Warranty Experiences

Just had anther warranty experience i didn't add in my first post as only just resolved in last few hours...
Oneup... v2 dropper started to score, Probably from the mud riding.(still working fine and told them this)
Oneup didn't hesitate at all and offered me the v3 dropper...

No back and forth emails or anything, straight to looking after a loyal oneup customer(my bikes are laced with oneup everything)

I had heard good things about them. Think it came down to the EDC being such a cheap plastic afterthought, nobody really cared.  More of the "it's cheap buy it again" we got bigger issues.

2019 intense M29. Crack the tube with the headset cup goes in writing not from installing anything.  Call them got someone with a couple minutes. Explain the situation and they said fill out this form online.  Then after about two days, I got an email response back saying your warranty was approved  I called them and asked if they would send a larger triangle than before as I think I would be more comfortable on the slightly larger and they said sure no problem and did. They pre-authorize $1500 charge for the front triangle because I had to show them. I was destroying the old one.  sent them a video response but overall I would probably give that experience a nine out of 10 I didn’t have to pay for shipping.  All in all the process took nine full days that’s including the weekend.  I would say that’s pretty good. This was in the year 2020.   9 out of 10. 

I had to warranty a bomber 58 because the damper did absolutely nothing and there was very bad bushing play out of the box. After sending everything, I got a call tag about four days later.  After having to put my credit card info in which I understand but feel is very odd on the Fox website the forks then sat for about three weeks no emails no communication whatsoever. I finally called them and say it’s on the workbench they then had to use different color lowers and then I got it back about a week later so all in all it was about five weeks.  I thought this was a pretty bad experience.  I also had the same thing happen with an X2. Turn around was about five weeks as well.  I would give this a 3/10 timeline was unacceptable and it was things that could’ve been prevented if they had better quality control in the beginning

I had to warranty a ride 60 motor. The bike company, which I will not name had unbelievably great turnaround time.  I sent them an email and got a response that day to my surprise.  Since the warranty is actually through QB now and not the Bike company there is nothing that they could really do to help me as they didn’t have any more in stock  turnaround time was nine weeks, which is totally bullshit for a bike that cost over $10,000  I received a new one haven’t had an issue since but it’s only been a couple months  the bike company gets 12 out of 10 for customer service but I would give about a two out of 10 because turnaround time is insane  

Intense cycles.  I crashed my 2020 Primer 29 pretty hard. Hard as in the bike was falling out of the sky and rear triangle landed/smashed against a large boulder's edge and broke the rear triangle's seat stay.  Talked to Steve at Intense's warranty department. You'll get an extra 20% off crash frame replacement parts if it's within the first year of the bike purchase date. I was exactly one week outside of the purchase window when I crashed. And they still honored the 20%. Service was excellent. Got the replacement rear triangle in 4 days. And I didn't need to go through the bike dealership that I purchased the bike from because of all the COVID restrictions in place. The only negative on this ordeal was when I asked about the rear triangle's flack/chain guards. They said they could put them on. And it was an additional $15. But when I received it. It only had the lower chain flack guard on it. It was still missing the seat stay guard and the inner cassette guard.  But that's a small thing. I still love Intense cycles, I currently own 2 Intense bikes and the newest is my 3rd Intense I've owned.

My warranty experiences

Santa Cruz wheels - exceptional - broke the side wall out of a reserve 30 carbon wheel, talked to my local dealer on the day (Saturday) and he chased up the distributor for me, they said to submit the claim online and by Monday evening i had a new hoop to my door, Santa Cruz then covered the cost of rebuilding the wheel (if they had a complete in stock they would have swapped on the spot)

Santa cruz bikes - lifetime bearing replacement, the system works and its great.

Hunt wheels - exceptional - although their wheel quality is terrible, I broke about 8 of these in 3 months and every single time they sent me a new hoop the next day no questions asked - i even asked for a complete wheel at one point because of the sheer amount of times id rebuilt the thing, and they sent that free of charge aswell. They also offered some level of reimbursement for the rebuild.

