Horrible bike shop experience

Triathlon Forum
1

Some of you may have read my post regarding my Giant composite frame warranty (or lack thereof) issue. Anyway, as if to make matters worse, the bike shop I have been dealing with has been totally sub par compared to the others I’ve patronized.

I’ll start my rant from the beginning. I dropped off my cracked frame at the dealer about two weeks before Thanksgiving, the guy who took care of me (who by the way is the exact opposite, in fact extremely helpful and careful) called Giant and obtained the RA number and warranty info. The frame, by the way, had no marks or scratches, it wasn’t crashed or clamped in a Park Stand (more on this later).

He told me shipping would be taken care of and everything would be squared away, that they would ship the bike out the next day. The day after Thanksgiving, I get a call back from the shop from the guy who does shipping.

“Hi we’re getting ready to ship your bike, I just need your credit card number so we can charge you $35 for shipping.”

I tell him that there was no mention of any shipping charge initially and that this was unreasonable. Having my frame, there wasn’t too much I could do at that point, and after pointless arguing for 10 minutes I gave in on this one condition: He mentioned that that was the only charge during this whole ordeal and that the charge covered to and return shipping. I figured if things went south I could call my card company to dispute the charge anyway.

Eventually I received information that there was no warranty and they said it was crashed or impacted, perhaps from being clamped in a stand on the seat tube. For a mental picture of where the crack is, figure the nondrive side of the seattube the same level the water bottle cage/bosses are.

The bike, as I mentioned before, hadn’t ever been crashed, laid down, clamped (simply because this is stupid with any thin walled road bike, and on top of that, infeasible as the water bottle cages were right there.) I’ve serviced the bike myself, built it up myself, babied it.

Anyway, we agree on getting the broken frame shipped back to me for repair. Guess what?

The shipping guy calls again to notify me that he needs to charge me $35 for shipping. At first I try to make some friendly conversation with him and ask him how he thought the bike could have been damaged if it wasn’t a manufacturer’s defect.

“Because it was clamped in a Park Stand. It’s so obvious. I see it all the time.”

Hmmmm…

I proceed to remind him that he told me there would be no more shipping charges and he begins to deny that. He pulls up his UPS records to tell me that it cost them $35 dollars to ship a small size bike frame across the country.
I did the calculations myself and the frame would have had to be in a full size bike box, with a couple of bricks in it, to cost that much. Mind you all that was shipped was ONE frame, not even a fork or headset.

You could imagine that a bike shop with a UPS account would get pretty good deals and yet my calculations came up that retail costs were less than the numbers he threw at me.

Anyway we proceed to argue 20 minutes aimlessly and I just gave up and asked to talk to the other guy (the nice one). He offers to talk to the manager and in the meantime said something on the lines of, you should just call your card company and tell them to cancel the charge, that’s what I’d do.

I still don’t have my frame (broken or not) after a month or so, and no indication of if I will get it back. On top of this, I am really suspicious as to why Giant thinks it was clamped in a stand, and what “marks” were on the seattube.

Funny is when I took the bike in to my local shop (non giant dealer) they looked at it, examined it, and the guys concluded there was a void around where it cracked.

This is a pretty horrible experience, not just because of the non warranty… but mainly because of the shop.

2

lesson learned: don’t buy plastic bikes
.

3

I hope you took pictures before giving it to your not so friendly bike store.

4

Since this is america…

Forseeable misuse subjects the manufacturer to a claim of products liability, notwithstanding that there is a warranty or not. Sue them in small claims court. In additon, name your bike shop as a defendant. If there were inadequate warnings that you were not to clamp it in a bike stand (most likely a warning ON the seat tube), you will prevail. Obviously it wouldn’t matter if you did clamp it or not, for that is merely an assertion necessary to defeat their defense. If you lose, all you’ve lost is your filing fee and (normally, negligible costs) and your time.

You will win no brownie points, nor probably frequent that lbs.

