SRAM Warranty

[SlowManiac]

Has anyone ever noticed that when you buy a SRAM product (even from overseas i.e. an Ebay retailer) it comes with a warranty slip that has the following text:

For Australian customers:
This SRAM limited warranty is provided in Australia by SRAM LLC, 133 North Kingsbury, 4th floor, Chicago, Illinois, 60642, USA. To make a warranty claim please contact the retailer from whom you purchased this SRAM product. Alternatively, you may make a claim by contacting SRAM Australia, 6 Marco Court, Rowville 3178, Australia. For valid claims SRAM will, at its option, either repair or replace your SRAM product. Any expenses incurred in making the warranty claim are your responsibility. The benefits given by this warranty are additional to other rights and remedies that you may have under laws relating to our products. Our goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and for compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure.


To me this is pretty clear - you should be able to claim from SRAM Australia provided you have bought through an authorised dealer - even if that was overseas.

Anyone tested this?

 

[creaky]

They weren't interested in looking at my X01 RD with a defective clutch bearing (bought overseas).

Maybe bought via SRAM Australia distribution process is part of their assessment of "For valid claims" ? Doesn't seem unreasonable if it is as they haven't made any $ from selling it.

Good luck though.

 

[SlowManiac]

I was thinking the validity of the claim is more about if the product is defective but perhaps you are right.

Anyway it may be worth pursuing - so I'll have a crack.

 

[thatsnotme]

Has anyone ever noticed that when you buy a SRAM product (even from overseas i.e. an Ebay retailer) it comes with a warranty slip that has the following text:

For Australian customers:
This SRAM limited warranty is provided in Australia by SRAM LLC, 133 North Kingsbury, 4th floor, Chicago, Illinois, 60642, USA. To make a warranty claim please contact the retailer from whom you purchased this SRAM product. Alternatively, you may make a claim by contacting SRAM Australia, 6 Marco Court, Rowville 3178, Australia. For valid claims SRAM will, at its option, either repair or replace your SRAM product. Any expenses incurred in making the warranty claim are your responsibility. The benefits given by this warranty are additional to other rights and remedies that you may have under laws relating to our products. Our goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and for compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure.


To me this is pretty clear - you should be able to claim from SRAM Australia provided you have bought through an authorised dealer - even if that was overseas.

Anyone tested this?

Nope, they can safely refuse your claim. The paragraph above that's added to the normal warranty information is there to deal with Australian Consumer Law, which gives us guarantees that manufacturers can't exclude. The problem you have is that your purchase isn't fully covered by ACL, as the purchase wasn't made here. It's only a small thing, but the title 'For Australian customers' is really saying 'For purchases made in Australia covered by the ACL'.

Sure, give it a shot and see if you get lucky, but if they knock you back you don't really have a leg to stand on.

 

[Ackland]

Nope, they can safely refuse your claim. The paragraph above that's added to the normal warranty information is there to deal with Australian Consumer Law, which gives us guarantees that manufacturers can't exclude. The problem you have is that your purchase isn't fully covered by ACL, as the purchase wasn't made here. It's only a small thing, but the title 'For Australian customers' is really saying 'For purchases made in Australia covered by the ACL'.

Sure, give it a shot and see if you get lucky, but if they knock you back you don't really have a leg to stand on.

This is my experience.
Had an avid elixir CR lever die under warranty period and my options were send it back to CRC or purchase a new lever assembly at Aus wholesale.

I went with the wholesale option as I wanted it ASAP

 

[moman]

Doesn't Monza distribute SRAM in australia?

There is your problem right there.

 

[gregp]

Best thing to do would be to email sramusa@sram.com and ask for clarification. If you do let us know what they say.

 

[SlowManiac]

Nope, they can safely refuse your claim. The paragraph above that's added to the normal warranty information is there to deal with Australian Consumer Law, which gives us guarantees that manufacturers can't exclude. The problem you have is that your purchase isn't fully covered by ACL, as the purchase wasn't made here. It's only a small thing, but the title 'For Australian customers' is really saying 'For purchases made in Australia covered by the ACL'.

