After the warranty debacle on my Scribe Inception 50-D rear wheel, I finally got a replacement axle sent me this week FOC and I fitted it today. Not without a bit of a fight with them and the wheel though.
I’ve bought a couple of Scribe wheelsets now and up to now they have performed perfectly. I also believed they’re customer service was as good as the wheels too but my recent interaction with them to get the wheel sorted under warranty has left a bad taste in my mouth to be honest. And I question whether I would buy another set again on principle.
Quick catch up: I swapped my front and rear tyres around to even the wear and noticed a bearing in the rear hub was a touch rough. So I decided to pop the axle caps off to look at the bearing numbers so I could order a set ready. In Scribe’s own video, they advise holding the axle with a cone spanner in it’s notch while undoing the drive side cap with another 17mm cone spanner. I attempted this and the corner of the notch sheared off. The part clearly failed. My wheels are 15 months old and covered by a 3 year warranty so I thought they’d just sort it no quibble. Oh no!
To my surprise the reply I got was pretty poor.
- Not normally considered warranty
- I probably should have used more care
- A cone spanner was an appropriate tool
- They don’t normally have axles available as spares but would sell me one @ £10 + £5 shipping
- If I didn’t have an appropriate tool I should seek a pro mechanic
Hmmmm. I was pretty pissed off (and tired, I read the email at 4am!) so I crafted a ‘curt’ response asking what else could I have done?, why the warranty was actually declined? and not to make assumptions about my skillset. I politely reminded them I had owned a bike shop and still occasionally do work as a mechanic professionally. I know what I’m doing. It’s faulty. Just sort it.
The tone of their response to that was somewhat different. No apology but an axle was being posted FOC or I could send the wheel back. Finally! A bit of common sense. There was just no need for it. Mugging people off is a real pet-hate of mine.
Fast forward to today and I decided to pop to the shop to replace the axle because I needed an axle vice to remove the non-drive side cap.
Cap off, I tried to hold the bare axle with the axle vice again and undo the drive-side but it wasn’t happening, in fact it deformed the axle so I was all-in now. Eeek!
The shop didn’t have a 4mm drill bit so I opted for a 3mm first and drilled a hole straight through and used an allen key to hold it. The cap wouldn’t budge. I bent the allen key and slightly rounded the cap flat trying to undo it. It wasn’t looking good. I needed more purchase so in the absence of a 4mm bit I risked a 5mm.
With a 5mm allen key holding the axle it was shit or bust. I thought the cap would just round off tbh but after slowly applying more force it cracked and unwound relatively easily. Done up way too tight from new + a dry thread. Tut Tut.
I was able to check the bearing numbers and actually found the freehub bearings were the culprit so I’ve ordered a spare set for both. 6902’s for the hub, 6802’s for the freehub. And the bonus is I already have the correct size drifts ready to go.
After a rocky start, it’s well on it’s way to being sorted. Needless to say I copper-slipped the thread to make sure it didn’t seize up again.
Adios
Good job! I’d have returned the wheel myself when they made that offer 🙂 Pity you didn’t video the repair process and then you could really have rubbed their faces in it ➡️