rangerdavid

yeah, they were pushing me towards the new Madone 6 series with ultegra Di2. It was a deal on the price. They told me the 6 series bikes are still made in the USA where the 5 series madones are not. I don't really care about where its made, but I have no experience at all with Trek carbon.

WarLordZ

The exact opposite is true at our LBS who deals with them. Apparently your assessment is not very accurate as a whole.

androidtt

Holy crap. I couldn't get past the 1:00 mark on the video. Guy needs a script or something!

And I agree, Cervelo should give the guy a new one. Preferably not flawed for paying $3,000.

pdedes

based on some of bdop's surmises, it may be that the customer was defrauded by the lbs.

Adrianinkc

ON TOPIC : Carbon bikes are wavy but this thing WOW. Looks like they put a nice coat of bondo on top .

OFF TOPIC : Trek makes great bikes. My Six series is the last road bike I'm buying.

v70cat

I still think that the S5 is the best aerodynamic bike at the moment. If I purchased one from a LBS I would look it over before taking it.

Not sure about this thread yes bad paint job, yes maybe a little wavy (could not really tell) but don't know how he mail ordered it (no longer allow by Cervelo) and think he has other reasons for posting.

rufvelo

True, as some have said, we may not know the whole story, but this is high end stuff and a reputation breaker - even if the guy picked up the phone and started yelling at both LBS and Cervelo, wouldn't the company be intrigued enough, to first ask him to email detailed pics and then follow-up with a frame return for inspection process? (they surely have a quality program in manufacture, plus a program to fight the fakes market and preserve their brand). I thought this may be the one inexperienced customer service rep blowing the customer interaction with his/her lack of concern, but I'm hearing that their service is sub-par in general.
I don't own a Cervelo BTW and don't plan on buying one, my beloved steel Cinelli came with all the imperfections I've come to expect from fine Italian craftsmanship (you should have seen my dropouts).

WarLordZ

If I had to guess what happened here, the guy bought the frame mail order admittedly which we know.. I bet from a non authorized dealer, and this was probably a 'factory second' and he got screwed from the seller. This would be the only thing that adds up in my mind, and why Cervelo would react the way he claims they did.

danvuquoc

I actually noticed this about the S5 at my LBS 2 months ago -- they were complete bikes of course, but you could notice the weird bumps in both the black and the white S5s -- that and how ugly the headtube looked made me decide against it. Even if it were 100% structurally safe and the most performing aerodynamic road bike, you still have to love what you ride, and aesthetics are part of that. Especially for the amount of coin you drop.

guadzilla

Unless your bottom bracket assplodes.

milnerpt

So I am assuming a little, but I think I found the guy's cevelo dealer. Im pretty certain he did order it online. Shipping was a bit high, but he saved quite a bit off MSRP.

https://www.alibaba.com/countrysearch...elo-frame.html

And shame on you who thought those bike stores selling and shipping bikes overseas were a scam! He CLEARLY got the bike..... it's cervelo's crappy workmanship that is the problem!


-pardon my sarcasm. But I agree with some of the others. My Performance Fuji is put together cleaner than that. It screams knock-off with the paint/decals not lining up.

RJM

ftfy

alden

No doubt that guy got less than quality for his money (no matter how much he paid). Interesting conversation about the legitimacy of the LBS being a licenced dealer. Couldn't he find that information at Cervelo's web site? If he did buy from a non licenced dealer I'd say he's S.O.L as bad as that sounds. Do your research before you spend that kind of money.

That being said one would think Cervelo's customer service would highlight that fact. If we're getting the whole story from this guy then shame on Cervelo for having such sh@#! customer service.

tadawdy

Here's one idea. It appears to be an idiom in which one of the meanings of the words has been lost. Pretty common.

Walter

Guy either got out-right defrauded or at the very least he's being taken advantage of. Like Pcad I don't see how a company that sells high end stuff like Cervelo isn't taking a more proactive approach. However, I gotta agree with Pcad again (the world might be ending ) that customer service at the high end is poor.Look at my once beloved Litespeed. Sad fact that I can take a bike back to Walmart and get my money or an exchange alot easier than I can with many multi-thousand dollar bikes.

FlashBazbo

Wow. There are lots of excuses bike manufacturers use to try to justify poor workmanship . . . but even taking them all into account and without the unhappy customer's explanation, that frameset is clearly flawed. I would expect better workmanship on a $500 frameset. On a $3,000 frameset, there is absolutely no excuse.

