We recently purchased two Como bikes, and love them! We bought them from a good bike store but it is two and a half hours away. Our local Specialized store didn't have any. We wonder about warranty work. The local shop tell me they will do repairs covered under the warranties but Specialized will pay only for the parts and not their labor. I thought the Specialized "network" of shops would cover all parts and labor regardless of where the bike had been bought. What, please, is the deal warranty? Thank you. Ned
Hey Ned,
You've hit a chord in the cycling industry. More of my professional experience comes from the powersports industry and in that industry (similar to automotive) they pay parts and labor. Granted the labor paid is flat rate and based on one of their master techs working on a bike that they train on thus usually a much lower pay rate than what one would see in a shop.
That said, you never charge a customer additional labor unless the customer installed accessories or something to legitimately require more labor. That's in the powersports industry.
In cycling it's commonplace for brands (save for Yamaha) to only pay for parts. It's on the shop if they want to cover the labor charge or charge the customer. I've always been of be belief that if the bike came from us we'll eat the labor charge in order to get the customer back on the road as soon as possible. If the customer wanted to buy a bike from us and we didn't have it, then it's a judgement call. The bike brands (again, save for Yamaha) do not cover labor as there is no regulation telling them they have to.
This is where I hope e-bikes can help the cycling industry "grow up" and take notes from powersports and cover labor for warranty repairs. It's ridiculous to make a consumer pay for manufacture failures. The cycling industry is on the right path, offering tech training and more robust service culture to help facilitate this cultural shift.
It's normal for your LBS to ask for a labor charge for warranty work as backwards as that seems. Please try and work with them as this is the unfortunately pinch that both we, and other LBS are put into. We all want to keep you on the road but we need to keep the lights on and food on the table!
I hope this helps, please ask any additional questions, happy to help!
