Warranty is good only in shop where you buy the bike
- Thread starter ebikereu
- Start date
Been discussed here before.
The basic problem is that you would get the pile em high, sell em cheap brigade making the profit on selling the bike. It's then left to the experienced dealers who have invested in tools, workshops & training to pick up the warranty work, which is generally unprofitable & sometimes only the component costs are reimbursed to them, not the labour costs.
The basic problem is that you would get the pile em high, sell em cheap brigade making the profit on selling the bike. It's then left to the experienced dealers who have invested in tools, workshops & training to pick up the warranty work, which is generally unprofitable & sometimes only the component costs are reimbursed to them, not the labour costs.
When my bike arrived the motor didn't work, I took it to the local Mercedes Smart dealer who put the laptop on it, it showed no motor registering, they checked the cable connectors and the battery which were all OK, so it was an issue with the motor of the new bike, I had a brand new 250watt bike delivered the next day that was PDI's by the UK dealer for me and ready that afternoon, what more could you ask for?
& that's the proof of the pudding ...... if you ever put it to the test.
Although on paper there's a global Mercedes network warranty personally I seriously doubt if my local Mercedes dealer would know the first thing about a Mercedes e-bike if I had one & had a problem with it.
Edit, we were typing at the same time, obviously you have had a good experience with warranty, although it would have been better if the original bike had arrived working!
Although on paper there's a global Mercedes network warranty personally I seriously doubt if my local Mercedes dealer would know the first thing about a Mercedes e-bike if I had one & had a problem with it.
Edit, we were typing at the same time, obviously you have had a good experience with warranty, although it would have been better if the original bike had arrived working!
Yes I agree about better it didn't happen, but things do happen, and it was put right within a day and more importantly they were not the selling dealership, only because I had no idea they existed as they were in another county and Mercedes seems to refer you to dealers in your county when you call them.
Can you imagine if that bike had come from China via ebay or a small cycle shop somewhere else in the country you would be stuffed or severely up the creek without a paddle as these bikes are not easy or cheap to shift around!
So my risk assessment of choosing a bike with a network of dealers worked on day 1, I am more than happy with that and hopefully can have 2 good years of sleep whilst under warranty by which time it will have more than paid for itself so the rest of the time of ownership will be a bonus
So my risk assessment of choosing a bike with a network of dealers worked on day 1, I am more than happy with that and hopefully can have 2 good years of sleep whilst under warranty by which time it will have more than paid for itself so the rest of the time of ownership will be a bonus
I would be curious
Again Edit: I did not read of your success in having your bike repaired. Asked and answered.
I would be curious to know how many Mercedes dealers have trained Smart Bike techs and parts on site. If your bike did break down and your local shop was not equipped, I wonder how long you would be without your bike? As you are a Smart Bike owner, have you seen for yourself your local dealer's capability of servicing your bike?
Again Edit: I did not read of your success in having your bike repaired. Asked and answered.
I'm not saying that every part would be available, its just that I had a brand new bike delivered next day, not only that but it was a European 250 watt bike that is not available in the UK so was like for like, that is the power of the network unlike Joe Blogs who uses Parcels 4 us or whatever and wants the bike shipped back to him. All to their own, as I said I like to sleep at night, sometimes cheap isn't always the answer, but if it does what you want and you have weighed up the risks then thats your decision and you have to accept the consequences, all I know is that there is nothing really serviceable by the owner on a smart ebike, unlike say a Land Rover Defender that you could tinker with and get parts easily for.
If you don't have a Mercedes Smart dealer near you then that would need to be taken into consideration in your risk assessment, you may only cycle locally and have a great local shop that sells ebikes and can service them then great, I don't have that luxury.
Most (not all) Mercedes dealers are owned by Mercedes UK. Therefore when you bought the bike your contract was with the dealer or in this case MBUK. Not sure how you would fare if you went to a MB franchise. But I'm sure MB would honour it as I've always found them to go above and beyond their warranty.
For a "quality" bike manufacturer not honouring a product warrant unless via the providing seller.....I would love to hear from manufacturers why!!
So an open question to
Haibike
KTM
Riuse &Muller
Scott
Cube
And all others........what us your warranty position... And why??
For a "quality" bike manufacturer not honouring a product warrant unless via the providing seller.....I would love to hear from manufacturers why!!
So an open question to
Haibike
KTM
Riuse &Muller
Scott
Cube
And all others........what us your warranty position... And why??
