[SylentK]

Warranty department that actually warranties its products! And fast, too! Took exactly 8 working days or a week and a half to ship my old Saint derailer to them, and for them to look at it and ship me a new one. That's pretty freakin' sweet!





A little background: I was just riding along and my derailer broke....hahaha...no I have been using that derailer for a full DH season, it was technically about 1 year and 5 months old. It's on my Sunday. I race DH, shuttle, and huck teh gnar like a true ameteur on this bike & derailer. But I got it in January and it didn't start seeing action until April of last year and it is May now. (Saint carry a 2 year warranty.)

The chain tension return spring popped out of place which rendered the chain tension useless. Probably in a near death experience crash doing some shuttles. Plus it had a ton of slop in the linkage. We did repair it once on the trail, but it didn't last very long before it popped out again.

I was a little miffed as this is an effing expensive derailer. When it works, its the best out there IMO. A riding buddy was telling me how Shimano has been at the Fontucky races and were supporting thier products really well (like replacing things for free). So I looked up their warranty and called the number. After telling him what the deal was, and even after mentioning that I ride hard and it may be a bit "abused". Dude said to send it in and they'd take a look at it.

I didn't expect to hear from them for months. Guess what arrived yesterday? My new Saint derailer!

Saints FTMFW!

 

[Huck Banzai]

I slammed mine into a rock and bent my derailleur hanger.

So i took it off, straightened my derailleur hanger and put it back on.

I think there might be a scratch on it.

Hmmm...

(no shloppy SRAM pivots!)

 

[jonKranked]

I warrantied shimano derailers once upon a time... I had a bunch in a row that were bad forgings.

 

[nmpearson]

that's awesome...sram rocks even more though. we had a customer in needing help bc his 09 domain 318 wasn't going through the travel. I decided to call sram before tearing it apart to save the customer money. Srams solution...oh we'll just send you a new one! they've switched stuff out before w/o seeing it for me, but it still shocked me that that was their solution before me even digging into the fork

 

[Steve M]

that's awesome...sram rocks even more though. we had a customer in needing help bc his 09 domain 318 wasn't going through the travel. I decided to call sram before tearing it apart to save the customer money. Srams solution...oh we'll just send you a new one! they've switched stuff out before w/o seeing it for me, but it still shocked me that that was their solution before me even digging into the fork

I dunno, my experiences with SRAM warranty/CS both in Australia and Canada have been generally sub-par. They wouldn't warranty a Boxxer stanchion that was cracked at the circlip groove, it's not like that can be crash damage. Their justification (this was at Crankworx) was that I'd taken the stanchion out of the fork! Even when I asked how else I was supposed to show them that it was cracked, they pretty much told me too bad, reassemble the fork, then bring it back to us so we can disassemble it, inspect it, and potentially warranty it... or not warranty it as we see fit. Their reps in Australia generally don't do them any favours either, I had to harass them for a week or more to warranty a Totem that had BOTH oil seals leaking out of the box, their answer was "It's a wear and tear part that isn't covered by warranty" - which is fair enough except that the fork hadn't been ridden. Wouldn't warranty an X9 shifter of mine that broke mid-run (no crash damage), derailleurs NEVER get warrantied even when they just develop massive slop in the pivots rather than bending or breaking... one of the other guys at a shop I used to work at sent his Reba back literally four times to get the Poploc/lockout thing to work, they never fixed it, just replaced it with another faulty unit. Had Aussie race support guys refuse to SELL me gear cable/housing because I wasn't running a SRAM drivetrain at the time - never mind the fact that I did have Boxxers and Juicies on there! The fact that this happened TWICE at two separate races really pissed me off.

Honestly, great customer support - not in my experience. Great marketing - yes. And while I'm bitching, I'll mention that I have a Boxxer and an X9 drivetrain (which is flogged out as hell) on my bike right now, because Saint stuff is just too expensive to replace when you do eventually break it.

