Advocacy & Safety - who assembled my bike incorrectly?

Hi everyone:

I am an attorney. I represents a woman who was seriously injured when the brakes on her department-store bike failed. I am told that MDC (Mike De Feo's Cycles and Services) and/or American Cycle Service, Inc. assembled the bike. These companies deny that they assembled the bike and claim that their records were destroyed in a "warehouse fire". Can anyone tell me if they have heard of these assembly outfits? Can anyone confirm that these companies assembled the bike, because they are the only companies Massachusetts department stores use to assemble bikes? If anyone can help out I'd be most grateful. Feel free to e-mail me at lawyerman1234@aol.com. Thanx.

Username with a 1234 with an aol address. An attorney asking for help on a internet bike forum? Seems fishy to me.

"the brakes on her department-store bike failed."???

How in the world could anyone here be able to tell you that only two companies assemble bicycles in Massachusettes? Even if someone here had intimate knowledge of the bike assembly business in MA, you haven't disclosed what department store is involved or even the city where the bike was sold? I would assume that there are several hundred department stores in MA that sell bicycles. If all these bikes were assembled by contractors, there could certainly be more than two companies in that business.

Why don't you do the lawyerly thing and get the court to compel the department store to disclose the names of all bicycle assemblers used during the several months leading up to the date the woman purchased the bike? If they contracted out for some service, they surely have the payment records. Besides, someone makes the arrangements for assembly. They probably have a short list of who they call.

Why don't you do the lawyerly thing and get the court to compel the department store to disclose the names of all bicycle assemblers used during the several months leading up to the date the woman purchased the bike?

Adding my two cents' worth - that's called "discovery", and any lawyer NOT working for SCO should be able to figure that out.

(Okay, I admit it - I'm a Linux geek, too!)

"the brakes on her department-store bike failed."???

I didn't think any of them worked properly. Brings back fond memories of a Huffy I used to own as a kid.

In what way did they fail? Cables, catastrophic metal failure what?

Username with a 1234 with an aol address. An attorney asking for help on a internet bike forum? Seems fishy to me.Besides this dudes fish? http://www.washingtonlakes.com/Pictures/Pics2002/TomChinookTacoma7Aug02WL.jpg
Naaw I'm sure this guy's on the up and up - just like those nice folks from Nigeria who want me to cash a check for them.

I think he is for real. A quick investigation found that lawyerman1234@aol.com has an interest in translating Egyptian inscriptions. A bogus-looking AOL account does not necessarily imply a trailer-trash small-time swindler. In fact, having found that, there is an attorney with his name practicing in Chicopee, MA.

To Lawyerman1234: Many of the people on this list regard buying a bicycle from a department store as a very bad idea. Therefore, I don't expect that there will be a lot of people here who know much about the business practices of these places. It is interesting to learn that they are beginning to farm assembly out to subcontractors.

Paul

Hi everyone:

I am an attorney. I represents a woman who was seriously injured when the brakes on her department-store bike failed. I am told that MDC (Mike De Feo's Cycles and Services) and/or American Cycle Service, Inc. assembled the bike. These companies deny that they assembled the bike and claim that their records were destroyed in a "warehouse fire". Can anyone tell me if they have heard of these assembly outfits? Can anyone confirm that these companies assembled the bike, because they are the only companies Massachusetts department stores use to assemble bikes? If anyone can help out I'd be most grateful. Feel free to e-mail me at lawyerman1234@aol.com. Thanx.

I think this guy is straight, and smart. Rather than go through all the corporate bull***t, he goes right to the people who know what they're talking about, and will give him an honest answer. Now, our responses most likely wouldn't hold up in court, but I am sure that he already knows this, and is just trying to see if he has a case. A "warehouse fire" is most likely slang for "we don't want a lawsuit so were covering our asses". I would recommend actually going to the shop, not as an attorney, but just as a person and asking to see the bikes or assembly areas and seeing if they do assemble the bike that your client was riding. If that doesn't work, I have nothing else.

I cannot lie. I did it.

keep in mind most dept stores contract out individuals, who may be of varying skill, sometimes an untrained employee who just reads teh assembly papers that come with the bike.

So the store very well could be taking you for a goose-chase as well.

Just verify to be sure it's an assembly issue. I've seen brakes on dept store bikes warp and other problems, which had nothing to do with aseembly, and were just a classic case of garbage parts.

You buy from a store. The store has a responsibility to check the goods. PDI - pre-delivery inspection. If they don't inspect before they sell, then they're incompetent because they damn well SHOULD. This need go no further than the customer and the store.

If the store wants to claim against their supplier, thats their problem.

There are lots of reasons he may need to know who built the bike. The store may be in bankruptcy, or otherwise be judgement proof, or the staute of limitations may have tolled in part, and he is looking to discover a new party in order to show that he just discovered that a particular party may have been negligent. He may also be looking for a jurisdiction with a longer staute of limitations.

It was me. I put it together.

a woman who was seriously injured when the brakes on her department-store bike failed.

Now you know everything you need to know about deparment store bicycles!:( Tell your client to buy from a LBS assuming that she can ride again.