Originally Posted by
wphamilton
Is parts-only warranty really normal in the bike industry? I've performed a lot of warranty work in the far past, on computers and associated peripherals and all manufacturers provided a warranty labor reimbursement to authorized service providers. Flat rate, standard. From the other side, when my own electronics or appliances have failed, I've never paid labor for a warranty repair. So is that really industry-wide, or just Specialized?
Yes. It is, by far, extremely uncommon for a manufacturer to reimburse a shop labor, regardless of whether they are an A+ dealer, or a schlub working out of their garage. On the rare occasion that a person complains loudly/vehemently about it, the manufacturer will sometimes credit the shop for work, else dangle some other carrot in front of them.
Notable exceptions are Shimano (their [now] ancient crank recall, but almost nothing else), and occasionally SRAM (last year's hydraulic snafu). They still don't/barely pay enough to cover real world costs--calling the warranty in, receiving, installing/adjusting, etc...