Why I don’t ride Orbea Mountain Bikes anymore.
So many people have been asking what the heck happened to all the Orbea Bikes. The story isn’t a super exciting one but here it is. Orbea can make a great bicycle and I loved my Oiz but I can’t support a company that treats it’s dealers like that. I know everyone makes mistakes but after dealing with multiple events and being talked down to for 9 months we decided to part ways.
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The time has finally come people keep asking me why I do not ride an Ora anymore because I was a pretty big proponent for their products uh and I feel like now is the time to uh to come clean with you All so if you do enjoy any of my content please like subscribe hit the Bell notification all of those help tremendously but let’s just jump into this video I’m hoping it’s not going to take too long first things first I think Ora makes some amazing bicycles I love
The orb o and the aam and have nothing against their actual products but after actually dealing with the company I have a lot to say about how they choose to treat their dealers the shop picked up Ora right before the covid-19 pandemic started because they had ample inventory
And did everything from Road and mountain bikes to kids bikes the shop sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Thea product during the pandemic and then came time for another Year’s Buy in really without going into extreme detail about how a small business works or how a small local bike
Shop works it it really comes down to a lack of communication and us not feeling safe with orbea namely because our sales rep was telling us one thing orbea would come back and tell us another and we couldn’t get a hold of anybody except for our sales rep at one point in time
We even jokingly said he must be the only person that works at orb they were just doing some dumb things like rep would tell us the Buy in this year is just a wish list you can edit it at any time just put the bikes on there you
Think you’re going to sell and then whenever it came time for the bike to come in it would just show up at the bike shop no phone call no nothing no saying hey this bike is in do you want to change it when we complained and
Argued that’s not what he told us he just said well you know it’s in the dealer agreement that you have to accept every bike on your preseason order stuff like that numerous examples I could tell you but the final nail in the coffin is the one that I really want to go over
With you guys what led us to just say you know know what we’re cutting ties with Ora but if you would like to hear more about the day-to-day of the local bike shop and been thinking about maybe doing a series on that let me know if
You’d like to see that down below but the nail in the coffin was when an actual sold orbea aam showed up that someone someone at DHL ran a freaking Fork Cliff through the box I mean you could see the two Fork Cliff puncture holes the side of the box was caved in
It was a mess the parts box for the bicycle was missing the rear triangle was twisted and the rear wheel had spokes ripped out of the freaking Rim it was a disaster and in a situation like this with a typical company every other bike company we’ve ever dealt with you
Just refuse the package of course take a couple pictures and then the company that sent the product can get the shipping company to pay for the damages if you accept the package then the liability is completely out of the hands of the shipping company when we get a
Bike in from giant if it’s damaged giant automatically says Hey refuse the bike if the bike is damaged is refuse it that way we can go after the shipping company if you accept the bike the shipping company is they’re off Scot free once you claim it no taky baxis so once we
Refused it just to be courteous We messaged our sales rep and informed him of the situation which resulted in him seemingly having a meltdown on the phone and telling us we cannot refuse a package and that we better get that package redelivered right now from DHL
It is in our dealer agreement it is in our dealer agreement you have to accept all packages no matter the condition of the bicycle so we looked at our dealer agreement and it does in fact say that we have to accept all bikes no matter what and that if they are damaged orbea
Will arrange pickup and credit us or they will send parts to fix the bike all right so maybe that little part was a screw up but the dealer agreement does say in there that they will pick up a damaged bicycle they will arrange for pickup they will send us a call tag for
It an RA number whatever and get the bike back we got the bike redelivered we put put it in the garage we contacted warranty and our sales rep and then crickets contacted them again we we we finally heard back about a month later we are slammed super sorry working on it
All right uh time went by again contacted again nothing crickets again maybe 2 months at this point we finally heard from warranty that they will send a new back wheel in a rear triangle and we can sell the bike at a discount and now please pay us for this bicycle we
Said no uh that that’s not how this works it says in dealer agreement that you were so gung-ho that we have to accept a bike because the dealer agreement says so it says you will come pick up a bicycle that is damaged so that is completely unacceptable we
Explicitly documented the damage to the bike and we weren’t comfortable selling something that the Integrity of the frame had been compromised I wouldn’t have sold it for $75 just because whoever got the bike could have gotten hurt uh especially with if the frame failed like the rear triangle was literally Twisted in there
So the front triangle had to be compromised as well well I was not comfortable selling a bicycle like that and to top it all off we were still receiving nasty emails saying we haven’t paid for that bike yet the damaged bike that we are trying to get taken care of
This is when the thoughts of canceling our dealer agreement came into effect so we informed ourselves re that their remedy for the bike is unacceptable and per our dealer agreement they kept referencing it stated that they would arrange for pickup of the bike our rep told us that Ora doesn’t have a
Warehouse or office space in the US to hows it so he doesn’t know where he would put it or what he would do with it and in my opinion it’s not our problem it says it in our dealer agreement you pick it up if it’s damaged so come get
Your crap and we’re not going to pay for it we can’t sell this product the bike sat in our garage for six more months and we finally got a call tag for the bike to be shipped to this place of of all Places What happened in between those 6 months was that we canceled our dealer agreement with an in all honesty a decent email to our rep and carbon copied his boss and everyone else we could think of within the Ora organization expressing our disappointment in how they have handled multiple situations in treating us in
