Monstermash

So a few weeks ago I went searching for a tire with a larger volume than what I was currently running. My current tires were Schwalbe Kojaks in 35c. I'm getting a little older (I'll be 48 next month) and I'm looking for a little softer ride on my custom hybrid.

After a conversation with my local shop owner and a little research I decided to order a set of Maxxis Re-Fuse tires in 40c. I ordered them on Wednesday the 14th and they arrived on the 16th. Out of the box the tires look fantastic. I love the look of the file tread and they seem very soft so I can't wait to get them home and installed on my bike.

When I get home I immediately took the wheels off of my bike and started to install the new Maxxis tires. I had a hard time with one of them and it just didn't want to seat on the bead. I tried for about a half hour with no success. So I brought the tire and wheel over to the shop where I bought them and asked them to take a look and see what they thought. The shop owner tried for a few minutes and then took the tire off the rim to inspect it. The conclusion was that the bead was defective so the he tried calling the distributor he ordered them from and was told he had to call Maxxis directly.

So here's where it gets interesting. The shop owner called Maxxis to see about getting a replacement for the defective tire the following Monday (the 19th). On Wednesday I stopped by the shop to check and see what Maxxis' response was and there was a new tire waiting for me. So I just assumed that Maxxis sent a replacement out. But no, the shop owner ordered me a new tire so I would have it because... get this...... Maxxis told him to send the tire back for them to inspect. Then they would replace it if it was deemed defective. The customer service rep told the shop owner it would take approximately 3 weeks to get me my replacement so he just ordered me another so I wouldn't have to wait for it. 3 weeks? Are you kidding me? For a BRAND FREAKING NEW tire? I could understand if it were a few months old and there was a problem but when it's brand new there's really no need for this BS.

Anyway, I wasn't aware of any of what had transpired between the shop owner and Maxxis until this past weekend when I went to the shop to set the tires up tubeless. He was kind enough to let me use his compressor to inflate the tires. They went on the rims without a hitch and I thought everything was good. When I got home and took the bike for a ride I noticed that they were wobbling all over the place. Initially I thought the rims were out of true so I threw them on the stand and they were perfect. So then I was thinking that maybe they weren't seated on the rm properly. So I brought them back (on the bike) for the shop owner to look at. After looking at them for a few minutes he noticed that it was the sidewall of the tires that was bulging in several spots and that's why it looked as though they were out of true. By the way, they weren't bulging when I had them mounted with the tubes so this really looks like the sidewalls are defective.

Now the shop owner is contacting Maxxis again to see about getting replacements for both of these tires. So I'm sure this will take a month and the season will be pretty much over as I live in New England.

So bottom line is the customer service at Maxxis is a joke and I will never buy another one of their tires.

The only good thing is they looked fantastic on my bike and they do offer a very nice ride.

Monstermash

So here's an update....

Check out the video of the defect in this tire. This is one of the replcaements for the original set of these a few weeks ago and this set has the same problem. If that weren't bad enough I left several messages with the customer service manager at Maxxis over that past few weeks with NO RESPONSE. Maxxis took over a week to get around to shipping out a replacement set. Additionally when the shop contacted Maxxis to get the tires warrantied we were told that it was a KNOWN PROBLEM within a specific serial number/date range and the replacements came directly from Maxxis so apparently it extends beyond what they initially thought. So if they knew there was a problem why didn't they recall the effected tires so customers don't have to deal with this problem?
Obviously Maxxis doesn't care about customer service and their products are $hit. Well at least these are.