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@Pedalling_gear
You do have to wonder what is fair here. Some of the defence from Caren and Matt seems weak. It’s not that I’m dismissing how awful covid was for supply chains, mental health and everything else in between. However, like others, is it right to continue to build (and spend) bikes for the likes of ServiceCourse and other showcases? I think no. Essentially this is gambling with customers money that the return would pay off from more orders and more money into the business. I think Matt in one comment said the backlog of orders was overwhelming…if so then it would be questionable as to why you would do this. I too know of at least two people, who have been impacted by this business and it so damaging to the handmade industry as a whole.
My advice, file to the administrators for your claim, if they have sent emails to customers saying it’s winding down, you have a right. You also have a right to call the police if you feel that the evidence you have would constitute fraud or theft.
This is not nice for anyone but if you are a business owner, welcome to big school. You can’t mess people around. It’s not fair on customers and it’s only delaying what looks like an inevitable situation which has no happened. I feel for the other framebuilders who have had the same supply chain, covid challenges some worse, some perhaps not as bad but still they adapt and support customers because it’s the right thing to do, and they have a reputation they wish to uphold.
I would like to see a publication like Rouleur write about this as we shouldn’t just assume custom frame builders are all the same but also that it’s not all plain sailing. Customers and builders have good and bad points and this should be talked about so people do thorough research on who they pick before spending thousands and getting nothing back.
When picking a builder, the site proved invaluable for me due to comments on Isen however I don’t think the mass public look here or even know of it to check reviews, stories etc. It’s so easy to think that if they have pics on Instagram then they must be good. BB threads, wheel alignment etc must be heartbreaking to discover if not correct and for builders to go on defensive is hard to defend.
From these comments, and I suspect no doubt more customers unaware of this site have had issues too, the business should have stopped a long time ago.