So, I recently purchased a bike, only to find on arrival/closer inspection that it had numerous problems:

Small stuff: (but easily sortable by myself)
Chain way too long
Gears not adjusted

More major stuff:
Malfunctioning rear shock (spoke to Fox distributor, explained the problems and they confirmed it’s faulty and would need replacing/re-building)

Dangerous stuff:
Front brake not working (it had the bleed port nut missing, leading to oil escaping)
Loose suspension fork (it’s a Cannondale Lefty – and the bolts attaching it to the steerer were half undone)

Luckily I took the time to check the bike – so spotted the issues (particularly the brake / loose fork) before I had a chance to give it a spin and I’ve since contacted the shop and will be returning it for a refund. So I live to fight another day.

The shop tell me every bike (including mine) undergoes a full set-up/safety check, and is checked by at least 2 or 3 people. However, this can’t have happened with mine – and whilst I spotted the various problems, the same could happen to someone else (for instance a child, or someone not familiar with bikes) and someone could get seriously hurt, or worse.

So, what I do?

1. Have a good moan at the shop, accept the refund, and live happily ever after
Or (and for the sake of someone elses safety)
2. Let local trading standards know that a bike (checked by 2/3 people) was sold in a dangerous condition and if ridden would have seen someone hurt or worse.

What do people think?

As an aside, can Paul’s Cycles not sort a replacement?

I’d Get replacement/refund and go make a sandwich.

Out of fairness to the bike shop, it’s probably best if I don’t give the name of the shop (at least at this stage).

I’m not happy with them, but I guess I should give them a chance to respond first.

But, in answer to the question – it appears that they don’t have any others in stock. The nearest equivalent is fair amount more expensive – and whilst it’s nice to think they’d ‘upgrade’ me, it doesn’t look like that will be an option.

a proper bike shop or a mail order box shifter ?

Well its not hard to work out given your limited postings…..

It’s a proper bike shop, rather than a mail-order outfit.

What do people think?

Buy from your local LBS?

Speak to shop. If you don’t like it, return bike.

It is poor – but you paid rock bottom.

It could be worse – I pointed out to an Asda store in May that the three bikes on display all had back to front forks and handlebars, meaning brakes were ‘euro’ and handling would be ‘interesting’. The manager go the member of staff out who was ‘qualified’ to build them, who disagreed with me and was not going to change them. A tweet worked…

ChunkyMTB – fair point, although I didn’t realise people would go investigating!

My original post is a genuine question. Really not sure what to do on this front – I was going to accept the refund and walk away – but the bike was in such a state.

If it been my partner who bought the bike, she would have just jumped straight on it to go riding. Hopefully she would have spotted the brake – but I doubt she would have spotted the loose fork – which would have ended badly.

The shop don’t seem massively concerned, which is why I’m annoyed. I was just told it was checked by at least two or three people.

My mate bought a Cannondale from a discounted bike shop.

So far the rear hub has needed alot of adjustment, the front hub needs re-building and the clamps on the Lefty fork were loose. Along with a few less significant screws being loose and the Reverb cable being about 18″ too long..

I think you are being a bit OTT thinking about trading standards tbh. They have a lot more serious stuff to spend their time doing and this would probably be a one off shit happens type thing where the shop has to sort you out and if they are offering you a refund then they seem to be acting reasonably.

You need to expect a mail order bike to have bolts undone as it needs to be partially disassembled to get it in the box, therefore check everything before riding it. If you are incapable of doing that then buy from a shop in person.

bleed nipple missing – sounds like a very rare occurrence.

Chain too long – probably how it was sent by the manufacturer. IF it’s full suspension are you sure that it’s not right? check with full extension and full compression. A chain too long is better than a chain too short.

Rear shock fault – again problems happen. That is what warranties are for. if 99% of people have no problems there will always be 1% who do.

If you go TS you will be wasting your time.

matt_outandabout: yep, that was my original pla … Put it all down to experience and walk away.

But, I’m left wondering what happens with someone who doesn’t bother checking their bike before riding.

But, I’m left wondering what happens with someone who doesn’t bother checking their bike before riding.

These people really shouldn’t be buying a bike mail order IMO.

Buy from your local LBS?

My LBS are shithouses, yet all the online bods like Pedalon, Merlin I have used for bikes have been brilliant.

The shop tell me every bike (including mine) undergoes a full set-up/safety check, and is checked by at least 2 or 3 people.

Obviously they told you what should happen – not what did. Its funny when companies have that kind of rigid procedure they seem to believe in it more than the evidence of their own eyes. Obviously some time after the 2nd and 3rd inspection a 4th nasty saboteur broke in – loosened everything and put some extra links on the chain.

