Warranty Claims

I've had a number of cats come through the bike shop lately with various warranty claims. Some are legitimate (such as a new KHE tire's blown sidewall), while others are completely rider error. In this post I intend to discuss the purpose, scope, and effects of the warranty process...

A Little History

There was once a day when a manufacturing failure would lead to the rider swear off that particular company for life... or until they came out with some far too cool new part. At the same time, the quality of complementary that made its way into the BMX market was marginal. Tolerances were wide open, if specified at all; and materials were often very poor. What this did was leave an opening in the market for some quality.

Enter the high(er) quality manufacturers. Profile Racing began offering tight tolerance machined hubs; Primo introduced their cold forged Powerbite cranks (cold forging offers greater tolerance control than casting or hot forging along with good grain orientation in the outer limits of the structure). These components earned a reputation for being less likely to bend, break, or snap. But how could companies compete with high end, and high dollar, components?

In the late 1990's Odyssey took a turn from mediocre quality, fair variety components, toward a different business model. The idea was to introduce two concurrent and complimentary ideas to their product line: post weld heat treatment for their forks, and a no-questions-asked warranty.

41 Thermal, as they call their heat treatment regimen is designed not only to reduce the heat affected zone inherent in welded components, but also to make the component bend noticeably before breaking. From this, Odyssey forks developed a reputation for being extremely strong, while staying cost, and weight competitive. Even though there have been quite a number of bent components over the years, the easy, and fairly quick warranty process has reduced the amount of negative feedback on their components.

Today, it is quite common for riders to suggest purchasing Odyssey components because of their amazingly lenient warranty process (Nuno even offered to warranty my cracked Polycarbonate Twisted pedals!) Picking up on this, many other manufacturers have eased and streamlined their warranty systems. They have learned that supporting the rider, even to some immediate detriment, can have long term beneficial effects.

Purpose of the Warranty Process

You can ask around and I am sure you will get various responses to this question. My response is from the perspective of a shop manager, rider, and prospective manufacturer. The warranty process should be designed to induce a positive company image in the mind of the rider. What this means is that a component should not fail without due cause (i.e. riding hard will inevitably damage parts, especially when we get into lighter weight components). If a component fails due to manufacturing errors, it should most definitely be covered under warranty. A common example of this is a crack directly on a weld, which indicates contamination in the melt pool, and subsequent weld.

There is another purpose, as the Odyssey example shows: to increase customer base simply because of the streamlined warranty process. Although I do not list this as a primary reason for purchasing a particular component, it is certainly beneficial to the rider; even more so if they are on a budget.

When a claim goes too far

I had a cat come into the shop with corroded nipples on a machine built (pre-built) wheel. He claimed it was a warranty issue because he had never see that happen before. Perhaps unfortunately for him, I had. The corrosion was due to excessive sweating seeping onto the aluminum nipples. The electrolytes in sweat increase the rate of oxidation (and on some materials nitrogenation) of materials. Often these oxides are much more brittle than their parent materials, leading to sudden failure or cracking. The point is manufacturers have no way of knowing, nor a reasonable way of preventing all of the outlying conditions that may lead to failure.

So the next time a part fails on you, ask yourself a few questions:

* How did the component fail (break? bend? where? how much?)?

* What lead to the failure?

* Could it have been a manufacturing issue?

Of course you could send in the product in any case, but if they deny your claim, don't give them a bad wrap if they conclude that it is not a manufacturing issue. If they do deny and you feel it is unjust, post it up on line with the question of whether it is a manufacturing fault.