frames with a small mammal (most often a gerbil). Our “lifetime” warranty applies to the lifespan of the mammal, not the owner or the frame.

This makes warranty claims completely transparent. We *WILL NOT* honour any warranty claims unless the claim is submitted with the original small mammal in good working (not dead) condition.

Hope this clears up some of the confusion.

Steven

Can I just ask, before a plan comes together, do you microchip the gerbils?

Wandering off topic a bit here, but this is probably the main reason I won’t be renewing my STW subscription.*

Wouldn’t it be good if magazines carried well researched investigative articles on maunufacturer’s warranties instead of just copy & pasting their press releases.

*Not in a Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells “I’m not buying this rubbish” sort of way, more a sort of disappointed “There’s not much in here that really interests me” way.

No mag is going to pulicize negative warranty experiences – advertising revenue & trust would disappear.

yes why dont mags annoy the sponsors …perhaps stw could then do a Premier posters who annoy us on the forum section with excerpts of our stupidity /pointless posts.

they let us do this what more can they do within the commercial restraints of their industry?

Wow, thats one brand off of my future wishlist.

I’m confused. Does the gerbil technically own the frame then? Do you have to have its permission to modify it then, does it get a say in the build spec?

What tyres do gerbils like?

Hora I am pretty sure any frame would last the lifetime of your ownership 😛

That’s not correct. Cannondale’s guarantee specifically states “lifetime of the original owner”. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it would be easy to get a new frame out of them! On the whole they seem pretty good though (maybe a bit slow!)
http://forums.mtbr.com/cannondale/cannondale-lifetime-warranty-experiences-facts-680245.html

Warranty is P82: http://cdn.cannondale.com/Manuals/2010_Cannondale_Bicycle_Owners_Manual_124451.pdf

I’m afraid that CSG take the 5 years is all that you can reasonably expect line. So if you are on a 5 year old alloy frame they essentially expect it to fail soon

They do give some margin for light use over the period but proving that on a mtb is nigh on impossible.

And that’s on the 2004 warranty which is better alledgedly.

to get them to assess it you need to send the whole bike back so don’t strip it down when it fails

Litespeed lifetime warranty?

Why, how many other manufacturers’ frames would last 10 years?

13 year old steel Dekerf over here.

Lots of good stuff on the web about how keen he is to repair any damage to frames and get them back out there being ridden.

(‘cept shipping to and from Canada would be much more expensive than paying Dave Yates to do it)

MidlandTrailquestsGraham – Member

Wandering off topic a bit here, but this is probably the main reason I won’t be renewing my STW subscription.*

Wouldn’t it be good if magazines carried well researched investigative articles on maunufacturer’s warranties instead of just copy & pasting their press releases.

that’s called journalism, it involves a lot of hard work, doesn’t involve riding with your mates and may mean that when they take out for dinner it’s pizza hut rather than the rather good restaurant you usually get, you may not get the all expenses paid trip to the product launch either

would you do it?

I’m looking forward to the “grinder” review of the tyres that Benji used around Penmachno the other day 😉

That wasn’t meant to be quite the dig at STW as it might read.
After all, I don’t buy magazines on Land Rovers, motorbikes, running, wildlife or any of the other things I’m interested in either.

It is a pretty sad state of affairs, though, when it’s assumed STW would lose most of their advertising revenue if they upset all the dodgy companies. It makes it sound like substandard products and worthless warranties are the norm.
I dunno, I’m just wishfully rambling really, but Which and Money Saving Expert, for example, seem to survive OK on unbiased reporting. It’s a shame there isn’t a mountain bike equivelent.

Note to self: avoid American Bicycle Group brands.

Junkyard – Member
they let us do this what more can they do within the commercial restraints of their industry?

probably more to do with the parents being out of the office and the kids enjoying a long lunch in the Stubbing Wharf 😉

Brucewee’s link: Wow!

Even Apple don’t get you arrested for complaining, do they?

Using Google. http://www.google.co.uk/search?sugexp=chrome,mod=7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=lifetime+definition

and

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/lifetime

There are some hic-cups. Can I clarify the EXACT wording?

Lifetime of the original owner?

Or is it more ambiguous and can mean ‘useful lifetime of the product’?

At the least though the statement should be clear and not open to interpretation either way.

I’d like my warranty to be based on the lifetime of one of these beauties:

(although not actually harriet, because she is dead)

Dave

Which and Money Saving Expert, for example, seem to survive OK on unbiased reporting

Both consumer organisations

….or does it mean a ‘hora frame lifetime’? 😆

Do you have to have its permission to modify it then, does it get a say in the build spec?

I’ve not had a modified gerbil, how do you do that then?

Will my litespeed warranty not be honoured? (For Google)

I just remembered – I had a Raleigh road bike with a “Lifetime” warranty on the frame. Steel it was. 12 years old.
The chainstay snapped – I took it into Halfords and got a new bike.
I wasn’t even the original owner (but don’t tell Halfords (or Raleigh) that will ya.)
Says something about Litespeed (spit) though eh.

