Something I wished i'd know before i got a Specialized bike

Long story short, got two Specialized bikes as insurance replacements via the insurance companies cycle providers. Both bikes are faulty from new ( faulty lockout on forks on one, rebound on the rear shock faulty on the other & wheel build issue). So living near a Specialized concept store I assumed I could take the bike into there, but no it has to go back to the provider because the warranty is not transferable store to store.
I could get a quote for the repairs, get that agreed to and pay for the work and then send the bill to the provider to save returning the bike but to be honest both options given me are very inconvenient.
Other brands such as Cube & Giant have much better set ups regarding warranty work. With both brands I have been able to take them to other dealers to get warranty work sorted out.
To me issues like this are deal breakers, if i’d know about before i would have chosen another brand, maybe others will to.

That’s not my understanding of it. I have had forks repaired at a store in France whilst on holiday and stuff sorted at our local bike shop which has been purchased elsewhere. I have had to provide receipt to prove we were the original purchaser but didn’t even need that in France.
Have you spoke to Specialized UK direct

http://www.specializedconceptstore.co.uk/warranty

Was it Wheelies?

Be prepared for a lot of chasing up and a frustratingly long wait if so.

That’s not my understanding of it.

Mine neither. As long as you have receipt you can deal with it through any dealer store.

Tracey- Yes I have, they weren’t that helpful.
Chapaping. Yes it was. No one seems to have a good word for them even other Specialized dealers.

I guess it comes down to how Specialized recompense dealers for warranty work. Wheelies seem to sidestep the normal specialized distribution model without providing the backup of bricks and mortar stores (I don’t think specialized normally allow mail order bike sales). I can see that if I was a normal specialized dealer I could get a bit peed off sorting out their post purchase problems.

A guy I know had the chain snap on his Specialized this weekend but didn’t seem bothered.

I had a frame warrantied at a CS that was from a different country

But that’s the actual way that warrantees should work, i.e. your contract is with the supplier, not the manufacturer.

If most Specialized dealers have a kind of reciprocal agreement with THEIR supplier to sort out post-sale claims between them, that’s ace, but if Wheelies isn’t part of that then it’s not Specialized fault.

My LBS is a strong Specialised dealer. He goes the extra mile for warranty stuff and in general Specialised are very good with him. YMMV – clearly.

brant – Member
A guy I know had the chain snap on his Specialized this weekend but didn’t seem bothered

You didn’t see him peddling back up for another turn though?

Tracey, AFAIK the concept stores aren’t actually SBC themselves.

If this was straight from the box, then I’d be making my case under sales of goods act rather than it being a warranty issue. I’d be rejecting the goods as not fit for purpose straight away. This is a contract you have with the retailer, not the manufacturer. It’s not specialized or the store being difficult, it’s just the law.

Send a note to Wheelies ASAP so you can show that you have evidence of notifying them of the issue very soon after receiving the goods.
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/sale-of-goods-act

Wheelies shops are Tredz and Wheelies in Swansea centre

Never dealt with a Concept store but never had a problem over the last twelve years with getting something sorted local, including two crash assisted frame replacements last year.

From Specialized site

To obtain benefits under this warranty, the bicycle or frameset must be presented to an authorized Specialized dealer on the same continent on which the bicycle was purchased, together with a proof of purchase. Only authorized Specialized dealers are authorized to perform warranty service. Should the bicycle, frameset, or any part thereof be determined by Specialized to be covered by this warranty, it will be repaired or replaced with the most comparable option, at Specialized’s sole option.

Our Specialized Concept Stores and Elite Stores, are our top partners that have become the best in class in bicycle retail. Today’s rider has high expectations regarding product quality, customer service and selection, which they expect to find within a well-designed, advanced retail environment like our Concept Stores and Elite Stores. Visit one of our Concept Stores or Elite Stores for the ultimate retail experience.

If it were me I would be back on the phone to them

A guy I know

i dont know anyone that famous… 🙁

A guy I know had the chain snap on his Specialized this weekend but didn’t seem bothered.

Ha!

Don’t start gobbing off about not fit for purpose that is just misguided nonsense.

You have a warranty issue, so I would ask Wheelies that you can take it to the concept store and agree for them to manage the warranty issues.

I would expect that to work.

