Good service

one armed bloke in evans victoria who hooked me up with an emergency bar plug this morning. you're a good'un!

Would it be wrong to ask if he had one spare because one side of his bars had been chopped off?

Gotta say Evans Victoria were great today, Missmouse wanted a pair of spd shoes, they did not have them in stock but hope to have a pair for her tomorrow.

Every Weds we get new stock from the warehouse, hence why.

Would it be wrong to ask if he had one spare because one side of his bars had been chopped off?

Gotta say Evans Victoria were great today, Missmouse wanted a pair of spd shoes, they did not have them in stock but hope to have a pair for her tomorrow.

Picked up my shoes from Evans Victoria today. Mentioned to nice guy with one arm he'd been thanked on the forum. He smiled and shuffled off.

I'd brought my brand new Time ATAC XS Carbon pedals but had left the cleats at home (due to Prancer's I'm-fed-up-with-being-crippled-and-need-to-get-to-work-ON-TIME state of mind and) my tardiness this morning.

So, prepared for yet another fumbling schlep over to South West London with my hateful clips and straps, instead, the LOVELY young guy in there said he would change the pedals over AND find some spare cleats I could have. He also fiddled about with them when I couldn't clip in (combination of my ineptitude, not being heavy enough and the fact that the pedals are bloody tight!). Ten mins later I was off along Vauxhaull Bridge Road.

Two great examples of customer care from Evans this week. Maybe I need to reconsider my hitherto negative impression of the company.

I'd like to extend my gratitude to Jamie of Freshtripe.

Despite the original owner of Freshtripe moved onto bigger thing, Jamie did a top notch work of keeping Freshtripe running (if not better).

Not long ago, he send me the wrong handlebar, after an hour he realise that he quickly grabbed the right handlebar and send that to me instead with a quick personal email apologising for the situation.

I recieved it moment after the wrong handlebar arrived.

incidentally the wrong handlebar turn out to be perfect for my town bike, so decided to pay for that handlebar as well and despite everything actually going better than expected, he refunded the postage as an apologise, even though I told him there was no need to.

Excellent customer service there Jamie, keep it up.

Margaret Stobbs of Carradice.
I've been after a Duxback poncho for a while, but no-one seems to have stock - not even Carradice.
I sent a slightly jokey email to them, asking when they would have stock - as they seemed to be like hens teeth.
I got a lovely email back from Margaret saying that she thought there were a couple floating around, dug one out, emailed me back and said to call if I wanted it. Gave her a call, sorted out payment and had a lovely chat, and I'll hopefully receive in the next couple of days.

Getting hold of Carradice stock can sometimes be frustrating, but they make such good kit and they are such nice people I will always go back to them.

coincidentally I managed to get the same bag from Freemans Cycles whom actually have them in stock, wouldn't you know it?

recieved it today, 'is a beautiful thing.

I justed posted a thumbs up for www.cloud9cycles.com Camden / Chalk Farm (small workshop specialised in custom / SS) at http://www.lfgss.com/thread67066.html . I guess it belongs here, sorry about that.

Don't know where else to stick this so here goes.

My old Manitou forks went a month or so ago (top cap blew out), LBS (where it was being serviced at the time) were a bit unhelpful, but decided to speak to Manitou direct anyway, even though they don't have a UK sales side anymore. To cut a long story short, they've offered me a brand new set of forks, even though the old ones were past warranty (six years old). Very helpful and apologetic, even though they've been bought out a few times since.

Nice to see a bit of customer service in big companies these days.

Faulty Exposure light sent back to manufacturer last week. Just arrived back, fixed, no charge with a nice note explaining what was wrong. Good service!

Excellent service at Brixton cycles yesterday, sorting my girlfriend out a quote for a surly on the cyclescheme, the staff took the time to answer all her questions and were dead helpful, chapeau!

Faulty Exposure light sent back to manufacturer last week. Just arrived back, fixed, no charge with a nice note explaining what was wrong. Good service!

Which light was it? I've been having trouble with my Rear Flare and wondered what I could do.

How did you go about sending it back to the manufacturer? I presume you bought it elsewhere?

Dropped into Bon Velo in Herne Hill this morning. I switched stems yesterday but couldn't get a tight fit on the new one (can't put much force through right arm/shoulder after clavicle op). John spent a good ten minutes on it, added a spacer as the new stem was slightly shallower than the old one. Sweet as a nut now. He did it straight away and didn't charge.

