I bought a pair of Giro Trans E70 from Merlin in 2017 as a back up set as I was concerned about my Sidis finally dying out on me (they did not). I used them a handful of time until couple weeks ago.
I set up for my first long weekend ride of the season and things didn't go so well. I put the right shoe on and was testing the tightness. I pulled the buckle to the tightest setting and it got stuck. I tried my usual methods to release a stubborn strap like with my Sidis and nothing worked. I calmed down and hopped over to my laptop where i looked up ways to get the strap loose. I found a couple posts on forums where people had similar problems with suggestions that did not work ("try pulling this way and that way") but no solutions. Giro's website did not have any tips. So while I continued to work on my straps with needle nose pliers and flat head screw driver my wife started to examine the left shoe to find a solution. We tightened the left strap to its highest setting and the same thing happened! Completely stuck!
After about an hour I had no choice but to cut the shoe off my foot. Not happy, since these were barely used, and I did not misuse them in any way. I simply tightened the strap to its tightest setting!
I contacted Merlin and fair enough, the shoes have a year warranty on them so they suggested I contact Giro directly.
Here is a quote from Giro Customer Support: "Sorry you had trouble with your buckles.
This can happen, in fact, we have specific instructions for releasing them when they’ve been tightened too tight. At any rate, your straps/buckles are both replaceable. Unfortunately, we don’t ship to Canada so you would have to reach out to
www.ogc.ca to inquire about a warranty exchange. They should be able to point you towards a local shop that can help!"
Well, I followed their instructions and
www.ogc.ca sent me a friendly screen cap of Giro's 1 year warranty policy from their website and cut off communication completely ( a factor that was already addressed wtih Giro Customer Support). I also asked Giro to guide me to the instructions for releasing the straps and they have now ignored my emails.
Normally I would accept the 1 year warranty if it was some other type of defect, wear tear or user error. However, this is how the shoe is built and Giro have admitted to me that it is a problem. Giro and their distributors also think it is acceptable to leave me with this shoe that I have used a handful of times:
