Shite Commencal Warranty Experience
Wanted to put this out there as a word of caution - Commencal is sheisty when it comes to honouring their warranty policy. Don't believe it until you see it!
Here's the story: I'm trying to navigate my second warranty claim this year with Commencal. The first one wasn't an issue. In fact, I'd say that they did a very good job. This second time, not so much...
The bike is a 2022 Supreme DH 29/27. In July, I noticed cracks developing around the bottom bracket shell. I went through the online warranty submission process and had a new frame in-hand 8 days later. Pretty darn good. Continued riding until mid November. When doing my pre-season bike maintenance last month, I checked the BB shell area where the previous cracks developed. Lo-and-behold the identical cracks had developed again in just a few months of riding. "OK, no big deal, let's just do warranty again" I say to myself.
This time, there's a problem though. Commencal has recently released the new v5 model and they do not have any available v4 frames in my size... I thought that it was pretty strange that they have no spares for a bike that they are still selling and still would theoretically come attached with a 2 year warranty? (Watch out folks considering buying a new v4... It might not come with warranty!)
Anyways, they offer me an "upgrade crash replacement" of $1,453 to move up to the new v5. Given that I'm still under full warranty, I don't really like the option to give them more money just to have a safe, functioning bike. We go back an forth some more, and I end up giving them 3 options to make me happy:
1) a v5 frameset free of charge
2) a v4 frameset free of charge, or
3) a refund for full retail price on a v4 frame
They get back to me and say that Option #1 is not possible, but that an appropriate frameset could be sourced from Commencal USA. They also tell me that they could give me a refund for full retail price on the frame. Given that I'd broken two of these frames in one season, I figured I'd cut my losses and take the refund option. Why replace with the same thing only to have it break again? Anyways we come to an agreement for Commencal to refund me $2,800. I give them my banking info and they tell me to expect a refund with 14 business days.
Meanwhile, knowing that refund is coming I go about looking for a new frame. I find a Trek Session in my size at my LBS and most of the old build kits transfers over. PERFECT. I buy the frame.
14 business days go by with no refund. So I follow-up. Apparently my refund went to the wrong department, so it hadn't been processed yet. "OK no big deal, I 'll just wait a couple more days. A couple days goes by and get a strange email from Commencal... Apparently my refund needs special approval from top management in Andorra.... "OK, getting a bit nervous"... Then the next day the email comes - Flat out saying that while they recognize that they offered a refund, that they no longer can honour that agreement. My only options are a replacement v4 frame or to pay for a v5 upgrade.
Now on paper might not sound so bad, but doesn't take into account that I was promised a refund and was planning on using that money towards the Trek. Now I'm left holding the bag for $2800 on the Trek... If a refund wasn't in the cards, I definitely would not have bought the Trek. Moral of the story, be super super leary of warranty dealings with Commencal. They'll ignore some rules, make up others, and back out of agreements... Good bikes, the staff were OK to deal with through this process, but overall just a shitty company to deal with. In hindsight, I jumped the gun buying the Trek without my refund dollars in hand, but it's a total bummer that Commencal re-negged on our agreement and left me standing out in the cold...
Anyways, I guess this just a really long way to say:
"Hey! Does anyone want to buy a brand new Supreme XL 29/27 frameset?"
