Interesting perspective. Just two contrary thoughts:I think your expectations should come back to reality a little bit. Granted the warranty process in the cycling industry is a bit ass backwards, but the manufacture covering parts only is unfortunately the norm. Whether the shop wants to charge you for their time is their own business decision with zero support from the brand (most of the time). Bikes purchased from our shop, typically we'll eat the labor charge to show mutual support for the client. Bosch bikes brought to us for warranty cases, happy to take care of them but we need to be paid for our time. This is clearly explained and we'll do everything we can to have the manufacture (bike brand or Bosch) pay us for our time, but in the end we have costs that need covered, either by the client or manufacture.
That's all to say if your shop didn't coach you very well then they set themselves up for failure and piss you off (which it sounds like what happened).
The mileage thing is odd, potentially a re-manufactured drive unit, but typically I've only seen those in good-will warranty cases.
Additionally, bad mouthing a shop that sounds like they're trying to help, on a forum, is a GREAT way to not be invited back to said shop. There's A LOT of different parts in the cycling industry and very little formal training. That's to say it's tough to become an "expert" short of dedicating yourself to the profession through passion. Someone might know how to tune a chain and derailleur with their eyes closed but when you introduce a internally geared hub that hasn't been in the North American market very much, patience goes a long way (both customer and shop). Bike brands will come out with all sorts of "cool new stuff" and shaft the dealer with little to no training. Not surprised they were caught out since Specialized has NEVER used the Enviolo, let alone the Automatiq version. A Tern or R&M dealer would know about the drivetrain, but they can't do anything for the drive unit, bummer. Same with our shop, I've had a Specialized dealership in the past, have all the special tools and diag equipment, but it's all worthless, even on my own Vado! I've tried to reach out even to make a service account, no dice. It's too bad as a number of our clients have Spec bikes and we really can't do anything for them. And the old Spec dealer in town dropped them due to bad business practices (in their eyes), now all of those folks have to drive 1+hr for any diag work, assuming that shop will service bikes they didn't sell.
Food for thought.
1. Speaking for myself, as a customer, I wouldn’t feel that I need to keep my mouth shut lest I not be “invited” back to a bike shop. It’s a business, not a dinner party; and while the customer isn’t always right, it’s not like they’re doing the OP a personal favor by fixing his bike. I personally go out of my way to be patient and kind to folks working in a service business and to avoid any sense of entitlement on my part; but at the end of the day, it’s still a business transaction where my patronage is supporting their business (whether I pay or the manufacturer pays). So, I think it’s a bit much to act as if you need to be “invited.” I suppose a business can have that attitude if they have a monopoly in their area or if they provide some highly specialized service (no pun intended) where demand is high and supply is low. But in a market where there are competitors who can provide the same kind of service, that kind of attitude is a recipe for going out of business.
2. I don’t know what the industry practice is, but I do know that the dealers for both of my e-bikes, which are two different brands/companies, will pay for both parts and labor at an LBS during the warranty period (just as the dealer for my car pays for both parts and labor under warranty). Good to know that many do not, though; I’ll check that thoroughly beforehand if I ever buy another bike. (It never even occurred to me that they wouldn’t, since labor + parts is standard warranty practice in every other context I’m familiar with: cars, consumer electronics, etc.)
Just to be clear: on my read of the OP’s situation, the fault seems to lie at least as much, and perhaps mostly, with Specialized itself rather than the LBS. (Although I will say that many of the issues the OP describes fall squarely on the LBS, and are ones that don’t seem to require highly technical expertise specific to any new ebike technology, like tightening bolts and the belt properly; that’s just lazy or straight-up incompetent. I was raised to take pride in what you do, whether what you do is cleaning toilets or neurosurgery. But I suppose, given that I’m in my 50s, that’s just old guy talk. )
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