andrewh – I can only speak from my experience. I’ve had a two shite purchases with companies other are praising above. I doubt anyone’s perfect, but given the OP was just asking for pleasent examples of good customer service that folk have had, I just went with that. It seemed easier that trying to guess if random strangers have had a similar experience 😉

Turner have shown very good customer service on the 2 occassions I have needed to contact them.
Last time they refered it to Silverfish (the uk distributor) who were also very helpfull.

18bikes customer service has been great whenever I’ve needed to ask them questions and such. Never actually ordered from them though but I get the impression they’d be good if that’s how they treat even non-paying customers!

Eighteen Bikes today stripped, lowered and performed a lower leg service on my Lyriks within 3 hours of dropping them off, and for an amazing price too.

They’re also genuinely nice and helpful guys!

@andrewh – was that Tony Barton you were dealing with at Magura? He was excellent on the several occasions I needed things sorting at events, really first class guy.

Maybe not the most helpful for most people out there, but if you’re in West Cornwall in need of bike help, Hayle Cycles have been brilliant for me. Mega friendly, mega efficient, and give the impression of not trying to rip you off. Cool guys indeed….

Ibis US, Stif and Mojo.

I had a faulty Fox shock on my Mojo at MM a few years back. Went to the Mojo tent and he fitted a slightly shorter shock to get me round the event. Unfortunatly it caused the suspension to collapse in on itself putting the wheel through the seat stay/seat tube gap. I took the bike to the stif tent, who emailed Ibis US (as I’d bought the bike when in the states). 48 hours later my new frame (with all my bits built onto it) turned up.

2Pure

I bought crank brothers stuff. You could say I deserved what I got, but every time I sent them my pedals/maverick seatpost they’ve been spot on. Awesome service everytime.

Torico in Dorset.

I know Ben quite well, but every time I’ve seen him dealing withsomeone elses warranty claim he’s always been really proactive, helping his customers out.

Bike&Run – North london lbs -they specialise in tri and road really but
super helpful to me – they have taught me loads re bike fettling.

Biketreks – ambleside. v. helpful wkshop.

Orange
Hope
Superstar (yes, really!)
Intersport in Bourg Saint Maurice (very pleasantly surprised there!)
Revolver in Bourg Saint Maurice

+ 1 for cyclopedia in Watford, helpful chaps.

Not an online store, but Head for the Hills bike shop in Dorking, Surrey, continues to be my favorite. Great value, really friendly, brilliant, brilliant service, all of the mechanics know their stuff and can do absolutely anything on a bike, even thinking up clever ways to save me money along the way (case in point: using one Goodrige cable-end kit to shorten both brakes, by cutting the front on one and the rear on the other). I travel from west London just to get my stuff done there, if there’s anything I can’t do myself, which speaks for itself in how highly I value them.

Bike Plus in Croydon; the guys there are ace and do what they can to help.

Al from Spokeshirts/Al’s Cyclery. Flipping top fella, goes above and beyond.

Chris at Cycleworld in Arbroath, and the guys at The Bike Chain in Edinburgh have always been amazing.

anyone mentioned 18bikes yet ? where do I start… walking in at 5:25 (when they close at 5:30) to pick up some new wheels, Si spent ages prepping them for tubless setup for me, left at 6:05..

Just one of the many times there service has been great..

O, dumping a wire bead tire on Matt and asking him to try to get it setup tubeless 😉

Gravity Dropper have been fantastic.

I managed to split the clasp on the bar clamp. Emailed them to ask about spares. They told me to send it back to them in the states and they’d have a look at it for me.

Got it back within a fortnight with a new clasp and fully serviced post. All for price of postage. Top service and great company to deal with.

Si – you have prob spent more than 10 grand in the 18bikes shop!

robhughes- with regards Superstar I realise it may not be the stw way but I can only speak from my own experience and I have had 2 isis bb’s off them with no issues plus a decent set of wheels at a good price- and I like sweets!

hehe Rik, I wondered why there was a fan fare, red carpet and a foot massage every time I walked in….

