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Man contracts bike repair job to a pro
Pro fails to do it properly
Man avoids potentially nasty injury
Complains to shop who fixes it
Complains to management of shop who don't respond
Posts overblown and slightly sensationalist version of account and gets mild flaming for it
Tbh, I think the complaint's valid, both for the shoddy work, and latterly against Evans the chain for failing in their customer service response. However, OP has somewhat over egged the story. I find in favour of the plaintiff, but I'm reducing his compensation due to being a bit of a drama queen.
Case closed.
Next case; class action vs #1bike bits. Pass me the black cap, I'll be needing that later.
I tend to rely on bike stores to do my maintenance like I rely on builders to do my DIY, I prefer to pay for a good job rather than do an ok or poor job myself
My approach is the opposite - apart from things like gas boilers where the law prevents me, I prefer to take the time to learn how to do stuff, and then make sure I do a good job myself. It wasn't bike brakes that prompted me into this; I took my car in to have a suspension spring replaced (special spring compressor required for the model) and the mechanic dismantled the front brakes as well (unnecessary) and reassembled them so they didn't work.
[b]JCL:[/b] The mechanic is probably a crackhead. When I was hooked on crack I used to forget everything.
Singlespeed_Shep - Member
I cannot understand how anyone on here is defending either the mechanic or Evans.
If that was aimed at me,Drive to Kendal and kick of with the staff in the Evans there because A guy made a mistake in london.
It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, I don't do arguing on the interwebz. 8) The OP paid Evans to work on his bike. They gave it back to him faulty and dangerous. They have then failed to even acknowledge his complaint. I am merely expressing surprise at the number of people who have jumped down his throat and tried to belittle him.
OK, his opening post was melodramatic, but has, I would suggest, knack all to do with Kendal.
Sympathies to the OP but I'm calling drama queen....
🙂
D
I
Y
It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, I don't do arguing on the interwebz. The OP paid Evans to work on his bike. They gave it back to him faulty and dangerous. They have then failed to even acknowledge his complaint. I am merely expressing surprise at the number of people who have jumped down his throat and tried to belittle him.
Fair play,
also why I said I wasn't defending the incident, mechanics are there to fix stuff, he wanted something fixing.
I can cook a pizza, but i sometimes can't be ar5ed and call Mario.
I have a little sympathy too.
Not wanting to come over all Captain Hindsight here, but one of the first things I do on any bike is check the brakes work. Even if it's been in the shed overnight and they worked fine the day before. I 'd be extra careful if i'd left them in to get worked on.
weeksy - Member
to be honest i have limited sympathy simply because if you can't work on your own brakes you shouldn't really be out there.
Don't agree with that at all. Not reasonable to expect everyone to do their own maintenance
Gross Negligence Manslaughter
LOL!
maverick680 - Member
I rarely start a new topic
Rarely, how about never.
A bit over-dramatic with the thread title. But yes, Evans are crap for maintenance. Try Halfords next time.
What outcome would you like from this?
The mechanic made a mistake - a bad one. Did he mean to do it? I doubt it. Is he going to double and triple check his work from now on? Too right. Would an impersonal apology from some PR person in the head office make things all better?
I'm more surprised that people are using Evans for maintenance still.
I'd be on their Facebook page making a couple of tame comments to try and get some contact with them...
(Skipped most of the replies if others have mentioned this)
Pretty legit complaint IMO.
Imagine if it was a kids bike.
Fair play to the OP, he could of lay on the ground, phoned an abulance and passed his case on to lawyers4u and made a mint!
I sympathise with the OP, shit service is shit and Evans cycles provided shit service.... Really shit..
Ive had my pads fall out due to an incompetent mechanic* who was too lazy to use the retaining circlip for the pin on his pads
was descending on glentress black somewhere and can confirm its shit scary and ended up with me lucky to crash into some bushes rather than rocks
*I was that mechanic
anyway in an effort to leave joblesstrackworld I failed to get a part time sales assistant job at my local evans!?
I support the OP.
However I wouldn't trust a bike shop mechanic and do anything I can myself. I did get Evans in Gatwick to cut down my carbon steerer tube though and when I got the bike home found the stem/steerer bolts hadn't been tightened. So that could have resulted in pain but I never trust them so found the problem.
Not wanting to come over all Captain Hindsight here, but one of the first things I do on any bike is check the brakes work. Even if it's been in the shed overnight and they worked fine the day before. I 'd be extra careful if i'd left them in to get worked on.
They did work fine though - right up to the moment the pad fell out!
You're right though, I like a quick visual check of brakes, QRs etc etc before hurtling off. Looking down and seeing your front QR flapping about when you're at full whack is a disconcerting thing.
sounds like bike was handed over before job was finished, shouldn't happen but it did, you hadn't gone in there all high & might like your op demanding to pick your bike up NOW!!!! had you?
personally I can't decide if this thread makes me want to boycott Evans or STW 😕
break : brake.
Learn how to fix your own bike so you dont have to risk shite workmanship and buy stuff from CRC / UK bikestore / Wiggle if you want speedy delivery.
I sympathise with the OP.. many many folk put their lives in the hands of mechanics day in and day out..
You don't expect to have to check their work
That said, there's probably not much you can do... They are not going to want to accept any liability for this mistake and seem to have gotten away with it
I'd be down there throwing a few punches just for personal satisfaction*
*Don't try this at home kids
Besides, the duration of my membership here has nothing to do with the subject matter....
It does though doesn't it, otherwise you're just a random crazy person. I'd always take a 'complaint' from an established forum member more seriously than someone who signs up solely to complain. You may just be out to cause trouble for Evans (not Evan's - Evan does not own the shop!), for all we know.
