Let the Avon buyer beware!

It's an almost-established fact that Avon is experiencing a higher-than-typical return rate on the Storms. For anyone who buys their tires via mailorder as I do (I love SWMotoTires), here's some email conversation for you to consider.

My message to SWMotoTires concerning return of the defective Avon front tire:

> (SWMotoTires-name omitted), >

> I just attempted to ship the defective Avon front tire via UPS. UPS

> wants $41.46 to ground ship the damn thing. I do not have a Fed-X

> shipping office closer than one hour from my location.

> I am not going to pay $41.46 in return shipping without somebody reimbursing me.

> Suggestions?

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SWMotoTires response:

Any avon dealer should be able to help with the Warranty as I would for any avon customer that comes into my store. One of the ongoing

problems with long distance business. Especially an issue with the

tires I ship to columbia, el salvador etc, Avon will not pay the

freight for me to help with their warranty from half way around the

world.They expect you to use the dealer closest to you.They will also

not pay for the mounting that some expect nor the hotel bill while

traveling and other expenses related to warranty issues. They just

cover the replacement cost of the tire.

Click to expand...

Now all this crap leaves me with about one reasonable choice, take the tire to an area Avon dealer WHO DID NOT SELL ME THIS TIRE and beg for assistance. I am not happy about this and truly hate to do business this way.

I contacted Avon directly (as first suggested by SWMotoTires) and the Avon rep was 0% help.

I'm not going to bother bashing Avon. I'm really just trying to raise awareness of what you might be getting yourself into when dealing with defective rubber from ANY tire brand. IMO it certainly raises the value of brands with extremely low return rates.

That's a rough deal, but a very salient point.

I've done SWMoto multiple times and been lucky on my tires I guess. I've been extra lucky that Desert Valley Powersports is just 30 miles from me now and do such a good job with competitive prices. Yeah, they don't quite beat SWmoto after I figure in local sales tax, but they're close enough for me to want to do business and know I've got defective tires covered all the way.

Bummer.

I learned the hard way..again.

NEVER BUY NOTHING BRITISH!

S76 said:

I learned the hard way..again.
NEVER BUY NOTHING BRITISH!

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I didn't realize Avon's were British.

If they are that explains it all right there. :blink:

JeffAshe said:

It's an almost-established fact that Avon is experiency a higher-than-typical return rate on the Storms.

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What do you mean an almost-established fact? What type of defect? How many? What source?

I just mounted a set of Storms purchased from SW Moto. I don't want to have a tire fail at speed because I failed to detect a defect. What facts do we have?

Sometimes, with some things, it pays to buy from and support local businesses. I guess I'm a lucky SOB to have a dealer who sells tires at in'nernet prices, then mounts and balances them for free. If I were you, Jeff, I'd keep going up the Avon ladder and/or contact the dude who intro'd the tire here... I'll see if I can find the thread.

Back in a sec.

Click here.

twowheelnut said:

Click here.

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Thanks TWN for the clicky. I sent him a PM. We'll see what happens next.

Renegade said:

S76 said:

I learned the hard way..again.
NEVER BUY NOTHING BRITISH!

Click to expand...

I didn't realize Avon's were British.

If they are that explains it all right there. :blink:

Click to expand...

I'm not for sale anyway :yeaahh: aladin:

**** :lol:

About the tyre fiasco, Understand that whoever you bother about the tyre will undoubtedly be sluffing off their problems to some other "local dealer". It all evens out.

It's pretty clear that Avon has some front tyre issues to resolve. The Azaro had some problems the Storm were supposed to fix...oh well...back to the drawing board. In the mean time, it seems the need to reverse their machining and got back to the Azaro front tyre desing.

I gotta back my friends at SWMOTOTIRES ...

Been ordering from them for years now ...back before you did it on-line ..back in the days where you cranked the rotary dial on your phone and talked to a real person.

thay have been outstanding, great pricing, great ship, and quick to respond. One of the things that is good about them is that they carry what you want. When I wanted POS avon tires, they got them for me. At the time I didn't know that the avons sucked, and I'm a slow learner but after 3 sets on the fjr and two sets on the strom I finally got sick and tired of wrestling with them. At least a few of the tires I'm sure warranted a return, I wrestled with them and used them up. I go through tires fast so the pain wasn't a lifetime ordeal

But, I would not personally hold them accountable ..i'm the one that ordrered the tires. I have local guys that I have good relationships with that I could have (and should have) taken them to and filed a claim or whatever with Avon.

If SWMoto was to pay for shipping back on everyone that thought a tire was bad ....well personally, I don't want to pay for that ...you know that cost of doing business will get passed on.

I'm sorry for anyone that is wrestling with the POS Avons, I've been there ...but take the responsibility for a bad decision and/or take them to a local source and have AVON deal with it.

I would not feel so strongly on this if I didn't have years of outstanding service and pricing from swmoto ....I believe they're doing a great job ...and that includes giving me access to POS tires when I'm stupid enough to want them.

Here is a pic of three of the six tires that were on my doorstep yesterday from swmoto (other three for another bike). these BT021's are the next victim on the FJR ...i'm confident that they're OK, if not, I'll likely burn them up anyway and not use them again. If defective my local Bridgestone guys will be hearing from me.



Thanks SWMOTO for all the great service ....includng when I'm stupid enough to buy ****** stuff.

..renojohn

Not once did I make a negative comment or even infer anything negative about SWMotoTires. They are an excellent dealer. It's the combination of the generic mailorder process and the high defect rate of Avons that the warning applies to.

