Evans Cycles

They started doing it in Mortimer St. since October because the Cycle Republic round the corner was offering it and I guess they didn't want to be undercut.

They're doing it in London so far, I only just started working at Evans 3 months ago, it's just a promo thing (£5 punctures, not included inner tube/tyres).

Evans - Right to Reply, names changed because, internets...

Dear Mr Carey,

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry that you have been disappointed with the customer service
at the Aberdeen branch of Evans Cycles.

Please be assured that customer satisfaction is of primary concern at
Evans Cycles and I have discussed the issues that you raised in your
email with Mr Jonny McCoy, the manager at this branch/ of the
management team at this branch. Mr McCoy sincerely regrets that your
expectations have not been met on this occasion.

Regrettably, the item that you required was a non-stock item that is
not available to purchase as part of the range of products that Evans
Cycles supplies. Although the item was available as a workshop spare,
this is for the use of mechanics during the course of their work and
for servicing, repairs and bike building. I understand that two
members of staff were initially willing to supply the part, but as it
does not have a product code, it could not be entered through the till
system which is linked to head office. The store teams are not
permitted to make ad-hoc sales in this way, and so regrettably it
meant that they were then unable to allow you to take the item. As the
store is relatively new, some of the workshop staff are unfamiliar
with this process. This matter will of course be high-lighted in the
store team’s next staff training session. Mr McCoy is of course sorry
that this caused you disappointment.

The outcome of this is that you have been left very frustrated and
dissatisfied which is not the impression we want customers to leave
with and which we unreservedly and sincerely regret. In recognition of
this, I have generated and sent an e-gift voucher to the value of
£25.00. This may be redeemed online on the website, or by using the
telephone mail order facility or by printing out the email and taking
it to any branch of Evans Cycles. It has a two year period of
validity. Please note that when we send this, you will receive three
emails; the first two are confirmation and shipping emails, and then a
third email follows with the value, voucher code and pin number.

I realise that this experience has caused you to become disillusioned
with Evans Cycles as a whole and I sincerely regret this. I hope you
will appreciate that it is certainly not our intention to disappoint
our customers and you may be assured that your custom is valued; I
would like to assure you that customer service undergoes constant
review in order to ensure that our customers' experience remain
consistently high.

I am grateful that you brought this matter to our attention since it
enables Evans Cycles to improve the service that we offer. I would
also like to assure you at this juncture that this is not indicative
of the normal level of service provided at this branch - or indeed any
other branch of Evans Cycles.

On behalf of Evans Cycles, please accept my apologies for the
disappointment you have been caused.

I hope that you will give Evans Cycles the opportunity to restore your
faith and I hope that you will continue to enjoy cycling.

Yours sincerely,

Rachael Welsh

Customer Relations

TLDR - Customer service acknowledge I was a bit miffed, gave me £25 voucher, I am a happier bunny, that is for sure! have replied to this saying they should be allowed to sell workshop stock and should add on a mark up for profits!

I've had an outstanding issue with Evans for the last two months and had to return to their store on multiple occassions to address issues with how they setup the bike I bought from them. Not once have they offered any kind of compensation, just an expectation that i should be gratified they're correcting their mistakes at no extra charge.
I find customer relations team to be really well mannered and helpful but their in-store staff to be condescending, and threatened like a rabbit in headlights by any kind of challenge to their procedures.

@edscoble do you know the mechanic who is working today at The Cut branch near Waterloo?

I've dropped my Robin Mather in for a service of the Hope M4 brakes, pad alignment and topping up of the hydraulic fluid.

However I've explained that three times to the shop assistants, and each time it's been translated to "Bronze" service. And I only want the brakes done, and done right... nothing else.

Would love to find a way to talk to the mechanic and explain exactly what I want done.

@Velocio I'm afraid I don't, I don't understand why they didn't book it in for a brake bleed instead, which should have been mentioned in your recipes.

PM me directly with your recipes, I'll ask my head mechanic at St Paul as I trust him to get thing done.

Who's head mechanic there? You manage that workshop?

Just me and N, and another forumeager who do bike building.

I've dropped my Robin Mather in for a service of the Hope M4 brakes, pad alignment and topping up of the hydraulic fluid.

Get it back and go straight to Soho Bikes, do not pass go, do not...

Bit late for that.

@Velocio I hope all is well?

Not really - if the M4s are borked through a cack-handed bleed you can get Mario to fix them :)

I did update them on the day with "just bleed the brakes, re-align to ensure they don't rub, check the pads".

They've ordered new pads, but I'm still riding the old ones until they arrive.

As for the "brakes service"... despite me saying that I've serviced the whole bike, just the brakes please. It came back with cranks a bit loose, the seat height changed massively (and un-rideably so), tons of excess grease on the seat post, greasy finger prints on the paint work (it had gone in for the service washed and spotless - except for the dings).

Not amused by that.

And I also had instructed that I'd reset the levers (trim and bite) to neutral and that during the bleed I wanted the correct hydraulic fluid and pressure such that the bite was firm and snappy without any adjustment to the levers (i.e. get the bleed right and don't hide a bad job by adjusting the levers).

That didn't happen. For it to be ridden safely, I had to adjust the reach and bite again, to an extreme.

So overall... not impressed.

I haven't actually paid though... they released the bike to me without charge whilst awaiting the brake pads. I can see me buying the pads still as I do need them, but also taking the bike for a service elsewhere to get the brakes re-bled correctly and to a higher standard. I'll get a service elsewhere to fix issues from this service.

Note to future self: Avoid Evans for bike servicing.

Bleeding the hydraulic conduits is a form of art that only mechanics with a certain experience and knowledge of a certain secrets can do properly, le sigh.

Hense Mario at Soho

Talbot Matt is also a whiz at this dark art, too

And if you've got ancient magura martas just call me ;)

Actually... Fuck Evans.

I had to give them an email to be able to book a service, and I explicitly told them not to send any marketing information and to only use it for the purpose it was provided: updates about the service.

They agreed.

And lo... evans@lfgss.com just got spammed with a "Issue 30: More reasons to ride" email.

That address now gets blacklisted, and Evans... that has pissed me off.

yeah what he said ^ y u even go to evans with that mather!?! u mad?

Actually I do.

Call me :D

I don't get it... why and where should I call you?

There's a collective push to 'accept' every repair from on high which gets particularly grating when 1 of 2 things happen. Lack of tools, or lack of training.
I've actually gotten in shit for refusing to work on something I was unsure about. My reasoning totally didn't compute when I said that'd I'd never worked on a Rohloff, which is a complex piece of kit I don't want to fuck up. so I'd rather recommend them they go elsewhere.
Cue disciplinary for not following guidelines.
And the spam is automatically selected on screen, you have to physically action it off. Hurts every time I see it.

Can't you automatically unselect it?

I thought 'by law'* stuff like that had to be default off and opted into rather than opted out of.

*No idea what kind of law would cover spam email but it's how it was described to me.

I don't know, the moment staff ask you for your email address, it get added into the list automatically, unless requested (as in Velocio's case, ignored), there's a quota to be met with email too.

It still amazes me to this day that people don't have a dump email address that they can hand out to anyone who asks for contact details.