is this crack an issue?

[eddief]

Let them know what you think, what the shop thinks, and tell them if they don't make it right quickly that you know a zillion members on the Paceline Forum who will never buy their sh*t if they don't make it right in a reasonable amount of time. If their agent, the shop, says it looks cracked, then Cervelo should believe their agent and bend over backward to solve the problem. Tell the shop and Cervelo to quit screwing around and make it right. Why would it take weeks to determine a crack or not a crack. What a bunch bunch of BS. If what you say is true, then we have the power, not Cervelo.

This thread is already affecting their business. You just need to let them know.

If you have any questions, please contact us.
Contact information.

Address:
15 Leswyn Rd. Unit 1.
M6A 1J8, Toronto
Canada

Email:
info@cervelo.com

Phone number:
+1 (0)416 425 9517

Originally Posted by IJWS

I am working with the local dealer for a replacement but Cervelo is being very difficult about this. Everyone at the shop sees the crack and seems to have confidence that it would just be a replacement but Cervelo seems to be dragging their feet. It's really frustrating b/c (like almost everyone) I don't have money to throw at this problem. Also, I just want to be able to ride my bike. I am worried about what could happen if I keep riding this frame.

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by pdmtong

My bad...I for some reason I had it my head you were in canada (duh, cervelo is there)..but nope, you are here on the best coast and yup, it's riding year round. except you LA folks are wearing jackets and warmers at 65d....at least up here we wait until 55d and none of us rides below 45d. We just wait an hour for it to warm up! I realize everyone on the east coast cringes when they read this.

The trade off is this end of things may crack off the continent and fall into the ocean at any given minute.

It's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

[m4rk540]

Originally Posted by eddief

Let them know what you think, what the shop thinks, and tell them if they don't make it right quickly that you know a zillion members on the Paceline Forum who will never buy their sh*t if they don't make it right in a reasonable amount of time.

And how will they ever recover from those 6 lost Paceline-associated sales?

An interesting strategy, the so-called power of the Yelp Mob. A friend who owns a building supply company was so worried about the consequences of a few bad Yelp reviews, that he offered $50 to friends and family to plant positive reviews. Four years later, his business has less than 30 Yelp reviews in total. Anyway, direct to consumer businesses live or die on Google Analytics

[eddief]

next time someone asks YOU if they should buy a Cervelo, what ya gonna tell them? The thread has 1500 views. Do the math. Do the math for Cervelo too. See what they say. Remember, I said only if the story so far is true. We're not the Yelp mob. My bet is this is one of the most visited cycling-related websites on the planet. How many members do we have?

Originally Posted by m4rk540

And how will they ever recover from those 6 lost Paceline-associated sales?

An interesting strategy, the so-called power of the Yelp Mob. A friend who owns a building supply company was so worried about the consequences of a few bad Yelp reviews, that he offered $50 to friends and family to plant positive reviews. Four years later, his business has less than 30 Yelp reviews in total. Anyway, direct to consumer businesses live or die on Google Analytics

[pdmtong]

Generally speaking around here there are few Cervelos. One of the boutique LBS decided not to carry them due to high warranty incidence yet another boutique LBS does carry them - YMMV. I know a guy with a RCA...loves it but of course if you paid $10k for the frame/fork I bet you would say you loved it too.

It might be Cervelo, it might not be. Spec and Trek I am sure have their fair share of issues similar to the OP.

[m4rk540]

Originally Posted by eddief

next time someone asks YOU if they should buy a Cervelo, what ya gonna tell them? The thread has 1500 views. Do the math. Do the math for Cervelo too. See what they say. Remember, I said only if the story so far is true. We're not the Yelp mob. My bet is this is one of the most visited cycling-related websites on the planet. How many members do we have?

