Decoy Warranty Fail.

Lee Dove

Lee Dove

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Hi,
I posted in another thread about my Decoy warranty issue.

Nearly 10 weeks ago I had a battery failure. The battery was completely dead out of the bike so no ambiguity about the problem or complex diagnosis needed.

I raised a warranty claim and was told I would have to return the whole bike as batteries can't be shipped separate. I sent it back to YT and they told me that due to Covid it would be a 4 week turnaround. After almost 8 weeks they confirmed that the battery was faulty (duh) and said that they would not have a replacement available until October (12-14 weeks from my claim).

I suggested that as they had some Decoys in stock that they could take a battery from one of these and replace it when the new stock arrived. They said that they would not do that but gave no reason.

So 12-14 weeks for a simple component swap. Given this experience I will not be recommending anyone buys a YT decoy even though I own 2 YT bikes and love riding my Decoy. You can't enjoy riding a bike you do not have.
 
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Lee Dove said:
The UK guy (Dan) is dealing with it but the bike still had to go back to Germany.
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wow.. whats the point of having a UK based operation which is just a shipping centre for sending stuff back to Germany.
if I were you I would have demanded a refund a long time ago.
 
dobbyhasfriends said:
wow.. whats the point of having a UK based operation which is just a shipping centre for sending stuff back to Germany.
if I were you I would have demanded a refund a long time ago.
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The UK center does not even ship it back . I packed it and sent it direct, they do pay the shipping . I gave them the benefit of the having time issues due to Covid but now saying they won't ship a battery when they have them is crap. The fact that the battery is in a bike makes no difference as it is just another storage location in the company.
 
Lee Dove said:
The UK center does not even ship it back . I packed it and sent it direct, they do pay the shipping . I gave them the benefit of the having time issues due to Covid but now saying they won't ship a battery when they have them is crap. The fact that the battery is in a bike makes no difference as it is just another storage location in the company.
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mental, piss poor customer service but we've heard it time and time again.
when I sold my Levo I mailed YT cos I really wanted a decoy and they were missing some other items I wanted to buy at the same time so it was a checkout query. they were so incompetent answering my questions that I just mailed them and said forget it, I'm buying a Levo again.
they did actually get back to me to try and discuss it but I had already bought the Levo.
if a company is incompetent when selling you something you can be pretty certain that their customer service will be shite.
sorry to hear about your problems, have you asked for a refund ?
 
Just in time inventory, the end result is long waits for warranty . It's a global issue across every sector , companies save on warehousing cost of products, inventory delivery is when parts are bolted to the finished product.
Its a shame YT didn't use a generic shimano battery you would just buy one.
There is a maximin time limit/ consumer law on settling warranty claims and most companies these days push that limit to the end .
Consumer laws in most countries would require manufactures to have warranty parts available, but warranty pats become "just in time" within the maximin time warranty claim settlement . Its 3 months in Australia for claim settlement , when I destroy a frame they make me wait 3 months while making out they are doing me a favour .
I don't have brand loyalty anymore, they are all crap.

Maybe see if you can get a loaner bike !
 
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I had to warranty my battery a month ago. I got the new one to my door less than a week after sending YT an email. ?‍♂️
 
North America YT appears to be sooooo much better than Europe. Which is strange considering they are from Germany.
 
They have now closed my case with a comment that I will get my bike "sometime" in October ! I am not sure why they close the case before they have fixed the issue.

So folks the moral of this story is DO NOT BUY a YT Decoy. I have spent close on £10k with YT but they will not get another penny from me.
 
Lee Dove said:
They have now closed my case with a comment that I will get my bike "sometime" in October ! I am not sure why they close the case before they have fixed the issue.

So folks the moral of this story is DO NOT BUY a YT Decoy. I have spent close on £10k with YT but they will not get another penny from me.
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good to know as I've been thinking about it. shame on YT. Adam Smith's invisible hand at work.
 
Lee Dove said:
Hi,
I posted in another thread about my Decoy warranty issue.

Nearly 10 weeks ago I had a battery failure. The battery was completely dead out of the bike so no ambiguity about the problem or complex diagnosis needed.

I raised a warranty claim and was told I would have to return the whole bike as batteries can't be shipped separate. I sent it back to YT and they told me that due to Covid it would be a 4 week turnaround. After almost 8 weeks they confirmed that the battery was faulty (duh) and said that they would not have a replacement available until October (12-14 weeks from my claim).

I suggested that as they had some Decoys in stock that they could take a battery from one of these and replace it when the new stock arrived. They said that they would not do that but gave no reason.

So 12-14 weeks for a simple component swap. Given this experience I will not be recommending anyone buys a YT decoy even though I own 2 YT bikes and love riding my Decoy. You can't enjoy riding a bike you do not have.
Click to expand...

YT was dropped from my list of bikes to consider after the utterly shitty way they handled their sponsorship of Aaron Gwin and Neko Mulally.
 
