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Jenson USA... FAIL!

golgiaparatus

Out of my element
Aug 30, 2002
7,340
41
Deep in the Jungles of Oklahoma
Well so far everything I buy that says Truvativ, breaks. Last night on a long steep climb I was on the nose of the saddle when the post popped on me... lack of tension on the front of the seat sent me straight into the top tube.

Fast forward to my call to Jenson USA

ME: Hey the bolt on the post snapped on me and almost damaged my manhood.

JUSA: Ok, well box it up and send it back to us.

ME: Ok, but I have a race on Sun and I need a post ASAP so can you overnight me another post.

JUSA: Sure, what would you like.

ME: I'll take a yadayada post.

JUSA: Ok, well have it out to you tomorrow.

ME: And I get a refund on the one that's broken right (NOTE: It's been about 20 days since I bought it).

JUSA: No sir that will be warranteed and sent back to you.

ME: But I am buying another post why would I want the other one back.

(INSERT ARGUMENT HERE, and phone transfer to his manager, who just refunded my Truvativ crank 2 weeks ago)

ME: Why can I get a broken crank refunded but cant get a broken seatpost.

MNGR: Well sir we cant just keep giving you refunds for things you break (for real, dude said exactly that).

I basically told him that I was taking my business elsewhere permanently. I will not, do not, deal with stores that don't stand by their product. If something breaks like that, there should be an immediate replacement or a refund, not lame excuses and warrantee red tape.

Rant... over.
 

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,430
1,949
Front Range, dude...
Thats what you get for shopping at the Target of the bike world. It is a sad commentary on the state of affairs within cycling when you only get really good, consistent and knowledgeable service from the high end shops. I shop Jenson, and PricePoint, but only for small items and really good deals. A guy there denied a price match for me awhile back, and cocked off such an attitude that I alsmost drove there just to choke him. I also went to their super special parking lot sale awhile back (2 hour drive...) and found exactly nothing I was looking for.
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
i would kinda lean towards their side on this one. not saying that you broke the two parts that you mentioned purposely, but it doesnt happen that often where a customer tries and returns two completely different products for refund within a month of each other.
if i was store manager i would be skeptical too and send your product for warranty

Should have gotten a Thomson anyway.
exactly
 

Prettym1k3

Turbo Monkey
Aug 21, 2006
2,864
0
In your pants
Should have gotten one through Performance.

Corporate uses scare tactics to keep managers in check. If a customer complains, and the manager sticks by their story (ie. the customer obviously bought it, damaged it, and expects a free replacement), they get written up. If they give away a free post, they get written up.

Same thing with all of these large companies. It's all contradictory company policies.
 

davep

Turbo Monkey
Jan 7, 2005
3,276
0
seattle
Why not just go to the hardware store and spend 20 cents on a new bolt? If you had purchased at a LBS they would most likely removed a bolt from another post and sent you on your way.

While I agree shops need to stand behind products like this (I ran a high end/very CS oriented snowboard shop for several years)...things like this can be more complicated than one might think.

If SRAM will only repace the bolt, then the store gets stuck with used product (along with your cranks) that they cannot sell. Should they stop selling truvativ products? Only sell brands that 'dont break' and loose all the sales on the 'bad' products? You simply cannot express the idea that you do not cary a product based on reliability over the net. A B&M retailer can.

Ultimately the waranty decision is up to the mfg. If the retailer does not have the 'pull' or care to take the time to be an advocate for their customers....it can be quite hard to get an outcome that makes YOU happy. To a web retailer, you are just another order number. If you were a good customer at your LBS, they would more than likely go out of their way to make sure SRAM made you happy. I took brand new boards off my sales floor many many times for good customers. I would deal with the mfg later... and my customer was super happy and would always some back season after season (we had 50+ year repeat customers on the ski side of the store because of this policy).

IMO, the trade off for the prices that these type of e-tailers offer is always going to be CS/customer advocacy. You get stuff cheap, but YOU are going to have to do the all footwork.
 
