Chat with marin has revealed they fail to even contemplate that the crack in my frame (and at least two others that i have seen with exactly the same failure) is a manufacturing/frame design error - i would be fine if they refused to contemplate warranteeing a head tube/shock mount/pivot mount failure, as this can be seen as resuting from abuse on a frame thats history cannot be proven, but halfway along a swingarm, where other frames have failed in an identical way? C'mon...
This has led them to offering me a second-hand swingarm (at a price) - However this would only be warranteed for a year...
and if it were to fail again after a year id have to buy another one... (well i wouldnt, i'd get a cotic)
What i dont get is - if you are a manufacturer and you have a product, used or not, and can inspect it, why not offer it with a decent warrantee? Surely you should be able to tell if its one that snaps or not - and if its one that breaks you shouldn't be sending it out in the first place, so why not offer a warrantee with good grace?
Surely all thats saying is that they have no faith that that product will actually do what its meant to do, and wont break - what if the new (used) swingarm snaps and throws me under a bus?
If were a manufacturer and my product failed in a way that could be dangerous (eg any frame failure that could result in a loss of control), whether it was new or used, i would be mortified, but it seems they couldnt care less if it snaps, showing they must fail all the time, and hence showing that they are inferior quality - my older, much more abused heckler never snapped, and as far as i know is still going now...
The funny thing is that i used to bang on about how great Marins were...
And on a last note - they say they never warrantee products without any receipts - thats rubbish - a while ago i took back a marin stem that came off my Bear Valley SE, that had snapped at the weld where extrusion meets collar (could have been very nasty, luckily i was pulling up, not leaning on the bars), and they got worried about that and gave me a replacement with no questions...
Tim
