Ellsworth Launches Bold Guarantee
 |
Ellsworth Bikes has gone through its share of tough times, including no small amount of consumer backlash against the brand. The company, however, has reorganized, rebuilt their bike line and has just taken a decidedly bold approach to getting back in the game with the launch of its Performance Satisfaction Guarantee in over 50 markets in the United States.
To cut to the chase, if you buy a new, stock 2017 Ellsworth bike and are not satisfied with it, the company will take it back after 30 days. The company clearly knows that there are skeptics out there and their answer is to take the risk out of buying one of their latest bikes. No matter what you think of the brand, that's a pretty ballsy way to tackle the image problem.
To quote from their press release, "Ellsworth’s Performance Satisfaction Guarantee (EPSG) is our pledge to our customers that a new stock 2017 Ellsworth bike will perform better and provide you with a mountain bike ride like no other in the market. We feel so confident in that pledge that you will have more fun, get a new PR, and enjoy the sport of mountain biking that much more, we will take your stock 2017 Ellsworth back after 30 days."
 |
Ellsworth has also partnered with Velofix Direct in over 50 markets and select dealers to give riders "a personalized experience in your next bike purchase."
If you're not familiar with Velofix, it's a mobile-mechanic franchise. In this case, you'd order up the Ellsworth and (assuming you don't have an Ellsworth dealer in your town) a trained Velofix mechanic will build, set up, and tune your new Ellsworth to the company's specific standards and then deliver the bike to your house or office (your choice), making sure that it's dialed in for you. Velofix will then return after 30 days to check in on your new purchase and conduct a minor tune at no extra charge. According to Ellsworth, here's what happens next. "If you find your 2017 Ellsworth isn’t the best bike you have owned" Velofix will take it back at that time.
Ellsworth is also offering some new financing options, including 0% interest for 12 months on approved credit.
Will riders give Ellsworth another chance? It'll be interesting to see how this all turns out.
In the meantime, we have one of the new Ellsworth models in for testing and when we're done abusing it, we'll give our own verdict on what the brand has delivered with their latest rigs.
www.ellsworthbikes.com
MENTIONS: @ellsworthbikes / @velofix
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
Typicall Ellsworth crap and shame on Pinkbike for not disclosing the real terms of the offer. From Ellsworth's website:
" If after 30 days, you aren’t 100% satisfied with your new bike, you can return it to your place of purchase and receive a full refund (less a $250 restock fee). The only conditions are that you purchase through a participating US outlet, and return the bike with normal wear and tear."
great point. its actually a very low risk / cost deal if you only end up riding the bike for 29 days and sending it back
I used to work for the UK distributor. their bikes like the Truth, Epiphany, Moment, Dare were actually great riding with excellent suspension. The big rocker linkage, anodised/lazer etched aesthetic and price put many off, but every time we sent a bike to test, it scored very high or won the group test.
there were issues with the earlier frames being underbuilt and suffering repeated failures on chainstays, some rockers, some front triangle, etc. the distributor had been selling the brand for some years before I joined, there were alot of bikes out there so expected to see some back as normal. but yes problems with warranty supply, often we stripped down new frames to satisfy customer issues, and end up with pile of parts and no spares available for months.
time to time, odd problem like seat post getting stuck in seat tube and we found glass beads from bead blasting inside the front triangle where the bead blasting company in the US had not sealed the frame, bead stuck inside coming loose on riding vibrations. we had to strip down to frame components and try and pressure wash with detergent inside the frame to get beads out, then replace scratched Thomson seatpost. a whole batch of frames came like this
geometry was often not as advertised (steeper and higher), not such much an issue for the XC guys but the Moment owners often put in angle adjust headset and offset rocker to slacken/lower the bike.
However, the Moment was considered a class leading longer travel bike like the early Specialized Enduro. I must admit I never owned one (I had a run of Banshee which we also distributed) but rode plenty and enjoyed the ride, especially the suspension which had an excellent platform feel even on the longer travel bikes like Rogue and Dare
What a joke that is.
There are so many great companies making dependable, attractive, tried and trusted designs... why would anyone take a chance on a bike that may or may not be a lemon, from a company that may or may not be cowboys? It's not like Evil or Ellsworth are cheap options. Top dollar for below par bikes.
Couple of points here.
(1) Would you really need to rent/test a bike for 29 days before you decided whether or not it was for you? I'd say the real comparison was 60 vs. 250.
(2) Ellsworth expects the bike to be returned with "normal wear and tear". They don't define that any more than to state "no damage". Paint chip(s)? What else? How can you properly test a bike without risking paint chips?
" If after 30 days, you aren’t 100% satisfied with your new bike, you can return it to your place of purchase and receive a full refund (less a $250 restock fee). The only conditions are that you purchase through a participating US outlet, and return the bike with normal wear and tear."
There are a lot of great small bike manufactures that take care of their customers and deserve to be in business (i.e. Turner, Canfield, and Ibis). Ellsworth is not one of them.
"Then, as it has done many times before, Ellsworth came roaring back to life—just in time for its 25th anniversary—with a new owner supplying much-needed capital and Tony Ellsworth still at the helm."
dirtragmag.com/ellsworth-returns-with-new-ownership-new-bikes
For the kids who aren't old enough to remember, Tony Ellsworth is the Donald Trump of the mountain bike industry.