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boogenman

Turbo Monkey
Nov 3, 2004
4,290
973
BUFFALO
I agree 100% with the manager at Jenson. Who the F*ck are you? Does he know you? It is your fault for shopping there in the first place, they are worse than the target of bike shops, more like the amazon.com of bike shops.

It was a kind gesture to give you cranks without having to warranty them and have you wait 2 weeks. I had a set of truvativ Holzfeller's fail on my when I was a shop manger do you know what I had to do?...


Wait for the replacement arms to come in like EVER BODY else.

Now don't get me wrong here, when we had good loyal customers that did 80-90% of their business with us we would hook them up with product in a situation like this as long as the part was A. actually able to be warrantied and B. We would be able to re-sell to replacement part for cost of the above part.


You my fellow biker just got burned for being a bike shop.com whore. Shop your LBS not the world wide web.
 

boogenman

Turbo Monkey
Nov 3, 2004
4,290
973
BUFFALO
IMO, the trade off for the prices that these type of e-tailers offer is always going to be CS/customer advocacy. You get stuff cheap, but YOU are going to have to do the all footwork.
:clapping::clapping::clapping::clapping::clapping:


People don't give a f^ck about that until they don't want to do the footwork.
 

jebfour

Turbo Monkey
Jun 19, 2003
2,059
1,400
CLT, NC
I don't get the part about them refunding your money on the cranks and then not the post. That doesn't seem to make sense whatsoever.

I deal with this on a daily basis, but generally the item would be sent back to the mfg. via the distributor for analysis. Most manufacturers (perhaps not in the bike industry though) make you do a paid replacement and then will inspect the item - and then provide a refund if the item is found to be covered under warranty.

This is a total generalization however so take it FWIW.
 

J-Dubs

Monkey
Jul 10, 2006
700
1
Salem, MA
I usually consider buying things on-line to be an 'all sales final' type of situation.

Also, warranty issues normally go though the manufacturer. Anything else is a direct favor to you. It's a privilege that they took care of your cranks, not a right.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
You wanted Jenson to overnight you a warranty seatpost on your word alone?

And you wanted a refund as opposed to a replacement?
 
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RD3

Monkey
Nov 30, 2003
661
14
PA
Sounds like Jenson was being more than fair with you. Would have to side with Jenson on this one.
 

Da Peach

Outwitted by a rodent
Jul 2, 2002
13,681
4,904
North Van
Buy it on line, you're on your own.

Buy it from an LBS, and get customer support and service.
I dunno. As true as I'd like that to be, my experience has been that it's as much of a gamble with one as it is with the other. Online is cheaper every time. If the transaction and the goods work out, great! If not, bad luck, and you're on your own.

On the other hand, the LBS is always more expensive. If you have a problem and require customer service, that's a gamble. It's about a 50/50 split for me.

Buyer beware in either case.
 

JRogers

talks too much
Mar 19, 2002
3,785
1
Claremont, CA
Not sure that I buy the whole 'you bought it online so you deserve to get shafted' thing because I bet a lot of LBSs would not give a refund for a warranty part anyway. A good LBS that you have a relationship with might just give a refund (especially if you complain...that can go a long way if it's important) but I wouldn't expect a store to just kick down because something broke- even if they had some kind of satisfaction guarunteed thing.

You can find tons of new warranty parts and frames online because people break something, send it in for warranty, buy a replacement in the meantime and just sell the warranty part when it comes.
 

MattP.

Monkey
Jun 27, 2005
197
0
Sounds like Jenson was being more than fair with you. Would have to side with Jenson on this one.
+1

When I was working at a shop, and there was a warranty issue, the customer had to wait it out and wait for X Company to send out the replacement part, they couldn't ask for their money back and buy another post, leaving us waiting for X Company to send us out a new part.

OP..... FAIL!
 

