Giant customer service sucks! I picked up a 2009 Giant Anthem X1 last summer. Love the bike. Quick, agile and basically just a blast to ride. However, I noticed a small crack early
this summer which gradually got bigger. Took it into my LBS and they ship it off to Giant Canada for warranty replacement. That was on July 13. It is now Sept 22 and I still have no freakin bike.
I was told the chain of events with Giant in respect to warranty issues is LBS sends frame to Giant Canada. Giant Canada makes decision on what to do. Giant Canada puts requisition in to Giant Taiwan for new frame. Frame should be in Giant Canada's hands in about 30 days. Giant Canada then ships frame back to LBS and customer.
Now we are 9 weeks heading for 10 and LBS talked to Giant Canada on Monday to see where the heck the frame was. Giant Canada has no idea. Just freakin great. I was told the usual, Giant sells out their frames every year so it is sometimes hard to get one on warranty in a timely fashion. Obviously existing customers take a back seat to potential new customers to Giant. Not good customer service. Giant seems to have forgotten that if they have a happy customer he will tell a couple of buddies how great Giant is, but if they have an unhappy customer they will tell a lot more people of their bad experience.
I am tired of hearing from my Trek riding buddies how great Trek customer service is. One of the guys had an older Trek and because the frame broke and they had redesigned the frame, Trek gave the guy a new rear shock and new forks because the new frame has a tapered head tube. Now that is customer service.
Yeah - IMO the LBS should step up to the plate and THEY should do battle with Giant. That's what I'd insist on... luckily I bought from an LBS which I'd think would do this without me pressing them.
TREK mountain bikes are crap! I haven't had a GIANT in years but I had a Trek for a couple years and I hated that thing.
MARIN bikes are really good about replacing frames quickly from my experience years ago a buddy of mine cracked his and he had the LBS replace it and have it back to him in 2 weeks!
Giant Canada has to negotiate a treaty with Giant Taiwan to get a frame fixed? What is this, the fn United Nations of bike repair? I'd be pi$$ed too, July 13 to now and counting - what a bunch of a$$hats. :madman:
First; disappointed to hear that this is how it is. Sounds like this is common, at least in Canada, New Zealand and...erm, Lithuania? Seriously?
Second; glad to have this posted in a very public way. Chinese management (and many Korean management teams also) needs to better understand that business in the West is not the same as it is in the East. A company can't crap all over their Western customers (distributors, dealers and consumers) and not have that impact their reputation and bottom-line.
This thread is the single biggest thing keeping me from buying a 2011 Anthem X 29er. Well, and the fact that they've all been recalled as defective and no one has any to sell. LOL.
In Asia, Customer Service is nearly the LAST priority. Highest on their lists are sales and cutting costs. Hang in there and be persistent...your bike will be there.
First; disappointed to hear that this is how it is. Sounds like this is common, at least in Canada, New Zealand and...erm, Lithuania? Seriously?
Second; glad to have this posted in a very public way. Chinese management (and many Korean management teams also) needs to better understand that business in the West is not the same as it is in the East. A company can't crap all over their Western customers (distributors, dealers and consumers) and not have that impact their reputation and bottom-line.
This thread is the single biggest thing keeping me from buying a 2011 Anthem X 29er. Well, and the fact that they've all been recalled as defective and no one has any to sell. LOL.
This is what really concerns me. Apparently the Anthem 29er has been recalled because of a problem with the seat tube/top tube junction. That is where my Anthem X has the crack. Another rider in my area had his crack at the same spot. Could there be a problem with all the Anthem X frames?
Good to know this.....I have bought Giant bikes in the past and never had to get a replacement frame....but I would factor this in in any future purchase decision....
i was contemplating between a giant trance or specialized stumpjumper in my future purchase. I was actually leaning towards the trance, but after reading about the customer service, i will NOT be buying a trance.
I wouldnt want to risk buying something expensive and have to deal with crap service when there are so many other choices. I hope giants' policy changes.
I hope you get your frame and problems resolved soon.
I'm from Lithuania, but I bought my Giant in Russia, Moscow. I tried to contact Giant UK and Giant Germany, but they cant help as well. The only thing Giant Russia told me is that when I receive replacement I will need to pay about 120$ of import duty. that's great!
Well Giant have actually got a great customer service and warranty dept.
problem is if they have no frames they have to wait for the new ones , which are not available yet as they are concentrating on the release of the full bike builds which is between now and march
so be patient and youll come up trumps.
as for the mention of all these other brands,
bare in mind GIANT MAKE THEM, 70-90% of the worlds bikes are made by giant in taiwan.
Well Giant have actually got a great customer service and warranty dept.
problem is if they have no frames they have to wait for the new ones , which are not available yet as they are concentrating on the release of the full bike builds which is between now and march
so be patient and youll come up trumps.
as for the mention of all these other brands,
bare in mind GIANT MAKE THEM, 70-90% of the worlds bikes are made by giant in taiwan.
How exactly is that great customer service? Existing customers that have already paid Giant good money take a back seat to new customers who haven't as yet paid Giant one dime. By your thinking it is OK to have to wait until March of next year, a wait time of 9 months for me and 10 months for "got beer ?", and be happy.