Damn. absolutely NO love for the Avons.....................

Well, I for one absolutely love the Avons. The Azarros to be specific. After the stock Metz ME-Z4s, and trying the Michelin Pilot Roads, and Pirelli Stradas, I have always gone back to the Avons. I have run through about 5 Avon fronts and 8 Avons rears. Only had one bad Avon front that gave me vibration, but I still ran that tire for 10,000 miles. I love the Azarros so much that after the Storm came out, I had SWMoto find me a set of Azzaros after they were off his website because I was afraid Avons would screw up on perfection. Sounds like they possibly have.

I have a set of Storms (as well as two fresh Azarro rears and one front) in the garage that will be mounted in the next few months, so I will reserve judgement until I have a chance to try them.

Do I wish Avon would put a mark on their tires for the heavy spot? Most definitely. Can I live without it? Yes. Do I think they are slightly off in the QC area? Maybe, but my personal track record witht the Azarros has been highly satisfying.

I think it is waaay to early to write-off the Storms. We need more data points. Sounds like there was a problem very possibly perhaps to refining the production process for a new tire, but for all we know it is now fixed.

As far as SWMoto is concerned - they are awesome. Even though I pay sales tax, I usually order with them. And another benefit of Avons - I got a flat on an Azarro rear only 300 freaking miles after mounting. I took it down to SWMoto and they handled the free warranty replacement with no problems. Just don't have them balance a tire as they use and old fashoined bubble balancer and it was 50g off. Nice folks though. Mom and pop running it, with one other worker. And just so you know, a LOT of their tires are drop shipped from various warehouses across the country, so that is why some of you far away can get them in two days.

After wearing out the Metz Z-4's that came with the FJR, I bought a set of Avon Azarros & proceeded to really like them for the next 13k miles. So much so that I bought another set of Azarros. After this set wears out, who knows, maybe I'll be in the mood to try something else. Then again, maybe not, I'm really comfortable with the wet handling, good feel, & quick turn in. My 2 cents, YMMV, etc etc

I went through 2 sets of Azaros, got excellent service from them, and the bike handled as well as I needed, which admittedly isn't a whole lot, as I'm kinda chickenshit when it comes to severe lean angles combined with speed. I did, however, learn more about lean with Frank on Avons than on any bike previously, which have been quite a few. I am now on Mickey Roadies, which I have to say I would not have bought, not because I dislike them, but because the Avons worked so well for me.

JeffAshe said:

Not once did I make a negative comment or even infer anything negative about SWMotoTires. They are an excellent dealer. It's the combination of the generic mailorder process and the high defect rate of Avons that the warning applies to.

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Hey, Jeff, when I read this (below) it didn't sound like you were too happpy with them (complaint that you had to pay shipping ..referring to their response as "crap"). I bet other may have thought you were pointing at swmoto as I did.

IOW: I think many could mis-guage your real intention as I did.

JeffAshe said:

SWMotoTires response:

Any avon dealer should be able to help with the Warranty as I would for any avon customer that comes into my store. One of the ongoing

problems with long distance business. Especially an issue with the

tires I ship to columbia, el salvador etc, Avon will not pay the

freight for me to help with their warranty from half way around the

world.They expect you to use the dealer closest to you.They will also

not pay for the mounting that some expect nor the hotel bill while

traveling and other expenses related to warranty issues. They just

cover the replacement cost of the tire.

Click to expand...

Now all this crap leaves me with about one reasonable choice, take the tire to an area Avon dealer WHO DID NOT SELL ME THIS TIRE and beg for assistance. I am not happy about this and truly hate to do business this way.

Click to expand...

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Yep, as is all too often, the subtle messages are not readily apparent to the author. My frustration is completely with Avon and not with SWMotoTires. I wish there was something special SW could reasonably do for me. But I surely don't expect them to back the tire more than the manufacturer. I think my experience is more a lesson in the potential hazards of mail order tires, than a bold statement about Avon or SWMotoTires. If UPS would return ship the tires for a few bucks, it would be no big deal. But that does not seem to be the case.

On a side note, I believe the problem with the Avon Storm front may very well be in the storage and handling, not in the tire manufacturing process. That would help explain why some most get good tires and some get crap. The addition of QC processes at manufacture, would not help the problem.

In any case, I don't have the time, money or inclination to solve their problems for them. I really just want to mount my tires and ride the piss out of them.

I've been saving one last editorial comment. Going to let it fly before it goes away wasted...

It's a good thing Avon doesn't make condoms or I would already have been permitted to accidentally procreate!!!

JeffAshe said:

It's a good thing Avon doesn't make condoms or I would already have been permitted to accidentally procreate!!!

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Kinda like your ma and pa did?

Sorrry.............couldn't resist.

Skoot, not all of us were accidents. Some of our parents actually wanted us....

JeffAshe said:

It's the combination of the generic mailorder process and the high defect rate of Avons that the warning applies to.

Click to expand...

Where do you get this "high defect" rate from? If you don't like the tire that's fine but don't try to make your opinion imperical fact.

I've read several good reviews on the Storms and a few bad reviews. You keep throwing out statements like these tires have a high defect rate. What facts do you have? How many tires are defective? What type of defect? Just because you don't like a tire doesn't mean it's defective.

I hear these terms and I immediately think unsafe. Is this what you're saying? A large number of Avon Storm tires are unsafe?

Let's stick to facts here. Have any Storm's failed? How many?

I'm no apologist for Avon, I have no interest other than not wanting to ride on a unsafe tire. Please give us facts....not opinions.