If you’re in australia, get the frame back, fix it is as best you can, and then ride it like you stole it, enjoying the sights and sounds of a happy carefree life.

5

$35 is a pretty good deal for shipping a bike. The overnight carriers (UPS, FedEx, DHL) do not charge only by weight. For large packages they can charge based on dimensional weight. Most bike boxes fall into the Oversize 2 or Oversize 3 category. Perhaps you should recalculate based on the correct dimensional weight charge.

Also, your story fails to address how your frame was actually cracked in the first place.

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$35 for a COMPLETE bike is about right. But this was just a frame w/o a fork even.

7

$35 is a pretty good deal for shipping a bike. The overnight carriers (UPS, FedEx, DHL) do not charge only by weight. For large packages they can charge based on dimensional weight. Most bike boxes fall into the Oversize 2 or Oversize 3 category. Perhaps you should recalculate based on the correct dimensional weight charge.

I disagree… I regularly ship 35+ pound downhill bikes for less than that with FedEx ground, and complete road bikes (with helmets, shoes and other stuff thrown in) have shipped for as little as $18.

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It really depends on a whole lot of issues. Size of box, weight, insurance, originating location, destination, level of service…

9

It really depends on a whole lot of issues. Size of box, weight, insurance, originating location, destination, level of service…

Yep… I ship from coast to coast and ya gotta figure that a small Giant frame would be in a smaller box, weigh less and be insured for less than a full-blown downhill racing bike in an oversized II box :wink:

10

Well, all you guys are spoiled.

I just shipped a bike from PHX to NJ and it cost me 82 dollars. Had a frame shipped to me a few months ago that cost about 50.

It’s all about where from and where to.

11

Well, all you guys are spoiled.

I just shipped a bike from PHX to NJ and it cost me 82 dollars. Had a frame shipped to me a few months ago that cost about 50.

It’s all about where from and where to.

Trust me, when you have to ship 6 bikes to and from three different races on two different coasts in a three month period and pay for it yourself you quickly learn what’s expensive and what’s not.

Where from and where to makes little difference, percentage-wise. It’s all about what company and what service. Look at online calculators from FedEx, UPS and DHL. UPS is always the most expensive, FedEx and DHL are the same but when you tack on insurance, FedEx’s is less than DHL’s. Ship ground, and don’t ever use a Postal Center or some other agent… go directly to, for example, FedEx Kinkos or the FedEx location.

For the last five years I’ve shipped 3-6 bikes, road and mountain, on average, three times a year from coast to coast and the midwest, to little villages in the middle of nowhere and ski resorts and large metropolitan areas, and I’ve NEVER paid more than $40, and that was for our heaviest and most expensive downhill bike in an oversized box.

12

Thats wild.

We own a Post Net and get shipping generaly at a great price. Even online, the best I could do was 82 bucks. My COST at the store was 78. We have accounts with UPS, DHL (never use them for anything other than overseas) and FedEx.

Maybe its just this area. I dont know. Cant ship a small bag of poo for less than 10 bucks here.

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Thats wild.

We own a Post Net and get shipping generaly at a great price. Even online, the best I could do was 82 bucks. My COST at the store was 78. We have accounts with UPS, DHL (never use them for anything other than overseas) and FedEx.

Maybe its just this area. I dont know. Cant ship a small bag of poo for less than 10 bucks here.
Man… I don’t know what you’re doing wrong but I just got on FedEx.com and calculated shipping a 30 pound oversized box, ground with home delivery (costs more), from Chandler, Arizona to Clearmont, Florida and it was $30.29.

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I checked it out too. The difference between a 55inch box and a 50 inch box was 40 dollars. (55x30x9)

WTF!

I hate shipping.

EDIT: At 52inches, its 40 bucks. at 53, its 89!!! no shit dude.