Treating customers and we got nothing back from no one except our sales rep saying that he completely understands why we want to cancel and then account was closed but we still had to pay off our balance so we send Ora a check but Ora doesn’t have a bank account in the
US apparently and they sent the check back and told us we had to pay online through our dealer website that we no longer had access to because they closed our account anyway they reopened our account and we got it paid and that whole debac was behind us the bike shop
Is no longer an orbat dealer and then come to find out in that time frame that our rep actually quit we got a call from his boss finally he the boss blamed everything on the sales rep I don’t think that is entirely true who knows but then he asked us to reopen our
Account like we carbon copied him in all of those emails and never heard a word from this guy and now when orb is not doing so hot in the states he just wants us to reopen our account like this has been going on for 9 months so it was a
Little bit at first that we didn’t fully read every freaking line of the dealers agreement and we just trusted our sales rep and what he was saying we did everything that we thought we should have to do I’m not going to sell a bike that’s been damaged but we shouldn’t
Have to pay for it if the shipping company damaged it after doing a little bit of digging I don’t even think Ora puts Insurance on these bikes when they ship them I think that’s why they say that you have to accept the bike and then when you hit return on it since
Most of them being drop shipped from Spain I think Ora Spain gets poed when a bike is returned that’s what they all seemed like I don’t know if another bike shop that carries Ora out there has had similar situations please let me know down in the comments because uh we had
More than a couple bike shops call us after this and multiple dealers in and around the southeast has completely dropped orbea like if you check Ora right now for like the greater Charlotte area it says there’s one dealer and it’s a not even a real dealer it’s a hobby
Shop out of California that has a distribution center there it’s very odd and then Ora started selling on the pros closet they were like the only brand new bike brand being sold on the pros closet also this one’s pretty funny uh orbo was sending out steel bolts
Because this aluminum bolt that held in the shock kept breaking on all of the yam and uh yeah this is what happened had another frame Bolt break no an issue cuz they’re aluminum and they suck they send us steel ones to replace them with so they don’t break except they’re not
Steel so yes I think Ora makes a great product I have nothing against their product or the Ora always was one of my favorite bikes that I’ve ever owned but I cannot ride something if the company is going to act like that I can’t be supportive of somebody
When they are treating dealers that badly I heard from multiple dealers that I knew personally they had similar situations so after the shop that I work with is dropped them or dropped them I was like I’m done I’m I’m not going to ride an orb I’m not going to support
Them I’m not going to promote them I would love for them to get their stuff together uh and become a better company but uh as of right now that is essentially why we don’t do anything with Ora anymore if you got any questions let me know I know it’s a
Little bit of a convoluted story because there is a lot of pieces that happened over the course of a year that it just kept stacking up and then the bike being damaged and then telling us that we have to accept it and then have to fix it
Ourselves and then have to try to sell it and pay for it was kind of the nail in the coffin but hopefully this wasn’t too long uh I’ve been recording way longer than I should but yeah that’s what I got for you guys I I will see you
In the next video hopefully we’ll get to something a little bit more light-hearted and that we can start racing again soon I love you all see you in the next one bye-bye
22 Comments
After too many requests asking what happened with Orbea, I finally made a short video about why I got rid of my Oiz. Next up we are getting back to some racing and an investigation into Pon Holding!
I own 3 Orbeas!!
Wont be buying an orbea after hearing this…ibis, yt, and fezzari have always treated me right and customer service has been excellent with them. If orbea is treating their shops like this, no telling how they handle their consumers…
My dream bike was Orbea Terra. This makes me think again.
Man, that's gotta be stressful….for a bike company to do that to you. Good on you for moving on.
Always thought Orbea frames looked goofy tbh
Welp i feel ya recently purchased a vitus sentier in September, customer was top notch from a rep in utah. Two weeks or so later couldn't get ahold of anyone on phine and was emailed by a tep in the uk. Turns out i think they are going belly up . Great bine but lesson learned. I simply believe in this land of make believe we are in today nobody really gives a hoot
0:45 Wasn't expecting a clip of the Philippines here.
Anyhoo, scummy practices.
My wife has an Orbea Orca 2021. The seatpost bolt washer kept breaking. The dealer tried to get it warrantied but we never got it resolved. The shop actually gave us a cheap Salsa seatpost to use. We got fed up with the shop thinking the shop is giving us the run-around. Well after your story I think the shop was being truthful and couldn’t get Orbea to help.
Just bought a Rise E MTB. Hoping there is no issues. I agree with their CS Dept. they kinda suck
Just scratched Orbea off my list of new bikes. Thanks!
That non-steel, steel pin was really the kicker
Great to see a bike shop with integrity and honesty. Thanks for your great videos really love them
Fck Orbea
Glad i caught your video. Was considering a used orbea orca as my next step up. But i don't support companies that treat their vendors and customers with contempt.
That was my first bike. Orbea Orca.
How stupid you must to accept this damage package.Why should the bikecompany pay for this damage.
Post sale support's critical and priced in. Great psa thanks
Wow…..
Santa cruz.
One of the best collaboration was bkxc and orbea. 6 of my mates bought the rallon after bkxc collaborated with them. Orbea apparently hv this warranty deal, where they will repair/restore thr paint work within 3 years of the sale of the bike. One of my mates tried to claim it and he was given the run around for months till he gave up. This was in 2019. Looks like a habit for orbea.
Sucks when business relationships are this complicated 🙁 I have an Orbea Alma and an Occam and I love both! Very happy with the price I paid and the spec on them. Never had a problem with them!