Of course we hope that everything is always in order with your veloheld bike! However, if something is not right, you can read our warranty conditions here and send us all the necessary information in the event of any damage using the form below. This will help us to offer better and more durable products.
Statutory warranty and our guarantee are two different things
The statutory warranty is required by law. It runs for two years from delivery, it covers the whole bike, and it applies to defects that were already there at the time of purchase – even if they only show up later. For the first twelve months we have to prove that there was no defect; after that the burden of proof is on you. Your contact is always whoever you bought from: us, or your dealer.
Our guarantee is a voluntary promise on top of that. At veloheld it runs for a total of 5 years on frames and forks and keeps going long after the statutory warranty has expired. We set its conditions – you will find them below.
The two do not rule each other out. For the first two years you have both.
Who is responsible for what?
A bicycle is made up of parts from a dozen manufacturers. So that you never have to guess who to call:
| What | Who is responsible |
|---|---|
| veloheld frames and forks | Us. 2 years statutory warranty and a total of 5 years veloheld guarantee. |
| Parts on a complete bike you bought from us (drivetrain, brakes, wheels, saddle …) | Us. We sort it out with the manufacturer in the background. 2 years statutory warranty from delivery. |
| Parts you bought yourself and fitted to a veloheld frameset | The dealer you bought the part from. |
| Manufacturer guarantees on components (e.g. Pinion, Rohloff, Gates, DT Swiss, SRAM, Shimano) | The respective manufacturer. On top and voluntary, often longer than 2 years. |
| Bike bought from a dealer | Your dealer is your contractual partner. |
| Wear (chain, cassette, belt, brake pads and rotors, tyres, cables, bearings, grips, paint surface) | Not a defect, just use. |
In short: if you bought your bike from us, you are in the right place. Even when the problem is not the frame but a bought-in part. We take care of it – that is our job, not yours.
If you bought a frameset from us and built it up yourself, we are here for the frame and the fork. For everything you bought elsewhere, the respective dealer is your contact. Still, give us a call if you are unsure – most of the time one photo tells us in two minutes what is going on.
How it works when something is not right
1
Get in touch before you have anything done.
Phone +49 351 212 952 95, Mon–Fri 10 am to 5 pm, or use the form further down. Send us the frame number, the date of purchase, the approximate mileage and photos of the bike as well as of the affected area.
2
We take a look.
Most of the time a phone call or the photos are enough to work out what is going on. If not, we will look at the bike – at our place in Dresden or Leipzig, or we arrange a pick-up.
3
We tell you how we will solve it.
You send us the bike or the frame and we repair or replace it. Or we send you a spare part. Or a workshop near you does the job – after checking with us first.
4
You get it in writing.
What we cover, what you cover, and how long it will take. We get back to you within two working days, usually sooner.
Please do not have anything repaired on your own initiative
It sounds like small print, but this is the point where it can get expensive for you: we can only cover costs that we have approved in writing beforehand. Invoices from workshops that were instructed without our approval cannot be reimbursed – not even when the defect really does come from us.
There are two very practical reasons for this. First, we need to see the damage before it is gone: once the part has been swapped out and thrown away, nobody can establish what broke and why. But that is exactly what we need – for you, and so we can avoid the same fault on the next frame. Second, as the seller we have a legal right to inspect a defect ourselves and to remedy it ourselves before any replacement becomes due (Section 439 of the German Civil Code). Anyone who has a defect remedied on their own initiative generally has no claim to reimbursement of those costs under the case law of the German Federal Court of Justice. That applies to us just as it does to any other dealer.
How to do it right – and then it works with the workshop around the corner too:
- Get in touch with us before you instruct anyone.
- If a local workshop is the fastest route, ask them for a cost estimate and send it to us.
- We approve it in writing – with an approval number, an amount and a defined scope.
- The workshop invoices you, not us. You send us the invoice with the approval number and we reimburse you the approved amount.
The whole thing costs you one phone call. Without it you are likely to be left with the bill – and nobody here wants that.
Stuck on a trip? If you are out on tour and cannot go on, call us anyway. A quick approval by email works from the road too. What we cannot do is approve something after the fact.
Our guarantee
Without limiting the customer’s statutory warranty rights, we voluntarily grant a guarantee under the following conditions:
We grant you a guarantee of a total of 5 years from the date of purchase on veloheld frames and veloheld forks. This requires that you register your bike on our website within 3 months of purchase.
Coating and decals are excluded from the 5-year guarantee. The statutory two years apply to them instead: if the coating peels, blisters or cracks over a large area without anything having acted on it, that is a defect – get in touch and we will put it right.
Not included are stone chips, scratches, rub marks from cables, bags or frame protection film, damage from aggressive cleaning agents or road salt, and colours fading in the sun. That is use, not a fault.
And if you stop liking the look after a few years: send us the frame, we will blast it and coat it again, in the colour of your choice. That is one of the reasons we build in steel.
The guarantee does not cover damage caused by improper or non-intended use, in line with the areas of application shown on our website for the respective product, for example:
- Neglect of the product (insufficient care and maintenance). Regular servicing must be verifiably carried out by a specialist workshop or be evident on the frame and fork (regular internal corrosion protection in line with our recommendation)
- Modifications to the frame or the fork (e.g. drilling, engraving) as well as repainting or re-coating by third parties. Re-coating carried out by us is excluded from this.
- Fitting or converting additional components not expressly approved by us, or replacing the components fitted by us on delivery with components that are not equivalent.
- Crashes
- Overloading (please observe the maximum system weight and payload)
- Jumps, or
- improper overuse of any other kind.
We reserve the right to repair defective frames or forks, or to replace them with a corresponding successor model, after inspecting them at our premises.
Every guarantee claim requires that you report the damage to us before any work is carried out on it. We have to be able to inspect the part in its damaged condition. If it has already been repaired, replaced or disposed of, the guarantee claim lapses.
We only cover the cost of work by third parties if we have approved it in text form beforehand. The procedure: cost estimate to us, approval from us stating the amount and the scope, invoice from the workshop to you, reimbursement of the approved amount by us.
If a frame and/or a fork has to be replaced, we will replace it in the same colour subject to availability, but reserve the right to supply a replacement in a different colour if it is not available.
Our guarantee does not include any further services (such as the cost of assembly and transport) or any additional assembly or material costs arising from a model change in the meantime. Under our voluntary guarantee these costs are to be borne by the customer.
Our voluntary guarantee applies only to the first purchaser of the product.
Please use this form when submitting a possible guarantee claim
Once you have sent us all the information needed here, including photos of the bike and detail photos of the defect, our customer service will get back to you within two working days with the next steps.