Wouldn't usually go out of my way to review or warn people of terrible customer service...but this was over the top and never been treated so poorly in the bike industry in my life.
I purchased a bike from my LBS (no naming when there is only one side of the story). After a month rear shock Fox X2 blew, 240hub bearings seized, Rear saint brake had that funky variable bite point - too far in followed by too far out, chain had snapped rollers, Also fox 36 forks felt crap with terrible small bump sensitivity, pulled off lowers only to be met with maybe 1ml of fork oil in each leg, no oil on foam rings and no lube in the seals themselves. Gave the forks a service myself as since they were already apart it was only a 5 minute job to put the right fluids in, but figured the rest was warranty issues that I should't have to deal with myself. Bikes turned out to quite the lemon considering its all high end parts and this is all in the space of a month of it being a brand new bike.
Upon picking up the bike, they handed it to me and said all was well. As I was wheeling the bike out I grabbed rear brake, it pulled almost to the bar, thought, this is odd. Noticed that rear tyre was flat...then also noticed rear shock was 2/3rds of way through its stroke. So they had handed me a bike with flat tyre, rear shock with no air, rear brake that was still not fixed.
I confronted the mechanic, after asking how hey would not notice a flat tyre and rear shock and still terrible rear brake - I was told that they never test ride bikes, as they would never ride another persons bike. After a bit of a discussion I was told" You should probably fuck off and take your bike with you". At which point it started to get abit heated as I was not getting anywhere with the issues I had. After sorting the rear tyre and putting some air in the shock I figured I would come back another time and hope the mechanic had calmed down or there would be another mechanic on hand.
Once home I setup the rear shock and turns out.....it doesn't hold air, loss of 30psi after about 20 minutes. Took it for a test ride anyway to see what else was wrong, turns out not only does the shock not hold air but my rear brake still has a variable bite point, but they also contaminated both my front and rear pads as they now have terrible bite and squeal like crazy, which they never did before.
I rang up the store, asked for the owner. Lets just say that went as poorly as expected and was told that my brakes must have been like that before I came into the store...When I asked how they would know since they don't test ride bikes that they service - I was met with no answer, lots of arguing ensued and finally lost my temper and owner hungup on me.
Needless to say after waiting for 2 weeks for my bike to have warranty repairs I now have a bike in far worse condition after being "serviced" than before it went in. Owner basically doesn't want anything to do with me or the bike and every question is followed by "I've been in the industry for 30 years so I know what I'm doing"
Only reason I bought the bike form them was due to the fact that the bike I wanted was on sale and almost no stock left in Victoria, figured that I wouldn't really ever visit the shop since I do all my own repairs. Little did I know that I would have so many warranty issues straight out of the gate, as I have had zero warranty issues with previous bikes.
And people might just think I am a disgruntled customer trying to ruin a shops reputation....but then I managed to dig up some reviews of other people from google, some snippets below.
"Be warned - the owner is very unpleasant person. Will try to scam you and when you point him to this he'll get all angry and will swear as if you've tried to do something bad. If there was a negative scoring I'd give it -100. My advice - save your money for a more customer oriented business. "
I would have to say my experience was the worst I have come across.
These guys are salesmen first and everything else is secondary. If you enjoy being lied straight to the face, then this is the place for you. They'll string you along and rip you off. They'll also grumble and groan taking your money, leaving a nice sour note to your day or more precisely to a few weeks of your life dealing with them.
"Utterly bizarre experience. The guy I spoke to was almost comically rude, like a bike shop Basil Fawlty. "
"i wouldnt recommend this place for service if you value your bikes, droped my bike in for service and what came out was a bike with a damaged chainring
I purchased a bike from my LBS (no naming when there is only one side of the story). After a month rear shock Fox X2 blew, 240hub bearings seized, Rear saint brake had that funky variable bite point - too far in followed by too far out, chain had snapped rollers, Also fox 36 forks felt crap with terrible small bump sensitivity, pulled off lowers only to be met with maybe 1ml of fork oil in each leg, no oil on foam rings and no lube in the seals themselves. Gave the forks a service myself as since they were already apart it was only a 5 minute job to put the right fluids in, but figured the rest was warranty issues that I should't have to deal with myself. Bikes turned out to quite the lemon considering its all high end parts and this is all in the space of a month of it being a brand new bike.
Upon picking up the bike, they handed it to me and said all was well. As I was wheeling the bike out I grabbed rear brake, it pulled almost to the bar, thought, this is odd. Noticed that rear tyre was flat...then also noticed rear shock was 2/3rds of way through its stroke. So they had handed me a bike with flat tyre, rear shock with no air, rear brake that was still not fixed.
I confronted the mechanic, after asking how hey would not notice a flat tyre and rear shock and still terrible rear brake - I was told that they never test ride bikes, as they would never ride another persons bike. After a bit of a discussion I was told" You should probably fuck off and take your bike with you". At which point it started to get abit heated as I was not getting anywhere with the issues I had. After sorting the rear tyre and putting some air in the shock I figured I would come back another time and hope the mechanic had calmed down or there would be another mechanic on hand.
Once home I setup the rear shock and turns out.....it doesn't hold air, loss of 30psi after about 20 minutes. Took it for a test ride anyway to see what else was wrong, turns out not only does the shock not hold air but my rear brake still has a variable bite point, but they also contaminated both my front and rear pads as they now have terrible bite and squeal like crazy, which they never did before.
I rang up the store, asked for the owner. Lets just say that went as poorly as expected and was told that my brakes must have been like that before I came into the store...When I asked how they would know since they don't test ride bikes that they service - I was met with no answer, lots of arguing ensued and finally lost my temper and owner hungup on me.
Needless to say after waiting for 2 weeks for my bike to have warranty repairs I now have a bike in far worse condition after being "serviced" than before it went in. Owner basically doesn't want anything to do with me or the bike and every question is followed by "I've been in the industry for 30 years so I know what I'm doing"
Only reason I bought the bike form them was due to the fact that the bike I wanted was on sale and almost no stock left in Victoria, figured that I wouldn't really ever visit the shop since I do all my own repairs. Little did I know that I would have so many warranty issues straight out of the gate, as I have had zero warranty issues with previous bikes.
And people might just think I am a disgruntled customer trying to ruin a shops reputation....but then I managed to dig up some reviews of other people from google, some snippets below.
"Be warned - the owner is very unpleasant person. Will try to scam you and when you point him to this he'll get all angry and will swear as if you've tried to do something bad. If there was a negative scoring I'd give it -100. My advice - save your money for a more customer oriented business. "
I would have to say my experience was the worst I have come across.
These guys are salesmen first and everything else is secondary. If you enjoy being lied straight to the face, then this is the place for you. They'll string you along and rip you off. They'll also grumble and groan taking your money, leaving a nice sour note to your day or more precisely to a few weeks of your life dealing with them.
"Utterly bizarre experience. The guy I spoke to was almost comically rude, like a bike shop Basil Fawlty. "
"i wouldnt recommend this place for service if you value your bikes, droped my bike in for service and what came out was a bike with a damaged chainring
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