Evans Cycles

ASM theres a new bike shop opening soon in balham,its called Cyclopolis. 54 Balham High Road Balham London SW12 9AQ. Phone: 07877796924 Fax: 02070840374 give them a ring or better still fax them your cv,as i said before its not open yet

ad here in gumtree today.

I've had nothing but bad experiences with Evans. I'm more than certain there are nice people who work for them, but in my dealings with them there has always seemed to be this attitude of not caring about customers with problems, as there are always gonna be another 10 brand new customers wandering in looking for their first bike and coming to Evans for it because it's the big name. They know they don't have to work to keep customers, they are just too big a company to care about it, or so it seems.....

Therefore, I support my local bike shop! (Apex Cycles in Clapham, they are awesome)

Just been into Evans to get a quote for an insurance claim on an old bike that got nicked. Went OTP for the quote as I thought the insurance company would like that. The robbing bastards want to charge £15 for the fucking privilege!! All I need is a few words scribbled on a piece of letter headed note paper which I can see sat on the fucking counter in front of me! Unreal.

Most things in london are a rip off J-D-S-H.

Most things in london are a rip off J-D-S-H.

Tru dat.

if you spend 50 or more. not much, but thought id share. it came in the post today.

online/phone code is DCWINCAT10

nice one!

tried it - less than 5% taken off my total

I lie, it does give 10% but not off sale stock. My bad.

**Taken from the evanscycles.com workshop price list:

Accessory Fitting**

                               Suspension Fork
        *(£12.50 if fitted at the time of fork purchase)*             £25.00*                               

Full Mudguard Sets £25.00*

                          **Clip-On Mudguard Sets**             **£12.50***                               

Computer* (£5.00 extra for Cadence/FlightDeck style)* £12.50*

                          **Lights* (Individual or set)***                          **£12.50***

Rack £12.50*
Saddle/Seat Post £12.50*

                          Grips/Bar tape             £12.50*                               

Lock £12.50*
Pump £12.50*
Bottle Cage £12.50*
Pedals £12.50*

                          Cleats             £12.50*                ***

*Excludes cost of parts***

If you can't fit a set of mudguards/bottle cage/lights etc yourself then you almost deserve to be fleeced.. Most of those things just take common sense

if people will pay it, Evans would be fools not to charge that much

Honestly? that's fine, it's fine as wibble says that if other can't be bothered to even do the simplest task, then they have every right to charge them for thing like that.

thought £12.50 on certain item is a little bit too high, £6 would've been simply enough.

I think its profiteering. If i purchased my first bike from Evans and took them at their word about all the brackets and bits I'd need, paid their exorbitant installation costs, took it to the park to learn to ride, loved it, learnt about maintenance etc and realised they had charged me £12.50 to put a set of 10 quid cateyes on the thing I'd be mildly annoyed. I'd never shop there again because they took me for a ride (so to speak)

Sure, theres not a person on this forum who cant do all of those things but there are people out there who cant - how many of your friends/family do you regularly educate about bikes? I'd say for most on here it probably happens pretty frequently. How many have you introduced to riding? If I buy a 50 quid lock and felt so inclined to mount it on my frame, I'd expect the store to spend the 35 seconds it takes to have it "installed".

I don't subscribe to this "if you cant do it yourself, you deserve to be fleeced" nonsense. You'd never say this about any other tradesman - electrician, plumber, auto-mechanic. Its fucking thievery.

This "Evan" character can fuck right off.

Bicycle Magic FTW!

In addition, I do sometimes buy stuff at Evans because they have never done anything to me personally which would make me do otherwise. Still BM have been better and won my repeat business.

it is profiteering, right now it's winter, and there's a lots less cyclists in London due to the cold and wet weather, and spoken to a bloke who own a bike shop in Clapham that sales is a bit slow due to the winter seasons, and they end up having to let a staff or two go sadly.

methinks that related to the charge of certain item.

Also, no-one in this thread actually said "if you cant do it yourself, you deserve to be fleeced". People do though. They do...

well, you be surprise how many people went to the Apple store just to change their battery as they have no idea how, so to be honest I'm really not that surprise with the charge been added.

Dont get me wrong, it doesn't surprise me all. I just think its shit*

*typed on macbook

@ OP

So what are you going to do about it? Almost everyone here knows that Evans charges for this, and probably how much too. People will either pay it or take their business elsewhere - that's consumer choice.

Looking at the cost it's clearly the flat rate they charge for everything - which would be fair enough as you'd get the same charge if you took your car to the garage or your laptop to the computer repair shop.

Yes it takes the piss for being such a menial thing, but like I said above - you have a choice whether you pay for it or not.

My LBS regreased my rear wheel and put new caps on for £8.00 they have a good business going. They sell alot of bikes through knowledge and customer service and treat there regulars well. I've seen people come in by new innertubes and have them put in for nothing. If its busy then you have to wait.

Some people do not own a screwdriver let alone an allen key set.

If they buy a bike in your store the least you can do is put the accesories on.

The old "i bought this off ebay can you put some £10 lights on" might have initiated the charge though, happening in alot of industries at the mo.

Sure, there's not a person on this forum who can't do all of those things.

Are you sure about that, Dr Pangloss?

Was wandering round an Evans store a while back and over heard a quite intelligent sounding customer purchasing a new bike looking for his accessories. Namely a set of lights, shop assistant dutifully showing him all the various models. After choosing the ones he liked he asked the shop assistant ' could you fit them for me' I thought to myself at the time how is this guy going to cope with a puncture or a loose bolt when it occurs. Of course Evans obliged him and I'm sure charged him a small fee too. Either the customer has too much money or was a fckwit.

Most additions are done free at purchase and are stated thus.

They book your bike in
They heft the heavy piece of shit up or down the stairs
They store it in cramped conditions for two days when you said you wanted it back that afternoon
Why shouldn't they charge for their time?

If you don't like the price, buy a the book and tools and learn to do it yourself.
Most of the above jobs could be done with an allen key set, screwdriver and the bare minimum of common-sense.

Lets end this thread before it turns into another bike shop bashing, its been done before and its fucking dull.

If you don't like it don't go there and learn how to do shit yourself.

We've had this debate before. It's not just the cost of the staff time - every charge they levy on bikes, parts, repairs, maintenance, etc. has to contribute towards the rent, business rates, insurance, utilities, wages, employer's NI, tax, etc. Try running a business in central London. Do it yourself or pay the price.