My Nerdy Life

Warranties: Why it Pays to Read the Fine Print

Product warranties are great, but sometimes they can be a real hassle to deal with. Not to mention the hidden costs of shipping and labour that can add up very quickly, which are often not covered under warranty! So it pays to read the fine print and understand what your warranty covers and what it doesn’t, or if you have alternative coverage from other sources (e.g., insurance, credit cards).

Often, reading the fine print of a given service provider or product can be annoying, confusing, and generally feel like the odds are against you should anything go wrong with your purchase. Other times though, it can save you a lot of time and money by knowing your obligations as well as the company’s obligations should you need to correspond with that company after your purchase. Last time I mentioned that my bike had a mechanical failure while biking in Fernie that left my bike largely unrideable.

As with any mechanical system, things do fail and parts need to be replaced under normal wear and tear. Unfortunately, my bike is only 8 months old and 4 of those months were during winter when my bike sat in the basement. So the particular part that failed should have lasted a lot longer. My guess is it was a manufacturing defect that caused the part to fail prematurely.

I bought the bike from an online store out of the USA (JensonUSA), and I knew I was taking a slight risk in doing so. The way warranties typically work with bikes is that the dealer you bought it from has to inspect the failure and submit a warranty claim to the manufacturer on your behalf. That means, should I have a problem with my bike the normal procedure would require me to send my bike at my own expense back the the USA (California) from Canada, which can easily cost over $100 one way.

Since I wanted to avoid the cost (and headache) of shipping things back and forth, I decided to dig a little deeper into the warranty policy. Typically, bike companies only make frames and then dress them up with components from other suppliers (Shimano, Sram, Fox, etc.). In my case the rear hub was manufactured by DT Swiss, a well known Swiss wheel/hub manufacturer. They also have a good reputation for taking care of their customers if something goes wrong. Knowing that, I went to their website and submitted a request via their contact form to find out if I could get my bike fixed at a local bike shop under warranty, despite the fact that I purchased it elsewhere.

I was fulling expecting a reply along the lines of “I’m sorry but the policy requires you to send it back to the dealer, and they can submit a warranty claim,” but I didn’t! Without batting an eye, they said I can bring it to my local shop, just show them the email exchange, and they’ll take care of the rest. Wow, now that’s what I call good customer service!

Admittedly, I’m a little bummed that my bike isn’t rideable (good thing I have another one!), and it’s disappointing that the part failed to begin with, but knowing DT Swiss cares about their customers makes me want to continue giving them my business. There’s nothing more off-putting and frustrating than a company that makes you jump through hoops to get them to stand behind their products and honour a warranty claim. And thanks to spending a few minutes reading through the policies I saved myself a lot of trouble and money by getting the work done locally for free!

Now I’m just waiting for the parts to come in and get the replacement done and hopefully I’ll be riding again within a week or so.

What good/bad experiences have you had with warranties? Any tips and tricks to make the most of a potentially crappy situation?