Evans Cycles Bike Reviews Misleading Customers.

What would they know though?? they’re only a 1* bike shop after all!!

Don’t forget Veet for men.

Rocks munrobiker. Rocks thats what he needs more rocks and bigger rocks.

Whilst I agree that the OP does not really have a problem, I still take issue with Evans review filtering (I am sure that all the others do it to). It’s not only me who thinks this isn’t fair, the govts Competition and Markets Authority also think its unfair and misleading.

Has there ever been one of these threads that has gone the way the OP hoped for?

Me. I complained on here about my negative review of a road jacket disappearing from Planet X. Brant replied and said that it was because they introduced a new review system, which they couldn’t edit. He also emailed me to offer a refund on my jacket, which I accepted.

The trouble with that graphic – and the reason why I can understand companies moderating reviews – is that there doesn’t seem to be any incentivising of positive reviews or collection only from satisfied customers (If there was I’d have more of an issue with it). Which not only means that there isn’t the bias of input implied there, but in fact as mentioned up thread the bias is the other way – those customers with a problem (even if it’s only due to a failure of a wear item and the customer’s failure to take it back to the original dealer) are the ones who are actually far more likely to leave a review. One poor review amongst lots of happy customers as shown in the bottom screen is likely to be a fair reflection of real customer experience.

I guess we do not really know how many false positives there are. I agree intuitively why would people bother leaving positive reviews, but they do actually seem to go to the effort, CRC is full of them. So to that end I’d like to see the statistics. (I realise this a pointless request)

CRC are turning over £150m a year, yet there only tends to be a handful of reviews on any item. %-wise it’s a tiny number.

10 reviews for a 10% off voucher, or something along those lines, would probably work. Restricted to only being able to review stuff you’ve bought

Restricted to only being able to review stuff you’ve bought

Evans send me emails every time I’ve bought something – would you like to review the [item] you’ve just bought, be entered into a competition to win £250.

I’ve never written a review for them cos to be honest, what do you write for a bottle of chain lube or a couple of inner tubes?!

Given the number of threads on here about what lube to use you could write quite a bit.
To be fair to the OP in his original thread the 2nd or third post was the one that advised to put a 1 star review in to get some sort of response. As we have found out from Jameso that does actually work.

I suppose this thread is the perfect example of why reviews need to be moderated if their to have any value. The OP’s complaint and resulting 1 star revue are grossly “misleading”. If a poor review instigates an investigation as it appears with Evans how can you complain, If the investigation goes on to show a product is in fact rubbish I’m sure it’ll be put back up. ( hopefully )

Riddoch, I responded to that thread before I saw the review in the report that comes through weekly.

When it comes to online reviews I look for certain useful comments, but I always approach them with the presumption that everyone who writes them is clueless and/or over-reacting plum.

I see little here to change my ways.

(PS if we’re raising issues about the content below the products on the Evans website, we really ought to have a little chat about a lot of the staff answers to questions…)

This happened to be in my browser bar history so here’s one example. I’d been trying to find out what axle length an S600 chainset requires, so I looked at the questions and answers (all answered by Evans staff).

http://answers.evanscycles.com/answers/0924/product/ec061806/sram-s600-8-speed-triple-square-taper-chainset-questions-answers/questions.htm

Q: Can I get a outer ring with more teeth (e.g.44) for the s600 crank?
A: Only available as product details 42-32-22T
Q: Let me put my question another way. Is there another 44 tooth ring from SRAM or another manufacturer which has the same BCD as the s600?
A: The BCD on cranks is not released as standard information and will need to be measured. Please pop along to your local Evans store and they can measure this for you.
(It’s a bog standard 104, come on.)

Q: Could I remove the 22 tooth chainring and convert this to a 42/32 double chainset?
A: Due to the design, this would not be possible.
(Er… Undo four bolts?)

Q: What length cranks are available and what length bottom bracket axle do they fit?
A: They only come in 175mm crank length.
(One out of two ain’t bad, I suppose.)

Q: what would be the best size bottom bracket to get with these?
A: You would require the Shimano UN55 Bottom Bracket.
(Q: What size shoe should I buy? A: Hi-Tec Squash. That’s a size now.)

Q: Will this fit a bb with a 113mm spindle length if not what spindle length is required
A: This will fit a 113mm axle however, this is specific to the frame and not the chainset.
(Ah, we seem to have an answer now. But since it’s actually determined by the chainset and not the frame, should we trust it?)

Jameso, I thought you also mentioned that you would have been contacted about the sort of thing raised in the reviews even if you hadn’t seen the thread. It would have been on work timescales rather than at a weekend though.

Bez, Its better than, I think its amazon, where you get a lot of people responding saying they don’t know the answer.

Yeah, that always makes me want to stick my head in a blender. But that’s the general public for you. I’d hope for better from employees 🙂

I have always wondered this about Amazon Q&As. Recently there was a long thread on Reddit about it. The top answer seems to make sense.

This is an error in blame of Amazon’s requests for people to answer questions about products that were purchased. People buy things and then get emails under the impression that a user is specifically asking them a question. So they respond as if it was a private message. I’ve made this mistake too. Of course I remedied it when I saw it was a public answer.

– Reddit[/url]

This is extremely laughable!
First off, the bike is used for commuting, everyday and you’re shocked that the bearings need replacing?
You’re also shocked that they don’t know the bearing sizes off the top of their heads? There are a million and one different sizes. Along with being unable to diagnose a fault over the phone. Maybe you should have bought a bike from an online only retailer and see how much of a hassle it is to return a bike then.
Do you clean your bike? Service it? Wash with a hose pipe, probably the latter!
I worked for Evans for several years and I’m glad that I don’t have to put with idiots like you anymore. The amount of people that ride a bike for 6 months through crap weather, most days, never servicing the bike and wonder why problems occur.
As for the review, you can’t leave a one star review for a bearing problem. I think the point is proven to why one star reviews are monitored. Kind of proved the point that idiots angrily post unfair reviews. I’m sure a couple of stars would appear if they offered you some money back, was that the plan? The majority of people only leave negative reviews, how many positive reviews have you made?
Its excellent that you have had a response on here from a staff member, which to me shows great customer service in my opinion. The service from Halfords won’t even come close.
A bit of advice, try to learn how to service your own bike, save yourself from crying, locked in the bathroom.