Anyone had any luck getting Serfas to honor a warranty?

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  • November 3, 2016 at 5:52 pm #918758
    cvcalhoun
    Participant

    I ordered a saddle from Serfas online. Yes, I know you shouldn’t do that, because you really need to try it. But it wasn’t going to come in for a while at my local bike shop, and I wanted to get it quickly. And I was reassured by the Serfas warranty, as follows:

    90 DAY SADDLE COMFORT GUARANTEE
    At Serfas, we know your saddle is a key component to your riding comfort and longevity. Purchase your Serfas saddle with confidence knowing that you have 90 days to determine if it’s the perfect fit. If you’re unsatisfied with the comfort of your saddle, within 90 days from purchase, simply return it to your Authorized Serfas Dealer and exchange it for another Serfas bike seat.

    So I get the saddle, and it is the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever experienced. It pinches, twists, and mashes my most sensitive bits. But not to worry, I’ve got that warranty, right?

    Not so much. The page gives an e-mail and a phone number to contact them. I get no response to my e-mail. When I contact them by phone, I’m told to contact Shopatron. When I contact Shopatron, they say they don’t handle warranty replacements. They accept returns only within 30 days (not 90), and only if the item is in its original packaging.

    I then figure I’ll try the idea of, “If you’re unsatisfied with the comfort of your saddle, within 90 days from purchase, simply return it to your Authorized Serfas Dealer and exchange it for another Serfas bike seat.” So I contact an Authorized Serfas Dealer. They take the (very reasonable) position that if I didn’t buy the saddle from them, they aren’t obliged to take it back.

    I may be able to return the saddle to Shopatron, depending on what they think the “original packaging” is. (It came in a box, which I fortunately happen to still have, but it came attached to a piece of cardboard which I don’t.) But even that chance of a return a) requires that I pay the entire cost of shipping the saddle to me and shipping it back, which is about half the cost of the saddle, and b) is available only because I acted within 30 days, not the 90 the website says I have.

    Has anyone found contact information for anyone at Serfas who will actually honor their warranty?

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  • November 3, 2016 at 8:17 pm #1059869
    mstone
    Participant

    This is why I generally consider “satisfaction guaranteed” warranties to be pointless. Basically what they wrote is that if you take it back to an LBS your LBS will help you find a new one. Which would have been true if they hadn’t written that. If you bought it off the internet then you’re in the same position you’d be with returning any other internet purchase.

    November 3, 2016 at 9:17 pm #1059875
    cvcalhoun
    Participant

    @mstone 148379 wrote:

    This is why I generally consider “satisfaction guaranteed” warranties to be pointless. Basically what they wrote is that if you take it back to an LBS your LBS will help you find a new one. Which would have been true if they hadn’t written that. If you bought it off the internet then you’re in the same position you’d be with returning any other internet purchase.

    Well, you’re not really in the same position you’d be with returning any other internet purchase: they provide no way to return the internet purchase after 30 days, even though their warranty says they do. And the LBS may help me find a new one, but they won’t take back the one I already have.

    I finally Facebook messaged Serfas, and they said I could send it back to the company that actually sent it out (i.e., not the address given on their warranty page, not the address to which Shopatron told me to send it, and not the LBS). But somehow, the warranty people whom you are supposed to e-mail or call don’t know that.

    Honestly, I have never had a company that sold online that has given me such a run-around in trying to get a warranty honored.

    November 3, 2016 at 9:51 pm #1059880
    mstone
    Participant

    @cvcalhoun 148386 wrote:

    Well, you’re not really in the same position you’d be with returning any other internet purchase: they provide no way to return the internet purchase after 30 days

    Sounds to me like you’re in exactly the same position. :-)

    November 3, 2016 at 10:06 pm #1059881
    cvcalhoun
    Participant

    @mstone 148392 wrote:

    Sounds to me like you’re in exactly the same position. :-)

    Well, my experience with other internet purchases is that if they say you can return the product until 90 days, they actually provide a way to return the product until 90 days. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky?

    November 4, 2016 at 12:39 am #1059886
    Vicegrip
    Participant

    Many warranties note that you have to purchase from a authorized dealer. Is this the case here?

    November 4, 2016 at 1:22 am #1059887
    cvcalhoun
    Participant

    @Vicegrip 148398 wrote:

    Many warranties note that you have to purchase from a authorized dealer. Is this the case here?

    I actually purchased directly from the Serfas site.

    November 4, 2016 at 12:04 pm #1059893
    Vicegrip
    Participant

    There is no mention of their covering the cost of an exchange. It seems to be geared/worded for an in store purchase.

    option one. Return it for refund and no new saddle. 1/2 the shipping hit. Purchase replacement saddle locally where you can swap out until your butt gets happy

    option two. Return and replace with another saddle. Might still be in the same pinch if the replacement and your butt disagree with each other.

    November 4, 2016 at 12:20 pm #1059897
    mstone
    Participant

    @cvcalhoun 148399 wrote:

    I actually purchased directly from the Serfas site.

    Oh, you didn’t say that originally. In that case I’d just open a dispute with your credit card company and refuse to pay for it.

    November 4, 2016 at 3:31 pm #1059930
    cvcalhoun
    Participant

    @Vicegrip 148406 wrote:

    There is no mention of their covering the cost of an exchange. It seems to be geared/worded for an in store purchase.

    option one. Return it for refund and no new saddle. 1/2 the shipping hit. Purchase replacement saddle locally where you can swap out until your butt gets happy

    option two. Return and replace with another saddle. Might still be in the same pinch if the replacement and your butt disagree with each other.

    Yeah, I finally decided to return it for a refund, take the hit for shipping both ways (which I would have had to do anyway if I’d just exchanged it), and hope they don’t try to claim that it’s no longer in “new” condition or that it’s not in its original packaging. (I don’t believe there was any original packaging.) Lesson learned: Never order a saddle online, no matter what it says.

    I got the new saddle from REI. They have a very favorable return policy. The day I was there, their installer had called in sick. But another staff member (who himself rides a lot) took pity on my butt after I explained I was going to have to ride 15 miles just to get home. He removed the old one and installed the new one for me. You can’t get that kind of service online.

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