Nukeproof bikes - terrible - i cracked my frame at the bottom bracket (a bash guard lug flexed in the carbon soo much that it cracked the carbon - sounds like impact damage, but id had no major impacts the guard hardly had a mark on it) and the hoops they wanted me to jump through to get anything was unreasonable, such as “send your bike back to the uk so we can inspect it” - all the way from Australia, with no guarantee of anything.
In the end i talked them into a corner with carefully worded emails and they gave me a refund.
I will say that I’ve heard other people in aus had very similar dealings - i loved the way their bikes rode though

Forbidden bikes - cracked my dreadnaught rear triangle on the first ride, the company itself was easy to deal with but they didn’t have any stock to replace the part with, which i think is somewhat unacceptable, this was early days for the brand so i dont think think this would be a problem anymore

Interesting on your Nukeproof situation. I cracked my Giga in the same exact way, just one of the ISCG tabs and no huge impact to speak of. I bought it from Chain Reaction and had to send the whole frame back across the pond but had an entirely new frame sitting on my doorstep about 2 weeks later. No questions asked and totally painless process. I def helped them go bankrupt 😉 (but I do think every company should make it this painless)

I had great experiences with Chain Reaction and a friend was even given a complete refund a few years down the track after a discontinued frame failed.  It's a shame they're gone.

I didn't have a very good experience with PNW's seatposts but they did everything they could to try to sort it out, so I wouldn't hesitate to buy any of their other products.

That’s really interesting that you had the same issue, they fought me every step of the way trying to say it was damage not warranty, and then when they wanted me to send the frame back they had no replacement stock so they couldn’t even give me a time frame on when I might see a replacement - in the end this is why I was refunded. 
I am happy to hear you had a good interaction though, and I also wish chain reaction had never gone under.

In 2020 Santa Cruz told me running a bash guard on my megatower voided my warranty. The warranty rep said iscg stands for chain guide (cg) not bash guard (bg). Was pretty baffled by that and explained that the bike had come from their factory with the bash guard already mounted to the frame out of the box.  They then warrantied my frame and send a new triangle about 2 months later.   I was pretty shocked by their initial response, but I have absolutely nothing to complain about in the end and got a great outcome. 

for awhile ISCG bash guards were a selling point... Most frames cannot handle hits in that zone and brands will often tell you not to use one or you can void warranty.
I've Broken 3 frames from it, Id rather bend a cheap chainring now thanks.

Very positive experience:  transition, shimano (covered equipment failure with little question)

Positive experience:  trek/bontrager, sram  (covered known shortcoming thoroughly and case by case scenarios fairly)

Neutral experience:  race face  they replaced what failed

Somewhat negative experience; yoshimura contacted with no response.  Honestly it’s on me for not pursuing it farther.  Great pedals but those stems don’t work in the single crown format for heavy riders.

That’s interesting - it was when i pointed out that nukeproof themselves sold bash guards that mounted to the Iscg mounts that they changed their tune.

Commencal is atrocious when it comes to warranty. Here's my experience: 

https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/shite-commencal-warranty-experience

Trek on the other hand, is fabulous. It is worth every single penny to pay more upfront to deal with a reputable company.

Overall, I wish I didn't have to use warranty programs as much as I do.... But warranty has just become a day to day part of life for me mountain biking. I average about one cracked frame per year and have literally cracked every single frame I've owned since 2007.

Seems as though the cycle recently (especially with the Covid boom) the focus was placed on R+D and new technology even if implementation is rough, with quality falling behind.

I had a pleasant experiences with Transition Bikes in 2020 when I had some issues with my SS on my Sentinel. I sold the bike the following year so don't know how they are 4 years later.

Really good experiences resolving/chasing some headset rattle and creaking noises with Ari bikes La Sal last year. This was something they didn't have to help me with but they were really intent to help out. Turned out it wasn't a frame issue but a creaky CSU. I ended up with a new headset + cups after the fact though for free. Which leads into my next bit:

Fox warranty ends up being a complete guess as to whether you're gonna pay for it or not, after they hold onto your suspension for a month. Not ideal at all.

Finally stopped lurking just to post this.

Industry Nine - Cracked 3 drive rings in Torch hubs. Cracked one Hydra drive ring and stripped another out of the hub after only a few months. Got a pair of their ultralights for a race bike. Started popping spokes in the first 50 miles. I went big into their stuff at first and then sorta stuck as it was nice having one hub system, but then everything started breaking. They are great about sending out new parts, but it still adds up and gets old having to lace in a new hub shells all the time. They wanted me to pay shipping back the wheelset that kept breaking spoked. When pushed about them being essentially new they covered shipping. I sold those at a huge loss. Everything else I replace with DT as it breaks. Support is 8/10, but quality of their stuff is 1/10. 