Lets get this straight, Wheelies haven’t refused to sort it, its just the inconvenience to me the customer of doing it their way. Also i am really disappointed with the response from the local Specialized concept store as the didn’t even say ‘oh just bring it in, we’ll have a quick look, might be something simple’. It was (and this is not word for word verbatim) ‘we are a stand alone franchise, its nothing to do with us’.

Wheelies shops are Tredz and Wheelies in Swansea centre

I’m not sure they are, if I’ve remembered/understood correctly, Tredz/WheeliesDirect have one or some of the same directors but are different companies.

I heard that Wheelies in Uplands used to be the same company as Wheelies Direct but now they are different companies. This was according to a kid in the shop when i asked about getting a bike from wheelies direct into the store to look at.

As I understand it, most of the Spesh concept stores are run by other companies as a franchise (eg, Covent Garden = Cycle Surgery). I can understand them not wanting to take on another shop’s warranty issues as there will be costs involved (man hours, postage) that they may no get back.
When I worked for a big retailer and we had people come in with products bought elsewhere, we would charge an admin fee to cover these costs. It might be worth you asking whether this is an option in case it’s cheaper than you going back to Wheelies?

brant – Member
A guy I know had the chain snap on his Specialized this weekend but didn’t seem bothered

Sram or Spesh warranty there though surely? 😉

Lets get this straight, Wheelies haven’t refused to sort it, its just the inconvenience to me the customer of doing it their way. Also i am really disappointed with the response from the local Specialized concept store as the didn’t even say ‘oh just bring it in, we’ll have a quick look, might be something simple’. It was (and this is not word for word verbatim) ‘we are a stand alone franchise, its nothing to do with us’.

Suck it up tinkerbell

You bought from one shop and then expected another to sort out the post purchase issues.

MSP, bother to read the first posting.

Did the concept store claim that they weren’t an authorised dealer? Or that the place you bought it from wasn’t?

The warranty seems clear that if you buy it from an authorised dealer, you can take it to any other authorised dealer to get it sorted. If that’s not happening, you should definitely ask Spesh UK why their authorised dealers aren’t honouring the terms of their warranty, but ultimately, you need to deal with your retailer, either because it’s faulty, or because it doesn’t have the warranty that it’s supposed to.

The guy I talked to At Specialized Uk said their stores were “not compelled” to carry out the work if you didn’t buy the bike from that particular store. The statement that Tracey posted above seems to directly contradict this and I will be quoting it back to them on the phone tomorrow to see if it gets me anywhere.
Thanks for that Tracey 😀

Wheelies and wheelies direct claim to be different companies but have the (or did when I had issues) same registration number at companies house.
Long story, same bike different price on each website, will only sell bike at higher cost on insurance replacement. Claimed they were different companies, insurance replacement only through Wheelies Direct, they had the same address, VAT and same registration number.

MSP, bother to read the first posting.

Yes I did.

You have bikes that are faulty from the box, not that a manufacturing fault became apparent later. That is not an issue for any other dealer other than the one you bought the bike from. Who you haven’t even allowed to sort the problem before starting a thread whining about specialized and your local dealer.

I had an Epic with the awful shock. I think it was 8 times I had to take it back.
To 3 different dealers. I never had a problem and got it back within a week on all occasions. Finally they gave me a shock that didn’t explode on the slightest bump.

No experience of spesh but I’d expect warranty to be handled by the original retailer

Although I suppose a concept store, I’d like to think they’d go the extra mile

ferrals – Member
Wheelies shops are Tredz and Wheelies in Swansea centre
I’m not sure they are, if I’ve remembered/understood correctly, Tredz/WheeliesDirect have one or some of the same directors but are different companies.

I heard that Wheelies in Uplands used to be the same company as Wheelies Direct but now they are different companies. This was according to a kid in the shop when i asked about getting a bike from wheelies direct into the store to look at.
Maxlite’s son works/worked for Wheelies. 😉 You may have bumped into him in Clyne. You are sort of right in that they claim to be different companies but, when it suits them, they swap stock between the different places, or whatever. I believe that one of sides of the company has an extra director, but maybe wrong. The Giant store is owned by the same group as well, obviously.