I can maybe understand having to wait if you put in a warranty claim when Giant has no frames available and are not presently manufacturing them, but as soon as they crank up the plant to run a new batch of frames, a certain number should be set aside to satisfy any warranty issues.
Right now Giant is churning out frame after frame off of their assembly line and there is no reason at all that a number of them are not set aside to satisfy any warranty claims that they have.
I fail to see what your claim of Giant making 70-90% of the world's bikes has got to do with anything, other than the other bike companies that Giant builds frames for are smart enough to order a few extra frames in case they have to warranty one.
My problem is I can't get an estimated timeline for these bikes to come in. Am I really looking at March before these things come in? I can't wait that long. I ordered based on the time the rep told my lbs it would be available. Now it's on an indefinite hold?
In my experience bad service by most brands are due to bad LBS relations to the brand.
And Giant selling their warranty bikes is just stupid, I think your LBS is misinformed, or Giant is stupid. (and they are not known to be stupid).
I have a feeling there is a problem, whether its material shortage wise, a big wrong production batch that they rejected, or something else. I have been in manufacturing, a small problem can lead to big delays.
How exactly is that great customer service? Existing customers that have already paid Giant good money take a back seat to new customers who haven't as yet paid Giant one dime. By your thinking it is OK to have to wait until March of next year, a wait time of 9 months for me and 10 months for "got beer ?", and be happy.
I can maybe understand having to wait if you put in a warranty claim when Giant has no frames available and are not presently manufacturing them, but as soon as they crank up the plant to run a new batch of frames, a certain number should be set aside to satisfy any warranty issues.
Right now Giant is churning out frame after frame off of their assembly line and there is no reason at all that a number of them are not set aside to satisfy any warranty claims that they have.
I fail to see what your claim of Giant making 70-90% of the world's bikes has got to do with anything, other than the other bike companies that Giant builds frames for are smart enough to order a few extra frames in case they have to warranty one.
It should be easier for them to rattle off spares than virtually any other frame manufacturer in the world... no excuses for poor spares distribution and warranty backup.
DISAGREE:nono: ! If they did I would have one in my stable. The Specialized shop is less that a mile from me. I drive 22miles one way to My Trek BS and 27miles one way to MY Giant BS. Nuf said!
TREK mountain bikes are crap! I haven't had a GIANT in years but I had a Trek for a couple years and I hated that thing.
MARIN bikes are really good about replacing frames quickly from my experience years ago a buddy of mine cracked his and he had the LBS replace it and have it back to him in 2 weeks!
Couple things- I'm on my 3rd front triangle on my 07 anthem- Giant replaced the 1st one within 48 hours, the LBS and Giant cut me a STOOPID deal on the 3rd- (I do more than I should on a short travel bike, my fault) I'm REALLY dissappointed to hear your having this kind of trouble.
2nd, as far as all the frames (including some dang high-end ones) being made by Giant- well, they are, but that doesn't have as much meaning as one might think.
The designers and engineers from all these different companies do a great job- the bikes nowadays are incredible, if you can't find a bike that does what you want, man, you're just being too picky.
So these incredible designs- they all send them to this factory that has all of the high tech equipement to aquaform and heat treat and weld to within a gnats a$$ to meet strict strength and weight parameters. Once done, these frames are labaled and shipped back out, putting a miltitude of fantastic bikes within our reach. Same machine might weld a scalpel and a Hi-Fi, that doesn't make them anywhere close to being the same bike or even the same brand.
By the way- that factory? yeah, it happens to be owned by the same corporation that owns the Giant brand, and that fact doesn't make all bikes "Giants" with a different headbadge.
I LOVE my 07 anthem, 5,320 off road miles and I'm headed to Moab in 2 days. But I''m getting close to pulling the trigger on a Mojo. I need an out of town bike that I won't break the frame on and my local LBS talked to IBIS and they can get one. (nearest IBIS dealer is 170 miles away) But my Anthem will still be my main singletrack bike due to the terrain in western Illinois and Eastern Iowa.
Good luck getting your frame, word is that a lot of manufactureres grossly underestimated the number of bikes they would sell this year and frames are getting low for a lot of companies.
Again- sorry to hear of your troubles, man. Good luck!
I've been riding Giant for a decade now, hard tails that were really thrashed and now my Trance x1. Never had a problem with the frame. I love Giant, spec'ed good, great performing and priced right. Just hope I never run into any frame problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so suprised to hear all this. In Australia, the warranty is unreal. The 60 owners of the Anthem X 29ers were given ANY Giant bike of their choice while they waited for their frame to be returned. A friend had an old Anthem Advanced, it cracked after many years and she was given a new Anthem X frame which has more travel and is lighter. And she had it in days.
Most of the time you can't blame the company, you can only blame the people at the LBS or the distributor etc. And the efficiency of that chain in one country is very different in another country. And every brand of bike is the same. And you just need one guy that is a link in the chain to call in sick or misplace some form and the user is cactus.
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