Clearly what they’re doing is throwing stuff together quickly and cheaply – for the price they should just say that and tell customers to check its all good before they ride it – thats more honest then pretending they are being any more thorough than they are. If they offered to do those checks for you and charged and extra £20 – nobody would pay the extra as they’d rather have the cheap goods

We had a similar experience when well known chain of tyre and exhaust retailers (but not the one you’re thinking of) failed to tighten any of the nuts on any of the wheels properly on my GF’s car. Drove 3 miles home then within a few miles the next day all four wheels suddenly became were properly loose – fun at motorway speeds. Notified the garage really to make sure they knew there’d been a cock up – but they insisted everything had been tighter and checked with a regularly calibrated torq wrench and checked again by the boss. Definitely. Escalating it up the company we were told that there was no possible way that regime couldn’t have been followed and the it was ‘more likely’ that someone and snuck around our house in the night loosing the nuts as they intended to do her harm – because theres ‘some strange people about’

I’m not sure one should expect to fix a lot of stuff on a bike merely by virtue of it arriving in a box.

The shop certainly don’t claim this – in fact apart from replacing the front wheel and installing the bars, they tell me the bike is fully prepped and checked and ready to ride.

But if that is what we should expect, think shops need to make this clear in their ads “if you want a safe one, come in. if you want an unsafe one, ask us to post it”. Not very catchy, i give you that.

I had this happen at Evans in Reading.
Like you, it had a whole host of safety issues that could have easily cause some problems for novice bike purchasers; lose front disc mount, lose rear maxle, lose headset, big gouge out of carbon bars through the fiber and way over tightened stem bolts on the steerer and face plate onto the carbon bars.

Lots of other small issues too; scratches, grease everywhere, wrong poploc fitted & gears not indexed correctly.

All this despite being setup by one of their ‘mechanics’ in store..

Evans were useless. Never again. Nothing came from my complaint. Only reason I went was because they had the last bike in stock in that size in the country. I feel sorry for any punter going there with less mechanical knowledge of a bike. Staff were rude and useless whilst I was waiting there too.

Every decent shop will have a check process (hopefully with paperwork) and as long as it’s more than a sole trader it’s likely that two (min) different pairs of hands/eyes will have signed off/PDI’d the bike.

So if a a bike is leaving the shop in the condition you described then either the process is failing/not being followed correctly by accident or deliberate fibbing, you’d hope the shop manager would want to deal with that either way.

Did they give any indication that they were as concerned as you and would investigate what happened, or just a shrug and a refund?

EDIT – Since it’s still not 100% clear, did this come in a box delivered part-assembled, or did you pick it up complete from a retail shop (not sure if Pauls have a retail front or just do mail order)

maccruiskeen – agreed.

Tbh – I’ll probably just have a good moan and hope that some other poor sod doesn’t end-up in a similar position.

I really don’t think that the idea ‘if you buy online, then you deserve it’ is correct, and I’m not sure I’d class myself as a drama queen [is really acceptable these days to call people you’ve never met names because you don’t agree?] – but life is probably too short to make a massive fuss.

I really don’t think that the idea ‘if you buy online, then you deserve it’ is correct,

It’s not.

amedias – it was more of a shrug and ‘you can have a refund’.

After various calls/emails about the problem, I pointed out that no one had actually apologised for the issue … and only then did I get a ‘sorry’. Which is a bit cr@p.

amedias – The shop in question does have an actual/real retail shop – but the bike was posted.

The info with the bike (and pre-purchase_ was that all that needed to be done was attach saddle / fit handlebars / fit front wheel.

I’m perfectly happy servicing my bikes (brakes/gears/suspension – the lot) so I would always double-check any bike I bought. But I was surprised by the brake and loose fork.

‘if you buy online, then you deserve it’

has anyone said that? Or have they said something more along the lines of if you buy mail order you need to be prepared to check for loose bolts due to the requirement to pack the bike in a box?

Going all guns blazing threatening trading standards is just silly. If there had been a repeated pattern of this occurring then yes. If parts were failing then yes. If a high street store is sending out assembled and checked bikes and the wheels are falling off up the street then yes.

This is the box my Trigger came in:

There is a clear warning there. If you choose to ignore it then you do so at your own risk IMO and this kind of thing is why some manufacturers refuse to sell mail order as compromises have to be made to pack the bikes up.

it was more of a shrug and ‘you can have a refund’.

that’s annoying, they could at least have pretended it worried them and that they’d investigate while saying sorry profusely.

Going all guns blazing threatening trading standards is just silly.

I’d agree, going OTT is not the right approach, but I don’t think OP said he would go in guns blazing, just asking was it worth reporting, there are options between going postal and just walking away, it’s not a binary decision.

If there had been a repeated pattern of this occurring then yes.

How would they know it was repeated if nobody ever reports it? They might not act on a single report, in fact I’d argue they probably shouldn’t but the OPs potential report could be report 199 since Feb for all we know and be evidence of a wider problem.

RE: the warning on the box, yes sure, but I’ll just leave this link here:

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/workshop.php

just to add, some of the problems are not right, no one is saying they are right and that you should accept them. Of course you should expect them to be put right (shock, brake etc) but something like fork bolts I would ALWAYS check when getting a mail order bike. Absolutely no way would I ride a mail order bike without going over the bike and checking.

I just think the threat of trading standards is OTT and you will be wasting your time IMO as they will probably not act on a single occurrence and when a box has that kind of warning.

how would they know it was repeated if nobody ever reports it?/

Quite true. In which case report away. Just don’t get frustrated when nothing is done. But you need to be very clear and reasonable in the expectations and facts or it will get ignored.