They screwed up, they fixed it. Pretty crap, happy ending. Not sure you're going to manage to get a conviction for "Gross Negligence Manslaughter", as much as I chuckled at that!
[i]otherwise you're just a random crazy person[/i]
yes, we tend to only take people with a track record of craziness seriously on here.
Trust no one !,thats why i don't,and do all the work on mine and my mates myself,i'm aware not everyones mechanically capable,but you would be better going on a basic bike mech course rather risk putting your life in some spotty oiks hands...
I'd always take a 'complaint' from an established forum member more seriously than someone who signs up solely to complain.
Maybe that's Evans ethos as well.
Trust no one !,thats why i don't,and do all the work on mine and my mates myself
But do your mates trust you?
We put our trust in professionals all the time. Occasionally it goes wrong - that's what public liability insurance is for. All you can hope is that the mechanic has learned to double-check things more thoroughly next time.
I'm going to try and be constructive (I know, I know).
The OP's complaint is definitely legit, the bike shouldn't have left the shop like that, lack of response from shop/head office is also poor, you're right to feel aggrieved about that.
If you want to take something positive out of the situation (other than not getting deaded) I think there's a couple of points to be taken away.
Firstly, escalate the complaint as soon as you went back to the shop, ask to speak to the manager there and then, make them aware of the situation and ask them what well be done, not in a "fire him now" way but a "how did this happen? What will be done to stop it happening again" way.
Secondly, use this as the spring board to start picking up a bit of knowledge regarding maintaining your own bike. There's no piece of mind like that of doing the job yourself and knowing everything is in order.
Christ on an (Evans maintained) bike.... Too much carp to read. This made me laugh tho... 😆
nealglover - Member
I wrote a complaint to Evan's directly to the store ...To be fair, if you wrote your letter in a similar way to your OP. He probably hasn't finished reading it yet.
You can go on about doing all your maintenance yourself. But I'd rather trust a drug-crazed orangutan wielding an angle grinder to work on my bike, than me.
That's why the bike gets dropped in the LBS. So that hopefully it won't be subjected to the same level of cack-handed ineptitude that I would have delivered. Not really much to ask, is it?
weeksy - Member
to be honest i have limited sympathy simply because if you can't work on your own brakes you shouldn't really be out there.
Shakes head in disbelief.
I have sympathy with OP really.
I bet it can be really boring working a night shift packing parcels at CRC or Wiggle 😉
Whilst I tend to have a go at pretty much all bike mainenance mysself,I think if I were the OP I`d be entitled to expect the job to be done properly.
By agreeing to do the work,they should also be agreeing to a duty of care. Given how little it would take to make a gesture of goodwill,or to have responded to the OPs letter of complaint,which may have resulted in a postiive forum posting ,Im surpised they didn`t try a bit harder.
+ 1 to Buck 53.
A few people have said what I was getting at last night.
The OP has a legitimate complaint. However he also has several problems with how he's gone about making his complaint to evans. I suggest he googles 'how to write a letter of complaint'.
I write this as someone who has just had a satisfactory outcome from his bank having launched a complaint less than a week ago.
Final thought for the OP...if you don't close a letter of complaint with words to the effect of 'I invite you to comment on the above matters and expect an acknowledgement of this letter no later than dd.mm.yy' chances are, you won't hear from them.
zinn and the art of MTB maintenance,,,,,,, its not as hard as you think and you will know the jobs been done right 8)
to be honest i have limited sympathy simply because if you can't work on your own brakes you shouldn't really be out there.
Do you have a full understanding of every aspect of your car's mechanical and electronic systems? Because if you don't, you shouldn't be driving it.
One of my new bikes has hydraulic disc brakes and suspension system. I have no idea how to maintain or fix these, as yet, although I am hoping to learn. So if I have a problem, I will need to take it to a bike shop. And I would expect the mechanics to give it back to me with the problem sorted, and the bike in a safe condition. So I an understand the OP's position. Companies who undertake work which may affect the safety of someone, have a responsibility to ensure their work is faultless. There's no excuse for such poor workmanship.
maverick680: I would get some legal advice if I were you.
vanilla83 you could have made the same point without the first sentence.
1. Original complaint is valid. (what outcome does the OP seek though?)
If you have a complaint, you should tell the other party what you want them to do to rectify it.
2. Joining a forum just to rant to a bunch of people who you've never interacted with before is a bit strange. (what outcome does the OP seek though?)
Maybe I'm just a control freak but I do struggle with the idea of entrusting any job (not just bike) to another person/agency without taking responsibility for some level of acceptance check at completion.
Someone worked on your brakes and you didn't look at what they'd done.
Some people are just more trusting than I am, I guess.
Should he be able to trust them? - yes, of course.
Would you blindly trust someone about whom you're read lots of negative comments? - I'm struggling with this.
Oh, and what was the "brake valve" issue?
Or taken the opposite approach and used [i]just[/i] the first sentence. Its all moody and enigmatic then 😉
@wwaswas Yes I could but that wouldn't have expressed how strongly I feel about the point. Plus have you seen Stephen Fry's on the Joys of Swearing?
there is that binners.
There's no point getting abusive and then immediately following it up with a detailed analysis 😉
[edit] has Stephen Fry expressed any views on swear filter avoidance?
@wwaswas Yep he said something along the lines of that its like not wearing coloured socks...or something.
[i]has Stephen Fry expressed any views on swear filter avoidance?
@wwaswas Yep[/i]
mmm, chinny reckon.