Lee Dove said:
The fact that the battery is in a bike makes no difference as it is just another storage location in the company.
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In legal terms there's a big difference. Batteries on their own are considered a serious fire risk; batteries in situ are not.

No idea why that's the case, but it is. So shipping a bike with a battery is not a problem; shipping a battery without a bike is a regulatory nightmare.
 
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KeithR said:
In legal terms there's a big difference. Batteries on their own are considered a serious fire risk; batteries in situ are not.

No idea why that's the case, but it is. So shipping a bike with a battery is not a problem; shipping a battery without a bike is a regulatory nightmare.
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They still have my bike so they could take one from a stock bike , fit it and send my bike with battery back.
 
Lee Dove said:
They have now closed my case with a comment that I will get my bike "sometime" in October ! I am not sure why they close the case before they have fixed the issue.

So folks the moral of this story is DO NOT BUY a YT Decoy. I have spent close on £10k with YT but they will not get another penny from me.
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Does the 30% price discrepancy between a decoy and Levo not compensate you for the out of ride time ? . I know its a major inconvenience, but would you feel happier paying 30% more for a Levo over a decoy and needing a new motor that could take a month to replace ?
 
HOMIE5000 said:
Does the 30% price discrepancy between a decoy and Levo not compensate you for the out of ride time ? . I know its a major inconvenience, but would you feel happier paying 30% more for a Levo over a decoy and needing a new motor that could take a month to replace ?
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Probably . My local shops (Spec. and Santa Cruz) will lend you a bike while yours is out of action.
 
ggx said:
Supose it´s not as simple as that. BAttery #, motor # etc is attached to one bike, so they can´t mess with it easily. My gess
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Battery number and motor number have no connection to a bike. My motor was replaced by the shimano agent with a simple swap. They just do not want to remove a bike from stock to do it , even for an existing customer.
 
Lee Dove said:
They have now closed my case with a comment that I will get my bike "sometime" in October ! I am not sure why they close the case before they have fixed the issue.
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Somebody has case closure goals to meet, so they close the case when they think they can get away with it to make their process times look better to the boss or whoever is looking at them....
 
They have loaner bikes there. We met a guy on the trail who was on one. Can't see why you weren't offered one or some alternative. I think everyone is up against it with COVID.

Sad to hear, was hoping to see customer service/confidence improve with the opening of the Guildford store.

Sounds a bit like process has overruled common sense here.

Can you request a refund? It's nearly at the point of not fit for purpose. Please do report back, that amount of time off the bike is baaaaad.
 
I am a bit surprised by YT handling here. Just swapping-out the battery for a new one is by far the best solution for you and them. I have nothing but good experiences with YT's handling and they always communicate fast. I suspect they just have very very limited batteries in stock and they have your money in their pocket already. They can not sell bikes without battery so you draw the short straw here.
A three month wait for a battery and no intermediate solution given is really not what you might expect from them. It is certainly something you should not accept. Due to COVID19 there might be battery shortages, but at least they should try to help you out.

If you lived near me, you could have borrowed my battery some times to ride....
 
Lee Dove said:
They still have my bike so they could take one from a stock bike , fit it and send my bike with battery back.
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mate, this thread really annoys me, I really like YT bikes and if they had decent service, I would still consider a decoy with the EP8 but this thread is enough to put anyone off.
it annoys me cos I want a YT and there is no way I could buy one cos sadly your story isnt an isolated one.
 
dobbyhasfriends said:
mate, this thread really annoys me, I really like YT bikes and if they had decent service, I would still consider a decoy with the EP8 but this thread is enough to put anyone off.
it annoys me cos I want a YT and there is no way I could buy one cos sadly your story isnt an isolated one.
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One of the reasons for posting this is to let people know. I have 2 YT's and have defended them in the past but this case is really not on. I know due to Covid they may have supply issues but that should also mean that they are prepared to take some non standard actions to give customer service. When I had a Scott with an shock issue (new design) they took a shock off a stock bike and sent it to me.

I will not be buying another YT.
 
Lee Dove said:
They still have my bike so they could take one from a stock bike , fit it and send my bike with battery back.
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sorry, but there are 2 types of customers.
the ones that already bought a bike (thank you but now that we have your money - get lost...) and the very welcomed guys that have to pay 5 or 6 grand yet...
 
To be honest, Im Starting to regret my purchase as well. I’ve been going up and down and owning the bike for about a month. I live in the US, and while support has been super solid, I’m starting to get annoyed with the fact that I have to tinker And fix shit after every ride. Now the bike is creaking like a haunted house and sill have to start tearing the frame apart to find the source of that problem as well. I honestly have not done 2 consecutive rides without working on the bike and they’ve sent me multiple warranty parts.

While I’ll never own another specialized because I despise the company, I wouldn’t question someone from paying the premium for a Levo. At least they get multiple rides before a failure...
 
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