Originally Posted by
FBOATSB
Take this with a grain of salt, but I've read lots of threads in here over the years to the tune of "Your beat up six year old bike is too old to fix, not worth it", or "Obviously damaged before you brought it in", or "Sorry, your service ticket you signed doesn't cover accidents but we can give you a credit if you buy a new bike here", or "We can only give XX$$ for this unfortunate accident, but we'll have to keep the 6 year old bike". I'd think an offer of shipping a tandem frame to the manufacturer for repair of a dent would be wonderful. Now whether they are going to strip the tandem and just ship the frame or ship the whole thing to Co-Motion is something that needs to be worked out to your satisfaction, but it can be worked out.
The guy was marveling over our bike when we brought it in, and it is in "like-new" condition. We spent a half our talking. He showed me pictures of a roached tandem he restored. He did a cursory once-over. There was no way he could have passed off the damage, but you do bring up the importance of pre-op pix. He was VERY apologetic on the phone. Almost too much so. He said he would assume full responsibility. Tear down, shipping repair. He said he wasn't going to charge me for the tune-up even. I am also a small business owner, and we live in a small community where word of bad service would easily get around. I will absolutely insist on paying for any service unrelated to the damage. I DO feel it is his responsibility to make the damage right, though, not matter what it takes. I would be open to contributing to some extent, but only as a gesture of mutual good will.