I covered some of this in a different post but I wanted to start a new one that was more of a topic about customer support expectations.
Do you have different expectations for customer support when dealing with the slightly higher end brands like Winspace/Tavelo etc compared to brands selling sub $500 frames?
I'm having a miserable experience with Winspace customer support rn and I feel like they're being willfully unhelpful. Since they are a brand with UCI certified frames and sponsoring continental teams I was hoping for better support. At the same time, maybe my expectations are too high?
My C5 arrived with a big chip in the carbon inside the BB area and when I asked them about it they completely refused to acknowledge that there was a large chip. I got really annoyed with them, but it was mostly because they wouldn't even acknowledge the issue in the photos I sent them, not because of the chip itself. They sent me multiple pictures of other bike's bottom brackets saying "see this is normal," but none of their photos showed the chip mine had. They agreed to exchange the frame for an additional $200 but still never acknowledged the chip despite me directly asking, "do you see this, yes or no?" The fact that they were clearly avoiding the issue made me more concerned than the issue itself and I agreed to pay the $200 but felt like their tactic was to deny any problem to avoid having to replace it under their warranty. The current status is that the returned frame has been sitting in a warehouse in Shenzhen for the last week with a note in the return tracking saying they need addition info from Winspace (who created the shipping label) to clear the frame through customs. I asked Winspace to do something about this, they have not responded but I only sent the message yesterday and it does sometimes take them two days to respond. The fact that they offered to do the exchange at all might imply they know something is wrong because there is no information on their website about exchanging or returning items.
Has anyone else had an experience like this with one of these "higher end" east asian brands? I had really hoped they would be less wiggly and difficult. If this was a $500 frame I would be more understanding but its a 1380 USD, EPS molded frame with a UCI certification. I had a vaguely similar experience dealing with Ribble's customer support a couple years ago so it seems like it's not just asia. Ribble had said I should return my frame and they would sent me a return shipping label. After weeks of bugging them, they just never sent anything and I had to get my credit card to refund me because the frame was not buildable.
Where does the extra money paid for higher end frames go? In a way, its nice that they are replacing the frame, rather than just ghosting me... but the fact that I paid the Winspace premium only to have to pay them even more money later on feels unfair.
