I always feel obliged to stick up for my local Evans in Edinburgh, they gave me some pretty good service in general and put up with my outrageous abuse of the Specialized saddle comfort guarantee thing with good grace.
When I worked in a shop (a long time ago) mistakes happened. I know we all took pride in the service we offered, we all wanted every customer to go away happy, whether it was a £300 or £3000 bike, but things still slipped through the net. Possibly my worst mistake was letting a bike go out the door without stem bolts tightened due to a last minute mudguard fitting requested by customer on a busy Saturday, both me and mechanic thought the other person had tightened stem bolts. I know the shop in question now has a pretty thorough checking process before bikes go out the door, but the problem with that is it completely robs you of the ability to quickly help customers with mechanical stuff, shop floor staff aren't allowed anywhere near tools, mechanics need to check over everything as it comes in and out of workshop, etc. etc.
Funnily enough, the most common complaint about our shop was the waiting times for the workshop...
Ordered a bike from evans once, went to pick it up, "err sorry but the mechanic has stripped the pedal threads and we need to wait for a new crank arm from canondale". Never went back after that.
The basic build is done by Trek – all Evans do is unbox it and sort of turn bars, put wheel in, check gears, pump up tyres.
When I was a mechanic we had a post delivery inspection which included truing and tensioning wheels.
It were all better when I were a lad. No respect etc. etc.
The last few times I've bought bikes new I've managed to persuade the shop (Halfords and Edinburgh Bicycle being the last couple) to just give me the bike boxed up so I could put it together myself. I've had issues with both places previously - nothing actually dangerous, but stuff like gear indexing and brake set-up etc.
Slagging off a whole chain because your local branch has given poor service is not necessarily fair
Oh I dunno. The chain is responsible for setting the standards and training the staff.
Oh I dunno. The chain is responsible for setting the standards and training the staff.
As covered later in that post....
It's been full of smartarses for as long as it's been around. I remember it being so from 15 years ago. I deleted my account and have only just started nosing back on. I've not noticed racists though??
