Hey guys, about one and a half months ago, my rear shock broke, oil leaked out of the rebound knob. it was a manitou Metel with rebound and compression adjustments. i phoned around and eventually was directed to Lance at Epic bike shop. I took my shock to Lance, he said it wasnt a problem and he could fix/service it by the next week. I also asked him to quote me on the repair first. At the end of the following week, i had still heard nothing from Lance. on the second week i recieved a sms from Cycles Africa telling my that my shock had eneterd their workshop to be serviced. still nothing from Lance. on the third week i got another sms saying that my shock had been through thier workshop and was being sent back to Lance. still heard nothing from Lance. We called Lance and he said he had just been incredibly busy, but i didnt really mind. so it was fine. my mom actaully spoke to him and he quoted us R1500 for the service, which was rediculous, we then called Cycles Africa and they said it cost us exactly R505 from them to service the shock, they also said they had recieved the shock completely untouched. they said the rest of the money was possible for Lances labour........but they recieved the shock untouched. we phoned Lance again, and he said that he had by mistake gotten our names muddled up with a nother family.....(who also sent their manitou shock in for a service at exatcly the same time? they apparently also had a Belinda Russell who called in too). anyway, he then said it was actually R755, of which R505 was for Cycles Africa and R250 for his labour, so that was fine, we paid and collected the shock. I read the service list attached to the shock by Cycles Africa, the had replaysed ALL internals and fitted a SPV valve onto the shock aswell, i wasnt notified about any of this. I put the shock onto my bike, rode around for 5 minutes, and immediately the shock started to leak, i imediately called Lance, he said i musnt worry, it was just because the shock was assembled in a bath of oil, and the "leak" was extra oil in the knobs. Now my first problem: all the characteristics of the shock had been changed, the SPV system completely screwed up pretty much all low speed compression, the ride is so hard now, and im a donwhiller and the entire reason basicly i have a rear shock is to absorb small bumps to increase stability and control for fast riding. the shock now has pretty much no small bump performance, and i wasnt notified or asked about the addition of the SPV system to my shock, Lance said it was always there and that i probably just hadnt noticed it......on the mantiou website it clearly doesnt have it. Second problem: i wasnt called about the oil weight that they were going to use in the shock, now i understand that when i but a shock, it comes with standerd oil, but surely when you get it serviced they should ask you? the shock feels waay to stiff for me. even if i undo the preload coil, there is a very hard compression in it. Third problem: the shock is now starting to sqeak and my a knocking sound and i can feel a big knock in the rebound stroke, i checked forums, they said check pressure, i found pressure charts and pumped up the shock accordingly.....no help......and the shock still leaks...... what do you guys think of this? am i being unreasnable with the SPV and oil thing? should i call lance about the current problem or Cycles Africa? either one better not charge me for re-repairs....
