Swissrider
Well-known member
Does anybody know the definitive situation regarding labour charges when a motor is replaced under guarantee by Specialized? Also, if this applies world wide. I bought my 2018 Kenevo in Chamonix, France (because I work there from time to time and have a good relationship with Zero Gravity shop) although I live over the border in Switzerland. A few weeks ago my motor started making clicking and grunching noises when under load and hot. I posted a video of this on the forum and it was confirmed that this was a sign of fairly imminent motor failure. Because the border is closed and shops in France were closed I took the bike to a local Specialized dealer (Crossroad cycles in Martigny) who were helpful and efficient, sending my video to Specialized who agreed there was a problem and told the shop to instigate a guarantee claim, which they did. Unfortunately, Specialized “lost” the claim and nothing happened until a few days ago when the shop chased it up and a replacement motor arrived today. However, the shop said they would have to charge for labour, which surprised me because I understood that at least in the UK normally shops don’t charge for labour. They certainly shouldn’t. If you buy a car which goes wrong under guarantee, or even a washing machine, they don’t charge labour to fix it. It’s not my fault that the motor on my Kenevo has gone wrong. I’ve never washed it (I just use a damp rag) or even ride in the wet, so I don’t see why I should be out of pocket for what boils down to a manufacturing fault. Specialized should reimburse the shop for labour costs. I did write to Specialized when the problem occurred and got a reply a few days ago (it took them over three weeks to reply), basically telling me to go to local shop in Switzerland since I can’t go to France. One reads a lot on this forum about motor failures and now it has happened to me. One also reads about impressive after sales from Specialized dealing with these failures. Since the shop can’t change the motor until the end of the month ( because of volume of work) it will have taken over a month to sort out something which should have taken days and, as things stand, I’ll be out of pocket. Not so impressive.