Originally Posted by
noodle soup
In the shop that I ran, Shimano outsold SRAM by over 10-1, but overwhelmingly the #1 shifter failure issue was with SRAM. Exact numbers I couldn't tell you, but it wasn't close.
The problem is well known in the industry, and luckily SRAM doesn't hassle most shops when they ask for warranty replacement parts. Often SRAM upgrades the shifter when possible.
The failure rate may be higher than shimano but that doesn't make it common. It would be difficult for sram to be as successful as they have been if their parts were not reliable. When we're you in the shop? Companies are constantly evolving and hopefully improving their products.
Another reason I don't think it's common is the price of sram shifters seem reasonable. If they had an excessively high failure rate their warranty costs would be high and they would either reflect that in their prices or live with lower profitability. SRAM is a private company so their financial data is not public but they appear to be a profitable and growing company.