Great service Bon Velo!

went to a new bike shop on cambridge heath rd the other day. between cepohas st and malcom place, just past the railway bridge nearest whitechapel road. Really great service, place seemed a little bare in the way of new bikes if i'm honest but they has some really well priced vintage parts and not outrageously priced single speed and fixed bikes. Also the staff were very helpful, hunting for a little odd part I wanted. hate to admit to being surprised and i'd assumed it was shit from the frontage but I was, good place, just can't remember the name of it for the life of me

Which light was it? I've been having trouble with my Rear Flare and wondered what I could do.

How did you go about sending it back to the manufacturer? I presume you bought it elsewhere?

It was the front flash light.

Yeah thy only sell their products via other retailers so I wrote to them and they told me to send it in.

I think I might have broken the charger now as I stuck a battery in the wrong way round.

MM = Twat.

Nothing to do with cycling but I got good service from East Coast trains this morning. I had booked an advance ticket up north and left the house in plenty(ish) of time. But the tube from Brixton to Kings Cross got delayed en route and took 40 mins... missed the train. Trudged up to the desk, fumbling for my card to stump up for a full price ticket on the next service, and humbly explained my situation to the bloke. Late tube? he asks - chuck us yer oyster card. He scans it in, has a butchers, says yep, it all checks out, and writes me a new ticket FOC for the next train. Technology + empathy = win. Cheers Mr Train man!

I was in Brighton a couple of weeks ago and finished the job early so went to the station at 1pm, knowing the advance ticket I bought wasn't valid until the 4.18.

He didn't let me on.

:(

to my amazement, last night, at about 8.10pm I got a puncture on my way to soho.

mega fuuuuuu, went to evans who were of course closed, but the nice guys downstairs let me in and let me sort out my puncture, had no cash and the tills were closed so they let me have a tube for free.

never thought evans would be that helpful!

thanks, if any of you are on here.

http://www.laundryrepublic.com

We have their lockers in my office. Means you can get dry cleaning picked up and dropped off without wasting time running around with shirts and stuff.

They're uber efficient and very pleasant and have gone out of their way to be helpful so they're getting a mention here. No affiliation, just use their service.

eBay seller denniswinters - order some cheapie shoes to replace the cheapie shoes the sole plate has pulled out of. Get a message from him asking me to call him. He explains that there's been a stock control mix-up and he doesn't have the shoes I ordered in my size. He then, unprompted, asks if he can just send me the new version (approximately twice the price) for the same money. I say yes. What a nice man.

Exposure lights

My Flare rear light has become a little tempermental, it can change mode or turn itself off when it gets shaken - so not too reliable.

Also the recharger has broken.

I call them up and they think its just the spring that holds the batter in place needs replacing in the light - they have upgraded the springs.

New spring and new charger are in the post, no quibbles.

Quite impressed.

Crank Bros
Spring snaps on left egg beater peddle.
I email Crank Bros and they put me in touch with the UK Distributor.
I don't have any proof of purchase and if my date calculations are correct they may well be out of warranty.

Post them off to Crank Bros UK dude for them to take a look, no promise of a fix just an inspection, and they are posted back to me five days later with not only a new spring but new spindles, new bearings and a full regrease on both!

Very happy.

Tension bolt on a Gilles Berthoud saddle came loose and fell off during a ride. I contacted Monsieur Berthoud by e-mail to ask how much it would cost to replace the part and ship to London. Within five minutes of my e-mail, I received a response saying that a new part would be sent out that day, gratis.

Part arrived two days later. Top quality service from a relatively small producer.

Ordered a pizza last night. They reminded me that the last time I ordered, I'd passed out drunk and not answered the door to them. I explained that they had taken longer than they'd said (which was true, but only by about 5 minutes) - they accepted it and delivered me my pizza without an argument about payment for the last one.

I was pleased, and stayed awake until they delivered, despite being really tired, and drunk again.

went to a new bike shop on cambridge heath rd the other day. between cepohas st and malcom place, just past the railway bridge nearest whitechapel road. Really great service, place seemed a little bare in the way of new bikes if i'm honest but they has some really well priced vintage parts and not outrageously priced single speed and fixed bikes. Also the staff were very helpful, hunting for a little odd part I wanted. hate to admit to being surprised and i'd assumed it was shit from the frontage but I was, good place, just can't remember the name of it for the life of me

bikeworks. they're a bit more than a bike shop- a social enterprise. their website's a bit shit but check 'em out anyway
http://www.bikeworks.org.uk/

Bikelab in Richmond

Always willing to give time to answer questions on things like new groupsets, tapered fork headsets etc. Keen pricing but I am fully aware that they are not an internet shop so never expect a full price match to CRC or Wiggle, but the after care is fantastic. Some really lovely bits in the shop. I have seen them really work hard to accommodate even more difficult customers than me.