Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 83 total)
  • No repairs, bike must be booked in for a service
  • deadkenny
    Free Member

    cinnamon_girl – Member
    If my car brake light didn’t work would I need to book my car in for a service just to get the light fixed?

    Many dealers will need the car booked in for the day just for a simple job, and they bill it like it’s a mini service.

    Painey
    Free Member

    Chain’s name begins with the 5th letter of the alphabet.

    No surprise there! I was in the one in Brighton and a fella was audibly surprised at the £50 charge for removing a bit of play in rear hub. As this was happening next to me (whilst I waited an age for them to get my bike) I couldn’t help overhear the shop assistant explaining that “we had to remove the rear cassette and then tightened the hub back up and refitted it all”.

    The bike owner looked in disbelief so I mentioned that it was a 5-10 minute job at worst.

    binners
    Full Member

    but I do always iike to hear both sides of a story before placing blame.

    Are you new here? Thats simply not the done thing old boy……

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    bigyinn
    Free Member

    Just to be clear, was the bike supplied to the same chain shop who supplied originally?
    If not, I can sort of see their point. One persons “it just needs a tweak” is another’s “total rebuild to make it roadworthy”.

    hatter
    Full Member

    If he’s East London/Shoreditch way check out these guys, they come highly recommended:

    Cyclelab

    glasgowdan
    Free Member

    Why the cautiousness with regards to naming Evans? You’re not making up slanderous stories, just recounting an experience.

    The policy of fixing things the customer didn’t want done is not on. Point them out by all means, but if they want ‘a’ done and you’re looking for the work, then don’t try and also do ‘b’ and add it to the bill!

    This is called the Kwik Fit model.

    patriotpro
    Free Member

    Chain’s name begins with the 5th letter of the alphabet.

    They have form you know…

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    cinnamon_girl – Member

    Fully appreciate that bike needs to be safe and in a roadworthy condition, how many miles would a set of brake pads last for?

    I suspect the brake pads on my road bike are particularly hard, as they don’t stop me very effectively at all, but they are over 2000 miles old now and still plenty of meat left on them….

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    Swisstop Blue.

    They’ll last you about 10 years.

    They may or may not stop you on ally rims though 😛

    walleater
    Full Member

    So Evans don’t have a Service Writer banging out small repairs (like front derailleur adjusts, tube changes etc), while the mechs are hiding away doing the big scheduled jobs? :facepalm:

    mjsmke
    Full Member

    I can see both sides to this. As a customer you expect the odd 5 min job to be possible while you wait. When i worked in bike shops a long time ago this was easily possible.

    However, before i left the bike shop trade we were so understaffed. Drastically understaffed. (another big chain). Senior management wouldn’t listen to us as we were trying our best to meet targets and keep as many customers happy as possible but still had a backlog of bikes to build and service. The worst i remember was when we had a 3 week waiting list of service repairs due to the volume of bikes we were selling and having to build. I miss the fun times of working in a bike shop but we had so many rules and policies to stick to that made no sense.

    wilburt
    Free Member

    If Halfords were any good they could dominate the market overnight.

    hora
    Free Member

    Sorry I’m with the OP and Junkyard on this.

    Ridiculous. OP complain to head office. They were trying to rip off a ‘unsuspecting’ member of the public.

    Evans only this month charged me £11.50 to cut a steerer and fit a SFN. Its a rogue store/member of staff.

    jkomo
    Full Member

    Damnit, just spent ten minutes thinking up who make chains beginning with ‘E’. All I could think was ‘egg’ which makes no sense.

    benpinnick
    Full Member

    Well they have to boost sales as much as possible as the private equity owners want to flog it. At a 10 x earnings ratio that service just earned them about £970. Nice work if you can get it. (Ps that’s not a joke)

    RDL-82
    Free Member

    Dodgy store/branch? Had a few jobs done at the Evans NCC store and apart from being slow/busy had no reason to complain and priced fair IMO. Stripped wheeled and re built with new hub for £23 labour and spokes, full frame prep and headset fit for £26.50. Sounds like a piss take by someone in store that they got away with. At the NCC store at least they have a price list on the wall for workshop jobs and everything else is charged at £11.50 per 30mins iirc (might be less time tbh but never used it).
    Think I’d be complaining to head office or store manager for an explanation/justification of cost.

    pinetree
    Free Member

    Evans only this month charged me £11.50 to cut a steerer and fit a SFN. Its a rogue store/member of staff.

    Not sure I disagree with your outrage.