15

From a customer service standpoint, if it is determined that the frame was indeed flawed from the beginning, the consumer shouldn’t have to pay a cent for shipping, that expense should fall on Giant. I had an HP desktop tower fail and they sent me a special box to pack it in and a return form to have it picked up by UPS to be shipped to Texas from where I lived in Jersey, absolutely free of charge to me. Trust me, I guarantee you that tower weighed a hell of a lot more than your carbon frame. I’m running into more issues these days with lousy customer service than ever before.

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Not to ruffle any feathers here. Most warrenty disclaimers state that you are responable for getting the frame to the manufacture. If it is covered under warrenty they will pay the shipping back. You said the shop you took the bike/frame to was not a Giant dealer if I am correct, meaning that you did not buy the bike from them. Thus you should expect to pay for the shipping. If you had taken the frame to the dealer that you had bought it from, then yes they would suck up the charge for you.
As for getting coverage, it is up to the manufature. They get stuff all the time and it usually has the statement “just riding along” to go with it. It’s a tough call, and I am in no way saying your frame is not a warrenty issue. Try talking to the manager of the shop you dealt with, as it sounds like you were talking to employees. If Giant refuses to warrenty your frame, they should at least give you a break on a new one.
As for taking a month to get your bike back. That is pretty standard in this industry. Yes they are sometimes faster and sometimes slower, all depends on how busy they are.
All in all, it sucks for you, but I am sure that it will get settled.

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I think the major point in this story is not the cost of shipping but the after sale warranty. I would highly suggest you contact Giant customer service personally. Check out Roadbikereview.com and post a message on the Giant side of the forum section. Unless they have proof that you were the culprit in the damage to your frame I cannot see how they can refuse your warranty.
Don’t deal through your LBS, they obviously could care less and you have the most to lose by not dealing direct with Giant. That is what customer service is all about.
Please let us know how you make out. (Just for your interest check out some of the threads on Look bikes on RBR. Their customer service reps Chas, and Tino are all over some of the issues customers are having. Their response to these issues and concern for their customers went a long way in me deciding to buy a very expensive Look 585).

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There are size cutoffs for “oversize 1”, “oversize 2”, and “oversize 3” with the shipping companies. Oversize 1 boxes are charged as 30lbs no matter what the weight, up to 30lbs. If the package exceeds 108" in length plus girth, you go up to OS2 which jumps the dimensional weight from 30lbs up to 70lbs! That’s a MAJOR price jump.
All that said, starting Jan. 1st, UPS is eliminating OS pricing and going with actual dimensional weight for all packages over a certain size. That will help some and hinder some, but at least you won’t have to worry about keeping a box under a certain size to keep within the parameters of one OS category or the other.

All that aside, since we’ve hijacked this post, is that our poster is getting screwed here. That’s never fun!

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I still don’t have my frame (broken or not) after a month or so, and no indication of if I will get it back.

I would pay the $30
get my frame back
send it to Calfree to be repaired
never by a carbon bike ever again.

I don’t care for carbon bikes
I know i am old school but steel bikes last.

Thom
PS it is just $30
find a good LBS

20

Yes, I suppose it’s just $30. However what I am ticked off about is the fact that the guy told me $35 once and for all, that covered shipping both ways. Then he calls me yesterday and says he wants to charge again, against what he told me the first time. My local shop that I frequent is not a Giant dealer. I took my frame to the store in the next city, which was where this trouble began.

It’s not so much the cost of it, if I was told at the beginning or if this were written down on some sheet of paper like a repair tag that I would pay x amount of money for the cost of shipping to and from Giant then I would have no beef with them. Either I could take it or leave it. What disturbs me is that they took the frame, and THEN called me asking me for shipping, and since I am again not in control of my frame again, they call me AGAIN.

I’ve pretty much gotten over the frame not being covered under warranty. I’ll probably get it fixed. But I am curious to see what “marks” they said were on my seattube.

Being stupid, I didn’t take any photos. My assumption was that this was a simple and easy process that would be completed in less than two weeks. Little did I know that this could drag on soooo long. I guess you live and learn from your mistakes.