The other problem with trading standards these days is actually getting hold of them. Round here you have to go through the CAB and it’s a ball ache and by the end of it you will wish you hadn’t bothered.

andyl – this is indeed the box it is shipped in. However, according to the shop the bike is unpacked from the box, assembled, checked (by 3 people)and then the front wheel/saddle/bars removed, before being repacked into the box and sent on the the customer.

They’ve confirmed that the front brake should have been working and Lefty should have been attached securely. So there’s no argument about this – they just clearly didn’t check it

They’ve confirmed that the front brake should have been working and Lefty should have been attached securely. So there’s no argument about this – they just clearly didn’t check it

I am not trying to take sides but see this from a mid ground and I too would be pissed about riding a bike with a loose fork but it does sound like a rare occurrence and my warnings about wasting your time with trading standards are more to avoid further frustration. The brake is definitely very much a very rare occurrence. Report if you feel it needs it but don’t go chasing for action or results would be my advice.

It does sound like they are being a bit over zealous with their claims though. I know cannondale are known for being over cautious and will put warnings anywhere they can but in the case of a mail order bike ALWAYS check everything no matter what the bike says. Chances are it will all be fine (mine was, except the brakes make have been a bit spongy and needed a bleed) but sometimes mistakes happen.

The lack of apology is annoying though but seems to be a trend in customer service these days 🙁

The shop in question

I named them in the second post. I reckon you’re ok to say their name now.

I must admit I only gave mine a cursory check over when I received it so I’m glad Paul’s did a good job that time but yeah they should have given you better service and an apology when things went wrong

I had something similar at a shop in Reading which has closed down. Collected the bike, handlebar wasn’t clamped to the steerer properly so I came off the first turn & luckily the bus behind stopped.
Walked back minutes after leaving the shop & was told the bike is thoroughly checked before collection… Had to ask for an Allen key to tighten up the bolts myself.

I was very glad when Evans opened.

to give an example with a recent problem purchase of mine:

frame arrived and I spotted a defect in a weld. Emailed the manufacturer who said they would take it back and inspect etc. Nice prompt reply.

It then fell apart as the courier they used failed to pick up 3 or 4 days in a row and wasted my time.

I was not angry about the original weld which could have been a safety issue if it failed when riding but I was little cross about the handling of the pick up which resulted in me ordering another frame and then chasing for a refund.

Hopefully the shop you got it from have learnt. I think people do learn but seem to be reluctant to admit it for some reason. I would much rather (and would myself) say “yes, we messed up there. We will sort you out with a new bike or get it all sorted a our cost and we will be making steps to try to ensure this doesnt happen again. Thank you for you patience and bringing this to our attention”. Unfortunately people seem to be worried that admitting his might open them up to further action or something, not really sure.

The gears could be explained by a wheel not being quite in right, something getting knocked in transport or a mistake. The bolts might have been undone by someone thinking then needed to twist something to get it in the box or maybe just not checked, the bleed nipple is odd and is probably sat on the bench at the shop or back at cannondale and the shock is just one of those things.

I know from boxing up one of these bikes back into it’s box (sold it on) that it’s a real pain in the arse and I feel sorry for any mechanic who is on the clock getting them out, checking them over and then getting them back in the box so I can see why a mistake might happen. I just wouldnt crucify someone over it, but I would expect a sincere apology.

I would return the bike for a refund and then write a letter to MD expressing your concerns and encouraging them to review their processes.

In the interest of balance,over the years I’ve bought a couple of bikes from Pauls,I checked them over when they arrived & both times the bikes were fine,no issues.
Have any other Cannondale riders had a problem? If it makes any odds mine were Giant.

you’re then dependant on the shops mechanic being competent. Which isn’t guaranteed.

you’re then dependant on the shops mechanic being competent. Which isn’t guaranteed.

If you think like that then can you trust a bike manufacturer to design and manufacture a safe bike? 😯

In the interest of balance,over the years I’ve bought a couple of bikes from Pauls,I checked them over when they arrived & both times the bikes were fine,no issues.
Have any other Cannondale riders had a problem?

Nope, just the minimal bolting together and nipping up I’d expect on a partially disassembled bike I’d pulled out of a box.

If you think like that then can you trust a bike manufacturer to design and manufacture a safe bike?

Hardly. Not many bike designers are on minimum wage filling in time between school and college. A good number of bike mechanics are.

Though to be fair, a good number of manufacturers seem to struggle to make a safe bike as well.

^^
What bikes do you consider unsafe ?

Ones where the tyre can hit the frame while the suspension is cycling through its travel? Or the ones where the linkage can go over centre and lock? Or the random cracks in nearly new frames? That’d probably be a recall in a more tightly regulated industry.

Not quite the same but my bike recently went in for service. Shop didn’t put the holding pins back in the brake. Perhaps I should have checked but they missed it on their safety check. Glad I just didn’t go too far or fast straight away.

I bought one from them and it wasn’t PDI’d at all. I’d still check any bike regardless of where it came from. LBS isn’t always the holy grail, they can also be useless.