Very good question..... especially as some of these Ebikes cost a few thousand £.
And very commendable for Mercedes Smart doing it.
What is more remarkable is that my Bike was bought in Germany as I had no answer to my request for information on Smart eBikes from Mercedes in the UK, as you get routed to a central call centre and they feed you to dealers in your county, I had no idea that the one I went to with the issue which was in another county but nearer than all others even existed. It was by pure chance that the German dealer had a sale on and the bikes were reduced, I would have been happy to have bought one in the UK, I later found out about the extra 50 watt of power in non UK bikes increasing from 200 watt to 250 watt so that was a bonus as well as the sale price, although shipping was £151 with TNT Express 3 day.
As I am looking for a bike for my wife I will be interested to see the answer to your question above on warranty to other manufacturers.
Can I ask how much you paid in Germany in Euros?? Exchange rate is great at the moment. So if warranty is EU wide and UK bike only 200w makes sense going to Germany. Am going over there in Jan / Feb.
They were selling 200W versions in the UK recently? No major company has done that for years. Since the UK law was effectively ignored by everyone including the police until it was brought into line officially with EU law this spring,
No it isn’t it’s 250W here officially as of last April. It was 250W unofficially for years because everyone turned a blind eye to the UK law, and the police were told not to prosecute by the DTI.
As I said I had no clue about this until a couple of weeks ago when I ordered one from Germany, I thought they were all the same price so price didn't matter, it was only when the Euros were changed I realised it was only £1,070 plus the 250watt motor, Oh plus the shipping with TNT that I have since found out was illegal as the shipping agent made a mistake with the battery size and said it was OK, I only know this as another forum member has just bought one and they refused to ship it for him, but he has found another company that will so that is sorted.
In the UK they have always been £2,500, they recently reduced to £1,800 with interest free credit, see UK website, but nobody responded to my request to buy one, pretty rubbish really, I even rang garages and had no reply, that is Kent by the way. Anyway I googled and found a German Mercedes dealer, rang up, they had a couple in stock, bought it, wired the money and sent a courier, job done. The other forum member has found some Mercedes dealers in Belgium doing the same offer, he has bought one and its on its way over here, I live in Kent so thought of popping over for a day trip through the tunnel on their special offers at the moment, driving to Ostend (40 mins from Calais) and driving back with it, it would work out cheaper than the £151 shipping cost and a nice day out.
If you want the details of the Belgium dealers with them in stock I can send those to you, I am looking for a bike for my wife so may well buy another. There are a few rare Black Limited Edition ones with front suspension and a rack, the forum member on here, lucky sod, found one and that is the one he is getting, its about 450 Euros more I think but you can buy the front suspension forks on ebay (original) and have them fitted.
When getting a Euro bike remember the brakes are opposite so get the dealer to change them so front is right and back is left. also get them to use their computer to change KM to MPH, the power button comes on the left, the UK bikes have it on the right and this was done for me, but in hindsight maybe I would have left it on the left, having it on the left exposes a thin cable and makes it vulnerable, goodness knows why they do that, anyway mine is now tidy on the right.
I would be quick if I was you as these are special deals and they may well go up in price, as I said there is a forum member having one shipped at the moment so he could give you details of the carrier. From speaking to TNT yesterday it is to do with not only the watts and volts of the battery but also the UN number. It can be shipped but goes by hazardous method that I guess is quite expensive, mine came normal road 3 day express and full details were disclosed, but TNT have changed the rules in the last week or so I believe by tightening down on battery sizes.
For info the battery is:
Li-ion 48V DC/8.4Ah
403,2 Wh (according to UN38.3)
423 Wh max
131MR19/66-4
The quality of the components is top notch, and great value at this price, also checkout my previous post of them being tested and the factory. If you have any further questions just ask, but to get on such a cheap but superb quality bike with no chain to mess up your trousers certainly gives you the grin factor
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Well that is very funny because when my new one had a problem the Mercedes dealer told me that they could not switch it there and then as they only had a 200 watt in stock, Mercedes sent a 250 watt the following day. Maybe I was lied to but speaking with the technician they could not have been more helpful, I would be interested to know where you got this information, including the source and your experience of using/riding them because the technicians don't know about this!
Oh and the technician plugged in both and he could see a difference in the software on both bikes, mine having a higher something or other, not sure but he found it fascinating as well as he hadn't seen a 250 watt one.
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