Experience of my first (and last) time in an Evans store. Am I just a grump?!

jamie…..i know Al at garage from riding. never used his shop, hence saying he was a good bloke who loved bikes/biking.

Buy a bike from the Reading branch and it comes with a free rattle. Well my aunt bought a hybrid bike, rode it to my mothers. I found the brake caliper was completely loose and 2 or 3 threads more would have been boltless. Not bad for 20 miles old……..
Work colleague has a Fuji bike. Needed some new BB bearings. He went in there, bearing in mind they are Fuji importers and sellers. They don’t stock BB bearing for that :roll:. Think it was like a BB30 bearing. Sent him to Pedal On, who said they always get people from Evans being directed to them…..

jamie…..i know Al at garage from riding. never used his shop, hence saying he was a good bloke who loved bikes/biking.

Just messing, ton. No need for….

AL, yes. crap in my eyes.

I’m sure the MD is loosing sleep tonight on missing that £9.99 sale (thats Evans price) and as a result is demanding all 50+ stores immediately keep 2 of each of four different product sizes/standards on its shelves (at a stock value of c. £2400) because these are afterall

common items

which people need immediately.

Presumably the web analytics guy will also be fired for not realising that lots of people were searching for this, and only not completing a sale when they checked the stock in their local store. If its like my local Evans then the workshop is very clean and tidy (unlike a proper LBS) and so doesn’t have random parts hiding unknown in drawers.

I’m not saying Evans are good – but the if you are going to have a rant make it over something meaningful.

EDIT: This thread is moving too fast for me!

However, if the pun is fish pie related, THIS is a fish pie.

Stargazy 😀

I think the bottom line here is, if you know you have a frame coming in, then you should have ordered all the bits you need ready.

EDIT: This thread is moving too fast for me!

It’s like tweeting from the future!

You would be lucky to find a disc mount adaptor in stock in any shop

Ride-On Rawtenstall are great for spares like this

re Evans: NCC were good sorting out an issue for me

Chill Factore knocked 10% off a bike with a small ding without being asked, not ideal but customer happy

jamie, that is a crap fish pie……more like a prawn pie.

jamie, that is a crap fish pie……more like a prawn pie.

Well, I am a southern soft lad. So it’s as fishy as I can manage.

We stock adaptors. Not 203mm tho.

Ton, you know my views…

Stargazy is from Cornwall, Jamie 😉

Signed, A N Other Southern Softie.

I went into canonmills for a 160rear and 180front mr bikeshop man got one off the rack then went hunting for another downstairs, we had a chat about tange prestige I paid my monies and left.

Not sure what my point is.

Al, you would love me as a customer, money no object, never bring anything back, buy all my bikes without a test ride.
bike salesmans dream…… 😆

To be honest I’d have been more surprised if they had stocked adaptors. Cant see any reason to tie up money in stock like that.

I bet my LBS does. Cyclopedia in Cardiff – they always have everything 🙂

To be honest I’d have been more surprised if they had stocked adaptors. Cant see any reason to tie up money in stock like that.
I bet my LBS does. Cyclopedia in Cardiff – they always have everything

Ditto my LBS, which has all manner of mounts in stock, as well as such arcane but useful stuff as 6 bolt to Centrelock and vice versa adapters.

I went into my local Evans (Guildford) to get a power-link. They didn’t have any 10 spd Shimano ones in stock

Probably a very good reason for that 😉

To be fair whenever I have gone into an Evans store they have always been polite, they can’t stock everything a keyboard worrier with a fetish for the more unusual item may need, but they can generally get it for you!

I went in to a branch of Cycle Surgery today & was given the most helpful & attentive service when asking to try on basically all of the helmets they had in stock, the chap couldn’t of been nicer if he tried & has ordered in a couple of the one’s they didn’t have in stock for me to try on, obviously I will now have to buy one from them as I would feel terrible if I had taken so much of his time & left to order it on the internet cheaper, I’m just hoping one of the Lids he has ordered in for me is perfect!
Top service from people who must be sick of people who would try stuff & then go away & order it on-line.

