Evans Cycles and Specialized Bikes

[TrevA]

My wife has 2011 Specialized Dolce Elite bike. For some time now it's been making an awful creaking noise. I've fitted 2sets of new BB Hollowtech II BB cups, but this didn't solve the problem. On examination of the bottom bracket area, I found a crack running around the outside of the BB shell about 5mm from the edge of the shell.

Looking on the Specialized website, they have a lifetime guarantee on their frames to the original purchaser. Great, we think. We take the bike back to Evans, where we bought it and they managed to find a record of the purchase on the system. Leave it with us they say, we'll inspect it and send it back to Specialized. 5 weeks go by and we've heard nothing. I chased them up on Monday and today they come back and say, no the frame isn't cracked, its just a crack in the paint. But my wife says "Why does it make a creaking noise, when you pedal then, if it's only a crack in the paint?". "Oh, we didn't know about that", says the Evans cycles guy, (despite us giving them chapter and verse when we took the bike in)." I'll have to go back to Specialized" he says. Nobody has bothered to ride the bike or even properly examine it, by the looks of it.

So it's taken them 5 weeks to decide that they aren't going to do anything, despite their lifetime warranty. Meanwhile, my wife is left without a bike. This is not the sort of service I expect from a national chain cycle retailer and an international bicycle maker.

Compare this to when I broke my Trek frame last year, the retailer (LBS) contacted me within a week to confirm that Trek would supply a new frame, another 2 weeks and I had the new frame with all the bits swapped over by the shop and no charge.

[TrevA]

Further update - apparently Evans still have the bike, and have been sending photographs to Specialized, who then decided that it wasn't a crack on basis of said photos!

[tyreon]

That's called TCB,Trev. It can also be called the long-ball long-grass job. You spin things out as long as you can hoping the customer just 'goes away'. The next step could be trying to blame you for any of the damage,riding style, or that in crossing a kerb you somehow knocked the bottom bracket,you then,somehow,have to prove your innocence!!
Let's hope they see sense. You could go through the court of course. That's where win or lose the you pay anyway cos they offset such matters through tax claims. OTOH,you might lose in LAW then lose the bike and a couple o grand more. Defeatist,I know.

TC

[TrevA]

A bit of an update - after quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, Specialized have offered us a replacement frame, though it's a Sport and not an Elite, but I think the frame is the same anyway. They still reckon that the frame is not cracked, but are doing it as a goodwill gesture. I've broken enough frames in my time to know that it is cracked, but that's by the by. So a happy ending, eventually.

[PH]

Good result.
I don't know how much a sample of one reflects on a retailer, good or bad. I've had excellent service from some that others have had problems with and vice versa. I think a lot of it depends on the individuals you're dealing with as much as company.