Originally Posted by
Steve B.
Let’s think about that a bit.
How exactly does the LBS inspect a carbon frame ?.
Customer A comes in and says “I had a small accident and want to know if the frame is OK to ride ?”. I assume the shop might completely clean the frame so as to better be able to look at the frame in detail. They spot no obvious cracks or deformities, do the nickel tap, still looks OK, so they tell the customer the frame seems to be OK, but to CYA state “to the best of our ability”, with, and as Oldnsw stated with nothing in writing. Maybe the shop calls manufacturer Z who trusts the shop based on prior experience. Don’t know if that happens, Tihabanaro could chime in on that.
200 miles later the fork fails and the customer correctly or not, blames the shop.
I think in in this scenario and if I owned an LBS I’d tell the customer that only the manufacturer can accurately determine if the frame is OK.
Makes sense ?. Blame our litigious society, not the shop who cannot afford a lawsuit.
Bingo. Last guy that touched it is to blame unfortunately. Not always rightly but in the mind of the customer, the guy that touched it last must have broken it/missed something etc. In the car electronics world, we like to call this "The Ever Since Club" IE Ever since you put my new radio in, my tires are flat. I know if I was one of these shops I wouldn't want someone coming back to me because their carbon frame failed catastrophically going 30mph and now they have brain damage because of it.