garysol1 

I have dealt with SRAM and Zipp specifically on warranty and service issues for both myself and for customers and both have never been anything but excellent and very profesional in implementing warranty claims. I have to believe that there is mor to this story for Zipp to be denying this claim.

abstractform20

while i believe that the customer should resources due to a breach of contract between manufacturer and dealer, you seem to break a lot of things.

-bike frame
-pedals
-i assume aero bars from PD
-wheels

what is the name of the bike shop? its quite odd that you refuse to disclose it.

rebel1916

Again, there may be more to the story, but the consumer can't be expected to keep track of the contracts between manufacturers and retailers. And MAPs are legal, but setting actual floors on pricing is illegal in the US as far as I remember.

StanSeven

Come on. That price is too good to be true. Just google and see how much discount you find on Zipp products. Anybody that knows anything about the industry sees a red flag with that large a discount. It's like buying a $20 Rolex watch from a street vendor. It doesn't take a lot of sense to know there's no contract between the vendor and the company.

teamtrinity

If there's more to the story, I'm not aware of it. In my email, I did ask for clarification/more detail of denial of warranty.

teamtrinity

Cervelo P2 frame cracked after having a transition rack collapse at a race. Cervelo determined that while they could issue a crash replacement since this happened in a race, instead they decided that the frame should not have cracked that easily and just warrantied the frame. Went through different retailer than where it was bought, and Cervelo never asked for any proof of purchase. They simply stated they the frame shouldn't have cracked under such little blunt force trauma and they would replace it regardless of any else. Look 595 integrated E-Post was a very very very tight fit into the frame. Look decided to just warranty the post and sent me a new E-Post. Again, they did not care where it was bought or any proof of purchase. Profile Designs was a Aero Drink bottle. I ran it through the dish washer and afterwords, the spongy top shrank and splashed water too easily. Profile Designs just warrantied the entire Aero Drink instead of just the top. Reynolds...didn't use their warranty...but they when I asked if I could use a second hand MV32UL for cyclocross, they emphatically stated I could and that they would even warranty the second hand wheels if they fail on me due to manufacturing issues. As for why not disclose the site? I'm trying to get this straightened out...and until I do, I would rather not disclose who at Zipp I'm speaking with, the local bike shop that attempted to process the warranty, or the shop it was purchased at. To do you all a service, after this comes to a conclusion, I'll update this thread.

teamtrinity

The analogy isn't entirely accurate. It's more like buying a Rolex at steep discount not from a street vendor but from the fancy authorized Rolex dealer. Plus...the other bike companies customer services that I have dealt with never raise a red flag for final selling price because they never asked for proof of purchase. The other companies I mentioned just stood behind the quality of their product. They didn't care where I got it or how much I got it for. They just felt their product should work as advertised...or it should be warrantied.

teamtrinity

My friend did a warranty with SRAM his experience was WAY different than mine. SRAM did not ask for proof of purchase, and did not care who the original retailer was. They just sent him new SRAM Red shifters in 3 business days. And that's been my experience with Look, Cervelo, and Profile Designs (and sorta with Reynolds). Zipp is the first company in the bike industry I've dealt with that seems to actually want a proof of purchase, might care about where it was bought, and might care about how much you bought it for.

StanSeven

I understand what you're saying. But the price is just too good. It may be something like Zipp knew the only way it was that cheap was gray market - the bars maybe were rejects from the overseas manufacturer, or something like that.

But good luck with your claim. The good news is you are only out $100 instead of $300. Ad like you said, you have other bars and keep riding.

gregf83 

They appear to have good reason for being more rigorous in their warranty claims as there are counterfit or knockoff products being sold with their name on it.

teamtrinity

true, at least i'm only out $100. and yeah...i'm basically expecting zipp to tell me to go eff myself. lol but at this point, i'm just curious to see how this goes down. i'm just shocked that zipp does things so different than the other companies iv'e dealt with. live and learn!

teamtrinity

That makes sense. But I'd guess there are a bunch of fake Look frames, Cervelo frames, and Reynolds wheels available in China as well. Found Look 695 and Reynolds RZR and Cervelo S5 on alibaba.com.

Bob Dopolina 

I am a consumer as well and I would be pissed if I were in the OP's position. I am just spiltballing as to what may be going on.

Let's look at it another way.

A consumer purchases a grey market item from an authorized dealer and that product fails resulting in a lawsuit. Who is on the hook for that?

As soon as a product falls outside of normal production/distribution channels all bets are off. Why? Because the brand has certain QC checks in place to ensure the quality of their goods and to protect the end user. Who knows where grey market goods come from. They could be stolen, made illegally by a third shift at the factory, they could be QC failures or straight up counterfeit. Why would a brand want to take a HUGE risk and claim ANY responsibility for that product?

If it is in fact a grey market or counterfeit good then the OP should be talking to the LBS and getting a refund from them not from Zipp who may or may not have had anything to do with the product in the first place.

TrojanHorse

I don't think I've ever had as many warranty issues in my life as you had in one post.

(clap clap)

gregf83 

Yes, and I'm pretty sure that Look, Cervelo and Reynolds aren't warranting those products either.

TDRILL

I can't believe how much flack this guy is getting on here. I can find GP 4000 tires for $75 all day online, more in bike shops, yet can get them on sale from Ribble for $35 dollars. I would expect the exact same warranty on them regardless of the price paid. I am a little surprised how we are demonizing the consumer and not the manufacturer / dealer here. I don't care if you bought them for $5, if Zipp inspected them and they passed as legit Zipp manufactured product purchased from a Zipp dealer, you should get a replacement set no questions, no hand wringing. Hope it works out for you soon

Brian Ratliff

The consumer is screwed. The dealer is in the wrong. Zipp is just trying to keep their marketing channels clean; they evidently have a lot of trouble with counterfeit and gray market parts. Sucks for the consumer. Sucks for Zipp. The dealer is the one who should pay for this mistake. Likely, had you gone through the bike shop you bought from in the first place, if they were dealing with gray market parts (at that price, it's likely), they would have just replaced the part no questions asked and without getting the manufacturer involved. The lesson here is to always deal with product defect issues through the shop you bought from, if at all possible.

FYI: Ribble and PBK deal in gray market parts; how do you think they come up with those prices? Caveat emptor whenever you are dealing with 1) the internet, and 2) a deal that seems too good to be true. Expect problems if you are trying to do things normally done through normal channels. People these days are way too trusting about doing business over the internet. If you are getting stuff at half price, expect problems with manufacturer warranties because what you bought was likely obtained outside normal distribution channels.

Bob Dopolina 

Go ahead and try to get a warranty from Continental on those tires without going through Ribble.

I <3 Robots

Far as I know Campag USA will not warranty gray market parts either.

Bob Dopolina 

^^^ No they will not. Company policy worldwide.

roadwarrior

If it is too good to be true, it probably is.

roadwarrior

Exactly.

roadwarrior

And this is what cracks me up all the time out here when you read these stories on product failures...that the consumer goes directly to the manufacturer and leaves out the third party vendor. I suspect that most of the time they know better, in that they know to save money they circumvented the system and are hoping they can get free replacements because someone is not paying attention. I live about a good nine iron from the Zipp factory and know people there. They are paying attention.

Go back to the shop where you bought the bars. Case closed.

If it is too good to be true, it is...

roadwarrior

Yep. Well said.

WhyFi

"Zipp manufactured," doesn't necessarily mean "Zipp QC passed," if it's gray market.