 

[Huck Banzai]

Ive never been a fan of SRAM CS; nothing but obstacles. And I have a history of getting more than most would out of CS due to my charm and verve!

Sales? They'll give you attention.

My Saint is definitely nicer and 'invisible' compared to any of my X9; SRAM shifts well, but the pivots wear fast, and feeling a CLUNK through my frame when I shift is gross to me, not 'positive'; if my car shifted like that, it'd be in the shop!

 

[LOOnatic]

I dunno, my experiences with SRAM warranty/CS both in Australia and Canada have been generally sub-par.

Honestly, great customer support - not in my experience. Great marketing - yes. And while I'm bitching, I'll mention that I have a Boxxer and an X9 drivetrain (which is flogged out as hell) on my bike right now, because Saint stuff is just too expensive to replace when you do eventually break it.

Thats gotta be an australian thing and i feel for ya.
I too had the stantion snapring failure/crack and they set me up with that and a new moco with just asking politely.

Recently, i had one of the new revalations fail on a trip and they made deal to compensate the local shop to let me borrow a better fork for the weekend
Then , exchanged with new fork, plus a set of elixers, rotors,adapters and pads for my hassle with out asking

Conversely i had a piston seal go bad on an old set of saints and of course they don't sell a caliper rebuild kit. They requested my shop send in the caliper and they sent me a new set of XT brakes over rebuilding 1 caliper !
*insert sweet LBS service, support yours if they're good*

So they both get high marks for giving sh1t away.
Socket just send your stuff to me 1st time i'm on a roll

 

[Banshee Rider]

...book...

This must be due to the department you deal with in AUS. In the states SRAM is renowned for their customer service. My handling with them on the dealer level has been phenominal. In my experience they will send parts first with a return envelope, and the customer is down on average for three business days. From shifters to entire forks. In Shimanos defense they've been great to deal with as well, they just usually require the part to be shipped to them on the customers dime and the turn around process is alittle slower.

 

[Metal Dude]

I actually think that giving customers new parts when they have overused the product
is not a good practice. Tells me they are charging too much in the first place or that
replacement cost is built in. Sram and Shimano have excellent customer service
when you call from a bike shop! What you say and the confidence in your voice also
means everything! I have had former co workers call CS for Warranty and totally fail.
Pick up the phone and call, with the right tone and warranty pitch and bam sent a new one.

But, at some point doesn't this put the companies future at risk? I know they are prob. on top of their numbers blah, blah, blah. I believe that warranties should only happen when the complaint is valid.

I worked for Rich's dept. store years ago and they would do returns for under 50 bucks no questions. I would see the same thieves come in day after day. Rich's is no longer in business. Macy's bought them
out and immediately changed the policy.

 

[Steve M]

This must be due to the department you deal with in AUS. In the states SRAM is renowned for their customer service. My handling with them on the dealer level has been phenominal. In my experience they will send parts first with a return envelope, and the customer is down on average for three business days. From shifters to entire forks. In Shimanos defense they've been great to deal with as well, they just usually require the part to be shipped to them on the customers dime and the turn around process is alittle slower.

It was dealing direct with whoever was doing event support at Crankworx in Whistler too, I don't know if that's run by the Canadian distributor (whoever that is?) or done by SRAM USA. However when people refuse to SELL you basic stuff like cables (that are available at a dozen other tents right next to theirs anyway) at a race because you've got Shimano gearing on your bike, that's just flat out being a f**king tool. Doing it once you could put it down to one retard employee, but what are the odds of that happening twice? I told them to their faces that I wouldn't ever buy their stuff if that was the attitude they were going to have, unfortunately I haven't kept that promise.

Their sales dept in Aus is very good though, super fast with shipping and whatnot, easy to deal with as a shop, but Shimano is better again (in Aus) in that regard. I don't actually know what Shimano's warranty department is like, for one very good reason - I've never actually had a product of theirs that I needed to claim warranty on.

Anyway, if you guys are getting awesome CS out of them then I'm glad to hear that, hopefully over time that ethos will make its way over our side of the pond too.