    £11.50 seems VERY reasonable for that, given it requires the fork to be taken out (including brake to be removed normally), use of cutting guide and hacksaw, then files, and then the tool to set the star nut. Then the front end of the bike has to be put back together. All for just over a tenner, that’s pretty bloody good.

    Edit: just re-read your post. Are you actually pissed off at £11.50 for that job, or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    I think what hora was trying to say is that same chain did a wee job for him without servicing the bike/fork, suggesting what was sold to cg’s son may not be policy after all (or hora got lucky).

    I did the same double take originally 😆

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    CG, which branch was it? I work with two ex Evans employees.

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    I understand that ‘upselling’ is a fact of life and many retailers do this either subtly or blatantly. It was not repaired on the premises, was sent to a repair centre presumably in London.

    Bike purchased online, he’s done around 600 miles on original brake pads in all sorts of weather as he commutes daily. I don’t know if that’s reasonable, I’ve suggested that he regularly checks the rims for wear.

    Lol at his mother’s jeans, his other bike doesn’t have a front mech and it just so happens it needs a new hub. Guess where he won’t be taking it!

    To take something positive from this experience is that it will encourage him to learn and understand the mechanics of a bike, hopefully progressing to carrying out basic repairs.

    Thanks again for the replies, pretty good selection I’d say. 😉

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    Pete – sorry but would rather not say. 🙂

    robbo167
    Free Member

    A lot of the London shops don’t have workshop space so all bikes are collected by van and taken to a central workshop,repaired and then returned to the shop…it doesn’t make sense to do this for a small adjustment/repair(not saying it’s right like) so everything is upsold to a service level…that doesn’t mean all branches of that chain behave like that,just the London one’s.

    badllama
    Free Member

    I’ve been in today to have a wheel adjusted after someone had give it a good kick while parked up near work 🙁

    Same store “E” I was going to buy a Wheel Truing Stand but at £80.00 though may as as well get them to do it, it went for a few spokes to possible wheel rebuild and possible new hub so should be an interesting conversation tomorrow when they ring. 🙄

    Especially as the other guy mr-up-seller was saying the spokes in spesh bikes have alloy threads on them that pretty much “turn to dust” when you try to adjust them just looking at the spec for the bike there Stainless, 2.0mm (14g) hummm it will be an interesting conversation my thinks.

    goldenwonder
    Free Member

    badllama:
    Specliaized wheels ofte do use alloy nipples & usually do fall to bits when you try & touch them.
    They also appear to often be built with spokes that are slightly too short, so the nipple isn’t properly supported & snap-sometimes meaning the only correct & safe way to repair the wheel is to either rebuild completely or replace the wheel.

    This is another concern in that people often believe they understand the problem with their bikes, but when it really comes down to the underlying issues & causes they sometimes don’t.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    The spokes are stainless. It’s the nipples that are alloy. And yes, many folk avoid them because they are too soft and corrode.

    nick1962
    Free Member

    I blame the parents for not bringing up their kids to have the gumption and backbone to just say no.

    cfinnimore
    Free Member

    Reminds me of the worst part of working for a big chain.

    “Two tubes and two puncture repairs, £35” I understand why it cost that much but Mrs. Ridgeback Commuter never did.

    hora
    Free Member

    I blame the parents for not bringing up their kids to have the gumption and backbone to just say no.

    That’ll be the embarrassment that you feel ‘is he really doing that to me’?

    Thats how LBS’s (nevermind chains) leek/lose alot of customers because you never go back after your one and only visit. Only the chummy mates (special rates because they are repeat customers now) who live in their clique seem to return.

    jameso
    Full Member

    CG, Evans won’t just adjust a mech as there’s a process for bike servicing they follow. For small tweaks like that an LBS can be a better bet, maybe similar, depends on the shop. Evans work on a service-level basis as a guide to jobs where the bike won’t be let out with a fault that they know about, so they’ll do a fuller job and the charges are pre-set. If you ask for a breakdown they should give it and it should all be there. It won’t be the cheapest way to get a simple mech adjust done and it could have needed more than that, or if not then it would have done later (chain not changed in time then needs cassette, etc)

    Benpinnick, you can say similar of anything done by any private equity owned business. Do you think PE investors would or could boost the sales over a short period to get a higher sale price, using things like workshop jobs to do that? Businesses tend to sell once they’ve grown to a size where they suit different levels of owner and have a number of years of solid growth, or maybe are failing and are bought at a knock-down price.

    eightyeight
    Free Member

    They’ve tried to “book me in” for a service a couple of times in the one in Manchester.