In this area, Cervelo has become well known for shoddy workmanship around the dropouts, bottom bracket, head tube, and cable openings. It is expected that a Cervelo's decals / paint work is amateurish and haphazard. Mostly, it's the "finish" work that they've seemed to skimp on the bikes people in our club have bought. I don't know that we've seen one with big waves and lumps in the carbon like that, though. That is truly awful workmanship. Cervelo should be ashamed.

It seems to be a trend among most of the high-end brands now, though. Asian production is cheaper and CAN provide the same quality as domestic production -- but you've got to spend the money to have quality control people on the ground at all times. When you turn your back, they will cut back on quality -- both materials and processes. My perception is that the industry is starting to trust their Taiwan and China factories and are skimping on on-the-ground QC. The results are pretty telling.

fatallightning

Early release s5s definitely showed waveyness around the seatstay/ seat tube junction. I'm one to think that Cervelo pushed those through to meet demand, and let some slide that should have been destroyed. As for being a copy or sample? Highly doubtful, knock offs s2/s3 are very easy to tell apart from real ones, no way they'd have a passable s5 mold so soon. The dealer rep is being lazy. The shop should lean harder on Cervelo/rep to get a new frame. A grey area exists, and at our shop we've gotten more from less.

primov8

I currently own a S5, white frameset that is flawless in paint and finish. My 2010 S2 is also white with no signs of flawed workmanship and couldn't be happier with either bikes.


I saw that video back in Dec. when it was posted in the cervelo forums. It seems like an isolated incindence but who knows if there are possibly others in the same scenario. As previously mentioned, Cervelo just like Specialized, Trek, just to name a few cannot be purchased online.

I'm also wondering who the LBS is and how it was made even possible to buy it online/shipped.

WarLordZ

I read through the video comments posted on youtube. [SEE BELOW]

Apparently the dealer returned the guys money, after this video was published, but then resold it. Something sounds a miss with this dealer why would he resell it even if discounted?

dongringo

Wow, they resold that piece of crap?

njkayaker

+1

We don't know what went on between this customer and other parties. It's hard to say whether we are even getting a complete story from the customer.

The problem is that we have a one-sided story and not enough details.

Lexi01

Ahm...I take it from your response you haven't actually watched the accompanying video?

He bought the bike online and "had it delivered". Then he had to go to three local shops to gather opinions on the quality of the bike and write to Cervelo himself...

I bought from an LBS...all I had to do was drop it off and let them deal with the manufacturer...

So as I said... THIS IS A GOOD AD FOR BUYING FROM AN LBS.

Nuff said.

FlashBazbo

Not necessarily. LBSs often don't want to be bothered with warranty service.

I had an LBS (biggest in Tennessee) offer to warrant a badly corroded 15-day old Specialized headset . . . if I would pay him $60 labor to replace it. I had removed it from the bike -- that's how I found the problem -- and he demanded to be paid to replace the part. ($60 for about ten minutes work!) Otherwise, no warranty. Gak!

Unlike vehicle manufacturers -- who are paid for doing warranty work by the manufacturers -- LBSs are paid for warranty work by the bike owners. This not only guts the value of the warranty, but it makes things awkward when the warranty replacement offers no promise of payment for the shop.

The guy in the video clearly wasn't about to pay an LBS to dismantle and reassemble the bike in order to warranty the frame. It was already stripped. In that case, there's nothing in it (but wasted time and phone calls) for an LBS to warrant the frameset. They've got better things to do with their time and money. They are in it to make a living. If a warranty replacement doesn't result in $$$ from the customer for the labor involved, a lot of LBSs just aren't interested. Why would they go to any trouble when there's no revenue in it for them?

Lexi01

How big is big? Is it a chain of stores...a big K-Mart type store? If so, why would you expect anything other than process driven, cost-saving service.

I guess when I think of an LBS I think of the guy with a shop "around the corner" who relies on excellent customer service to ensure repeat business and good word of mouth. That's certainly what mine did/does...and I can't see myself buying anything major from anyone else...

I use online stores a hell of a lot for clothing, shoes, mostly stuff my LBS doesn't stock. But for purchases where a warranty may be required (bikes, wheels, etc) I'll always go back to him.

FlashBazbo

Would you really consider K-Mart an LBS in Australia**********? I can't believe that one. Let's get real here.

I'm talking about a multi-location shop that got that way, originally, by offering mom-and-pop level customer service and grew from there. Of course, they didn't grow really big until they realized that the money was in kids' bikes and family hybrid / comfort bikes. Originally, they were the bike racer's / bike enthusiast's shop. Now, they definitely sell more mountain bikes than road bikes and more comfort bikes than anything else. But they are considered to be quite reputable among bike shops. Like all LBSs, they've got to make a living.

And the warranty model for bicycle manufacturers forces them to extract money from the customer for warranty service. They're not operating a charity.