Recently we had a customer in from the midlands area who said he had been instructed by Campagnolo's UK specialist branch "Velotech" to bring his bike up to us to have us check some issues he had been having with his 7 month old Pinarello road bike.
After a chat with the customer he revealed he had taken the bike back twice to the Pinarello shop he bought it from only to be told that they could only do so much to the bike as they were not qualified to work on Campagnolo electronic kit! - Bearing in mind they sold him the bike brand new for nearly £7000!!!!
This has caused me to have a look around at what seems to be going on............can it be right that a consumer can spend a fortune on a suppoed top-of-the-range bike only to be told they don't have any comeback in terms of aftersales help? Yes sir we will take that 7 grand no problem but oh no if you need any help afterwards - get stuffed (very politely of course).
The customer couldn't believe it either but did his own bit of research and I have checked too, we seem to be one of only 5 bike shops in the whole of the UK qualified to the hilt in terms of Campagnolo servicing and aftercare.
This is ridiculous - In Campagnolo's own warranty it says that unless the kit is installed by an approved Campagnolo mechainic and signed off then the warranty is void.
There seems to be strings of people selling this kit and even fitting it to their own bikes who are then sitting back and holding no responsibility for looking after the buyer.
Even other popular Northwest bike builders such as Ribble and Dolan are not qualified to build using the latest specs Campagnolo offer but seem to be doing so - how can this be fair on the buyer?
Buyer beware................................
Jim