Although I suppose a concept store, I’d like to think they’d go the extra mile

Why? As above, the concept stores aren’t Specialized, they are just A.N.Other-retailer. So, by way of illustration, if you’d bought a Specialized from Evans in Manchester and then took it in to an independent Spesh dealer like my LBS in Salisbury, the warranty should still be handled by Evans. Of course, asking nicely can’t hurt and many shops would be willing to help out, subject to costs etc, but the principle remains.

I used to run the workshop at Specialized Covent Garden and dealt with 100’s of warranty and crash replacement claims for Specialized customers in London

Once the customer understood we were not operated by Specialized UK (but by Cycle Surgery) and that their warranty resided with the original retailer they purchased the bicycle or frame from, we could reach an agreement to sort their claim as painlessly as possible, whilst making sure we were renumerated by the customer for our work, or paid by Specialized in the case of product recalls or special instruction authorized directly by the UK distributor

this worked well, because we’d normally get it turned around within a couple of days, the customer would pay for shipping and workshop time, plus new cables, etc. and would have a working bike.

We used to get lots of customers coming to us who had bought their bikes from Evans, etc. because they knew we would get it sorted asap, rather than their bike sitting in another shop for 4 weeks with no result.

I now work for a Giant brand store and once again, we are not owned by Giant UK, and need to make sure any claims we handle are covered by either Giant UK at their instruction, or by the customer if they have not bought the bike from us?

^^^ that seems at odds with the quoted text earlier lifted from the Spesh website,

To obtain benefits under this warranty, the bicycle or frameset must be presented to an authorized Specialized dealer on the same continent on which the bicycle was purchased, together with a proof of purchase.

So are the Concept Stores not Authorised dealers ?

@iainc

obtain benefits means it gets dealt with, however its not free for the retailer handling the claim

the warranty generally applies to the frame set, not the complete bicycle. if the frame cracked, the result would need stripping and rebuilding; which costs workshop time, courier shipping outward (Specialized UK would arrange return courier) and then rebuilding in the workshop

the original retailer absorbs this cost when they agree to retail a brand. if the customer asks a different retailer to handle their claim, there is no legal obligation to undertake this without covering their costs, unless Specialized UK agreed to cover those costs

when we had the road bike fork recall a few seasons back, the customer got £100 voucher and our workshop was credited £30 for each bike we processed. that was an exceptional circumstance

Esher shore – thanks for that, I hadnt realised it worked that way and assumed it would be similar to car garages where you can get a Ford sorted under warranty at any Ford dealer for example.

@iainc

your example is very apt because it perhaps points out something the bicycle industry could learn from the automotive industry

when as a customer, you see this:

or this:

of course this looks like an outlet owned by the “brand”

but as many customers find out (sometimes during a ‘difficult’ conversation) they are generally franchises operated by an independent retailer in conjunction with the UK distributor

the current store I work at (Giant Docklands) is owned by a property developer who also owns the Giant Radlett bike shop.

A good number of the other Giant brand stores and Specialized Concept store are owned by other retailers who may have multi-brand stores, for example Specialized Kingston is operated by Sigma Sport.

We will always do our best to help any legitimate customer with a “brand” problem, but we have to cover our costs, as we have no mechanism to recover these costs from the UK distributor unless its been specifically agreed.

I can think of a small number of examples where I was instructed by the UK distributors to take care of a warranty claim that had been dealt with badly by another retailer, causing the customer to complain to the UK distributor.

From time to time, we’d also take care of a sponsored athlete, here is Chris Buncombe’s bike which we rebuilt with a new frame supplied by Specialized UK who also covered our costs, after he crashed it during a triathlon event as part of Jenson Button’s Ichiban team.

I’ve experienced this confusion over “brand” stores in other retail channels before, for example 1 retail store in London operated by Barbour directly, and another store independently owned despite being a Barbour brand store, with completely different access to stock and warranty cover

Thanks for the insight esher, very informative. Not maybe what I want to hear but I understand what is going on more.

+1 , good info and thanks for taking the time to post up

I don’t think the OP is unreasonable to expect any Specialized dealer to honour the warranty.

I also don’t see it being any different from a car – you can take that back to any of the franchised dealers and they will take up the warranty issue with the manufacturer on your behalf (and get full recompense for their time.

It should be illegal for Specialized (or indeed any other company)to allow an independent retailer to use their name and branding to suggest to the public that you are indeed buying from Specialized itself.