Curious about others' experience with warranty claims

[Vision_Tim]

So I was on my second ride with my PL and coming down a short decline with roots. No problem. Ride a little further and rear seems squirrelly. Ah, maybe a flat here. Yep, and it was caused by a dented rim. This is the aluminum hoop the PL Carbon comes with.

If it wasn't just my second ride I doubt I would have submitted anything honestly.

OK, submitted answer to their questions and so far so good. Wait - they now want more: Downloaded ride log, weight on bike, PSI in tires (it was 29psi), walk around video.

Seems a little much to me, but has anyone else been down this road?

 

[jcaraiza]

I have a friend who bought an Amflow in January directly from them in the US. Broke the seatstay on March after landing a small drop and Amflow wont take care of the warranty. They offered a crash replacement discount on the part, but they dont have it in stock and don't know when they will.

 

[TheKaiser]

So I was on my second ride with my PL and coming down a short decline with roots. No problem. Ride a little further and rear seems squirrelly. Ah, maybe a flat here. Yep, and it was caused by a dented rim. This is the aluminum hoop the PL Carbon comes with.

If it wasn't just my second ride I doubt I would have submitted anything honestly.

OK, submitted answer to their questions and so far so good. Wait - they now want more: Downloaded ride log, weight on bike, PSI in tires (it was 29psi), walk around video.

Seems a little much to me, but has anyone else been down this road?

I'll be following this with interest, as this whole Avinox/Amflow warranty situation has been a big question for me that will influence if I buy one. I can tell you from experience with other big bike brands, damage like you describe would totally be at their discretion, and how "cool" they want to be. They can easily say that you didn't have enough air in the rear tire for the conditions, and therefore it's not a warranty, even if they used a really cheap soft alloy in the rear rim that made it dent more easily than higher quality brands. In the old days, when your local bike shop would be handling this as a sort of middleman, they could advocate on your behalf, saying you're a responsible rider, not doing anything crazy, etc...and a cool brand might do you a solid. In this case, it seems like they're looking for the the digital documentation to serve that same purpose, and it remains to be seen how cool they are about it. Keeping my fingers crossed for ya, so let us know how it goes.

 

[Vision_Tim]

I'll be following this with interest, as this whole Avinox/Amflow warranty situation has been a big question for me that will influence if I buy one. I can tell you from experience with other big bike brands, damage like you describe would totally be at their discretion, and how "cool" they want to be. They can easily say that you didn't have enough air in the rear tire for the conditions, and therefore it's not a warranty, even if they used a really cheap soft alloy in the rear rim that made it dent more easily than higher quality brands. In the old days, when your local bike shop would be handling this as a sort of middleman, they could advocate on your behalf, saying you're a responsible rider, not doing anything crazy, etc...and a cool brand might do you a solid. In this case, it seems like they're looking for the the digital documentation to serve that same purpose, and it remains to be seen how cool they are about it. Keeping my fingers crossed for ya, so let us know how it goes.

Thanks, it will be interesting. Apparently I have to hook up to the USB port to download the data.

In any event, I'm lucky that I have options if they choose to punt on this.

 

[TheKaiser]

I have a friend who bought an Amflow in January directly from them in the US. Broke the seatstay on March after landing a small drop and Amflow wont take care of the warranty. They offered a crash replacement discount on the part, but they dont have it in stock and don't know when they will.

Man, that is totally rediculous! If he crashed and a rock cracked the side of the seatstay (it has happened to me), then I could understand the crash replacement offer (rather than warranty) but if the bike stayed upright and the frame just broke under the load then that seems almost certainly like a flaw in the frame manufacture. Unless the drop was huge, or your friend weighs 500lbs, then I'm sure people have been out there doing much bigger stuff without them breaking, which suggests it was a flaw in the stays on his specific bike.

Regarding the "out of stock" issue, with no ETA, that is totally unacceptable! If they're out of them and don't plan to make more any time soon (presumably they are pretty busy making PXs and PRs now) then they should offer him the option of a whole new PX or PR frame. I've seen several reputable bike companies like Santa Cruz, Specialized, and Trek, do exactly that, in order to make things right with a customer when a frame part wasn't available.

I'm assuming your friend is pretty bummed, and if he doesn't have another bike to hold him over while this is resolved, then he might want to look into carbon repair options. He'd want to fully document the damage first, so Amflow can't use the repair to claim there isn't still a warranty issue, but there are several reputable carbon repair places that could probably get him back on the trail for a few hundred dollars, as long as he isn't concerned about matching the paint. There are also a number of people who've done DIY carbon repairs and documented it online, if that is at all something that interests him.

You know, on 2nd thought, he might also want to look into any protections he has from the credit card used for the purchase. The threat of a chargeback might help Amflow to suddenly "find" a set of stays or a whole new frame for him!

 

[Plyphon]

My bike arrived with a duff charger (only charged if you turned the bike on) but after a quick email exchange, sending of logs, they then sent out a new one without fuss.

 

[Vision_Tim]

Well bad news, they decided that I didn't have enough air (29psi is plenty!), and the terrain is at fault. Maybe they implied I'm fat. Keep in mind I ride this trail all the time never an issue. Also, the replacement wheel (DT Swiss 1900) has had zero issues on the same trail.

I'm a bit disappointed as this was literally the second ride on the new bike. There you have it, buyer beware?