I bought a new Capra for my son in mid February. It was delivered around 3 weeks later with a faulty rear shock. We started the warranty process with YT immediately and posted it back to them.

2 weeks later we got the shock back and it was exactly the same (no rebound control whatsoever).

Emailed YT back immediately and they requested that we send the shock back again.

It’s now been 9 weeks since initially sending the shock to them and 3 months since paying for the bike. Every week I email them and get a different response back on the timeframe for return of the shock, here are some of the responses:

May 4, 13:19 CEST
Hello Colin,

thank you for your inquiry.

We have checked again you case at the manufacturer Sram.
Sram inform us that we get your shock end of next week back.
Once we receive your shock, we will forward to you immediately.

Apr 25, 15:56 CEST
Hello Colin,

thank you for your inquiry.

Unfortunaely, we still wait of the shock from FOX.
I am confident we will receive in the next days.

Once we got it, we will forward to you immediately.

Apr 19, 09:29 CEST
Hello Colin,

thank you for your inquiry.

Please excuse the waiting time.
Your shock will returned to us in week 17.
Once we received, we will forward to you immediately.

I’ve emailed again today and I’m waiting for this week’s response which I think might be that the dog ate the shock.

They’re at Rev’s this coming weekend and I’m contemplating going down and taking a shock off one of their demo bikes.
What does STW think? Is this amount of time reasonable?

cheers

Col

Yeti/Silverfish took over 3 months on both occasions that my carbon SB66 rear triangle snapped to deliver a warranty replacement, just before the direct purchase bashers start!..

I’d probably just buy a used shock, and sell it for pretty much what you paid for it when YT finally get their arses in gear. I’d be on their social media too, not being an arsehole straight away, but give em a bit of greif.

shocking service!

shit jokes aside, they don’t seem to know what they are on about: one post says they sent it to sram, the next to fox??

So is it a fox or a rockshox

Rockshox service on warranty seems very hit and miss from various anecdotes, some people seem to get lucky and have stuff back in a week, others seem to end up waiting for stock for months.

Frankly though 3 months is ridiculous, tell them you’re rejecting it and return the bike, in its entirety for replacement or refund and then buy a new one, with no shock it’s not fit, they’re entitled to put that right in a reasonable timeframe but they’ll struggle to argue 3 months is reasonable (especially given they will have other frames in stock they just don’t want to take the shock off).

Simply put make it their problem, not yours.

Somethings going wrong!

Mine went back after I lost all rebound and it was back within 3 weeks with no cost

There’s a similar thread on the shock issue from YT here

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ytsram-warranty-disappointment/

Though hard to follow the whole thread as it jumbles the responses in any order.. but I would lean towards calling SRAM or FOX? and asking them to see if they can help out in any way.

9 weeks is just crazy. I would say its more a Sram/Rockshox issue rather than a YT issue. If it was me I would ask YT for the Sram ticket number and call Sram myself (prob in Germany) and chase it. You shouldn’t have to do that though but you know the saying….if you want something done right, do it yourself!  Thats part of the reason I almost don’t bother with Warranty stuff (for smaller things) as it normally takes so long.

Doesn’t consumer rights act apply here?  The Which? website will help you.  It will even write a starter for ten letter based on certain info you provide.

As stated above it’s their problem not yours..

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I looked into the consumer rights angle including registering a case with the EU consumer rights body and basically YT operate as a German company even though they sell in sterling with a U.K. site.

So they get 3 goes at repair over an almost indefinite period.

They’ve just got back to me and said they received the shock from SRAM today so we’ll see if it turns up later this week.

a friend of mines rockshox monarch shock failed around christmas time, it went back to SRAM as a warranty repair, it took about 3 months to get it back (apparently due to a big shortage of parts), but in the interim they gave him a different shock of the same dimensions so he could keep riding while he waiting for his shock back.

This was on a specialized enduro – just sounds like SRAM are being poor with warranty work at present

(apparently due to a big shortage of parts

This excuse always make me laugh…..they are the second? biggest shock maker in the world and they have a shortage of parts…..really -I’m sure they have mountains of parts, they are just lazy.

They are made in the USA or at least all distribution for the Uk comas from there . They , as you say , make a lot of shocks . Unfortunately when you multiply all of the different shock lengths and stroke lengths , different damping tunes , different air volumes , lock out , threshold , shocks that have unique to brand fittings then that is an awful lot of shocks to carry . SRAM warranty is very efficient when they have the part in stock , problems occur when a faulty shock needs replacing and has to come from the USA when they get or make the next batch .

I hope you’re sorted looking at the above but…

The three tries and indefinite time frame is the same as here, you need to give them a deadline and then insist on a refund* or replacement when they don’t meet it. Your rights as established in the CRA are essentially an extension of those provided by EU law.

In brief the info you want is here:

https://www.evz.de/en/consumer-topics/buying-goods-and-services/shopping-in-germany/your-rights-as-a-consumer/

The important bit is

“The consumer is entitled to ask for the goods to be repaired or replaced free of charge.”

Your rights in Germany obligate the seller to bring the item into conformity [make good through replacement or repair]. The item yt sold you is a bike/frame don’t let them fob you with replacing warranting the shock as a stand-alone item, that’s their problem, the bike is yours. If they can’t repair the bike/frame (no parts) they should replace it. If they can’t meet their legal obligation they should refund you.

The bike is costly to ship return restock etc, it’s a problem for them to deal with it as a warranty where as the shock is no inconvenience to them so remains your problem.

You wouldn’t accept that a new car with a leaking radiator should see you removing (or paying for work to remove) the raditor so you could return that to the garage and wait indefinitely on a replacement radiator with the rest of the car sat on your drive, you’d take the car back. Same a tv with faulty hdmi ports etc etc. You bought the bike, not a shock, have them deal with the bike.

Note the same EU directive means there can be no financial cost to you for the return, so pickup etc is theirs to pay for. The above site is the EU consumer body and has complaint forms etc. I’d needed, also do not forget credit card charge back if it’s not getting anywhere visa and MasterCard both honor your section 75 rights on their debit cards so unless you paid PayPal you’re covered on that, if you did pay PayPal you might still get some traction through them.

My shock failed on my canyon – sent it back to canyon, who passed it onto SRAM, who promptly lost it. Took weeks of hassle to get a replacement. However, a word with one of their representatives at the bike show in Bham, and I had a loan shock the next day. So they’re not all bad