Merida/Shimano Customer Service Issues

[Stumpi]

I have 3 Merida Ebikes all with Shimano motors and batteries. They are absolutely fantastic, well built, great performance and have really benefited my cycling.

I had cause recently to test the warranty on what I thought was a fairly simple matter and came away disappointed.

One of the chargers packed up, just stopped working, I changed the plug fuse but still nothing. Being still within warranty I popped it back to the shop who contacted Merida.

Merida washed their hands of the issue and said we need to contact Shimano who cover the warranty. A company called Madison deal with all UK Shimano products. Madison wouldnt take the dealers word that the charger was not working and send a courier to collect. A week later the charger was still at the shop awaiting collection. The dealer phoned regularly to be told its in the system. A month later they issued him a credit note instead of a replacement charger. Finally after 6 weeks I have my replacement charger. As it happens I had the chargers from the other bikes but if I was a solo ebike owner as many folk are my bike would of been useless for 6 weeks.

My dealer has been first rate but I'm disappointed with Merida, Ive bought 6 Merida bikes in the last 5 years but my next ebike will not be a Merida or have a Shimano motor in it

 

[flecc]

Merida washed their hands of the issue and said we need to contact Shimano who cover the warranty. A company called Madison deal with all UK Shimano products.

I don't know where you are in Scotland Stumpi, but Shimano list a number of their service centres there. The lists below the map include e-bikes under Components.

Shimano Service Centres map

They also have a European "Centre of Excellence" (! ) tech centre, details on this link
.

 

[RobF]

Your contract is with the dealer, but they fob you off to the manufacturer/importer who in turn fob you off to the maker of the component.

This is typical of the bike trade, but your dealer is far from first rate.

Were they that, they would have replaced your charger promptly then sorted it with Merida or Madison/Shimano.

But that would involve the dealer taking responsibility, offering genuine customer service.

Couldn't possibly do that, could they?

 

[Andy-Mat]

I have 3 Merida Ebikes all with Shimano motors and batteries. They are absolutely fantastic, well built, great performance and have really benefited my cycling.

I had cause recently to test the warranty on what I thought was a fairly simple matter and came away disappointed.

One of the chargers packed up, just stopped working, I changed the plug fuse but still nothing. Being still within warranty I popped it back to the shop who contacted Merida.

Merida washed their hands of the issue and said we need to contact Shimano who cover the warranty. A company called Madison deal with all UK Shimano products. Madison wouldnt take the dealers word that the charger was not working and send a courier to collect. A week later the charger was still at the shop awaiting collection. The dealer phoned regularly to be told its in the system. A month later they issued him a credit note instead of a replacement charger. Finally after 6 weeks I have my replacement charger. As it happens I had the chargers from the other bikes but if I was a solo ebike owner as many folk are my bike would of been useless for 6 weeks.

My dealer has been first rate but I'm disappointed with Merida, Ive bought 6 Merida bikes in the last 5 years but my next ebike will not be a Merida or have a Shimano motor in it

That is the only way to do it, stop buying their products when service is poor.
I have done the same with all Sony products about 5 years ago, never, ever again.....
regards
Andy

 

[alexa]

I have 3 Merida Ebikes all with Shimano motors and batteries. They are absolutely fantastic, well built, great performance and have really benefited my cycling.

I had cause recently to test the warranty on what I thought was a fairly simple matter and came away disappointed.

One of the chargers packed up, just stopped working, I changed the plug fuse but still nothing. Being still within warranty I popped it back to the shop who contacted Merida.

Merida washed their hands of the issue and said we need to contact Shimano who cover the warranty. A company called Madison deal with all UK Shimano products. Madison wouldnt take the dealers word that the charger was not working and send a courier to collect. A week later the charger was still at the shop awaiting collection. The dealer phoned regularly to be told its in the system. A month later they issued him a credit note instead of a replacement charger. Finally after 6 weeks I have my replacement charger. As it happens I had the chargers from the other bikes but if I was a solo ebike owner as many folk are my bike would of been useless for 6 weeks.

My dealer has been first rate but I'm disappointed with Merida, Ive bought 6 Merida bikes in the last 5 years but my next ebike will not be a Merida or have a Shimano motor in it

This is how all bike manufactures operate unfortunately. Madison is in charge of all shimano warranties in the UK, and at times they can be really slow. Merida themselves don't deal with any warranties that isn't their own frame or proprietary parts.

I think the bike shop did a good job for you as well, and they were only at the mercy of the supplier.

 

[wheeliepete]

they would have replaced your charger promptly then sorted it with Merida or Madison/Shimano.

I agree Rob, this should be the way it is done, but it seems these days many retailers, big and small, duck out of this and refer you to the manufacture for any warranty claim. All the consumer feels is p*ss poor CS. I know nothing of the bike trade, but had a quick look at the Madison website. They are obviously big players in the bike industry, distributing 70 brands of parts and I assume dealing with all the warranty claims. If the retailer is expected to deal with the customers warranty problem quickly, then they in turn should get the same service from Madison, and not be kept waiting weeks for the claim to be processed.

 

[stumpy150]

I had similar experience with TWO KTM ebikes where the Bosch motors failed at less than 500 miles..NOT KTM's fault/responsibility...''take it back to dealer and let them sort it '' Motors returned to a third party distributor for replacement as ktm DIDNT HOLD SPARES....Its about time the ebike trade were kicked in the balls and made to stand by their products irrespective of the parts used to build them ...If a SONY TV breaks down we don't need to remove the circuit board to return it to the respective manufacturer....same goes for cars, motorcycles, domestic appliances....the list goes on

 

[soundwave]

problem is these so called dealers telling ppl to sort there own warranty is not going to happen in all cases as some manufacturers will not deal with the public with warranty issues.

like if you buy a bike with magura or sram parts and then get a problem the dealer has to have accounts with both to sort out any warranty problems.

like i was after some mavic wheels and rang tthe local ebike shop only to be told they dont have a account with them so go buy then somewhere else pmsl.

yet on the other hand i have been trying to get some black end caps from Miranda bikes via the uk distributer and he is so fooked off with them even he has given up trying to get them and best option i got is to paint them lol.

tho i have broken my xd hub and crank bros sent a new one no problem.

 

[Stumpi]

To be fair to my dealer he offered me a charger off a "shop" bike but I had chargers from my other bikes and bless him he's only a small shop if I had taken his charger that means he couldnt sell the bike until all this is sorted.

It just seems an odd way of doing business. If a wiper motor packs up on my car Subaru fix it they don't tell me to contact Bosch

 

[KirstinS]

I have most of my experience with kits. But I have had excellent service in the UK. Notably Woosh and Brighton ebikes including dealing with issues . A different thin perhaps but never have I been sent back to the manufacturer


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[KirstinS]

To be fair to my dealer he offered me a charger off a "shop" bike but I had chargers from my other bikes and bless him he's only a small shop if I had taken his charger that means he couldnt sell the bike until all this is sorted.

It just seems an odd way of doing business. If a wiper motor packs up on my car Subaru fix it they don't tell me to contact Bosch

That does changes things a bit, the guy did the only decent thing he could in the circumstances . That is a LBS i would again tbh

It's anindustry issue really


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[soundwave]

id say that there is only one bike shop that has the tools and accounts to sort most problems round here and the waiting list is long all year round.

plenty of other smaller lbs around but when you walk in with a 5-10k bike they dont want to even work on it as never touched that stuff b4.