Consumables bike warranty

[Electrifying Cycles]

We are looking to offer warranty against consumable bike parts for bikes sold by ourselves. We wondered whether this is something people would be interested in?

At the moment we are just looking at non electric parts. However we would include some electric parts if not covered under warranty e.g. fuses. Intially we are looking at covering people for one or two years, the only clause would be no accidental damage cover. We are also looking at how we can do this efficiently for some of our remote customers.

How much would you be prepared to pay for two years consumables cover? Same question but for one year?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts!

David

 

[Scimitar]

You're seriously offering to warranty replace wearing items, like brake pads?
Sign me up!
A tenner for ten years, here (offers tenner).

 

[Electrifying Cycles]

Yes we want to do this but only for bikes bought through us. Just reviewing what we think it should cost as it would cover all consumables i.e. freewheel, brake pads, tyres etc the amount needs to be such that it makes it a good offer for both the customer and us. This would enable people to have a two year warranty on the entire bike. We think this is particularly useful for commuters who want to know what their running costs are going to be.

 

[Scimitar]

Well, if you've worked out the economics of it and it's favourable, why not? It is a useful selling point, and unusual enough to get some attention.

 

[Streethawk]

This only really seems a good idea if most of your customers are local, and from my experience, a lot of electric bike buyers travel a long way to find a dealer. Even if you sent out the consumables by post, it would take a couple of days. If someone commutes on their bike it makes more sense to buy them from their LBS.

As far as cost is concerned though, hmmm, a set of disc brake pads seem to last me 18 months, and are £30 for two pairs, tyres often last me three years at £60 a pair typically. Freewheel? I guess you're covering chain and chainrings too then? These seem to last a couple of years for me, but it's a part that can last a lot less if not cleaned and oiled regularly. £70 in two years.

So those things work out at roughly £75 a year as your typical costs, of course some of those parts arent costing you that, but that's the retail price. Your mechanics time on top of that and i think you'd had to charge £100 a year.

 

[ghouluk]

for me personally i don't think this is an attractive proposition

(1) many of the consumables that come with a new bike are uprated/changed when they wear out (esp tyres)
(2) i think the value you get out of it will be usurped by the bad feeling of most things being accidental as much as wear and tear - eg if i ripped a tire that was 50% worn, would you charge me 50% for a replacement or not cover it at all?
(3) i agree on the travel and local piece - how many of the bikes you sell come back to you for regular servicing etc
(4) Would this be dependent on servicing with yourselves, see (3)

were you thinking of including servicing in the deal? so it would be get it serviced and get all the consumables replaced? or would it be on failure or wear out?

The flip side of course is that if you make it cheap enough, lots of people buy it as an attach and never use it, and then you soak up the costs of the ones that do as loss leaders - i dont think the ebike market is big enough to support this model though (isn't that what knocked those cheap as chips bike sellers in london in the 90s out of business - one year everyone claimed (bonthrone i think)

just my 2p's

 

[Electrifying Cycles]

Thanks for all the feedback. I think the biggest challenge is for remote customers as like you say it would take a few days to send out the relevant part. We will have a think but it is definately something we want to do if viable.

Ghouluk I agree re accidental damage often difficult decision but would say most times it is wear and tear rather than accidental (at least in our experience anyway).

David

 

[ghouluk]

Ghouluk I agree re accidental damage often difficult decision but would say most times it is wear and tear rather than accidental (at least in our experience anyway).

David

David, then in my case maybe my feedback improves slightly - i guess i'm jaded on warranties after having one from my local bikeshop (wrapped into a 'gold' service contract) where everything was accidental damage or excludedr.

for reference the gold service was 125.00 a year on bikes between 2500-5000 pounds bought - annoyingly in the small print it excluded off road use, so because i used my bike on the canal path (and told them i'd had a lovely ride down to the shop on it) they refused to change my brake pads.....bah!

 

[countryman663]

As a new customer I would be interested but wonder how you could provide this given the distances involved. Maybe you could offer a loyalty discount on stock consumables to purchasers of bikes from you
( provided it was retrospective to July this year of course!) maybe we would have to send the worn out ones to you for verification or get a report from our local bike store. seems complicated i'm afraid but nice to know you are still thinking of us.
Best wishes and good luck with that
M

 

[trex]

insurance against accidental loss or damage makes sense because the ratio value/premium is high - possible still good value for service but not worthwhile for consumables. Ask the actuaries, they'll tell you that less than a third of the premium is used to settle claims, the rest goes to IPT, the resellers (25%) and the issuers.