Salami

Turbo Monkey
Jul 17, 2003
1,784
118
Waxhaw, NC
I basically told him that I was taking my business elsewhere permanently. I will not, do not, deal with stores that don't stand by their product. If something breaks like that, there should be an immediate replacement or a refund, not lame excuses and warrantee red tape.

Rant... over.
If I worked for Jenson I would be relieved. Your belief of what you are entitled to and how warranties work is completely ****ed up. :plthumbsdown:
 

drkenan

anti-dentite
Oct 1, 2006
3,441
1
west asheville
Man...I'm glad you're not a customer of my business. You'd be one of the ones that we have to "fire." :)

I've had several experiences with Jenson - all positive. I can't imagine that any shop would have given you a free seatpost with free overnight shipping and then (assuming that you actually sent the broken one back) kept the replacement one for resale. Maybe if you had a serious personal relationship with a LBS employee or something.
 

stinkyboy

Plastic Santa
Jan 6, 2005
15,187
1
¡Phoenix!
Should have gotten a Thomson anyway.
I've snapped two Thomson brass bolts. One was on a 10' drop and I got lucky that my post let me off easy. One snapped on a small drop to flat, but it was prolly too tight.

I'll tell ya what I friggin did:

I marched straight the hell into the LBS and well, um, just ordered a couple more for backups.
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
when i worked retail, if someone had a issue with a product, i would usually tell them to contact the manufacturer directly...unless they just bought it a few days earlier. if someone bought two products from me and both of them broke, i would be a bit skeptical that the person didnt know what they were doing.
typically a manufacturer would be more lenient to an end user than to a retailer and might help you out a little more.

maybe you shouldnt work on your own bikes?
 

S.K.C.

Turbo Monkey
Feb 28, 2005
4,096
25
Pa. / North Jersey
Why not just go to the hardware store and spend 20 cents on a new bolt? If you had purchased at a LBS they would most likely removed a bolt from another post and sent you on your way.

While I agree shops need to stand behind products like this (I ran a high end/very CS oriented snowboard shop for several years)...things like this can be more complicated than one might think.

If SRAM will only repace the bolt, then the store gets stuck with used product (along with your cranks) that they cannot sell. Should they stop selling truvativ products? Only sell brands that 'dont break' and loose all the sales on the 'bad' products? You simply cannot express the idea that you do not cary a product based on reliability over the net. A B&M retailer can.

Ultimately the waranty decision is up to the mfg. If the retailer does not have the 'pull' or care to take the time to be an advocate for their customers....it can be quite hard to get an outcome that makes YOU happy. To a web retailer, you are just another order number. If you were a good customer at your LBS, they would more than likely go out of their way to make sure SRAM made you happy. I took brand new boards off my sales floor many many times for good customers. I would deal with the mfg later... and my customer was super happy and would always some back season after season (we had 50+ year repeat customers on the ski side of the store because of this policy).

IMO, the trade off for the prices that these type of e-tailers offer is always going to be CS/customer advocacy. You get stuff cheap, but YOU are going to have to do the all footwork.
...this man is wise... listen to him.
 

golgiaparatus

Out of my element
Aug 30, 2002
7,340
41
Deep in the Jungles of Oklahoma
You wanted Jenson to overnight you a warranty seatpost on your word alone?

And you wanted a refund as opposed to a replacement?
I wanted to pay for the replacement (replace with different post obviously). Box up the broken one, send it back and get a refund on the faulty part product. Basically wanted the same service that they gave me for the crank. I wasn't asking for anything for free.

And P.S. I just dropped $1k with them less than a month ago. This is a $50 post we are talking about.
 

golgiaparatus

Out of my element
Aug 30, 2002
7,340
41
Deep in the Jungles of Oklahoma
...this man is wise... listen to him.
Oh no doubt. I'm friends with 2 LBS owners in town... one of them owns 2 shops. Before I bought anything for my new ride I went in and tried to give him first shot on selling me what I needed for what I could pay... even with a massive discount they couldn't come within $400, and we're talking near cost.