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 just 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.

has Stephen Fry expressed any views on swear filter avoidance?

@wwaswas Yep

mmm, chinny reckon.

I bought a new mtb from Evans about 10 years ago. The rear disc brake housing detached from the frame on its first ride. That was disappointing. I didn’t realise that i should’ve raise this potential “Gross Negligence Manslaughter” issue higher at the time.

Put it down to bad luck and bad quality of service.

Took bike back to Evans. They apologised, found some replacement bolts and refitted brake.

I left and resolved to never use Evans for any servicing/repairs in the future, and also to check the bolts on my bike more often.

Interesting thread.

I have to say the OP comes across as considered and balanced. I think I would be somewhat less forgiving.

He’s trusted a shop that offers it’s mechanical services to do what should be a fairly standard job. What he has received in return is a bike that isn’t safe to be ridden. Without being melodramatic, it’s only good fortune that the OP wasn’t seriously injured or worse. Based on the OP’s experience, one has to wonder whether this could just as easily happen again to another paying customer? What if it was you, your child or a mate who experienced the same thing? Would those who are quick to criticise him take the same view?

People make mistakes every day but the big concern here is that a reputable bike shop has sent out a bike that the customer can reasonably expect to be safe but which clearly wasn’t. If this was a car and not a bike, the shop would be getting rightly flamed for such a major cock up. The question of the OP’s mechanical ability wouldn’t come into it. It shouldn’t matter whether he knows how to set up the brakes himself. He’s paid a company to do that for him and there is a reasonable expectation of them being able to do a competent and safe job.

In this instance, I would be asking what control procedures Evans have in place and why the bike was sent out in in an unsafe condition? How will they address this going forward? What systematic checks are now in place to stop it from happening again? That the local Manager has failed to respond is deeply concerning and reflects very badly both on them and Evans as an organisation. I would urge the OP to escalate this by writing to the Company Secretary and CEO of Evans. People make mistakes in all walks of life but how you learn from them and the processes you put in place to stop a recurrence are the key thing here. I have no doubt that they will not be happy that this has happened and will want to work with the OP to resolve it. He may also wish to contact his local Trading Standards office as well for advice and support.

I’m most definitely not one for pursuing a confrontational legalistic approach to such matters. A bit of understanding and giving the other side the opportunity to make amends is no bad thing. However, the key issue remains that the bike was sent out unsafe and there is no evidence to suggest it couldn’t happen again to another customer. The most important thing here is that Evans as an organisation,the shop, it’s manager and the mechanic involved learn from this incident and put in place processes that will ensure it doesn’t happen again. I’d would always suggest legal advice is the last route to go down but if the OP continues to receive no response, it may be something he eventually looks into after trying the above unfortunately.

Cheers

Sanny

Should have bought the £15 Deore brakes at CRC, I’m going to change my brakes every 6 months now, cheaper than oil, pads & mechanic time.

Where did people write this stuff before the internet? I suspect they posted it to local papers and it ended up on the noticeboard in the staff kitchen.

@Sanny. Too much, less is more <sigh> But ‘gotten’? You cannot be serious (best McEnroe impression)

Sanny, you’re far too sensible to be posting. You need to learn how to take the piss out of the poster’s spelling (even if it’s been done repeatedly already) and say how “mad” he is.
Otherwise you just won’t fit in with all the hilarious pricks on here.

Gotten? Argh, the shame! 😀

Where did people write this stuff before the internet?

I think it was the Daily Telegraph, prefaced with the word ‘SIR…….”

Since the advent of the interweb, sales of Bic biro’s with green ink have plummeted.

There was also the option of propping up the bar, and boring people rigid with it in your local pub. Until everyone has really had enough of listening to your whining, and someone glasses you. Fights outside pubs are now virtually unheard of since the widespread use of Twitter by people like Joey Barton

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. What happends if you’re in a forest or on the side of a mountain and they fail ? you just hope for the best ?

I can understand people not being able to ‘face’ a frame. But to not be able to replace their own pads is just poor.

I don’t believe I ever said I couldn’t replace my own brake pads, I am fully aware of how to do so, the reason I took my bike into the shop was for them to have a look at the leaking bleed valve! I only agreed to them replacing my brake pads because the ones I had ordered myself had not arrived yet….. all of which I had stated already in my initial post. But obviously you suffer from selective reading!

My point regarding not trusting myself unless having undertaken some proper training relates to general bike maintenance….. thats not to say that I would not be capable, but I am not one of these people that think reading a few books on a subject makes me qualified to perform certain tasks. If your arrogance thinks otherwise then so be it, that’s not my problem….. Trained people exist in all areas because they are expected to provide a service of a standard higher than we would expect to be able to achieve ourselves, given most of us are not trained nor perform these tasks on a regular basis. I know this is not always the case, but it should be, none of us expect pay any trained personel to do a worse job than we could do ourselves!

