# Rotten Customer Service and Retention



## socal59 (Apr 6, 2006)

Disappointed in Specialized!!! After spending good money on my 5 month old Tarmac Pro Race with carbon rims (Rapt. 40 MM) they melted/bubbled on one side on rear rim. No high speed stops no alpine hills, normal riding. Rock and Road shop (where I bought it) said for sure I would get a new rim from Spesh, but nope Specialiezed rejected the claim saying "I dragged my brakes" WTH! why would someone ride dragging their brakes? 
R&R is going to try to get me a rim, waiting for their managers approval. So after riding nothing but Specialized since 2005, I will most likely sell my bike, perhaps all 3 and bad mouth Specialized for such poor customer service/ retention.


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## Father Guzzi Obrian (Jan 31, 2015)

I've bought 4 specialized road and mountain bikes from Rock and Road in Anaheim Hills, they have always been able to get warranty approval for any issues I had. The really went to bat for me, I am sure they will be able to sort you out, even if they have to eat the cost. Good luck


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## Stumpjumper FSR (Aug 6, 2006)

socal59 said:


> Disappointed in Specialized!!! After spending good money on my 5 month old Tarmac Pro Race with carbon rims (Rapt. 40 MM) they *melted/bubbled *on one side on rear rim. No high speed stops no alpine hills, normal riding. Rock and Road shop (where I bought it) said for sure I would get a new rim from Spesh, but nope Specialiezed rejected the claim saying "I dragged my brakes" WTH! why would someone ride dragging their brakes?
> R&R is going to try to get me a rim, waiting for their managers approval. So after riding nothing but Specialized since 2005, I will most likely sell my bike, perhaps all 3 and bad mouth Specialized for such poor customer service/ retention.



I've never seen this happen to a carbon rim under normal conditions, did you change brake pads?


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## socal59 (Apr 6, 2006)

Fathe Guzi, hopefully they will take care of it. But, it stinks that the local shop has to fork over their own money, because Spesh is being an old school dinosaur.


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## socal59 (Apr 6, 2006)

Stumpjumpe, the bike is only a few months old with the original brake pads. Plus the rim only bubbled on one side on part of the rim. So it just grabs on those spots when applying the brake.


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## Tig (Feb 9, 2004)

socal59 said:


> Stumpjumpe, the bike is only a few months old with the original brake pads. Plus the rim only bubbled on one side on part of the rim. So it just grabs on those spots when applying the brake.


Sure sounds like a manufacturer's defect.


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## 1Butcher (Mar 15, 2011)

Joining RBR then whining and complaining about an overheated rim is a hell of a start. 

Rims do not overheat at our riding speeds. So you should be in agreement that the rim had some excessive heating to cause the 'defect'. Since Specialized did not cause the extra heat, that leaves the owner. A dragging brake will cause one side to get hotter than the other and under normal braking will cause it to get those extreme temperatures. Why would anyone drag there brakes? No one would 'knowingly' drag their brakes. 5 months of riding a bike could cause a lot of issues with adjustments.

The odds of the resin being bad on one side of the wheel than the other is slim to none. You should see how they make carbon fiber parts.

I'm certain Specialized will not be happy to see you go, but in all honestly they are not going to go broke if you do. There is no reason that any company will want to help you if you say you will sell all your stuff and never buy another product. Why waste good will money on a customer that will not come back. Why waste good will money when the customer is going to promote bad press on the net. Just like raising kids, why promote bad behavior with treats? 

As far as I can see, you overheated the rims and Specialized does not want to support someone who bashes them on the net. 

Let me know when you sell all your Specialized stuff I just might be interested in some parts [But certainly not any wheels you have].


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## socal59 (Apr 6, 2006)

Really 1Butcher??? Your personal attacks and sarcastic post is certainly not helpful to me or others that may encounter this problem. 

The rim did overheat at riding speed, that is the speed I ride at. I ride with different clubs at norman non racer speeds. What an odd and comment you make, "rims do not overheat at our riding speeds". 

The brakes were not dragging, I check the bike out before every ride to make sure everything is working correctly. The brakes were centered and worked perfectly. The mechanic at the shop where i purchased it said this was odd and definitely a defect. They have gone over the bike a few times under a new purchase service check, the bike was purchased in August 27 2014. 

Spesh is a dinosaur of a company if they don't keep and retain customers, especially with all the bad mouthing they have had over the past couple of years with law suites, pulling from independent shops etc. I always stuck up for them, I have three Spesh bikes and have been riding the brand since 2005. Many companies now days will cover such incidents and usually add the insurance of doing so into the cost of the product, it is not much based on numbers. If I ran my business like they do, just letting customers go to one of the other competitors (which there certainly is no shortage of) I would be out of business. Do I like giving away my service if need be, NO, but its the way one keeps customers and online reviews positive. I certainly don't feel like I am making something up to trash them for no reason. Letting others know of a bad experience is pretty common and is not "bad behavior" Who are you to judge on my behavior? You may disagree on the issue, but insulting my behavior is certainly uncalled for. 

Just curious if you were rewarded for bad behavior as a child? All this bad behavior, anger and insult you put out, shows that perhaps you were.


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## Brypro91 (Nov 10, 2011)

Has the bike ever been mounted on a vehicle before? Specifically a trunk or trailer hitch type mount?


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## socal59 (Apr 6, 2006)

No such tail pipe melting. My Rack has wheels nowhere near exhaust pipes.


