So after much fighting, frustration and still no resolution I am now taking to the Hub to warn other riders of OMNICO and their customer service levels. It has unfortunately been 13 weeks yesterday and I am still without a bike. I bought the bike at the end of March 2014, it is a GT Zaskar Carbon 100 9r Pro. My riding partner also bought one the same day, but more on his troubles later. This is a Carbon Full Suss, 100mm, XT, Fox marathon bike (+-R40k). The bikes are sold with a 3 year warranty. My troubles began on Saturday the 23rd of May (14 weeks ago) when I could feel movement from the rear wheel, I checked spokes, play etc whilst on a ride, but nothing seemed wrong. So Monday 25th May I took the bike to the dealer (Hattons) for a service, there I asked them to check rear hub, pivot bearings etc for movement as something was wrong. The next morning they phoned to inform me that they had found the fault, the rear triangle had 3 cracks in it. 14 months old, I was understandably a little bit pissed off. The next day (Wednesday 27th May) OMNICO approved the warranty claim, so far so good, but then the lying started. Firstly the triangle would take 14 days to arrive, needless to say nothing arrived. Then when I pushed the shop on it and they contacted OMNICO they were lied to again and told “just tell the customer 4 weeks”, which needless to say again passed by. When I then went into the store and they tried to get an answer again, someone at OMNICO acknowledged that no triangle had ever been ordered and nothing was coming. Then after some moaning from me they sent parts from the US, the wrong colour. When in writing I declined receiving the wrong colour they merely ignored my complaints and sent it to the dealer. I fully understand that spare parts might be limited due to availability, but having a blue and white bike, with a black and grey triangle is not acceptable. Surely you should be returned to the same position you were in or an equivalent. This incorrect part took over 4 more weeks to arrive and has now been at the dealer for going on 5/6 weeks as I refuse to be prejudiced by OMNICO and their faulty product and stuff you attitude. After I made a negative comment about them on the Hub a week or 2 ago they phoned the Dealer to enquire as to why I was upset with them and why the bike hadn’t been sorted. REALLY??. So now the Dealer (Hattons) has been trying to sort out my frame at their cost, they have sent the black/gray triangle off to a custom painter in Durban to get it matched up, so hopefully it will be ok. Bike 2 My riding partner has the same bike, bought on the same day. So needless to say when I informed him of my troubles he took his in for an inspection. No surprises, it was cracked too. OMNICO delayed for as long as possible to approve the claim (many weeks), probably because they knew that we had a case of faulty goods against them. His replacement triangle arrives and no surprises it was the wrong colour, his complaints of mismatching were also ignored. They have since sent him another triangle which we went in for it to be fitted yesterday, this time it was even better. Not only was it another wrong colour (black/blue this time) but its well used, has scratches, chip marks on it. Needless to say he declined that on the spot. I have during this ordeal bought a new PYGA, firstly because I wanted one, but secondly because of OMNICO and the ridiculously bad service. If it wasn’t so laughable I would think the whole sad saga was BS. I luckily through my own large expense now have a bike to ride. We are meeting with lawyers next week to find out our recourse here, for surely this type of service can’t be condoned. Sadly during this ordeal I have tried repeatedly to make contact with GT international to complain about the product and service, yet there attitude is extremely poor too, “go back to the importer”, but what use is that when they are the problem. Currently there is no resolution and I wait for what will hopefully come back from the painter in 3 weeks and be usable. No thanks to OMNICO. Funnily enough they have said they will give us an extended 3 year warranty on the replacement triangle, it’s taken them almost 4 months on this one to screw us around, the warranty is not worth the paper it’s written on. BEWARE, that is all I have in closing.
