Jon,
Sorry for going off on a tangent on the original topic which included undercurrents that aren't related to your point. Did you buy the BB from E-A directly or through a bike shop? If you can buy direct then you are a bike shop or a framebuilder, since they will not sell to the public. If it wasn't what you wanted I'm reasonably certain that they would have taken it back and refunded your money. They won't reprint a cataloge to reflect the fact that for some period of time the whole unit was not completely Campag. It's easier to discuss it with their customers and let them take it or not; knowing that at any time they could run into more complete BB somewhere else. E-A buys vintage parts wherever they find them and there is no guarentee what, when, or how much they will find. The vintage market and the prices have made it somewhat practical to operate this way whereas normally the the time and effort would not pay off. Unfortunately, the hassle of all of this is reflected in the prices and a few situations like you experienced.
Those parts have been out of production for a long time. I'm willing to bet that E-A ran into a quanity of BB cups somewhere but no spindles. Since spindles wear out and are replaced more frequently than the cups, there is a shortage of spindles; since again those parts have been out of production for years. E-A figured that if someone wanted a Campag. NR BB (otherwise unobtainable from a modern component supplier) that the option as they offered it would be better than nothing. I trust you are telling the truth, but every time I have ever ordered anything from them that involved a substitution we diccussed it and I would decide whether I (or the customer) wanted it under those conditions. I've passed on many options like that knowing the customer would not accept it, especially at their prices. So my question is, did you order it through a bike shop? If so, I suspect the breakdown might have been there, not with E-A. If you have a business relationship with E-A then I'm shocked that that wasn't made known to you, it always has for me. Let us know so we can get to the bottom of this.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
>
> In a message dated 11/25/00 7:43:06 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> rocklube@adnc.com writes:
>
> > I understand that they won't sell campy
> > stuff at pennies on the dollar which is all you're interested in, but
> > business is business. You are no different. Countine to search high and
> > low for bargins, they do the same; and when they find things regardless
> > of what they pay for it they have to turn a profit. They are actually IN
> > the bike business, and have been for a considerably long time. There is
> > no doubt their prices are high but they know the market and are not to
> > blame for what the current market value is on these items.
>
> The initial complaint wasn't concerning what I was charged for the BB. It was
> that a non-Campy manufactured substitution was made for the spindle (again,
> understandable if the original wasn't available) without any attempt to
> notify the buyer (me) beforehand. I should have been told at the time of
> ordering that what I was purchasing was not entirely original. I would then
> have the option to buy it, or go elsewhere. But I didn't find out until I
> received it. Their reponse was that there was nothing else available at the
> time. That may have been factually true, but I think anyone would have been
> expecting a complete Campy BB to arrive unless told otherwise, and would have
> felt they were deceived, under similar circumstances.
>
> I did make a side point about possibly getting one cheaper. At the time, I
> was willing to pay more wholesale from E-A, as opposed to a better retail
> price from several mail order "vintage" suppliers because I thought the
> chance of getting some shifty deal was greater buying from possible unknown
> sources, whereas I felt buying from a supposedly legit distributor was a safe
> bet. I was mistaken. I completely understand E-A's need to clear profits in a
> competitive and declining market. And I had no initial complaint about the
> price as advertised. What I unexpectedly received for that price was the
> problem.
>
> Jon Schaer