Specialized & Online Sales

[Dmitri]

Turns out Specialized don't sell (or prevent the selling of) their bikes online. This is particularly annoying because, where I live, there are no Specialized retailers (or most ebike retailers for that matter, there's no ebike market here) and crossing country borders just to buy a bike is, well, I've done it before but I'm tired.

So what do you think about this? Should I ask someone to buy it for me and just ship it from USA or something? Or just find a more 'compliant' manufacturer? I've already sent them an email about this issue but they won't budge, so...

 

[rich c]

Happens all the time in many industries. You can't buy a Stihl chainsaw on line, dealer only. Same goes for Husqvarna. It's just the way they want to do business. As what you should do, it's your decision to make.

 

[bazzapage]

My advice would be to find a brand that can provide service locally. Ultimately you will have the best experience that way (and this by the way is the reason Specialized do it - aftercare is considered an important thing).

 

[Dmitri]

My advice would be to find a brand that can provide service locally. Ultimately you will have the best experience that way (and this by the way is the reason Specialized do it - aftercare is considered an important thing).

There are no brands that service locally. In a city of over 5 million people, I seem to be the only one with factory-manufactured ebikes. I've seen people with homemade conversions, but there are no 'serious' ebike retailers or official distributors that I know of. Some sellers (e.g., Haibike) have official distributors, but I think they are just resellers, they import the bike, do the paperwork and sell it to you; I have no idea what kind of service they provide.

So, unsurprisingly, all my bikes are ordered from abroad.

 

[rich c]

How did you reach your conclusion that you have to order from abroad when you have no idea what kind of service they provide and you just think they are resellers? Servicing a Haibike usually involves plugging in a computer to read history and fault codes, sending the data to Bosch, then pulling the motor assembly and sending it in. After that, it's just a bike.

 

[Dmitri]

How did you reach your conclusion that you have to order from abroad when you have no idea what kind of service they provide and you just think they are resellers? Servicing a Haibike usually involves plugging in a computer to read history and fault codes, sending the data to Bosch, then pulling the motor assembly and sending it in. After that, it's just a bike.

Well, if we take a Haibike as an example, the official distributor is only in one city. So by definition they wouldn't be able to service the bike because they're in the capital, I'm not, so unless they serve that one particular city, tough. Second, what they specify, explicitly, is that they are an official internet shop. They just sell the stuff. Clicking the service link just gives me a couple of cell phone numbers and the name "Dmitri" (not me). That doesn't sound anywhere near to an officially trained service technician. Oh and they service skis too.

So long story short, I make the assumption that there is no service... or I'll have to go to nearby countries to have the bike serviced... or do it myself (though obviously I don't possess all those wonderful Bosch diagnostic tools, and annoyingly Bosch actually wants you to take a training course before they give you the software).