yeah so i posted my issue with my PT pro last week. I called the company today and they told me to send it back to them and that they would fix it and send it back to me (when? they wouldnt say because they said they didnt want to get my hopes up).
I guess i should be glad that they didnt tell me i was up a creek, but at the same time, why wasnt a recall issued. Since i’ve posted this problem on this forum and several others, many people have emailed me telling me that they’re having the same issue.
I think i should get a new wheel sent out to me, as mine is being sent to them and they can donate my broken refurbished wheel to some cycling charity like the Help Mr. Tibbs canned food/bicycle parts drive.
Please don’t misinterpret my response Sir: You have valid concern. But may I respectfully suggest that it is not a valid complaint.
Please remember we are talking about high-end, very niche-oriented and specialized racing equipment. Very little of it exists and the market is extremely small. As a result, demand is pretty small and often times the company behind it is even smaller.
That said, I think people picture a huge warehouse with a staff of people moving big boxes of Powertaps, or Brand “A” bicycles or whatever. It isn;t like that in this industry. Com[panies are small, often do not do their own manufacturing and supply lines are pushed to the ragged edge.
I try to explain this to customers- honestly and candidly- all the time. But they only hear what they choose to hear.
I do sincerely empathisize with you, but remember the good folks at Powertap are trying their very best to turn out a good product and meet demand. If they stumble along the way it is not an entirely negative reflection of them or their product. It just means there may have been an error and it may take some time for them to correct it.
I do wish you luck with this, and feel it will come to a successful resolution knowing what I know about those guys- which is that they are straight shooters.
tom, no offense taken, and im not trying to imply that the folks at Graber are bad or evil people.
But if i had known that their product was as unreliable as mine is, (it never worked) i would have waited to make such a large investment and got a new cross frameset instead. Everything i read on the net was that it was “plug and play” and my experience was 180 degrees opposite of that. It wasnt until i experienced the problems and then voiced them over the net that i got the response from others whom told me the same thing happened to them. so my advice to people thinking about buying this product, is wait. Wait until more bugs are worked out. or buy it and take the chance that you wont get a powertap that was as crap as mine was/is.
I take your word that they are a small company and i believe you, but perhaps there should be a higher level of quality control, and perhaps there is and maybe my bad egg slipped through the cracks. I dont know.
When are recalls issued? only on safety issues? or when a certain percantage of a product are found to have a defect? or what?
If you went and bought a brand new car from the dealer and you got it home and it wouldnt start and you were told that you couldnt get a new car to replace it, but that they would have your car fixed in an undetermined amount of time and until then, be patient, a normal person would be upset.
anyway, my post is a reflection of a man in a state of frustration and nothing more.
small company or not Jeremy paid a good amount of cash for a high-end part that didn’t work. he should expect some decent level of service in replacing it.
although these days service with pretty well every industry just sucks. most companies couldn’t care less if you took your business elsewhere and they show it by being lax about things like Jeremy wrote.
quite obvious that there is a problem with the product.
Tom, do you have shares in Graber/Powertap or what?
Hey dude, I understand and appreciate your frustration - but realistically, can you honestly expect more from them? So you got a bum hub (or whatever) and had to send it back to get fixed. They’re gonna do their best and ship it back to you as soon as they can. They (and all companies who make products) want it in your hands, being used. There’s no indication (based on the information you’ve provided)that would necessitate a product recall. All they can do is deal with individual customers who may have issues and try to provide good service, but it’s pretty unreasonable to expect them to send you a new wheel while your old one is being fixed, and then to have to eat the cost when it gets re-sold as “refurbished”. Sure there are a few notable companies that have been known to have such outstanding customer service that they’ve done similar things in the past (DeSoto springs to mind) - but most can’t afford to. PowerTap’s are pretty good overall, and although you’re frustrated right now, you obviously chose a power meter over that new frame for a reason.
My own personal experience with Graber/Power-Tap has been good. I had an issue with a line on the LCD screen dying, and they replaced it for me very quickly once I mailed it back. When I discovered that my new unit was incompatible with the software I had, they Fed-Ex’ed me a new CD right away. Certainly they have some issues, as do all growing companies - but they do stand by their product, and their customer service has been pretty good in my experience.
The current problem with the Power Tap wheels, as I understand it, is that they received (or themselves manufactured) a bad batch of torque tubes. These are the things that measure the stress in the hub, and are the heart of the power measuring system. They most likely don’t have any spare wheels lying around with which to replace failed ones, sorry to say. I’m guessing that not all recently made wheels are failing, hence their lack of a recall. They are trying to replace failed wheels as they are being reported to them, but they just don’t have the wheels to do it immediately.
I’ve had them send me a replacement computer/harness with a pre-paid return envelope, to return my damaged harness when I got the new one. No charge.
“If you went and bought a brand new car from the dealer and you got it home and it wouldnt start and you were told that you couldnt get a new car to replace it, but that they would have your car fixed in an undetermined amount of time and until then, be patient, a normal person would be upset.”
Yes, a normal person would be upset, but this is exactly how most car dealerships would deal with the situation you describe. I believe that it would take at least 3 trips to the dealer for the exact same problem for the ‘lemon law’ to kick in. Once you drive it off the lot, it’s yours, and they are only obligated to fix it, not replace it.