Marshalls Cycles in Welwyn (Herts)get my vote…always go out of their way to help. Hope have always been great too….

Deserved Si I’m sure-the TRc looks nice though.

Just got a quote on some custom green anodised bits for the road bike.

Any news on when the nomad will be through?

Ralph Colman Cycles in Taunton and ATB Sales have been looking after me since 1994 and they’ve always been brilliant.

Just got a quote on some custom green anodised bits for the road bike.

ooo, whos doing the anodising ?

Any news on when the nomad will be through?

Nope, end of Sept / October maybe, no rush now like ;-0

Weirdly some of the best customer service I’ve ever had was from my local Halfords. I bought a used Carrera, and the freehub failed, so I walked in with the wheel and asked if they could fix it. They called a couple of days later and said the part was on back order and could be a while- how soon did I need the bike back? I said, ideally by the weekend. So, no hesitation, they swapped my year-old wheel for a brand new one off a stock bike. And when I mentioned I didn’t have any warranty they just said “Don’t worry- it’s obviously off one of our bikes, so it’s our problem not yours” That’s pretty much as good as it gets IMO.

Cotic have always blown me away… Sort of similiar story, I broke the short rocker in my Hemlock at fort william after a day on the world cup dh course. Not really what a 120mm full suss is intended for! So I phoned up, explained what had happened, told them I’d bought it used so no warranty, and what I was doing when it broke, and asked what it’d cost for a new one- really just hoping for a cost-price offer at best but happy to pay full whack. Instead they had a new rocker express couriered out to me, free of charge, with new bearings etc, and I had the bike built up again 2 days after I broke it.

Also had a ton of good advice and general interest from them over the years. Really pretty inspirational and I hope I’ll be buying from them for a long time to come.

Steve the anodiser off here – did a few Hope brakes a while back – reckons he can do a good match on hope team green with very reasonable prices to.

Would like to add Giro (Easton Bell Sports) to the ‘Good Guys List’

I managed to break my rocloc 5 mechanism amd no-one in UK had stock so e-mailed Giro/Easton Bell to enquire after a supplier.
Wasn’t trying to make a warranty claim, just wanted to know ‘where can I buy’ – anyway, asked to send a photo of the damage, then told they’d send me replacement foc, which arrived a few days later.
Excellent service 😀

Ayup have been fantastic on all fronts. Initial delivery from Australia was only 3 days with full tracking for my v4 adventurer kit(They went to more countries than ive been to) and when I had a minor fault with one of the batteries there warranty department was lightning quick replacement battery within 30 hours of initial email.

Other companies worth a mention that have delivered wihin 24 hours
Stif
tweekcycles
merlin
CRC (last 5 orders placed)

Noahs Ark in Stroud were real good when I took the other half to get a bike to go on the trails with. Spent loads of time with her and made her feel welcome.

and CRC and Superstar have been good with orders ive done recently.

This year,

Hope

Evans cycles

Planet x

my LBS, Cyclopedia Watford

Totally opposite to my experience – slow, forget to order stuff, never have anything in that I’d want (XT rear mech or cassette, SRAM chain – hardly exotic), incompetent servicing, and just trying to pay for something on a Saturday takes an age. Oh, and they’re invariably more expensive than anywhere on the Web, which wouldn’t necessarily be the biggest of problems, but there’s a persistent response of “ooh, we’ll have to order that…it’ll take about a week”. If it’s got to be ordered in, and I have to make a special trip there on a Saturday, to take an age to pay more than I would with Wiggle/Merlin/Chain Reaction, what service is the LBS providing?

I’ve spent a chunk of money there in the past, but never again.

The best customer service I have had is from you crazy lot!

I only started this off-raod lark about 10 months ago and in that time you have supplied me with bits to build up a bike, kit/spares and knowledge of how to do repairs/maintenance.
I’ve also been on a ride-out (SDW in a day) which was brilliant fun.
I’ve posted some pretty daft/weird questions and always, without fail got a reply that has helped solve the problem (and/or made me laugh).

