Originally Posted by
InTheRain
Maybe the shop is less than accommodating because they are the only ones that have touched the derailleur. It's pretty obvious that Cannondale or the bike shop aren't going to budge. They know that a customer is going to have to spend $10,000+ to even get any kind of a law suit started. I'm not willing to do that for a frame that's worth $1000 - $1500. However, I don't mind sharing my experience with friends, other cyclists, and online forums. In the past, I referred many people to the shop and recommended cannondale... I choose to go a different route now. My posts have been in threads where cannondale is mentioned.
Cannondale is going beyond what they are compelled to do in this case by offering a crash replacement discount on a frame or bike. Chances are nearly 100% that it was a mechanical malfunction that led to the frame failure, not the frame failing, so the lifetime warranty on the frame because of manufacturing defect or design flaw simply does not apply. Cannondale is not responsible under the frame warranty to cover damage as a result of mechanical malfunction. No bike manufacturer has that kind of coverage
The shop appears to hold the most responsibility in this case if, as you claim, they did the initial setup and any and all adjustments/maintenance since new. But it's a two way street -- there needs to be a certain amount of owner involvement and... ownership... involved.
We have your side of the story; we don't have the benefit of the shop's side of what the issue actually is or what went down. Maybe this was just some kind of bizarre coincidence of shifting technique, force applied to the drivetrain, and an unfortunate bump in the road which caused and unforseen vector in the equation causing the derailleur cage to hook a spoke. Maybe there were symptoms you ignored or didn't know enough to pay attention to, which presaged the event, and if looked into beforehand, could have prevented it. If it's some kind of freak event, should the shop be held responsible? If you are complicit in some way with what went down, should the shop shoulder the full cost?
In situations like this, there's a lot of leeway involved. There's Cannondale corporate. There's the outside rep who interfaces with the store. There's the store owner/manager. And the mechanic or service manager. At any level, a person in a position of authority could go to bat for you and make things work out to your satisfaction, in this case a replacement frame.
The approach you are taking here on BF, with multiple postings of the exact same text, insistence that this is a Cannondale frame warranty issue in the face of being told it's not, and why it's not, and the generally argumentative nature of your presentation leads me to believe that you are angry -- justifiably so, no one likes it when their bike breaks -- and probably conveyed this to various people involved in the shop and corporate end of things.
People are people, and it seems that no one wanted to go out of their way to do you any favors. There's probably a reason for that.