Evans in Cas Vegas could easily have sold me a frame a couple of years ago when my old Trusty Rust broke at the rear dropout. I stood at the counter looking at the frames on the wall, walked round the shop 3 or 4 times & tried to look like someone who needed some help. Even though there were a couple of ‘assistants’ standing around doing some serious arse scratching no one came over or showed any interest, so i got Trusty fixed & saved about £250/300 & I’ve never been back to an Evans store.

I was just thinking the same about Ride On. Invaluable place – they are 30 mins away but we always try and make the effort to use them as our no.1 choice if time permits.

Last time I was in, someone was buying a suspension bike and they made a point of showing him the wall of spare pivots bolts, bearings, seals, mech hangers etc ready and waiting if he ever had a problem.

Seriously? That makes you sound rather childish.

Do you really think so? Mid afternoon only customer in there, “not do you want any help” or “did you want to try them on”

Having worked in bike shops I would not dream of asking a customer to move so I can finish a quiet time job, think it’s called customer relations rather than being childish, perhaps you run a creche so have a better view on childish 🙄

Mr Synapse

That’ll be me 😀

Didn’t realise you worked there, know Marty well from my previous employ.

Evans in Chiswick have been pretty good for me.

Went in there with a seized pedal, sorted for free, they’ve lent me tools a few times to sort myself out when I’ve been in a rush. Always helpful when I want to buy road kit. I always regretted not taking their advice and buying some fancy Spesh wheels instead of Hopes because of the spoke availability problems with them.

My only beef is that they didn’t stock decent tubeless tyres. I’m sure that’s now different.

Same here for previous Plymouth Evans store really helpful great mechanic the lbs in Plymouth are really not so good and that comes from a big group of lads who have used them all.

hora – Member

A fair few of the Manchester Evans could probably ride better than most of this forum. Good service too. No I have nothing to do with them. Like anywhere quality varies.

I agree, great staff in the Manchester store – friendly and knowledgeable.

Not keen on the Velodrome shop though.

I have found the staff in the Brighton branch to be very helpful, last time the chap at the till found a part they did not stock on chain reaction for me.

Oh, I’ve also abused their “no quibble returns policy” a couple of times with no grumbles from them when I ended up not buying. A Whyte 905 and a Norco Aurum. Not sure if that’s still around though. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve hit them up for advice to be honest.

It is just a job for some of the staff though. You just need to learn which ones you need to speak to I guess.

Not a ‘proper’ bike shop though is it, just a store front for shiney crap. Both of my local bike shops would have stocked a 203 adapter.

If you treat Evans for what they are, the Argos of the bike world, you will get less emotional.

I’ve had good and bad experiences and I will continue to go as they are pretty convenient (plus my local is the Gatwick warehouse).

Their target audience is the weekend warrior trade who would rather buy a new bike than replace a small component so it is no surprise that their stocks of spares are kept mainly for workshop use.

A fair few of the Manchester Evans could probably ride better than most of this forum

Sadly, that doesn’t make them any better at doing their job.

…their stocks of spares are kept mainly for workshop use

Evans have warranty-use spares that aren’t on the site but general spares are – eg currently listing
92 brake spares items
41 BB spares
141 hub spares

There’s a fair bit there, just not every item in each of 50+ shops. Admittedly not as extensive in some areas as the amazing range of spares SJS have, but still pretty good I think. The Fuji BB30 comment – noted, checking that.

Hey Al my local Edinburgh is in Aberdeen. The one in Edinburgh is actually quite good the couple of times I’ve been in looking for the odd set of gloves.

I was in the Sheffield Evans last night.

i thought the new trek road bikes were ugly beyond belief, but the staff were friendly and helpful.

PSA: holy ****-balls! the Pinnacle Ramin looks bloody great vfm; £350 or something.

Wow this was moving my quickly!

The reason i didn’t have the correct adaptor is because the frame (Morewood Makulu) uses a rear post mount. Not like you’d expect where the posts accommodate -20mm than a front one (like IS does).

So I needed a front post to post to enable me to run a REAR 203mm rotor. I couldn’t find sod all about it online so had to wait till it arrived and go through my spares box.

If I didn’t have one in the spares box I intended to take it of my other bike- then I remembered my forks were off for servicing. Doh!

And for the record- at least two of my local ‘proper’ shops had the right mount in stock- just none were open on a Sunday.

