Looking to purchase from Alpine Bikes, but haven't used them before. After hearing some of the horror stories here about other dealers what's your experience of them? Reliable on delivery, hold the stock their web page says they do?

Cheers

Good bike shop with stores all over Scotland. I haven't used their website (as they're down the road) but you could always call one of their stores to check stock?

I ride with GMBC which is supported by alpine so may be biased, but my honest opinion is that they (in the georges x branch) are pretty helpful and go the extra mile, especially with any warranty stuff. Also have some great bargains from time to time, my bro has just got a hi-fi 29er full suss, with carbon rear triangle and full XT for £1000 (was £2k) so musn't grumble!

The workshop is pretty helpful too and have sorted me and my mates out on a few occasions.

In Glasgow wheelcraft is good too for rare stuff and wheels of course, and Craig McMartin (freeflow bikes) for more DH type kit.

The Edinburgh shop has an amazingly poor rep.
I'll be genuinely interested to hear if the mail order side is a bit better.

I've found them OK, but i think to a point they suffer from being a bit too big a setup and you get a little bit of the franchise feel to them as compared to a local family bike shop.

Never ordered via the online side, but I don't imagine there would be any issues.

Overall – yeah – i like em.

i worked for them for a period late last year – they run a live stock system so theoretically when they sell an item it goes out of stock all over – have seen some small bits – mostly powerlinks etc be on the system and not in the shop – unlikely to happen with larger items

most of their bad rep comes from their understaffed workshops/waiting list …. its not rocket science – the managers agree they need more staff in the workshop but the bean counters wont let them !

overall the aberdeen shop are good guys – know them all personally and they will go out the way to get you sorted.

Would agree with the consensus that the store in Glasgow is very good. Bought stuff and they've been helpful. And used the workshop for wheel and brake repairs with no issues.

Andy

I've only ever used the physical shops in Storling and Glasgow but they were always good and helpful (it helped that a friend worked there,s o I occasionally got a 'staff' discount too).

The work-shop waiting times were a bit much though, but buying from them was always good.

Generally encouraging then, good news. Looking at a pair of goggles & CRC couldn't pricematch, so I'll get them ordered up tomorrow.

Cheers all for replies

I've used the Edinburgh one for both my most recent bike in February and my wife's one last month – in both cases they were very helpful.

The stand out moment for me was three years ago when a jacket I'd bought eleven months previously developed a split at the zip. I didn't have the receipt, all I knew was that it was purchased on a weekend, or perhaps a Wednesday, and that I bought a Powerlink at the same time. They scoured their system for a while and got my proof of purchase, and gave me a full refund because the jacket was obsolete. Fantastic service.