How local bikeshops treat your online purchase?

[Chancelucky2]

Most bike shops tend to make more money from doing repairs than they do from selling bikes and bike parts. My experience is that they're happy to have my business and generally don't care where I bought the bike. The warranty/labor issue is a bit different, but my take is that most reputable shops will work with you some (though probably not lose money to do it) to keep your business long term for service.

 

[PDoz]

Duke, I'm struggling to understand why you are blaming the lbs rather than considering if the problem is with bh's after sales support?

You have 2 lbs both effectively telling you that doing warranty work for bh is going to be a pita. One is willing to help you out by still doing the work if you take on the hassle of chasing payment, the other is possibly being more realistic with you and explaining even getting the parts is going to be a barrier.

They are also taking the risk of explaining to you the 2 way nature of the buisiness experience. That seems incredibly honest to me!

Why would these shops both risk bad pr if warranty work was a profitable or easy exercise?

You talk about " saving " 1/3 of the cost - perhaps now might be a good time to be rebuilding the relationship with the dealer who is willing to do the work if you pay labour? Just be very clear on will they be charging for the time it takes to chase bh parts , how much this is likely to cost and do they think you might be better off considering another brand.

Ps I have no experience with bh , just fantastic after sale support from giant and an lbs who was gone above and beyond in supporting my purchase.

 

[champignon]

I buy most things online, in part because I live in a rural area most of the time, and the rest of my time is spent in a medium sized city where I often cannot find whatever it is that I want to buy from a local shop, be it a bike shop or any other specialty type shop. Home Depot and Lowes and Walmart and Costco are great for what they sell, but the specialty stores just don't tend to sell what I want. I took two bikes into a local shop recently for tuneups; one of these was an e-bike conversion folding bike that was bought from Lunacycle, and the other a high end regular 21 speed Dahon bike bought out of state and online. I have no qualms about paying for labor and parts. The shop was happy to have my business. I looked at what they had to sell and in all honesty didn't see anything that I wanted to buy.

I think that you should probably assume that any online bike that you buy will not come with any local warranty service, period. If the bike is DOA then hopefully the seller/manufacturer will bail you out. If the bike runs OK for a while but then fails, you are probably on your own other than for any parts you can get out of the manufacturer or seller while the bike is still under warranty. Otherwise, get out your checkbook.

I like the choices that the online marketplace gives me to obtain things that I otherwise would never see in local physical stores. I do not expect local physical merchants to honor guarantees on merchandise I bought elsewhere. I'm in business myself and I don't work for free, and I don't expect anyone else to do so, either.

 

[The duke]

Duke, I'm struggling to understand why you are blaming the lbs rather than considering if the problem is with bh's after sales support?

You have 2 lbs both effectively telling you that doing warranty work for bh is going to be a pita. One is willing to help you out by still doing the work if you take on the hassle of chasing payment, the other is possibly being more realistic with you and explaining even getting the parts is going to be a barrier.

They are also taking the risk of explaining to you the 2 way nature of the buisiness experience. That seems incredibly honest to me!

Why would these shops both risk bad pr if warranty work was a profitable or easy exercise?

You talk about " saving " 1/3 of the cost - perhaps now might be a good time to be rebuilding the relationship with the dealer who is willing to do the work if you pay labour? Just be very clear on will they be charging for the time it takes to chase bh parts , how much this is likely to cost and do they think you might be better off considering another brand.

Ps I have no experience with bh , just fantastic after sale support from giant and an lbs who was gone above and beyond in supporting my purchase.

Hi PDoz. No need to struggle to explain why I'm blaming bikeshops....I wasnt trying to blame anyone for anything. Just reporting my experience and trying to understand it a little better, which this thread has helped me do.

I bought my Rolex online. The mall jewelers have no problem doing warranty work or even giving the watch a free clean and polish while I'm shopping.
I used an auto broker to buy my car, but my local dealer had no problem replacing a warranty battery.

Maybe you're right PDoz, and maybe Rolex/Mercedes make warranty and service work lucrative for their retailers. But my local bike shops are telling me taking my warranty work would be a hassle to them. They don't want my bike sitting in the workshop while they wait for parts. They don't want to spend time chasing after reimbursement.

They made a choice as business people and I appreciate it and respect it, but don't understand it. Are local bike shops really doing that much business that they don't need to bother with high labor, small dollar jobs? They were both EMPTY when I walked in. I was the only customer both times. And I dealt with employees both times....not owners. I'd personally rather keep my employees busy, generating income instead of staring out the window waiting for the next customer. Building good will with ebike owners to maybe gain their business or referral someday.

Am I, the online buyer, considered a lost cause to them? Am I ruled out as a chance of future business? As a buyer of helmets, gloves, lights, tires, future tune ups, etc? Or is there an animosity towards me for what I did....buy online instead of local. Because that's the vibe I'm getting....or maybe it's my imagination.

 

[Johnny]

In my experience if you take your online purchase to a lbs you can get what you need by paying the labor. At least that is my experience so far.

They were very friendly and helped me in my update of the bosch software(only paid $10-15 which is very reasonable). I learned that Bosch does not compensate the bike shops for warranty job labor so it is only fair to pay them.

So if your shop told you that they would charge for labor it is ok. If without even mentioning labor they just give you the attitude then let them be, there are lots of nice lbs's around.

There is also the manufacturer side of things. Does your manufacturer explicitly state that they cover labor for warranty work ? If they do then get in touch with them first and let them get in touch with the bicycle shop , that may ease the problem. If Manufacturer tells you that it covers labor yet your manufacturer's official dealer refuses work then something is seriously wrong on one of the two sides.

good luck.

Edit: Took a quick look at the BH website for warranty conditions. https://bhbikesusa.com/warranty-electric/ . It actually states that it does not cover labor charges for part replacement. There are a couple of more statements in that warranty page. I think you should first get in touch with them.