BTW, I would never be cycling my road bike in a forest or a mountain side so that wouldn’t be an issue….. you assume for too much whilst entirely overlooking the information that has been provided to you.

And like magic, ’tis gone. 🙂

But obviously you suffer from selective reading!

you write ten tonnes of drivel & expect it to be read properly on STW 🙄

Yep, sorry Maverick. Wood4trees.

“Brevity is the soul of wit….” A free bit of Shakespeare for a Friday morning 🙂

Singlespeed_Shep – Member
Not defending what happened here, but its unfair to tar all of Evans with the same brush, a lot of stores have great staff who do a decent job of both sales and repairs.

If one lbs made this mistake would you stop shopping at all independents?

Compare the 40 Evans stores with 40 random lbs shops and their wouldn’t be much difference at all.

This is a fair point, and like any company they have good and bad people people working for them. However, if issues and problems are apparent, then a good company needs to address them, this is the only way you can ensure that any customer can walk into any store of a chain and be provided with a consistent level of service to judge them by – take Apple for example, I’ve been into stores in dozens of countries and in even more cities, but have received the same helpful and knowledgeable service in all of them. I’m not saying they don’t have problems but they do have excellent customer service. How Apple achieve this consistency I don’t know, but it is part of their strategy and they put a lot of effort into this.

If other companies like Evan’s doesn’t take action to ensure that all and not just some of their stores operate at an acceptable level then how can you know which are good and which are bad, it’s trial and error?

TBH the OP has a reasonable point, but is preaching to the converted cos people here already have the opinion that Evans employs a few numpties. If you want some sympathy unfortunately you need to write a post about nearly getting hit on the road by a white van man :-/

I don’t get the flaming of the op either really, I think he is quite entitled to air his views, the fact it has took 3 weeks to do it is of no concern either, that shows me that he has made the complaints to the company and after waiting a reasonable time with no response has decided to make things slightly more public!!! I would also suggest a few gentle questions on Facebook/twitter so they are aware it’s in the public eye. Or as suggested try and go to the CEO as they should be a lot more understanding!!

I try to do all my own servicing ect, however I’d still expect things to be done properly if I was paying a firm to do the job – however on finding loose levers and fluid I would not of asked for an Allen key, I’d of asked why it wasn’t finished and for someone to check it over quickly – then checked it over myself on leaving the shop. But as said, you shouldn’t have to

Agreed. Fewer words would be more effective communication though. We don’t need a dissertation on the fallabilities of high street bike chainstore servicing do we?

bencooper – Member
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.

Indeed, a lot of you are making comments as if this was my fault or don’t really get the point. Does someone need to die for an issue to be taken seriously. I complained to Evans hoping that my experience will lead to a better service, if they don’t wish to acknowledge this problem then they don’t deserve to stay in business…..

Y’all can do what you wish, you can agree with me or rubbish what I say, ultimately it doesn’t make much difference to me, but the point is it’s not all about me, these kinds of things could effect us all, making me out to be the bad guy doesn’t make Evan’s or other companies more responsible businesses.

The OP has posted a reasonable complaint in my view and isn’t really deserving of the pointless criticism from some of the posters who are close to crossing the line into trolling.

OP this is STW where it doesn’t matter if you are right or wrong there will be a big crowd of people ready to say whatever the opposite is because they can.

You have received poor service, that is clear and you don’t need any validation from here that that is the case.
They have attempted to make good on it by doing the job properly the second time round.

You have felt that simply “making good” wasn’t enough so made a complaint but again have received a different kind of poor service and again you don’t need any validation from here that that is the case.

At best I guess you could have started the thread to warn others about checking that work is done correctly? Fair enough but you have to expect a big sh*t sandwich to come back at you like it does on every other thread of this type. Rightly or wrongly that’s just STW.

BTW I have some sympathy for your situation.

The OP has a point to be honest.

Pay someone to do a job and they only do half of it. Not good especially when its the breaks that are broken and you can’t break anymore

I really hate it when my breaks brake, you can end up with a few brakes of your own riding round with broken breaks.

My rear pads fell out at Glentress once, which made the hairpin bend on Super G interesting. I could blame the mechanic – me – but I’ll have a go at Hope instead because their circlip design is rubbish.

Evans Cycles….. Majorly INCOMPETENT? Read this if you value your LIFE!!!!!

Here is your Oscar.

Dear OP. Your complaint is valid and reasonable. Bad things happen. It’s now time to get on with your life.

I rarely start a new topic unless I think it important enough

I’m amazed anyone read past that. 🙂

Oh f*ck off. Its people like you who are ruining this country and turning it into the instant suing culture that’s come over from America.