Sure, give it a shot and see if you get lucky, but if they knock you back you don't really have a leg to stand on.

According to what I have read (and I am certainly no expert here) - ACL applies in all cases (including overseas purchases) but enforcing the law is difficult or impossible.

In this case - SRAM (the parent company) seems to be indicating that I have recourse to SRAM Australia for warranty claims. This would not have anything to do with the distributor.

Edit: GrepP - yep I have mailed them will post up the response.

The reason I am pursuing this is because it's quite an expensive component that's failed and I'm broke at the moment!

 

[pharmaboy]

According to what I have read (and I am certainly no expert here) - ACL applies in all cases (including overseas purchases) but enforcing the law is difficult or impossible.

In this case - SRAM (the parent company) seems to be indicating that I have recourse to SRAM Australia for warranty claims. This would not have anything to do with the distributor.

Edit: GrepP - yep I have mailed them will post up the response.

The reason I am pursuing this is because it's quite an expensive component that's failed and I'm broke at the moment!

First, consumer law doesn't apply to something bought overseas - the vendor determines the place of contract, not the postal service.

Second, SRAM is clearly covering claims directly - this is different to normal warranty, in that the retailer actually has responsibility to warrant the item, not the manufacturer.

Best of luck.

 

[akashra]

The problem you have is that your purchase isn't fully covered by ACL, as the purchase wasn't made here.

This is not actually the case, there are instances where the ACCC have chased up companies based overseas over consumer rights - and won. It's rare, but it does happen.


But yes, your contract of sale is with the merchant, not with SRAM. SRAM may decide to offer their own additional warranty, but it's the merchant that's required by law to provide you with that statutory warranty.

 

[SlowManiac]

So that's kind of my point - it seems they are offering an additional warranty - by saying this:

Alternatively, you may make a claim by contacting SRAM Australia, 6 Marco Court, Rowville 3178, Australia

 

[thatsnotme]

This is not actually the case, there are instances where the ACCC have chased up companies based overseas over consumer rights - and won. It's rare, but it does happen.

This is what I meant when I said 'not fully covered by the ACL', but realise that you'd have to be a mind reader to get that from what I wrote! I'd expect that before the ACCC got involved directly, it'd have to be a significant claim.

So that's kind of my point - it seems they are offering an additional warranty - by saying this:

Alternatively, you may make a claim by contacting SRAM Australia, 6 Marco Court, Rowville 3178, Australia

Out of interest, where did you buy the part, and have you contacted the seller to chase up a warranty claim at all?

What SRAM are offering here isn't an additional warranty. What you've got is the SRAM warranty, and there's also an additional clause for Australian consumers that outlines the rights that we have by law that SRAM can't legally withhold.

Don't get me wrong - I hope you get a good response to your query and everything's sorted out for you. I'd just be (pleasantly) surprised!

 

[The Duckmeister]

SRAM Australia is a bit of an oddity. It's not actually part of the distribution network, it's a factory-supported service & industry training concern. That's why the warranty cards say contact them & not the regional distributor (Monza, who are a bunch of muppets).

 

[SlowManiac]

I bought the part from Worldwide Cyclery Ebay store. I have contacted them, waiting to hear back. They have been very helpful in the past.

I am, however, interested in seeing what SRAM Australia say since the warranty slip seems to indicate that I can claim from them.

To me the warranty says 'you can contact the retailer or contact SRAM Australia to claim warranty'.

If possible I would of course prefer to resolve the warranty claim locally.

 

[Yeti Dan]

They weren't interested in looking at my X01 RD with a defective clutch bearing (bought overseas).

Maybe bought via SRAM Australia distribution process is part of their assessment of "For valid claims" ? Doesn't seem unreasonable if it is as they haven't made any $ from selling it.

Good luck though.

Me too. I bought my X01 from avt and something broke which should have been fixed from warranty. They went above and beyond to chase up warranty and told me to claim locally. Locals wanted nothing to do with it and eventually I just grabbed one from the UK.