"To keep up with all of this new momentum, Tony looked to an owner who would be able to take care of all of the business stuff – things he admittedly doesn’t want to deal with. Instead, as the Vice President of Product design, Tony is free to work with his team to develop the product while the new owner Jonathan Freeman keeps the machine running. With the deal officially completed in December, Tony said that Jonathan has some serious business chops and great operational strengths which will help strengthen the Ellsworth brand."
Tony is designing bikes not dealing with warranty issues. Again, your concerns are unfounded.
If someone wants to buy his product, they are welcome to, but I am also free to make sure people are aware of his history and what a scubag he is.
When you get royally screwed on a warranty you don't forget what that feels like. Especially on something as expensive as one of these bikes. No way in Hell I'm doing that again. You'd have to pay me to take one of his bikes. Just go out of business already.
How they should have handled it was like what Yeti did for my brother when the replaceable derailed hanger didn't break properly and instead broke the dropout on his 575. No questions asked, they replaced the entire back end, new pivots and all.
With new owners, there's no known dickishness and so far they seem to be acknowledging where the company has come from and what they need to do to give confidence in the brand.
Ellsworth certainly has a unique look, but the long rocker is for a reason. The suspension feels damn nice. I'd ride an ugly bike in a heartbeat to get that same feel (personally, i don't even think they're ugly).
Most (Marin, Whyte, Cube, etc etc etc ) go for a built spec that's great value and stacks up against the competition, then once the brand has some traction and decent reviews they look to make their money...They increase dealer numbers (thereby diluting dealer sales) reduce margins and spec, and usually warranty becomes "more difficult" shall I say. No one will openly diride your choice, but don't expect your Whyte to ever be the best looking/riding/built bike in the group. But it is good value for money - important, but not glamourous. Marins Hawk Hills for the money is a good entry level full sus. But it ain't glamourous, cutting edge or particularly exciting.
IMO don't buy a brand that's already failed once. In Ellsworth's case it definitely cost riders money.
If you want to buy a relaunched brand, understand it's a 3-5 year attitude to getting themselves back in the game and profitable. If it's the same people, they'll eventually make the same mistakes they did first time around. Don't bitch when that happens.
This is a fantastic offer.....but it's also a sign of how desperate this brand is. If more people try to return than buy the bike, this doesn't work, they'll not have the money to refund all these bikes....this company has a habit of promising change and not delivering....and people will not get their money back. I imagine it will be exactly as it was when they last had issues.
It's disappointing to read uneducated comments about how the bike rides well,and how they've changed....clearly an Ellsworth rider will defend his choice, but defending something you weren't involved in and didn't affect you is pretty low. Coming on here and dissing people for warning about this brand is low too. If you have enough money to get ripped off that's cool, we don't all have the resources to make bad choices.
I mean, usually such acquisitions happen with brand names that still have high value, like Marzocchi for example, but the "new Ellsworth" seems to have problems to shed the old bad reputation.
So again, why take the risk of rebuilding something broken, when it´s no real problem to establish something new (given you have a good product)?
Well, CB at least has some sort of cult following them and they have a certain design aspect that is instantly recognizable. It is also a brand name that is well knwon even beyond the borders of our small elitist world into the realm of casual cyclists. They also have a few products that, while lacking in durability, do offer a high level of performance, like the Mallet´s click mechanism. They bought a few great ideas that just needed some quality control and design improvements to turn them into outstanding products. So i can see the value in that brand and why it´s worth the effort to rebuild its reputation.
So CB has at least that going for it.
Ellsworth on the other hand doesn´t really offer any of that.
Otherwise, these bikes get returned after X amount of riding under various conditions, then resold to someone else. This could possibly happen several times with the same bike.
There is a reason for the desperation people, examine it.
A history of big promises & subsequent big failures should not be ignored.
If you can't see what's happening behind the scenes you should at least be able to see that they were ugly before & they're ugly now.
Just move on.
There was a family ran shop here in town that was stoked to get Ellsworth. The wife bought a frame and within a month it broke. She went to warranty it, as the owner no less, and it took 3 months....and they made her pay for the broken piece!! Needless to say, they dropped them.
This is no a new problem with Ellsworth nor is it unique to a given year but rather the life story of the brand. There is a reason why you don't see them in shops or industry insiders riding them: the stories are real and not just honest mistakes or life got tough for personal or supplier reasons. Cause hey, anyone who's owned a biz has been bit by such issues and shit does happen.
Anyone else offering such a promise, I'd be impressed. But 15 years of Ellsworth stories wonders how well they'll actually honor the deal or if it's just a means to ditch stock.
The only experiences ive ever had with Ellsworth have been extremely positive. Nobody can change what happened in the past but they can try and move on and learn from their mistakes which is what they are obviously trying to do.
I am amused that you visit this site and want to push an agenda that involves buying from people who don't have much respect for the end user of their product. I amazed that you then abuse people who don't want others in OUR community to make the same mistake. You've added nothing here....the people warning about how bad this company have been is at least a fair warning to those considering parting with their hard earned.
Some "mistakes" can't be forgiven. GFY.
Yes. Yes i do.
Not hating on Ellsworth here. I have no experience with them and as far as i know, they´re under new ownership, aren´t they?
My comment just applied to specialized and how they have no respect for customers and competitors. Just wanted to make clear that some things tend to stick to peoples minds and for the average joe, they stick to the brands name so it doesn´t matter what changes happen.