 

[jackalope]

+1 for what Banshee rider said.

I have had nothing but outstanding CS from Rock Shox, and hell, I was willing to pay for some of the issues (not only did they give me a new fork, they paid my mechanic to install it). That said, I love most of my Shimano stuff, altho they have been a bit slow on a warranty issue for a 1.5 year old caliper. But they are going to hook me up, so mad props to them. Quite frankly, I often wonder if we hold mountain component companies to a much higher standard than practically any other manufacteur we deal with on a regular basis. If I had a dime for every time I cursed my f'ing cell phone or HVAC system, I'd be in line for for a new V10

 

[rocketmatt17]

Ive had a horrible time with customer service on my saint brakes. I finally bought the parts myself and two weeks later shimano sends me 1 new reservoir seal for two leaking brakes. They did send me a free pair of socks (big whoop). The brakes are still working half ass by the way. They were good for a while and now back to the same problem. Just goes to show some people get great service and some dont. They lost any of my future business

 

[Uncle Cliffy]

A customer had a new Boxxer race that didn't feel so good, so he brought it in to see if we could dial it in.

We call Sram and they told us they'd send a Team! What?!? Threw the old one in the box with a return lable and the customer's on the nicer model...

 

[Chaingangster]

Nothing but top notch customer service from SRAM. Shimano is good as well, just a little slower. And your attitude does make a big difference on what kind of resolution you'll get. Like anything in life, if you speak with respect and confidence you're more likely to get a positive response. Some people don't seem to get this.
Of course sometimes there's just a lazy/inept CS rep on the other end of the phone who won't do $hit for you, and then you call back and hopefully get someone else!

 

[dsb18292]

Warranty with Shimano is hit or miss. I sent them an RT80 rotor that had more than .005in of thickness variation. It is totally unusable as it tugs/locks the rear wheel. They sent it back stating there is nothing wrong. Since it was an e-bay deal I have no other recourse that to eat it. Definitely leaves a bad taste for Shimano warranty when a new $60+ MSRP rotor doesn't deserve a warranty though.

 

[HAB]

We had about 10 105 left shifters fail on brand new bikes last summer, and Shimano replaced them pretty much no questions asked. I've had nothing but good luck with Sram's CS either.

I guess moral of the story, if you work in a shop in the US, they'll take care of you.

 

[nmpearson]

We had about 10 105 left shifters fail on brand new bikes last summer, and Shimano replaced them pretty much no questions asked. I've had nothing but good luck with Sram's CS either.

I guess moral of the story, if you work in a shop in the US, they'll take care of you.

well...i gotta think that was atleast partly shimano's fault. They were spec'ing the double ring bikes with triple ring shifters. We had the same thing go wrong. It would work for about 2 rides with just tuning the one shift out, then would break. Shimano just replaced them all no questions asked. still was a problem because until we found out they were doing that recall, it was a challenge getting them dialed

 

[HAB]

well...i gotta think that was atleast partly shimano's fault. They were spec'ing the double ring bikes with triple ring shifters. We had the same thing go wrong. It would work for about 2 rides with just tuning the one shift out, then would break. Shimano just replaced them all no questions asked. still was a problem because until we found out they were doing that recall, it was a challenge getting them dialed

These were 2 speeds, not 3s.

 

[Steve M]

I guess moral of the story, if you work in a shop in the US, they'll take care of you.

I think this pretty much sums it up - American standards of customer service (and as a cause or result, also American customer expectations) seem to be higher than anywhere else. I was chasing an axle spacer for a WTB front hub for a customer about a year ago, Aussie distributor was absolutely useless, kept telling me different things every time I called, eventually called up WTB in the US and they were like "Ok we'll ship you one. Should be there next week." When I asked how to pay for it they just told me not to worry about it. Nobody in Aus (or in my limited experience, in Canada) would do that for you.

 

[Huck Banzai]

I'm sorry, you're wrong.