    I just ask to speak to the mechanic, explain what I want him to do / ask his advise and then ask how long it will take him. If it’s a 30 min job he will charge me for the parts (obvs) and a minimum labour charge, about £11 I think.

    There’s a couple of gems out front in that store, but there’s also a few who know naff all about repairing a bike!

    Sundayjumper
    Full Member

    Really ? That is VERY cheap.

    hora
    Free Member

    Should it be BMW workshop hourly rates then?

    Its a bicycle shop. I think alot of people seem to forget that. They don’t use carbon tools, or a ti press, a Kashima hammer, etc.

    When I rounded a stem bolt and couldn’t get it out I was charged the same. Evans didn’t say ‘I can’t touch your bike unless its booked in for a full service’. They just did the bolt extraction. And very well/fast.

    wiggles
    Free Member

    So how much should you expect to pay a professional mechanic for his time and the many £1000’s of tools we have to purchase (and replace) ?

    £11 for half hour is very cheap. Most places are around £40/h so £20 for half

    hora
    Free Member

    Hi. How many jobs do you think will run upto half an hour? How many are 5min jobs?

    RDL-82
    Free Member

    Really ? That is VERY cheap.

    As I said it may have been a shorter time however they price things at scales. Bronze service was £26.50 at that’s what they stuck the frame prep down as. I enquired about possibly having something else done and was told it would just come under a standard £11.50 as it would take under 30mins.
    Can’t comment on other Evans stores but the NCC store has the workshop area on show and its easy enough to speak to the mechanics so I always just speak directly to the guys doing the work and they book it in at what they think is required. For clarity though I’ve never taken them a full bike to work with. I’ve only taken them a wheel for rebuild a frame witg some isis cranks and bb i wanted removed but couldn’t be bothered buying tools for and a frame and headset for prep and fit. They may be a big corporate chain but they are 5minutes from me and as such are my lbs. That particular store might be roadie/track biased due to its location but always found them helpful, even thrown a couple of freebies in when I went in fully prepared to pay. (Nothing major, star but and chain pins).

    Ultimately though I agree that £100 for a mech adjust is scandalous and I’d personally have walked away.

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    Difficult call isn’t it?
    I’ve worked in a few bike shops (inc Evans) and the number of customers coming in with “can you just…?” enquiries is staggering. Can vary from a puncture repair to a full strip and rebuild!

    We’d always have some flexibility in the schedule to fix punctures but there comes a point when the mechanic simply hasn’t got time to do any more work or the workshop physically can’t accommodate more bikes. You can’t tell a customer who booked a bike in 3 weeks ago for a service that it hasn’t been done as a string of random folk kept coming in asking “can you just…” do this, that or the other. And from experience, a large number of those “it’ll only be 5 minutes” jobs turn into 2hr nightmares of trying to free seized bolts or finding secondary and tertiary problems that you can’t ignore as they’re safety related.

    A shop would much rather take in a bike for an allotted time slot to do a specific list of checks/repairs, it’s more efficient for them and (usually) better value for the customer.

    badllama
    Free Member

    goldenwonder thanks for the info, learn something new everyday.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    Even m beloved LBS has tried that on a few times – there’s a very ‘salesy’ one that mans the service desk who’s replaced “Hello” with “Needs a service does it?”

    I personally don’t care for the phrase, it’s a bit to vague for my slightly obsessive nature – they do have a menu now which explains what each does – frankly the most basic £60 one is just a lot of basic checks that we really should all completely before every ride – really basic like wheel bearings – For £60 do I assume they remove the wheel, partly strip the hub and inspect them, or do they just give the wheel a spin and a wiggle like the rest of us?

    Anyway, they take no for an answer so I’m happy – if they change their policy and want to start every job with a ‘service’ I’ll stop using them.

    I feel for them, I know the market it hard now – the experienced / enthusiast whatever is buying 90% of their stuff online because it’s mostly dead easy to fit anyway – after all the rider who can’t fix anything on their bike is going to spent more time than they’d like walking their bike home.

    dbcooper
    Free Member

    I reckon if youa re smart enough to know what the bike needs so that you can tell the guy to do it, you ought to be smart enough to do it yerself.

    eightyeight
    Free Member

    reckon if youa re smart enough to know what the bike needs so that you can tell the guy to do it, you ought to be smart enough to do it yerself

    And alas I’m not.

    I’m smart enough to know my garage has been smashed into and the door needs replacing, but I’ll be damned if I can do it myself. Repeat ad naseum for about every task I pay someone else to do (plaster ceiling, fit kitchen….)

Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 83 total)

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