WTB - Had a casing come apart on a set of tires I won. Messaged them and they asked where I was riding, suggested a more aggressive tread and had it to me a few days later.  10/10

Trek - Broken countless frames. Had them deny a rocker snapping saying it wasn't possible, and that was when I worked for the shop. That was BS. Other times very legitimate cracks or breaks that Trek didn't want to support, but that was just as much the shop being a pain. Another time I cracked a downtube in a crack, but when stripping the frame I noticed cracks around the pivot. Trek sent a whole new frame. My take is their warranty can be fantastic, but it comes down to the shop. Ultimately stopped riding Trek given it breaking all the time. Warranty 5/10 to 10/10. 

Cane Creek - Had a shock stick down. Got me a second day label, they rebuilt it, got it back to me in no time. Any time I've had other questions always gotten a fast response.  10/10 on all fronts.

Pearl Izumi - Best apparel warranty. Had a sole crack after 1.5 years. Sent a few pics, new shoes in the mail the next day. First ride on the new shoes I crashed and ripped the BOA off. Emailed them and asked if they had a crash replacement or anything. Also just sent me a new pair. 10/10.

I snapped both chainstays on my 2017 Canyon Spectral. It was like 3 months away from the warranty expiring. I paid 2400 for the complete bike. They didn't have them in stock, so Canyon mailed me a check for $1500. Pretty insane, I'd definitely buy a canyon again despite the catastrophic failure lol. 

I’m less happy with Fat Tire Farm (and Norco). Took them a week and a half to submit a claim to Norco for a cracked rocker link… Then they said it would take a month + to get it. Meanwhile, Norco told me it should only be 5 days tops for them to receive the link once a claim was submitted. Ended up taking a full month from when I reached out, but only because FTF took so long to submit the claim and then install the link. 

Not buying a bike that requires you to go through a shop for a warranty again. Takes so much longer to get the issue fixed. 

When Raaw warrantied my lower shock bolt and later a rocker bolt, it only took them 5 days from my email, to new parts in my mailbox (from Germany!) 

Other great warranty experiences: Oneup sent me a new post when I had issues with premature wear as well as new pedals after one snapped. 5dev was very apologetic when I snapped a first gen crank and sent me the new set and a chainring immediately. Tenet was also great about sending new pedals after one snapped. Fox has been great with 2 different creaky CSUs and just sending me the new CSUs. Even the big S was great about sending new headset cups when I had a fitment issue on a stumpy evo. 

Giant- smashed carbon frame. My fault. Shop Offered crash replacement at very reasonable price, managed to change size and colour of frame after bypassing the shop and going direct to giant. giant good, shop bad.  

Santa Cruz- different local shop found a frame issue when installing a new shock. Took 3 months for replacement frame to arrive, I was still riding the compromised frame during this time on shops instruction. I proposed replacing with a different (similar) in stock model but was told no, it had to be the same frame model and I didn’t have any choice of replacement frame colour. I thought SC warrantee process would have easier and quicker than it turned out to be, but happy in the end.

One up- sent me replacement small part for free and quickly, after I damaged in a crash- awesome !

Had a Trek dealer tell me the dirty little secret for Trek warranty is they "sometimes" say that rockers are a part of the bearing system & thus a "wear" part (i.e. a maintainance part) & NOT part of any frame warranty coverage. 
You're first person I've read that had a hiccup with rockers though.

Santa Cruz and Transition have both been great with me. 

Yea, they tried to tell me that the only way it could have happened if I was riding without a bolt in it.  Really made no sense and was pretty frustrating. I just sucked it up and paid for a new one, but pretty clear failure IMO.

Knolly has been great to deal with I have had three different issues on three different bikes. I have paid a bit extra each time to end up on the newer version of bike.

Shimano has been good for shoes as I kept cracking the soles on my ME7s. I had three pairs before I decided to try something else

Rockshox was recently good on my super deluxe coil and I just had to pay shipping

Raceface I had one of thier first dropper posts and that thing was bad. They fixed it a few times but I was over it anyways it was the worst dropper post

Cane creek shock was great when it was working but it needed to be fixed so often that it wasn’t worth it. Never had issues with warranty but it wasn’t reliable.

Specialized I wasn’t happy with as the warranty only covered the front triangle and not the seat stays. Relatively cheap replacement and the parts arrived quickly.

I'd have said I have a local machine shop who wants to check it out "b/c they think it could be porosity".
Nothing makes a metals manufacturer butt pucker like that word.  😁

But just getting a warranty desk guy to email the in house engineer "porosity" can be some solid mischief making. 

Here's my experience - good to awful!

Transition - best warranty I've dealt with (UK Distro Windwave mainly). Misaligned shock mounts on my Patrol. UK distro was out of stock but Transition fast tracked a whole new frame from Canada. Sorted in less than 3 weeks.
Fox - 4x X2 failures. All be replaced or rebuilt within a few weeks free of charge.