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## socal59 (Apr 6, 2006)

I heard good news that the local shop will give me a demo bike rim. That's good news, but sad that local shop basically pays and Spesh does not do so. My local shop knows I buy a lot of Spesh products, shoes, helmet, etc. Just purchased S-Works shoes from them. They get and understand good customer service. Great shop.


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## Stumpjumper FSR (Aug 6, 2006)

socal59 said:


> Stumpjumpe, the bike is only a few months old with the original brake pads. Plus the rim only bubbled on one side on part of the rim. So it just grabs on those spots when applying the brake.


Can you post some pictures of the damaged rim?


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## socal59 (Apr 6, 2006)

Stumpjumper, I don't have the rim. Specialized has it. I didn't take any pictures of it. They small bumps are not easy to see, I only new something was wrong by how the brakes grabbed at the bad spots. I had to look closely to see the bumps.


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## ljvb (Dec 10, 2014)

1Butcher said:


> Joining RBR then whining and complaining about an overheated rim is a hell of a start.


Funny.. he has been a member since 2006, while you have only been a member since 2011.... Maybe you should do a little research before you post crap, especially personal attacks.

rule number 1, don't be an **shole.


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## digibud (Oct 26, 2010)

how do you think they were caused?


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## MMsRepBike (Apr 1, 2014)

socal59 said:


> Stumpjumper, I don't have the rim. Specialized has it. I didn't take any pictures of it. They small bumps are not easy to see, I only new something was wrong by how the brakes grabbed at the bad spots. I had to look closely to see the bumps.


Well they better give it back. Why would they have it? The way I understand it is when there's a warranty claim the shop submits pictures to Specialized. What is Specialized doing with your rim? Did they approve the pictures and ask to have the wheel mailed in and then deny the claim once they got it? I too am curious about what was actually said by them. The claim that brakes were dragged is inconsistent with your claim of bubbling in one area. Your claim though is perfectly consistent to putting it on a bike rack on the back of a car. Something you've already denied.


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## 3DKiwi (Dec 1, 2012)

If you haven't done so already, post about this on Specialized's Facebook page. That may get their attention plus more support for you.


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## robt57 (Jul 23, 2011)

I once bought a new 1998 Klein Mantra. Second ride out I had some hard plastic sun glasses like eye patients wear over my glasses fall from my mouth I was holding them while gloving up fall like 18" and pop a huge circle of paint off the top black beam. No dent, just paint that wanted to escape form the metal and did. They would not do anything about it. I sold it and my OCLV and have spent 10s! of thousands since then on everything but a Trek. Including a Scott Addict LTD which was $12k retail in 2009. You lost that sale Trek Folks, and a lot more!

FLIP YOU TREK!

I have a few Specialized, only one I got new and under warranty. If I ever feel like you do, DONE! There are so many good bikes I will get and never touch a New Trek, and then A Spesh if I ever feel they pull **** to get out of a warranty that is not a crash.

Note to self [and youz guiez too] dropping sunglasses on your top tube = crash.


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## 1Butcher (Mar 15, 2011)

Sorry, no sarcasm. I meant everything I wrote. 

Sorry to sound so terrible. The complaint just sounds like you are perfect and there is no way you caused the overheating of the rim. All I know is that Specialized did not overheat a rim since a company cannot ride a bike. Obviously something happened and we'll never know. 

All but one posts have been about complaining about a rim that Specialized ruined and one about me for sticking up for a company that does not want to give in for something they did not cause. 

So what if he as not contributed since 2006. Heck, with my comments, I'm willing to say I have not contributed at all since 2011. But no personal attacks were started by me. I just indicated that the rims were not overheated by Specialized and I agree with Specialized by not accepting blame for it. 

Warranty will fix problem with manufacturing not abuse. Goodwill will pay for anything. Look up the term goodwill. I think with all the bad mouthing that has been said, I would not offer goodwill since there is nothing good that will come out from it. 

One thing that has not been looked at is, what if it was caused by Aliens.......


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## robt57 (Jul 23, 2011)

1Butcher said:


> One thing that has not been looked at is, what if it was caused by Aliens.......



The other thing not mentioned maybe is an inconsistency in the resin mixing with the hardener and a lot less heat effected an area. 

I have one spot on a EC90 bars down past the bend where the resin did something different for example. Who is to say what will effect the part. The answer is, the ones that will be making red ink if they give it up the way I see it. 

Anyway...


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## 1Butcher (Mar 15, 2011)

Maybe the Alien tractor beam? Or the mark of the tool when they did the probing of the rim?


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## digibud (Oct 26, 2010)

I don't know what happened here but I can tell you that every bike manufacturer has comments like this posted from folks that will never buy from them again because of failure to uphold warranty claims. I'm building up a new Sworks frame (not news to folks here) after my old frame cracked. It was a hairline crack that was indistinguishable from a possible crack in the topcoat. I thought Spec would require the shop to send the frame in but the BB had been adjusted and then replaced to no effect so my old 8R frame is being replaced by a top of the line SWorks frame. I don't think there is any way to know if one company is "better" than another in terms of warranty service so we all just react to our own situation, which is entirely understandable. 
Glad to hear the shop is covering the warranty in spite of Specialized failing to do so. THAT tells me that Spec really -should- have done so although admittedly the LBS has more motivation to keep a single customer happy than Specialized does. Somebody should create web site, bikewarranty.com where people would post warranty successes and failures. Everybody would be entirely truthful right?


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## robt57 (Jul 23, 2011)

digibud said:


> I don't know what happened here but I can tell you that every bike manufacturer has comments like this posted from folks that will never buy from them again because of failure to uphold warranty claims.?


So true. responses can be a lot of by proxy venting, like mine for example. ;0


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