cyclebycle13

If you're going to sell bikes over the internet, you better be prepared to deal with issues like this. Just buy some nail polish is not acceptable. Then again, neither is the OP's grammar. FWIW, I've never had a bike or frame shipped to me with a paint or damage issue.

bikemig 

+ 1. This is a dreadful thread that should be shut down.

bikemig 

This is a sad post. Are you going to troll all foreigners on this thread? There's been a lot of bombast on this thread but little to no useful information.

Joe Remi

Westgl is a troll. I'm quite fed up with his weird posts about bikes he's said he's purchased, then later it turns out he's still thinking about it, then he finally buys one or five and throws a fit online because one got scratched in shipping. Then there's the "foreigner" stuff, which is offensive. This dude is hijacking the Folding Bikes section, and needs to be dealt with.

CliffordK

Whew, a lot of animosity here. Paint is often not covered under warranties, but read the terms of the warranty.

That is a big paint chip, although probably not the last that will occur on the bike. I'm glad the decision was made to ship some touch-up paint. I've bought lawn furniture that came with a small bottle of touch-up paint, in case anything happened in shipping.

I obviously haven't seen the way the bike was packaged, and whether it was repackaged in the USA. But, if this did occur during shipping, then the bike may need better wrapping and protection.

Hopefully next time a solution can be reached without a dozen posts so full of vehemence.

ronsaari

I wrote the following review of the Downtube Nova which highlights their quality control problems, poor customer service, and worthless warranty:

I purchased two Downtube Nova folding bikes this past summer after doing some research. One was for me and the other for my son. They seemed like great bikes at an extremely reasonable price, very lightweight, with impressive specs, and with a one year warranty. My initial impression after receiving them seemed to confirm this. However, I soon realized, you get what you pay for. The bearings in one of the pedals failed after less than two weeks. I contacted Yan, the owner of the company, and he said the pedals were the number one point of failure on the bike, but it was extremely rare for them to fail so quickly and agreed to send a replacement. I was expected to purchase a pedal wrench to remove the old pedal and install the new. After about a week, I received an empty box. I contacted him again and didn't really get an explanation for the empty box but I received an actual set of pedals in another week. He was otherwise prompt and helpful in resolving some other small issues. About 2 months later on one of the bikes I was unable to engage the locking lever for the folding hinge. The pin inside the hinge somehow got bent. The bike was never abused or banged around so I have no idea how this happened. I suspect the mechanism is not very robust. I called Yan again and this time his mood quickly went sour but he agreed to send a replacement mechanism which I again was expected to install myself. After not receiving it a week and a half later, I had to call him repeatedly until he finally sent it. Installing it was not easy and I had to call Yan several times for help. Finally it was fixed. About a month later, one of the pedal's bearings on the other bike failed. It happened in the middle of a long ride and I keep riding with it locking up repeatedly. At the end of the ride the pedal actually fell off damaging the crankset. I called Yan again and he did not believe me about the second pedal failure because it was "statistically impossible." He refused to replace the crankset. After arguing with him for a long time, I finally got another set of pedals. Because of the damaged crankset the pedal no longer stays straight as it goes around. It's very disconcerting to ride. I had to decide whether to buy a new crankset ($75+with installation by a bike shop) or just get rid of the bike. In the end, I gave the bike with the bad crankset to a relative who only uses it for short rides occasionally and the other I sold at a huge loss. I then purchased two used folding bikes that I found on craiglist. One was a Dahon and the other a Tern. I couldn't be happier with these purchases. They are much better bikes and I paid less for each of them than a new Downtube Nova. The Dahon had a small issue that was quickly resolved by my local bike shop that is an authorized Dahon retailer. There is no such thing as local dealer support with Downtube nor any other bike manufacturer that only sells online. I also did some research on the particular brand/model of pedals that came on the Downtube bikes and found out they had an extremely poor reputation. Many owners reported quick failures of the bearings. I pointed this out to Yan, but he refused to acknowledge he had a quality control problem.

mmmjjj

Downtube's customer service is non-existent. As a result, the company sells so few of these inferior bikes that they have lost their buying and support status with their parts suppliers. This means the unwary consumer is stuck trying to get warranty service directly from the parts manufacturers and then trying to find a bike dealer to perform all repairs, because Downtube provides absolutely no dealer service. Rather, the owner of the Downtube company rudely blames the customer and the customer's dealer for any problems that occur. The bike was so poorly assembled upon receipt that I needed to replace the hub gears and the rear sprocket by dealing directly with the parts suppliers and my local non-Downtube dealer. Beware of Downtube and stay far away.