The LBS Story from start to finish

gb155

I have just uploaded the full tale of woe to my blog

http://gazzasblogs.blogspot.com/2009/07/complaint.html

NowI am considering sending it to Trek, Should I ? or should I just let it drop now ?

Its a pretty big read but I would appreciate your thoughts on this one.

Cheers

Feltup

I didn't know they sold Treks in Halfords

Not really sure what else to say apart from keep away from that shop they obviously don't know about bike maintenance or just don't care and hope that you don't know enough to question their authority. Either way it is very poor.

Whether Trek will care I don't know. Might be worth a try.

gb155

Feltup wrote:

I didn't know they sold Treks in Halfords

Not really sure what else to say apart from keep away from that shop they obviously don't know about bike maintenance or just don't care and hope that you don't know enough to question their authority. Either way it is very poor.

Whether Trek will care I don't know. Might be worth a try.

I suspect they wont, but feels better to get it out The shop in question isnt no back street place either.

Aidy

I'd name them, but maybe that's just me.

I'd send an email over to Trek, rather than just a link, just to see what their reaction is.
I'd hope they'd offer to look into it, at least.

This is sorta why I'd refuse to let a bike shop service my bike. At least if I'm going to bodge something into working, I know to expect it to be a bit iffy, and to replace it when I can.

Sounds like you had a set of poorly built wheels (amongst other things). Any good bike shop would have trued wheels on a bike and checked spoke tension before selling it.

Feltup

Doesn't do you any good to bottle it up! I find a lot of the time it just depends on the staff at that particular time. If you have one very good member of staff it can raise everyones game but if you lose that person then the whole place can slump.

gb155

Aidy wrote:

I'd name them, but maybe that's just me.

I'd send an email over to Trek, rather than just a link, just to see what their reaction is.
I'd hope they'd offer to look into it, at least.

This is sorta why I'd refuse to let a bike shop service my bike. At least if I'm going to bodge something into working, I know to expect it to be a bit iffy, and to replace it when I can.

Sounds like you had a set of poorly built wheels (amongst other things). Any good bike shop would have trued wheels on a bike and checked spoke tension before selling it.

I have been tempted, Maybe I should add something to the start, Im not sure sending it to Trek would do anything but as you say would be intresting to see what they have to say.

vorsprung

i just read your full story

1) You are fairly heavy. When wheels are factory built the spokes are often not tensioned enough to take the rated load of a particular rim/spoke combination. One of the jobs of a shop is to check the wheels before you ride it to see that they are nice and tight. If you had a loose spoke it would eventually break and then others would break too. This is fault of the shop

2) When you took the bike back to get the spokes fixed and the gears adjusted, this isn't a complicated job. But they did it wrong. The chain will only throw into the wheel if the gears are maladjusted. As it had just been done, this absolutely should not be the case. This is the fault of the shop.

3) Seeing as the shop sold you the 1.5" tyres with the bike in the first place it is entirely their fault if the tyres are unsuitable. Again, the shop is to blame

IANAL but I'd say take the bike back and insist on a full refund. They sold you a lemon. They failed to fix it under warrantee when you asked.

prawny

I'd email trek too, they are quite funny about who sells their bikes, you can't a current range (non-clearance) bike over the internets because they want the LBS to give good service. You never know they might be miffed!

Jamey

Hey Gaz,

It sounds to me like the problems you've had are at least partly down to poorly built (or at the very least poorly inspected) wheels.

I'm a big guy too (6'5'' and just shy of 20 stone) and I've had problems with stock wheels (ie the ones that came with the bike) before. I tried everything I could to get the problem fixed by the shop but in the end (thanks to another forum member from here) I decided to learn how to build my own wheels.

I didn't want to do it initially... I just thought "All I want to do is commute to work... Why should I have to fill my head with all this mechanical stuff just so I can ride to work?" But now that I've taken the time to learn I am very glad that I did.

The problem with buying wheels is that nobody running a business has enough time to spend on building and tensioning wheels properly, not as much time as you can take when doing it yourself anyway.

Commercial wheelbuilders need to earn their money by building a number of wheels per day, whereas you can flip it the other way around and take a number of days per wheel getting it right.

Plus you then know how to fix them in future and keep them true (which you shouldn't even need to do if they're built properly).

Anyway if you decide you want to know more Roger Musson's e-book (from wheelpro.co.uk) is a great read.

lost_in_thought

Gaz, I'd definitely send it to Trek, and if this shop is a chain of any kind, I'd find out who's in charge of marketing/sales for that chain and send it to them... and perhaps to a bike mag or two.

But then I'm a bit of a cow.

In other news, I sent a b*tchy email to Assos about their stupid shorts design, and have received a very apologetic response saying they've addressed one issue and if I send the old pair back they'll ship me a new pair by return.

So sometimes it's worth it.

alfablue

Ah, good news on the Assos front, can you tell me what the shorts issue was

(sorry, bit OT).

JonS123

Did'nt I read in another thread that this was brought via a C2W scheme? if so contact your HR dept or the scheme provider and see if they can offer any advice - I would guess they have a code of conduct with the retailers they use.

I don't get how they say you can have a bent chain? if it was bent surely it wouldnt get through the rear mech cage?

gb155

lost_in_thought wrote:

Gaz, I'd definitely send it to Trek, and if this shop is a chain of any kind, I'd find out who's in charge of marketing/sales for that chain and send it to them... and perhaps to a bike mag or two.

But then I'm a bit of a cow.

In other news, I sent a b*tchy email to Assos about their stupid shorts design, and have received a very apologetic response saying they've addressed one issue and if I send the old pair back they'll ship me a new pair by return.

So sometimes it's worth it.

I felt better after I has wrote that and was just gonna leave it but TBH I am gonna smooth the edges and send it to Trek, I dont want anything but god how many people might be put off cycling with an attitude like that ? Sorry sir your too fat for a £700 bike to hold your huge ass. Tis not on

Dave - The Shins are all yours

gb155

JonS123 wrote:

Did'nt I read in another thread that this was brought via a C2W scheme? if so contact your HR dept or the scheme provider and see if they can offer any advice - I would guess they have a code of conduct with the retailers they use.

I don't get how they say you can have a bent chain? if it was bent surely it wouldnt get through the rear mech cage?

To be honest I can do without being bikeless even in the short term.

and if it was bent why would it only slip in the upper most 2 gears and why after me pointing out the problems was it not spotted or spotted on pre delivery ?

gb155

Jamey wrote:

Hey Gaz,

It sounds to me like the problems you've had are at least partly down to poorly built (or at the very least poorly inspected) wheels.

I'm a big guy too (6'5'' and just shy of 20 stone) and I've had problems with stock wheels (ie the ones that came with the bike) before. I tried everything I could to get the problem fixed by the shop but in the end (thanks to another forum member from here) I decided to learn how to build my own wheels.

I didn't want to do it initially... I just thought "All I want to do is commute to work... Why should I have to fill my head with all this mechanical stuff just so I can ride to work?" But now that I've taken the time to learn I am very glad that I did.

The problem with buying wheels is that nobody running a business has enough time to spend on building and tensioning wheels properly, not as much time as you can take when doing it yourself anyway.

Commercial wheelbuilders need to earn their money by building a number of wheels per day, whereas you can flip it the other way around and take a number of days per wheel getting it right.

Plus you then know how to fix them in future and keep them true (which you shouldn't even need to do if they're built properly).

Anyway if you decide you want to know more Roger Musson's e-book (from wheelpro.co.uk) is a great read.

Its a good point, a friend at work told me it was a real pain to do but hey im in no rush