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Orange Bikes poor Warranty and Customer Service

9333 Views 33 Replies 12 Participants Last post by R-IK, Jul 15, 2014

Francesc

Discussion Starter · Mar 4, 2011

Few months ago I found two small cranks on swingarms shock bracket

Immediately I send an email to Orange CS to try to repair it, my frame was two and half years.

Orange CS say me that they don't have anymore the neccesary part to repair it, and the solutions will be:

-To get it repaired locally

or

-We could possibly look at doing a crash replacement price for a 224 frame if that would be of interest to you

Cheers for this great brand!!!!

PS

In our group we ride 5 Orange Patriot. 4 was broken in the same shock braket. Fortuity, mmm not!!!

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1 - 20 of 34 Posts

006_007

· #2 · Mar 4, 2011

Seems like good customer service to me - crash replacement.......

Francesc

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 4, 2011

I use my bike to ride for 40/50 kms, 224 frame is for DH

A friend has the same frame, under the 2 years warranty applied in Spain, and Orange Bikes send him the same solution

AZ

· #4 · Mar 4, 2011

006_007 said:
Seems like good customer service to me - crash replacement.......

It would sound good if there was no warranty to begin with, but a crash replacement charge for a 2 yo frame? If I break my 2 yo Giant, the frame gets replaced, gratis, no crash replacement no lip service, just replaced. Sounds like the op is getting the short end.

Fix the Spade

· #5 · Mar 4, 2011

Francesc said:
Immediately I send an email to Orange CS to try to repair it, my frame was two and half years.

Orange warranty frames for two years, it says this in black and white on their website, it says in the handbook you should have got from the dealer when you bought the bike. It's a pretty standard length warranty for bikes.

Like you said, the frame is two and a half years old, out of warranty, they don't have to offer you anything.

Although it seems a little odd that they offered you a 224 specifically, their crash replacement is (usually) 50% off any of their frames. They offered that to a local guy who cracked his (2001) Patriot a few weeks ago.
If you have a Patriot the Alpine 160 or Blood are a better fit than the 224. Maybe you should try communicating with them further about that.

Lastly, are you certain that is a crack in the aluminium of the frame and not just the powder coat?

rzozaya1969

· #6 · Mar 4, 2011

AZ.MTNS said:
It would sound good if there was no warranty to begin with, but a crash replacement charge for a 2 yo frame? If I break my 2 yo Giant, the frame gets replaced, gratis, no crash replacement no lip service, just replaced. Sounds like the op is getting the short end.

Original Poster doesn't say which year the bike is, nor which model. I checked on Orange site for 2008 & 2007 on a Patriot, and it has a 1 year frame warranty period, so a crash replacement is a good deal.

http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/support/warranty/2008/

http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/support/warranty/2007/

Different companies offer different warranties.

AZ

· #7 · Mar 4, 2011

I stand corrected, kids don't buy bikes with 2 year warranties. Sorry.

Fix the Spade

· #8 · Mar 4, 2011

AZ.MTNS said:
If I break my 2 yo Giant, the frame gets replaced, gratis, no crash replacement no lip service, just replaced..

Giant (also Trek, Mondraker) is very much in the minority in that respect. They're the biggest bike maker on the planet and they hand out new frames as much for pr reasons as any actual fault.

For relative scale you want to be comparing Orange to someone like Transition, Banshee or Turner, you don't see lifetime warranties much in small companies.

Francesc

Discussion Starter · #9 · Mar 4, 2011

Francesc said:
PS

In our group we ride 5 Orange Patriot. 4 was broken in the same shock braket. Fortuity, mmm not!!!

check it Fix the Spade

Francesc

Discussion Starter · #10 · Mar 4, 2011

rzozaya1969 said:
Original Poster doesn't say which year the bike is, nor which model. I checked on Orange site for 2008 & 2007 on a Patriot, and it has a 1 year frame warranty period, so a crash replacement is a good deal.

http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/support/warranty/2008/

http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/support/warranty/2007/

Different companies offer different warranties.

In Spain, and all CEE, warranty period is 2 years or more

Fix the Spade

· #11 · Mar 4, 2011

@Francesc, that's a very fine line on a 400x300jpeg, how can you tell it's not just in the paint and goes all the way through?

It's worth checking more thoroughly.

Francesc

Discussion Starter · #12 · Mar 4, 2011

this swingarm was broken, a good friend of mine is the owner.

He send to a welder to repair it.

rzozaya1969

· #13 · Mar 4, 2011

Francesc said:
In Spain, and all CEE, warranty period is 2 years or more

Okay, but you mentioned your frame had 2 years and a half... maybe it's just bean counting, but it might have been that the frame is out of warranty. Also, check on the site what terms the warranty stands for (original owner, documentation, what does Orange cover/not cover).

Francesc

Discussion Starter · #14 · Mar 4, 2011

rzozaya1969 said:
Okay, but you mentioned your frame had 2 years and a half... maybe it's just bean counting, but it might have been that the frame is out of warranty. Also, check on the site what terms the warranty stands for (original owner, documentation, what does Orange cover/not cover).

A friend has the same frame, less of two years old, under the 2 years warranty period applied in Spain, and Orange Bikes send him the same solution

Francesc

Discussion Starter · #15 · Mar 4, 2011

The problem is Orange BIkes know that all the Patriot frames has the same weak point, 90% of the Patriots broke in the same point, and don't do anything to solve it, sorry, sale you another frame with the same poor warranty

pervers

· #16 · Mar 4, 2011 (Edited)

2

I'm the owner of this orange broken frame shown above.

My frame was out-of-warranty when get broken, but a friend of us -as Francesc posted- had a frame, bought in june 2008. This frame get broken on july 2009, and after contacting the dealer in Spain (Active Life) the answer he got was "this frame is designed for racing, and has one-year warranty". (WTF?¿ :madmax: )

Altought United Kingdon is not in the CEE (EEC) they export products into it, so they have to complain the warranty rules in it: (at least) 2 years for new products.

And yes, we're SURE the problem was NOT only the paint::thumbsup:

This is my frame once repaired, reinforced and repainted. A bike frames constructor near Barcelona did it, it costed 80€ (without paint)

Our friend with a 2008 frame did the same arrengement, but all we are sure -unfortunately- these are the last Orange we buy :nono:

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rockerc

· #17 · Mar 4, 2011

pervers said:
Altought United Kingdon is not in the CEE (EEC) they export products into it, so they have to complain the warranty rules in it: (at least) 2 years for new products.

And:

Last time I checked the UK was in the EEC... just not in the Euro Zone thank f**k...

pervers

· #18 · Mar 4, 2011

rockerc said:
Last time I checked the UK was in the EEC... just not in the Euro Zone thank f**k...

I meant euro zone

006_007

· #19 · Mar 4, 2011

AZ.MTNS said:
It would sound good if there was no warranty to begin with, but a crash replacement charge for a 2 yo frame? If I break my 2 yo Giant, the frame gets replaced, gratis, no crash replacement no lip service, just replaced. Sounds like the op is getting the short end.

Big difference in company size Orange VS Giant - Giant has the financial backing to provide replacement frames as they do such a large volume. Smaller companies do not have that luxury, so a 2 year crash replacement warranty is actually pretty common. Thats what Santa Cruz used to do (not sure what they do now).

006_007

· #20 · Mar 4, 2011

It sucks that it cracks yes, but they have offered a solution (that many people find acceptable). Lets face it, mountain bikers do push the limits of design / weight / strength - sometimes it goes the wrong way and we have failures. Its part of our sport IMHO.

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