So upset I could cry...

[SadieKate]

Nonononono. What am I missing? Is your BB damaged or your crankset? Or both?

If only the BB is damaged, there is no reason to change the crankset. Just replace the BB.

[deeaimond]

I was so upset with this guy's rudeness but I figured I could not let him get away with it. So I emailed him again and this time i got a slightly more considerate answer (minus the fact that he did not really answer my question)

"
sir/mdm,

I'm the lady who called from Singapore earlier today to enquire about shipping to Singapore.

Since I clearly recall you saying 'for the same reason we do not ship to Thailand or Brazil, we do not ship to Singapore', Would you ship to an address in the UK instead?

the ebay listing did not state if you would. It says UK - collect in person. A friend of mine owns this restaurant in london and he would post the BB on for me.

(inserted friend's address here)

I'm looking to purchase the Campagnolo Mirage BB, 111mm, Italian thread that is listed on Ebay."

His reply

"Hi Denise...we dont ship to Singapore. The main reason being most of our payments are with paypal/ebay and we dont accept paypal payment from these countries...kind regards,dave"

(that was it, one line, no spacing nothing)

my roommate had overheard the phone conversation earlier and so was privy to this too.. she was like.. 'but paypal is like.. guaranteed money!' hhehe.. ah well.. he just does not want to sell to me I guess

[deeaimond]

Nonononono. What am I missing? Is your BB damaged or your crankset? Or both?

If only the BB is damaged, there is no reason to change the crankset. Just replace the BB.

Ahh, I said change the whole thing because it seems, from what i've been told. It's just cheaper to change the whole lot. heh.

I think its time to tell the story of the damaged BB and hear what all the more experienced cyclists have to say...

Well basically.. about a month ago, I was riding and then I heard like a loud 'ping' sound. I thought I hit a stone, coz I didn't flat. But a few seconds later, my gears started slipping a little, and the gears would not shift properly. I thought something was wrong but my guy friend was like.. nah.. it's fine just keep riding. So I kept riding for about... 14km and then suddenly at a traffic light my crank arms jammed up. fortunately I was like 100m from this LBS, my original destination. We were riding there to join this group on a ride. So there the bike mechanic opened up and the internal cover (i dunno what its called, its behind the crank arm cover, u need to open that to get to this cover) had come completely out of its threads. basically popped open. so that was the 'ping' i heard.

A week later, i was riding when my gears started slipping again... 5km later the crank arms jammed up.. we were in the middle of nowhere, at night and I had to call my dad come get me. This time I asked my dad to send the bike back to the LBS for me the next day..

LBS calls me the day after, says the cover came out again, he was using some thread lock on the thing and just to take it back and try it out.

So that weekend I went on a 100km ride. in the last 20 km I kelt like something inside felt weird so I just pedaled slowly, went back and sent the bike back to the shop. (to be accurate I left it at my parent's house and he went to pick it up from there coz he lives nearby)

this time round he calls me couple days later, says that the ball bearings in my BB are loose and that I can make use of this opportunity to upgrade my crankset ($200 and above) or replace the BB for $40..

So i spoke to a few pple who told me its hardly my fault since I've only had the bike for 2 months and it was new to start with.

Called him back and after some toing and froing he says that the suppliers do not cover wear and tear and that fine he would replace it out of his own pocket. All the time still blaming me for 'riding it while the cover was loose'

point is.. it's an internal cover and I'm not a mechanic. my gears were slipping how was I to know something inside had fallen out?

So now will campy cover this if i try to contact them? I'm asking because I'm not sure if it was really my fault since I know next to nothing about bike mechanics. So maybe some of you would have had similar experiences or better information?

[SadieKate]

You bought a fully built up bike? What kind? When? From this same LBS?

[deeaimond]

You bought a fully built up bike? What kind? When? From this same LBS?

Yup, from this same bike shop. thats why I went back to him. The frame is a Viner, and the groupset campy mirage. I didn't see it in a catalogue or anything, just saw it in the shop. Seems it was a stock bike. there was also no paperwork. just paid for it. It was new though. thats for sure. when, May this year

[SadieKate]

So contact Viner. Your LBS should be figuring this out.

http://www.vinerbikes.com/HOME/tabid...S/Default.aspx

[deeaimond]

I'll let him figure it out for a few more days. I'll call him tmw and see if he has found the part. I hardly see viners out here. wonder if the company even knows their bikes are here. probably don't have an office here. just a supplier.

[Running Mommy]

Oh goodness!!! What a nightmare for you! NIGHTMARE!!
I would contact CAMPY, not Viner. Once the bike leaves the showroom floor generally warranty on componets transfers to the componet manu.
Campy should cover this. But it'll prolly take some wrangling to get it out of them. Be firm, but be polite. Explain that the lbs is not helping you and that your forced to go direct to them. Really the lbs should be calling campy.
What a horrible lbs you have. I feel sorry for you.
As for the shipping nightmare.... I have to say that I get requests all the time to send things overseas, and they just scream scam.
Sucks that you really are legit, and no reason for the guy to be rude. But the dang fraud and identity theft issues have left us shop owners more than a bit gun shy.

[deeaimond]

Actually running mommy,

the lbs is not all that bad. They do things in a timely manner, don't overcharge and give me good prices, order stuff for me, his wife is pretty friendly.

Just that maybe it's the owner's interpersonal skills that need work. Besides I can't afford to burn the bridges with him because its the closest little bike shop to where I live, and so sometimes you need spare tubes and whatnot, you still have somewhere you can go to.

I guess I just need to be firmer with him about the things I want or need. otherwise he just tries to barrel me over.

[MauiRockHopper]

It's amazing the ignorance in the world. I am in Hawaii, which is part of the US and always have to educate people about shipping. Even the "mainland" 48 other US states don't realize the US Postal Service rates to Hawaii are exactly the same as any other state. They always try to add on extra fees and costs and I just move on to another vendor if they try to jack me around. UPS and Fed Ex, etc., is another matter and does get more expensive because there is no "ground" shipping here.

Maybe you can have a mail service in the USA like Mail Boxes Etc. receive your order, then have them package it back up and forward it to you in Singapore.

[Susan Otcenas]

my roommate had overheard the phone conversation earlier and so was privy to this too.. she was like.. 'but paypal is like.. guaranteed money!' hhehe.. ah well.. he just does not want to sell to me I guess

Actually, this is incorrect. Paypal is NOT guaranteed money. We've had the experience of having paypal take money back. In our case it was a daughter who had used her father's account without his permission. This was on an international transaction.

We ship internationally, but EVERY international order goes through an extra layer of scrutiny, whether its Canada or Singapore or South Africa. And yes, there are some countries we simply will not ship to, including Indonesia and Nigeria. (We do ship to Singapore). MY OWN MOTHER lives in Nigeria, but we still won't ship there.

International shipping includes a much higher risk of fraud (credit card address verification features do not work on international transactions) and theft (typically that country's domestic postal service), and simple outright lost packages. We mitigate that with higher international shipping fees, and limiting the countries we ship to. Every retailer needs to make that calculus for themselves.

All that said, you deserved better treatment from that retailer. Even if he could not ship to you, he should have given you the courtesy of a polite reply.

Susan

[ridebikeme]

After reading your experince, I am confused as to whether it's the bottom bracket or the crank that has the issues?? Perhaps both?? At any rate, as a shop owner, and someone that has used Campy for the past 15 years, I would think that either might be easy to find. Hopefully your LBS will find what you need, but if not, let me know... I'm sure that I can come up with something... same as many others here ...

Good luck!!