I use the Glasgow city centre one pretty regularly because their stock never changes so if I know exactly what I need then I’ll know if they have it. Just little things like oil, degreaser, energy gels. Generally though their stock is poor. Clothing is almost exclusively Endura, Altura or Gore. Catering for the commuter or roadie market. Tools aren’t too bad and I’ve had a few decent bits. Lights are ok. Tyre selection is poor. Never had to talk to the staff so can’t comment on them.

Their Braehead store is absolutely abysmal. The staff are disinterested and aloof. The till area is always an absolute pig sty. I’ll gladly never use it again and even if it’s open when I visit Soar I won’t bother going in for a browse.

And for the record- at least two of my local ‘proper’ shops had the right mount in stock- just none were open on a Sunday.

My experience of Evans:-

1. Evans is not really a ‘proper’ specialist bike shop. They are a high street retailer aiming mostly at the mass market, which I’m afraid does not stretch to stocking post-post brake mounts! I would have considered it a very long shot at best.

2. The Evans in Milton Keynes is actually quite good and some of their staff are quite knowledgeable (although haven’t been in for a while). If you are looking for more obvious items like a pair of gloves, sunnies, tubes, cables etc. then they do tend to have reasonable stock. Been very handy for me on occasion. For example they had brake pads in stock for my Formula Oros one time when I got caught short ahead of a ride. I was pleasantly surprised.

3. At least they are actually open on a Sunday, so that’s better than most “proper” bike shops.

A fair few of the Manchester Evans could probably ride better than most of this forum

Sadly, that doesn’t make them any better at doing their job.Of course it does, I’ll be calling in there later, I will be sure to ask for the most raddest of gnar shredders to serve me.
“can I help you sir?”
“I don’t know, can you huck 8′ to flat?”
“sorry sir, 6′ is my best”
“then go get me someone who can!”

Everyone will have said this already, but nevermind.

Evans sell bikes and stuff to people who are happy to buy a bike and some stuff.

If you’re happy to go to buy (say) “a good cycling jersey” they will have one.

If what you want is an after-market component of a particular size, they won’t, and if it’s going to annoy you just buy online.

🙂

I’m now longer a evans cycles customer due to staff at the Chillfactore store in Manchester. In the last year I’ve spent a fair bit of money at evans including buying two of my bikes from them. Never had a problem with them until a bought a Pinnacle Ramin 1. Looked like a great value bike so I ordered one. I took it for it’s fist ever ride and completed 20 miles when on the first down hill the front brake started grinding (pad worn out) and the chain device decided to depart from the bike. I decided to ride home mostly on the road using the back brake which after a further 10 miles started grinding as well.

When I got home I phoned the store who asked me to drop it in to be sorted, great. When I got there I was “interviewed” about the bike for 30 minutes by the bike mechanic and the assistant store manager who didn’t believe I’d only just got the bike. I was told to ring the store manager in the morning who also “interviewed” me for another 30 minutes and I was then told he didn’t know how this could happen and that he’d never seen it before, which I agreed with. I have brake pads which have done a lot more difficult rides which have been in months on my other bikes.

The manager said he would go away and sort it and told me he would ring back in 1 hour. At the end of the day after no returned call I phoned him back. He said I had 3 options:

1 – Pay for the repair
2 – Take the bike away and sort it myself
3 – Send the bike to their warranty department for assessment (he advised me against this option as he said he didn’t fancy my chances)

Rearly annoyed at this I rang their customer relations department, the lady at the end of the phone could tell the distress I was in at this time. She contacted the store manager and the warranty department to get the complete story. Within 24 hrs the store manager was told to sort the bike out as I’d only had it a few days and the issues I had were unacceptable. They put better quality brakes but didn’t replace the disc’s that were scored. I reported this back to the customer relations department who were shocked and commented that this is an unacceptable training issue which needed immediate action.

So basically Store manager and staff lack knowledge on sale of goods, training and customer service.

Customer service were the opposite, fantastically supportive.

AVOID EVANS CHILLFACTORE STORE!

P.S Apart from the problems stated about the bike it rides really well really enjoy it and plenty of opportunity to upgrade.

Cheers Weevil.

13FM you’ll get the secret Big-hitter handshake when you’re next in.