Cervelo knows their target audience. I haven't looked at the numbers recently but they owned the Tri market for a generation. They were also the first brand to push aero. Few brands got behind the movement with marketing and near-science-white papers, etc the way Cervelo did. Also, during that period, they virtually created the halo market with the first 10K plus frame from a major brand. While all that was happening those in the trenches were cursing Vroomen-White for unleashing thousands of creaky frames that either failed at the BB or couldn't play nice with any crankset on the market. But many put a high value on "engineering" so, in my opinion, Paceline's anecdata could hardly have an impact on Cervelo's established reputation or perception in the marketplace.

[eddief]

what would you do? defend Cervelo?

Originally Posted by m4rk540

Cervelo knows their target audience. I haven't looked at the numbers recently but they owned the Tri market for a generation. They were also the first brand to push aero. Few brands got behind the movement with marketing and near-science-white papers, etc the way Cervelo did. Also, during that period, they virtually created the halo market with the first 10K plus frame from a major brand. While all that was happening those in the trenches were cursing Vroomen-White for unleashing thousands of creaky frames that either failed at the BB or couldn't play nice with any crankset on the market. But many put a high value on "engineering" so, in my opinion, Paceline's anecdata could hardly have an impact on Cervelo's established reputation or perception in the marketplace.

[m4rk540]

Eddie, for the sake of discussion, if that were my bike, I'd consider it a self-insured loss. It's a 2013 frame which was probably purchased on clearance. Also, I believe the OP is in LA where he can find a good sample of owners who have had bottom bracket cracks. But again, for the sake of discussion, if I purchased a frame from a brand with a less-than-stellar reputation for durability, I'd stamp caveat emptor across my forehead or consciousness. I've given up counseling friends on bike purchases. And inevitably every $5K plus Specialized/Cannondale/Cervelo/Factor ends up being warrantied after a couple of seasons. Of course, these guys ride 10,000 plus miles yearly so they dont represent the typical Paceline user.

[eddief]

in my haste I blew over how old the frame is = 2013. lots o things can happen in that length of time. me thinks some details could be missing. off my high horse and back to my IPA.

Originally Posted by m4rk540

Eddie, for the sake of discussion, if that were my bike, I'd consider it a self-insured loss. It's a 2013 frame which was probably purchased on clearance. Also, I believe the OP is in LA where he can find a good sample of owners who have had bottom bracket cracks. But again, for the sake of discussion, if I purchased a frame from a brand with a less-than-stellar reputation for durability, I'd stamp caveat emptor across my forehead or consciousness. I've given up counseling friends on bike purchases. And inevitably every $5K plus Specialized/Cannondale/Cervelo/Factor ends up being warrantied after a couple of seasons. Of course, these guys ride 10,000 plus miles yearly so they dont represent the typical Paceline user.

[Philly4eyes]

I had to have my LBS fight with cervelo when my chain stay snapped. It was the 2nd bike of the same year (2015 R3) than my LBS had seen crack in the same exact place... we were eventually able to get them to warranty but it was not easy. I think things have gone down hill with customer service since then but I would push them to stay true to the warranty


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[IJWS]

I spoke to Cervelo. They did not have good news for me, but, the person I caught on the phone was able to access my rma and review the images and claim history really quickly. It gave me the impression that they were a team of 50-100 as opposed to an outsourced team whose job it was to deny claims.

The communication between Cervelo, my LBS, and myself was a little muddy and I was under...all sorts of impressions. Anything from being told that the frame wasn't cracked to being told that it was cracked and I did it (by dropping a chain which scratched up the inside of the dropout and I guess broke the dropout??) all from Cervelo.

If you refer to the original post, I wanted to know if I should be worried about the thing on my dropout because I wasn't getting a clear answer from anyone and I didn't know what to think.

The customer service person who I spoke with today told me that he definitely thinks the thing on my dropout is a crack and that I shouldn't ride the bike so I am a little screwed. I did buy the frame on clearance 2 years ago. It has 4500 miles on it and I feel like an idiot for ever buying that frame.