Can’t fault that really.

Smudge/mtbbatteries.co.uk:

Bought one of his XML T6 lights & the battery pack died half way through it’s second outing. Emailed him when I got back (~11pm) & had a reply in 5 mins to say sorry & that a replacement battery pack was boxed up & ready for the post office the next day. Arrived with me the day after & in plenty of time for the weekend’s evening outing.

In stark contrast to my 2 friends who’ve bought the £30 ebay jobbies from china/HK. The charger exploded 10 mins into the first charge for one and the other’s battery pack died. He’s still not heard anything r/e warranty well over a week later.

I’ve thus-far restrained myself from pointing out that the slightly higher price from good UK sellers means a decent warranty & inspected chargers.

Planet X

Specialized – forks from a spesh allez elite had a hairline crack in the steerer. This was almost two years old but still under warranty.

They couldn’t give me a matching allez elite fork due to the change in paint finishes since I got my model so they sent me the closest match they could find which was an SL2 fork.

Billy Bilsland sorted me out when i’d just started cycling and had tried to adjust the gears on my bike without having a clue what I was doing and totally kackered the indexing.

He fixed it up for me and I asked him if it needed anything he said “oil and a scrubbing brush” but wouldn’t take any money 🙂

Trevor and Barry at Evans Cycles Croydon…

…not really 😉

By the way, guys that haggle for every last penny need to get a reality check.

A friend of mine used to have a wee bike shop and had no end of punters coming in with their several hundred pound bikes arguing that they could get GT85 50p cheaper on line.

Fair enough, buy on-line or for a high cost item may ask for a price match or a bit of discount – if the shop can’t do it then fair enough but for bits and pieces it is downright ignorant IMO

I had a couple of nightmares with CRC at the start of the year but the 2 items I’ve bought recently have arrived in less than 24 hrs.

UK Bikestore – bought several items on 3 different occasions recently and all arrived next day except one which was a special order Hope item and arrived in less than a week. There was a problem with that item and they got it sorted with Hope very quickly. They need to sort out their phone though – it is always engaged.

Used these people recently and they just did what an online shop should do and sent the stuff out quickly, kept me informed and the prices were great and free postage.

http://www.cyclesportsuk.co.uk/index.php

Picked up 10m of SP41 outer for £19, Shimano stainless inners for £1.50 each and HTII pre-load bolts for £1.60 – they often do an extra 10% off all orders which is what I used to get those prices.

Best “customer service” I experienced was on last week’s tuesday night ride, we were sneaking out along a private lane, one which has a sign at the other end declaring “No right of way” when we met the farmer at the gate.

Expecting a bollocking we had a really nice chat where he informed us that the sign was not a keep out but just to make sure no one claimed right of way (he’d had some trouble with a now dead Centre Parcs development plan in the past or something), anyway he said, I’m just the custodian of this land while I’m here, you’re welcome to ride through anytime you like.

Absolutely lovely bloke, wish more people were like that.

USE – ultimate sports engineering, quick and easy to deal with, helps they have incredibly good products.
and Alpkit has to get it for me. Never ever ever had a problem. If I can, will always buy from them, and regularly look for things to buy because I know the service will be great!

I’m just the custodian of this land while I’m here, you’re welcome to ride through anytime you like.

Great story. Thanks

http://www.bikesyoulike.co.uk and their shop Thattos Cycles, our LBS but do loads on line through their website too. Paul who runs the shop is very good and will bend over backwards for his customers. Always get good deals, and if we need something he doesn’t stock he’ll get it in for us.

CRC – I’ve ordered a lot from them over the last few months, they’ve been excellent.

Wiggle – one order was late shipping, a very apologetic email and free Haribo. Apart from that they’ve been fine.

My LBS, Zero G in Downend Bristol – very helpful and friendly staff.