Evans Cycles

If you corectly inform the customer, even with the risk of him not being pleased, there is no way so many will leave negative reviews.

I'll guarantee you now that that is utter fantasy. This week alone, and despite repeat updates to customers regarding warranties that we have near no control over, almost all got pissed off and decided to complain.
We can't control when Madison gets replacement parts. We didn't break the parts. Half the bikes weren't purchased from us even, so why is the onus on us to suck it up and take both the verbal battering and the demand to facilitate it faster than is feasable.

You seem to preface a lot of statements with 'I'. Your experiences are no less valid, but it's no indicator of the whole picture. We have a total of two full timers, and two part timers building a backlog of hundreds of bikes company wide. The only thing we can do is say within 10-14 days to delivery. All orders need to be booked in, built, packed, re-booked, and loaded up. Oh yeah, this isn't including bike repairs and warranties by the way.

Your implication that we have very concise time frame on how this is accomplished, with lead time updates for customers to give ourselves leverage is far from reality.

I'm gonna go on a limb here and say no one wants to ignore customers or make them wait for shits and giggles; that's absurd. It's simply the reality of it at the moment that doesn't reconcile with peoples purchase habits.
You tell people delays should be expected, what most hear is 'I can't be arsed'.

The whole idea that the 'customer is always right' needs to fucking die. We're doing our best and getting paid pittance for it.
There's more to the whole chain then the person your talk to.
Support your local bike shop big or small. Stop moaning online. Maybe after this shit is over things will change for the better.