 

[slippy]

When you do a warranty claim locally the global parent company should take the loss and compensate the local distributor/agent. Certainly that's what happened when a frame cracked on me, the local distributor replaced it and the U.S. parent company compensated them somehow.
So other than a bit of time dealing with it, what skin off SRAM Australia's nose is it to take your warranty claim? Surely it's good PR for SRAM overall to support their customers rather than leave you out in the cold.
Ditto for Shimano. I know Shimano Australia won't touch non-Australian purchases. But if Shimano Japan compensate them then why not?

 

[SF Trailboy]

When you do a warranty claim locally the global parent company should take the loss and compensate the local distributor/agent. Certainly that's what happened when a frame cracked on me, the local distributor replaced it and the U.S. parent company compensated them somehow.
So other than a bit of time dealing with it, what skin off SRAM Australia's nose is it to take your warranty claim? Surely it's good PR for SRAM overall to support their customers rather than leave you out in the cold.
Ditto for Shimano. I know Shimano Australia won't touch non-Australian purchases. But if Shimano Japan compensate them then why not?

I'll go with they won't because of the time and costs involved. Warranty work is PITA and if you had made no profit from the original sale - distributor in this case - the warranty compensation would not be adequate enough to warrant doing the work involved. If we actually didn't have this fucked up distribution model in Aus it wouldn't be such a problem.

Having said that some distributors are awesome. Others well I have no idea how the majors let them control their products...

 

[Link]

OK lets clear up a few thing:

1) There are two separate ways you can seek a remedy for defective products: a) using the manufacturer's warranty OR b) using the ACL. For example, you could go to a retailer and say "I know this is out of the manufacturer's warranty period but I want to make a claim under the ACL instead because the product has not lasted for a reasonable period etc..."

2) The ACL attaches to 'supplies' to Australian consumers. Ask yourself if the product was supplied to you in Australia - that'll pretty much cover whether you get those rights regardless of where the supplier is based. The ACL doesn't give two hoots about where the supplier is from - its all about the consumers.

3) there is an express carve out in the ACL for products purchased on 'auction sites' ie: Ebay. This means that you get none (or a limited set of) these consumer friendly rights if you buy off eBay.

4) The manufacturer's warranty might set up an arrangement where you need to go back to them to seek a remedy. If that's not convenient, just go straight to the store that you bought the product from (even if that store is based overseas). They have to honour your ACL rights. The store can then go back up the chain and seek compensation from the manufacturer, which may well be a pain in the arse for the store - but as a consumer that's not your problem.

Now to answer the original question - the card in the overseas SRAM product simply says you can make a claim to the Australian SRAM store. It says nothing about how that claim will be assessed - only that it won't be less than the rights available under the ACL. In this case the ACL would probably be of no help because it was an auction site (see point 3). So the express warranty could say whatever the f*ck it wants. Chances are it excludes grey-imports, but you'll have to check the terms. If so, you're out of luck. No warranty.

Source: I work as a competition/consumer lawyer and deal with this stuff all the time.

 

[thatsnotme]

3) there is an express carve out in the ACL for products purchased on 'auction sites' ie: Ebay. This means that you get none (or a limited set of) these consumer friendly rights if you buy off eBay.

Now to answer the original question - the card in the overseas SRAM product simply says you can make a claim to the Australian SRAM store. It says nothing about how that claim will be assessed - only that it won't be less than the rights available under the ACL. In this case the ACL would probably be of no help because it was an auction site (see point 3). So the express warranty could say whatever the f*ck it wants. Chances are it excludes grey-imports, but you'll have to check the terms. If so, you're out of luck. No warranty.

My understanding is that the carve out is not for products purchased on 'auction sites', but products purchased 'by auction'. Ebay runs auctions, but there are also a large number of online stores that operate without an auction mechanism - ie, you're purchasing at a fixed price. These purchases are covered by the ACL, as no auction took place. In essence, these Ebay stores are no different to any other online retailer, they just happen to be hosted by Ebay.

 

[SlowManiac]

Yep as per thatsnotme - the item was purchased on Ebay but not for auction - it was a retailer hosted on Ebay