I have a DeKerf on my balcony (remember, SoCal, don't get mad ((I mean, I'm mad but don't be mad too))) from 2000 that looks like it is a year old (26" canti mtb, worthless, but I can't let it go)--a 19 year old bike, and I have a 2 year old Cervelo inside that is toast.

Cervelo wants to arrange a conference call with my LBS and frame so they can inspect the frame through the eyes of the LBS. That is a reasonable compromise to me sending the frame to Toronto to have it inspected and really cuts down on the 4-6 week inspection time. It may or may not go well, but at least Cervelo is willing to take my claim seriously.

Riding bikes is weird. It's fun so that it just feels like it could be a hobby; but it creeps into your life and is really beautiful because, well, it's beautiful--it's riding bikes. This is something that is just too good to miss. I'm scared to not be able to ride.

[peanutgallery]

So...who pays the shipping and labor? I would refuse to process the warranty if this was the attitude of the consumer

Originally Posted by CDM

A bike shop enters a business agreement with cervelo. They sell me a cervelo. They Make a profit or not. I didnt buy a relationship with cervelo. I bought a bike...from the shop. The shop isnt entitiled to payment from me to process warranty....

[IJWS]

At the same time,

I have had and ridden a ton of bikes. It is weird to me that only a Cervelo frame would have this issue.

I've had 21 years of riding to have the chance to drop chains and break frames...it has only come up just now--within the past two years for some strange reason.

I think, that in all of that time, when I was working in shops and seeing all sorts of weird stuff, that I would manage to break ONLY a Cervelo frame--in the same place that many of their own frames seemed to be breaking...of their own accord.

Super disappointed with this situation.

[ntb1001]

On my claim...I had to pay.

I understand what everyone says about the shop needing to make a profit....but profit was made in original purchase. In my case, fairly substantial purchase.

I still think a LBS should honour the intent of the original purchase and at least not charge the labour in spirit of good customer relations.
The LBS that I dealt with argued with me...told me I was wrong, to keep riding it, even though the fork looked cracked.
Then they decided to enlighten me on business practices on why they HAD to charge me labour and shipping.


Well...that was the last purchase I made there. I guess they won that argument.
( They also are no longer in business...it’s a bit of a shame...100 year old shop, but the attitude kinda sucked there)

Originally Posted by peanutgallery

So...who pays the shipping and labor? I would refuse to process the warranty if this was the attitude of the consumer

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[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by ntb1001

On my claim...I had to pay.

I understand what everyone says about the shop needing to make a profit....but profit was made in original purchase. In my case, fairly substantial purchase.

I still think a LBS should honour the intent of the original purchase and at least not charge the labour in spirit of good customer relations.
The LBS that I dealt with argued with me...told me I was wrong, to keep riding it, even though the fork looked cracked.
Then they decided to enlighten me on business practices on why they HAD to charge me labour and shipping.


Well...that was the last purchase I made there. I guess they won that argument.
( They also are no longer in business...it’s a bit of a shame...100 year old shop, but the attitude kinda sucked there)

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If the shop was a normal one, the 'profit' was probably teeny(in spite of the 'substantial' part). The cost to the shop was probably 'substantial' also.
It was probably just about that 35% 'MARGIN', not 'markup'..divide the cost by .65..the recognized minimum to keep the lights on, pay your fixed costs and incur neither more debt or PROFIT and then end of the year. Add expenses, like the labor $ to process any warranty claims, and the shop loses money.

What SHOULD happen is the frame maker SHOULD be compensating the shop for any costs incured for a warranty. The warranty is the frame maker's fault, not the shop's. The frame maker gets the benefit of a dealer network=more frame sales..so they need to step up BUT..most do not, nor do most component makers..why retail in general and bike retail specifically is so tough, since you al with LOTS of manufacturers.

A little retail knowledge for consumers goes a long way..IMHO. PLUS ignorance is no excuse..by anybody..