Is there really any need for that? And you are wrong; the shop/mechanic has a legal duty to ensure any work carried out means the bike will leave the shop in a safe condition. The customer is completely reliant on them doing their job according to the law. By seeking legal redress against someone who has failed in their legal duty, you are actively upholding the law, and ensuring that it is enforced correctly. Indeed, it is the duty of every citizen to uphold the law whenever and wherever possible. If enforcing this law puts shops under pressure to ensure that they do work to a legally required standard, then this is beneficial to all. Hardly ‘ruining this country’ as you so rudely suggest. I think you owe me an apology.

😆

Oh f*ck off. Its people like you who are ruining this country and turning it into the instant suing culture that’s come over from America.
Is there really any need for that? And you are wrong; the shop/mechanic has a legal duty to ensure any work carried out means the bike will leave the shop in a safe condition. The customer is completely reliant on them doing their job according to the law. By seeking legal redress against someone who has failed in their legal duty, you are actively upholding the law, and ensuring that it is enforced correctly. Indeed, it is the duty of every citizen to uphold the law whenever and wherever possible. If enforcing this law puts shops under pressure to ensure that they do work to a legally required standard, then this is beneficial to all. Hardly ‘ruining this country’ as you so rudely suggest. I think you owe me an apology.

I wouldn’t worry about such posts, I understand your need to defend your point of view and of course I agree with you totally. Unfortunately forums which should be used as a resource and intelligent debate are over run by people who think they know it all but yet know so very little that their only contributions are comments to which you find yourself having to redress.

I’m not saying that everyone must agree – I have no issue being challenged regarding anything I write, intelligent discussion will hopefully result in all people with intellect having a better appreciation of a subject.

Comments such as this

avdave2 – Member
I rarely start a new topic unless I think it important enough
I’m amazed anyone read past that.

Are just made by people who have little to offer and should just be ignored. No one has to read anything on any forum, if my OP is too much for your little brain to process then you are more than free to ignore it. People who have the need to make nasty comments for no other reason than because they can obviously have issues!

boblo – Member
Agreed. Fewer words would be more effective communication though. We don’t need a dissertation on the fallabilities of high street bike chainstore servicing do we?

I will agree that my post is lengthly and with perhaps too much detail, but if such posts are too much to process just ignore them, there’s really no need to make an issue out of it, I have not broken any rules so there is nothing to be gained by pointing out that my post is too long….. don’t read it, in fact I’d prefer it if you didn’t as all of you who complain about it have offered nothing of value to the subject matter!

Quoting Mark

“Mark – Resident Grumpy

The ethos of this forum must be one of mutual respect for everyone who uses it. You may argue and debate with anyone but when the argument becomes heated or abuse begins to creep in, then you will have crossed the line. If you don’t step back from it then you will likely be moderated.

Respect for everyone is paramount. If we see evidence or have good reason to believe that you are looking to get a rise or to deliberately force a reaction from any other users (Trolling) then we will stop you.

If you are here to chat, respectfully debate issues or ask genuine questions of the thousands of users who come here then you are welcome to stay and we have no doubts you will add positively to our huge community.

There are literally thousands of new posts every day and we simply can’t read everyone of them, or even a small fraction, so we ask that if you spot anything you think we should be aware of then please use the REPORT function at the bottom of every post to make us aware of it. Please don’t assume that if it is there that we have allowed it to stay – we just haven’t seen it yet and we need your help.

This forum is remarkable in its scope of topics, experience of its users and sheer numbers of regular visitors – we hope you all enjoy it.

Play nice

On behalf of everyone at Singletrack”

Maybe some of you need to read this (again)

deliberately force a reaction from any other users

Perhaps the OP’s title should be moderated then

Dickyboy – Member
Perhaps the OP’s title should be moderated then

The title should be changed as, if it cannot be proven, it is most likely libellous.

@Maverick I happen to agree with the sentiment of your complaint I just think you’ll get more engagement here if you are a little more concise. This is me here making a positive contribution BTW <waves>

And you are wrong; the shop/mechanic has a legal duty to ensure any work carried out means the bike will leave the shop in a safe condition.

I do often wonder if bike shops have a robust enough series of checks in place to ensure that incomplete jobs aren’t released to the public. In out industry taking a safety related system out of service is a serious undertaking and needs a lot of forethought and paperwork.

I’m not suggesting that bike shops should be quite as stringent, but anything with faulty brakes or steering should have a big red tag slapped on it from the moment it’s booked in until the mechanic has test ridden it.

I’ve never seen a mechanic test riding a bike. – That’s why I do my own repairs.

*sips tea*

*opens biscuits*

*Passes fig rolls on to next poster*