repair or replace - who decides?

007mcfod

Hi,

im on here to try and clarify a point before i go back to a customer, hopefully you lovely people can help.

i handle the warranty claims and technical queries for my employer in reference to a brand of bicycle that we import, the product is high end and we rarely get faults but sods law dictates that the 2 faults i have had with a particular frame have both been supplied to this one customer.

he purchased a complete bike from us on the 9th Aug 09, sometime later the frame developed a very small crack, so we replaced the frame under the warranty provided, unfortunately the replacement failed in a similar way (we have checked the batch codes and they are 3 numbers apart so we think they were machined at the same time), he agreed a 2nd replacement was ok so we provided it but he has now returned all 3 frames as he says the 3rd looks like it will fail and he didnt want to use it.

unfortunately we have no more frames in his size for a month or two so i would like to effect a repair to the unused frame to strengthen it rather than supply another replacement

my question is this (finally!) - can i insist on performing the repair or can he insist on a replacement?

thanks

Damien

somethingcorporate

This is a fairly grey area - the consumer can request a remedy but unless they are prepared to go to court to enforce it usually it is what the retailer offers that they are 'forced' to accept.

You seem like you have a good relationship with this customer already, why not ask them what they would like? A repair to their existing one or to wait and get a new one (or a refund if you are so inclined).

From a customers point of view I would love to be offered a choice of resolution rather than being told what the remedy is.

Esqui

They have no rights for something which "looks like it might fail". Until it does, you do not have to do anything - though you may wish to out of good service.

That said, I agree with somethingcorporate - ask them what would be best for them

fred7777

As you state the product is "high end" then I think you would have a very hard time getting any customer or small claims court to agree that a strengthened frame was equivalent to what your customer originally ordered. A strengthened frame would be heavier than the original and as high end bikes are designed to be light you're changing the bike you supply substantially. The other problem you have is that if you modify the frame and it breaks causing an accident then the manufacturer is going to walk away blaming you because you changed the frame his design.

007mcfod

thanks for all the posts - pretty much as i thought but was looking for a definitive answer before i put the options to him.

it is a good relationship at the moment which is handy but i would like to have been able to offer the replacement with the mod - not forced on him but as our "best solution".

he has already indicated he will wait but i have a problem with that which i cant really discuss but lets just say things arent peachy between us and the european office of the manufacturer at the moment and if it falls apart we will have no supply chain

in terms of the actual fault its not so much a strengthening as one of the tubes is 0.1mm too big (after the usual tolerance) so as it is carbon it is squeezing too much and therefore needs a shim installing, i have had the shim made by an engineer friend to take up the play in the tube and it weighs 3grams which would be acceptable and the manufacturer supports us with it as they have suggested a thicker shim with a thinner post inserted as a solution but my way is more aesthetically pleasing and weighs less.

slightly off topic all that explanation but thanks again and i will see where we end up

cheers

007mcfod

Hi MrCEO, thanks for your opinion - 2 points though - we are the UK distributor and not a retailer and we also manufacture our own product so the shim is of as high a standard as is OEM fit to many frames, and the grand total frame failure for my 3 years here is 4 frames out of several thousand so an inherant fault it is definately not - it looks like 3 or 4 in the batch were finished slightly off centre probably due to a tooling head failure - the other 300 of these bikes we sold have had no problem. (our warranty covers my whole time here as well so its doubtful someone wouldnt have claimed thinking it wouldnt be covered)

neilmcl

007mcfod wrote: »

Hi MrCEO, thanks for your opinion - 2 points though - we are the UK distributor and not a retailer and we also manufacture our own product so the shim is of as high a standard as is OEM fit to many frames, and the grand total frame failure for my 3 years here is 4 frames out of several thousand so an inherant fault it is definately not - it looks like 3 or 4 in the batch were finished slightly off centre probably due to a tooling head failure - the other 300 of these bikes we sold have had no problem. (our warranty covers my whole time here as well so its doubtful someone wouldnt have claimed thinking it wouldnt be covered)

An inherent fault doesn't necessarily mean the entire design is faulty, the fact that it has a fault caused by manufacture means that the individual item has an inherent fault, ie, a fault inherent at time of manufacture.