by wootenlakeguy on Tue Feb 07, 2017 8:28 am
After following this thread people might come away with the false impression that E-Tap components aren't available or at least in short supply. Although E-Tap components might not be available in your LBS because they're too expensive to keep in inventory, they're certainly available. In my recent experience with a defective RD, the replacement was a brand new unit in the full elaborate retail packaging which indicated that it had been produced during the week of December 12-16, 2016. You could make the argument that if anyone had SRAM components, it would be the SRAM distributor in Chicago, but if you check E-Bay you'll notice many many dozens of new E-Tap components including the full upgrade kit are readily available. Furthermore, they're usually priced far less than retail or even what I paid in Nov. 2016. That wouldn't be the case if they were in short supply.
I also understand how this thread could lead one to believe that SRAM aren't very responsive with customer service. With my recent claim, that certainly wasn't the case. No, they weren't as responsive as Apple, but given the circumstances, they resolved my issue as quickly as could be expected. The following applies: MY RD failed during an afternoon ride on Monday December 5th, 2016. Since I live in the Pacific Northwest, by the time I finally got home it was already too late to call Chicago during business hours. Consequently, I called SRAM Tuesday morning and after conferring with their technical support department, was told me to take the failed RD to my LBS. Since that's a 70 mile round trip, I waited until Wednesday morning when I could combine the trip with other business.
After leaving the defective RD with the LBS, I was called the next morning and told that my RD was indeed dead and would have to be shipped back to Chicago for repair/replacement. They had also verified with SRAM that this would be done under warranty at no cost. The RD was packaged by the LBS and went out with the mail on Thursday afternoon Dec. 8th.
Chicago received the failed part on Monday Dec. 12. After analysis they posted the new replacement RD on Tuesday Dec. 13th and it arrived at my LBS on the afternoon of Dec. 16th.
So, it did indeed take 12 days for me to receive my new and free replacement RD. However, please note that six of these days were transit time and two of the days were to make the long round trip to my LBS more convenient.
As someone mentioned, this would be intolerable during prime biking season, but certainly not a factor this time of year where I live. As for me, to resolve this issue, I'm so enamored with E-Tap that I intend retrofitting a second bike. That will give me the ability to swap from one bike to another after the simple expedient of re-pairing which takes less than
one minute.
That's certainly better than the last time I had to replace a failed RD cable which took the better part of two hours to get the cable strung internally through my 3T Aeronova handlebars and my Scott SL Addict, also with internal cable routing.
It's also extremely gratifying to have the shifting dialed in almost immediately and permanently with E-Tap as opposed to struggling incessantly with mechanical.
To each their own.