125cc purchased on-line. Advice needed!

Katieve75

Hello all,

My son purchased his first brand new motorbike on line from a UK company about 6 weeks ago. He didn't ride it for the first two weeks as it took him a while to work out how to insure it then register and tax it! All was well until yesterday when it 'cut out' on him whilst travelling to College. Since then, the bike will not run (will turn over but cuts out straight away). We contacted the supplier this morning who has asked for:

Make: We can answer this one!
Model: This one two!
First service details: ?????!!!!!

First service?! So I looked at all the paperwork which came with the bike. In a small box on the sales invoice it states the following:

'Please note that your new bike must have a first service within 400km (he's only covered 330km so far) or 28 days from date of purchase (invoice states 03/02), second service at 2000km. This must be carried out by a VAT registered garage no exceptions Failure to comply with make the warranty null and void.'

I'm now worried that because the first service has not been done, they may play the 'Warranty not valid' card. Surely the bike would come under the 'Fit for purpose' arguement? Perhaps I'm preempting a big problem but I'd like to know where I stand before I approach the company on my son's behalf. Forearmed is forewarned!

Any advice would be much appreciated!

s_b

are you saying this came via china and you put it on the road with no pdi?

Katieve75

Yes, it came from China. Excuse the ignorance but what is a pdi?

oldhand

Katieve75 wrote: »

Yes, it came from China. Excuse the ignorance but what is a pdi?

PDI (Pre delivery inspection) usually carried out by a dealer selling the car/motorbike before delivery to ensure everythings working as required.Did you purchase it from a dealer?

Notmyrealname

Katieve75 wrote: »

Yes, it came from China.

Do anything at all to get your money back. Many of these bikes are not safe and not worth the materials they're built with.

They were on Watchdog last year.

Katieve75

Hi, we don't appear to have one (my son's face went blank when I mentioned it!).

Katieve75

He purchased the bike from learnerlegal.com

Minted247

Looks like the company that was on Watchdog wasn't the one you bought it from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2008/11/direct_bikes.html

I've got a Chinese bike myself and haven't had any problems with it. If you haven't yet taken it for a service, do it now if you can get it to a garage on a trailer etc as it could be that you need one to get the bike running properly.

If that doesn't work...

Have you tried asking http://www.learnerlegal.com if they will honour the warranty even if the first service wasn't within 28 days of purchase? It says on their website all bikes are pre-delivery inspected, so it sounds like that 28 day limit is the only thing in the way as your son hasn't used the bike for too many miles yet.

If I was you, I would use the point of saying it should be 28 days after getting the bike on the road, not the day of purchase (in which case you should be okay). If that's fine with them, get it serviced ASAP and then use

Hope that helps!

Katieve75

Thanks for the response Minted247. My son has sent an email just stating that the bike hasn't reached the 400km mark. We'll see what they say.

Warranty aside, doesn't the sale of goods act not cover this ie fit for purpose?

flashg67

Personally I think SOGA would apply unless the supplier can prove that the fault is related to not having a service done - does the manual say what the first service consists of - quite often it's just checking bolt torque settings etc?

Road_Hog

Katieve75 wrote: »

Hello all,

My son purchased his first brand new motorbike on line from a UK company about 6 weeks ago. He didn't ride it for the first two weeks as it took him a while to work out how to insure it then register and tax it! All was well until yesterday when it 'cut out' on him whilst travelling to College. Since then, the bike will not run (will turn over but cuts out straight away).

I take it that there is fuel in it? And does your son know what the reserve tap is?