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=litespeed+frame+warranty&oq=litespeed+frame+warranty&aq=f&aqi=g-K1&aql=&gs_l=hp.3..0i30.20836.22011.1.22485.6.6.0.0.0.0.75.385.6.6.0…0.0.aPpoHWtpKsE&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=9e2621fae004ee9c&biw=1092&bih=514
Top for this

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=litespeed+frame+warranty+not+honoured&oq=litespeed+frame+warranty+not+honoured&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=hp.3…77110.80242.2.80384.13.13.0.0.0.0.128.890.12j1.13.0…0.0.WTGyLKlRxZk&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=9e2621fae004ee9c&biw=1092&bih=514
first one that is not them now
Chapeau Forum

So I started the first of my threads on the cycling forums, RoadBikereview and BikeRadar

One 2nd December, in the evening, I was at home and I noticed several missed calls to my mobile phone and subsequently emails from Chris Hewings, the salesman in Ireland for the American Bicycle Group.

At 21:50 Chris Hewings telephone me and said they would offer me a replacement carbon Litespeed and that they had reported my forum activities to the police. During the very long one-sided phone call Mr Hewings did not offer an explanation as to why my warranty claim had been rejected. However, he did promise a written offer within 48 hours.

The following Sunday I had the “knock on the door” from two policemen who had come to serve an harrasment order on me. Once I had explained the situation regarding my warranty claim against Merlin/Litespeed they left without serving the order and none too happy for being used in a warranty claim.

😯

That’s just unbelievable, not even a civil case but calling the police for harassment as the result of a thread about a cracked frame.

What did they think they were playing at?

Makes you wonder how long before Chipps and Mark get their collars felt and this thread disappears…

[edit] and that blokes blog is number 4 on Google for Litespeed Warranty.

I think the original forum thread that started in was: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12744794

I just remembered – I had a Raleigh road bike with a “Lifetime” warranty on the frame. Steel it was. 12 years old.
The chainstay snapped – I took it into Halfords and got a new bike.

I had one of the RSP Titanium frames fail on me (I was first owner). The LBS sorted out the replacement with no hassle.

top marks Raleigh, well done Eddie McGrath’s in Urmston

Yup, calling the police on your customers puts Superstar’s customer service into perspective, doesn’t it 🙂

Crazy story about the police knocking on your door!

Interestingly he ended up with a free repair after change of ownership but I wonder if that’s just because the frame was there and they didn’t realise it wasn’t a warranty job?

Seem to have reverted to previous practices since March last year anyway 🙁

I can’t believe Litespeed weren’t laughed off the phone by the police!

“hello police, somebody has written something on the internet that I don’t like…..”

I wasn’t joking before.

Ask for proper proof of the original quality of manufacture specifically for your frame it opens up the question of how they actually differentiate between failure due to missuse and failure through production flaws.

My own suspicion is they don’t do anything like like the level of testing and inspection that fabricators of equipment in many other fields would need to simply as a matter of RGP let alone covering them against liability for failure.

chase them, all they have is a wooley worded open to interpretation warranty and a decision that they are not at fault based on…. what exactly?

shandcycles did a funny

I find it very hard to believe the police would get involved in something like that.

There’s a chap up here who keeps calling us every time he gets a shite review for his B and B on TripAdvisor, claiming (without a shred of evidence) that it’s the previous owners trying to sabotage his business and quoting some Telecommunications legislation at us.

We keep telling him, nicely, to sling his hook, so he has made a formal complaint against the police!

(And don’t get me started on ‘someone said I was fat on facebook’ complaints).

So it’s not just LiteSpeed who go running to teacher when someone says something they don’t like on the internet.

Litespeed Bicycle’s frames are warranted to be free from manufacturing defects in material and/or workmanship for the lifetime of the original owner.

Seems clear!

But is followed by:

Useful Product Life Cycle

Every Litespeed frameset has a useful life cycle. This useful life cycle is not the same as the warranty period.

This warranty is not meant to suggest or imply that the frame cannot be broken or will last forever. Bicycles and/or frames will not last forever. The length of the useful life cycle will vary depending on the type of frame, riding conditions and care the bicycle receives.

Whish is pretty much as useless and grey as it possibly could be.

I reckon you’d be rolling a dice on a small claims court claim against the seller/importer.

Having read this thread, and then googled ‘Litespeed warranty’, I cannot understand why anyone would subsequently buy one of their frames. The interweb is awash with tales of woe.

EDIT: Can I expect the rozzers to turn up now?

Gerbils-
shorter life expectancy shirley if (like my ‘friends’ gerbils) they spend time running up a cardboard tube with Columbian marching powder on their feet.

Or is that hamsters ?

coming soon, the Shand branded Galapagos Tortoise trailer.

So it’s not just LiteSpeed who go running to teacher when someone says something they don’t like on the internet.

Though when it’s Nottingham Airport, everyonew suddenly takes it seriously…

Litespeed Bicycle’s frames are warranted to be free from manufacturing defects in material and/or workmanship for the lifetime of the original owner.

Then in regards to my earlier post re google/dictionary definitions thats very clear IMO. No wiggle-room there for them. Badform.