Scott/Syncros - had a Ransom that was a never ending list of issues. Scott refused direct warranty and had me do it through Tredz (UK online shop). Main issues were:
- Syncros dropper was installed from factory without a barrel in the actuator or a cable ferrule which after a bit of use pulled the actuator apart. They sent me a replacement actuator that didn't even fit and was for a different dropper.
- The downtube bottle bosses came loose. Tightening them with a rivnut gun fixed it for all of 1 ride. Lodged a warranty claim and mentioned I'd tried tightening them with no luck and asked them to replace the bosses which they said they would do. Mailed them the frame. They sent me the frame back with the original bosses still in, the threads in one were stripped and the other boss still loose. Had to repeat the process and send them the frame back again where they finally replaced them. Tredz were very prompt with replies/postage but Scott wouldn't reimburse them for any replacements.

Definitely never again:
Canyon - had a paint defect on my Strive where all the clear coat and logos were flaking off along with the shapshifter not working. Lodged a claim mid April and it took them until early July just to reply to me! After a whole lot of back and forth and chasing they finally booked in a frame inspection for mid August. They inspected the frame at the start of Sept and told me cosmetic issues aren't covered after two years. The bike was comfortably in the 2 year warranty when I submitted the claim. They had basically drawn out the warranty process to tip it over the 2 year period. I FINALLY got a new frame start of October - shocking customer service and was without a bike for 2 months.

DeVinci were more than awesome in July. My Chainsaw cracked whilst on holiday in BC and the local shop(Pemberton Bike Co) and rep sorted me out with a new frame and transferring the parts over in 2 days. I got to meet the rep at CWX to thank him personally and he was such a lovely young man-a real asset to a great company

Had a Scott ERansom, bought in 2021. It pretty much fell apart the moment I started riding it.

Found the frame contacting itself at all the pivot points, it had self clearanced itself at the rocker pivot. Scott's answer was a to supply a frame with the weld buffed back. The 38's creaked like a barn door. The X2 shit itself as the frame wasn't aligned. The bosch motor packed up which then led to it being dumped at the shop. Scott and the shop made a dogs dinner of dealing with it all, slow, poor responses. They had the bike 4 weeks, rejected the bike and requested my money back. Predictably they shut down with responses, took a lot of pesterting and threat of legal action before they gave in and refunded me.Wouldn't recomend a Scott at all, the quality of the bikes is poor and the CS in the UK is dire.

X-Fusion, nonexistent support in the US. Got a Trace 36, it felt sticky as all get out so I dropped the lowers. They were bone dry, even the oil wipers. NBD, I can handle that, and they're far and away not the only co with this kind of assembly issue. In process, I knarfed up the rebound knob. Mea Culpa. I contact the US's support/disty to purchase one. Crickets. I try again. More crickets. Bit more sleuthing and I get in touch with S4 in Canada and order it. You folx in the US's chapeau have a hell of a good team in those folx. Can't recommend em enough.

If a co and their agents aren't willing to reply back to you about purchasing a part for a repair, what can you expect if something was to really hit the fan?

Maxxis. Snapped a cord in an Ardent and bent the rim at the same time, so it was decidedly mea culpa. On a lark, I pinged em about it. Guy got back to me in a day or two, asking for a Vid of the wobble and a pic of the serial number. Sent those in and got a reply back looking for my address and informing me they were out of 26" Ardents (this was some time ago, obv) and asked if I'd be OK with another tire and got sent a DHF EXO+. Pretty damn painless process IMO.

Shimano. When I worked at a shop it was always 50/50 whether they would cover something. To be fair, they're written policy is clear, and they follow it pretty much to the letter. Much like dealing with auto manufacturers. I actually commend em for starting a recall on their cranks when the failure rate was way less than 1%. Some will say they dragged their feet begrudgingly on it, and they wouldn't be wrong, but Shimano did it. Gonna guess the #thanksshimano bit did get em to act.

One thing to ask of the folx here: What thought process keeps you going back to the same companies when they have consistent issues? Reading about multiple failures on the same product has kept me away from quite a few brands. A bad batch or onesie-twosie errors are (almost )to be expected, and I accept that errors happen in manufacturing that are hard to control, but there are some co's that just persistently have black eyes, if you know what I'm saying. 

Really curious what your Knolly issues where... my G1 Fugitive seems to be freaking indestructible, and I really don't see failures in discussion online.