Evans Cycles

We did charge a pound for air though.

This seems harsh.

If the windows open its not even your air they're breathing.

Bottom line in this latest locking rant is a shop floor bod who is not a trained mechanic took the wheel into the w/shop and bodged it with inappropriate tools and the wanted to charge the min labour fee, this fee is for when a trained mechanic performs work.

This was a piss take and IMO the OP did right!

Shop assistant should have quoted a price first

At the end of they day they provided you with a service and are completely justified in charging you for it.

Granted, the price should have been discussed beforehand, and they should have done it properly with a lockring tool, and the labour charge was steep

Your second sentence negates your first.

He came back out about a minute later with the lockring tightened. I said thank you and was all prepared to leave the shop when he told me he had tightened it with a screwdriver and hammer. I was annoyed because it's potentially damaging for the lockring, but I ignored it, and again started to leave.

He then said to me 'that'll be £11.50 please". Thinking it was some vain attempt at humor I asked him if he was joking, to which he replied "no" and continued to fiddle with the cash register.

I don't wish to argue the toss but OP was "all prepared to leave" before finding out exactly how the lockring was tightened. If a proper job had been done with the correct tools, would you still have been upset to have been charged?

Chap at my work got Evans to fit a load of SRAM Red to his road bike, picked it up last week and the gears at the back shifted up the cassette, but not down it.

Maybe they thought he was going hill climbing?

Anyway, as everyone has said, service at Evans varies massively, why not avoid 'customer service roulette' and go to a good independent bike shop. YMMV but personally I'm not taking the risk of crap customer service or bodged mechanical work.

my local evans lent me a bottom bracket tool and let me use a workstand that was empty. then when it wouldn't go in properly the mechanic chased and faced it for free, took a good 15 minutes.

helps if you have a friend who works on the shop floor

Fucking hell. If I worked in Evans I'd be rude too.

Yes, this happens everyday, in shops and businesses all over the world. Customers just pay for what they receive, either before or having received it, whether a service or in tangible goods.

Apart from you, cos you're a special case, and you get stuff for free normally, cos the shop is blessed by your presence, and lucky to have within the space it pays for, and the people who need to be paid to work there learn stuff from you that helps them in the future. So it should be done for you for nothing. I'm amazed they didn't try to slip you a tenner for needing their services when you did. You really helped them by turning up in what is called, in wanker speak, a "distress purchase environment". You needed them, they helped you, and you walked out.

Maybe everyone is like you. Let's hope not, because every shop you walk into will have a hand written sign saying "Sorry, closed due to bankruptcy." So no food, no things, and no services forthcoming at all. And a long, hungry walk back to your cold home the next time you need a lock ring tightened.

Go back tomorrow and pay them.

Bollocks, if someone used the incorrect tool to do some work, without informing me in the first place I wouldn't just be refusing to pay, I'd be asking to see a manager.

You go to a professional for a professional job, not to have a bodge job.

You're speaking out your arse.

Probably. We don't know the exact circumstances, and whether the minimum labour rates were advertised in the shop etc and I don't care. The Office of Fair Trading is there to protect consumers from rogue traders, and retailers against rogue consumers. Expecting something for nothing is not an approach that will work long term, but that doesn't exclude favours done by either side.

We don't know that the OP expected free labour, I would presume not, but he should expect a proper job and a quote. Ugh, why do I even post in these threads?

I think a more important questions is how can an Evans NOT have a lock ring tool and let someone bodge it with a hammer & screwdriver

They probably loaned it to another customer...

As it has been brought up multiiple times, I would like to clarify that, if done properly, I would have been perfectly happy to pay. But there was not even an implication of charge, and as it wasn't done properly, I felt I shouldn't be paying.

hahaha

"My name is hillbilly and I first tried Evans when I was 14. I've been a regular there ever since. I don't know why I go, I think it's the buzz I get each month when the envelope with my name on it arrives. I really want to quit but the withdrawals are horrible. Help me."

:-)

you dont sound like much of a hippy, instead like a dick

He isn't a hippy, it means he's got fat hips, and the word is cunt.

hippy's not a hippy?

Next you'll be telling me that Khornight2 is not a knight of Khorne. :(

Or that I'm not a...well, anyway.

I showed him the problem and he said he'd take it into his workshop and see what he could do.

He came back out about a minute later with the lockring tightened. I said thank you and was all prepared to leave the shop when he told me he had tightened it with a screwdriver and hammer.

He then said to me 'that'll be £11.50 please".

The bike is now, back home, with the lockring tightened properly by myself, with no noticeable damage.

Hang on! The mechanic didn't have the correct tools bet still managed to carry out the repair effectively and without any damage! He's not a bodger, he's a genius!!
Go back, pay him double and then have his children!

hippy's not a hippy?

Next you'll be telling me that Khornight2 is not a knight of Khorne. :(

And that Oliver isn't a stick.

If it makes you happier Oli:
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD"
#killseveryoneinthehouse

No he didn't carry out the repair, lock nuts have to be tightened to a certain torque which is something that will never happen with a screw driver and hammer, not to mention, it damages the teeth on the ring.
Also I think trying to charge for it is a little crazy, it something we do for free.

1 star thread.

Must try harder.

I mean there's no reason to disparage all Evans stores based on this experience, there are lots of other reasons to shit on Evans but I would say this isn't one of them. With that said though, doing something with the wrong tools, in a way that can damage the customer's property, without consulting them is very very shit customer service. A simple "hey buddy we can bodge it for you with an X and Y but we're not going to be able to do it properly right now" would suffice. And I definitely think not giving the customer a quote before doing something that is going to cost them money is abysmal. Tantamount to me helping an old lady across the street (cliche-est cliché I could think of), and then when we get to the other side being like "that's a fiver please". Obviously there are some differences due to a shop being a retail environment where money is commonly exchanged for goods and services, but still, I think my point still stands.
Basically uninformed consent is not consent, and the shop assistant didn't even ask for consent to do things in the way he did.
(I'm probably especially bitter cause Evans rejected my application and if their current employees are this silly, why won't they hire me!)

I think a more important questions is how can an Evans NOT have a lock ring tool and let someone bodge it with a hammer & screwdriver

You'd be surprised at the amount of shops that don't have lockring tools (for track hubs) either in the workshop and/or for sale.

Me: My BB is creaking really badly
Evans: 14 quid and we'll inspect it
Me: OK
Evans: Your BB needs replacing, we can do it in 5 weeks
Me: I'll take it elsewhere

Me: I think my BB needs replacing
bicyclemaintenancecompany: BB seems fine after a good clean 20 quid.
Me: thanks, works like a dream

I prefer the "we won't replace it unless it needs to be" approach of non evans shops.

"You'd be surprised at the amount of shops that don't have lockring tools (for track hubs) either in the workshop and/or for sale."

Florists and greengrocers maybe... I categorically refuse to believe that there is one single bikeshop in the UK without a bottom bracket/lockring tool at least in their workshop.