The Bike Shed, Merstone, Isle of Wight.

hoathy

Been meaning to post this for a while as a warning. I've been MTBing for a long time, and using local bike shops for a long time. Recently I used the Cycle to work scheme and went with a local shop (the bike shed, isle of wight), I ordered a Giant Defy 4, a Hope Headset, A pair of Altura Attack 3/4 Shorts, a front light, 2 locks, a camelbak mule, a multitool, a set of Park allen keys, 2 inner tubes.
When I ordered the bike, they had one in stock, in my size. a few weeks later I got my autherisation through, so I went in to collect my bike, to discover they wouldn't sell me the one they had, but wanted to order another one... Should take about a week right? Wrong! 1 week later they still hadn't ordered it! I was a bit pissed off. So, the next week, they have ordered it, but don't have it yet, the next week, on go in on friday and they have it but haven't put it together, so they say I can come back first thing on Saturday and they'll have done it. They haven't, so i come back again in the afternoon, and finally tey have done it! I also pick up the headset, multitool, light and both locks, I get home and hop on the bike to give it a raz around the block, and I find the sadlle isn't properly fitted, its loose!, then I notice one of the rear brake blocks is on at the wrong angle, looking more carefully i can see its just not been done up at all! So, I sort these problem and ride it, the gears aren't indexed! damn it! The hope headset is also missing some parts, so i have to take it back...
I still need some of the bits that they hadn't ordered until the week before (there was me thinking they'd have ordered them with the bike!) so, I take the bike with, as I'm damned if I'm indexing the gears on a new bike. So the guy takes in out the back and about 5 mins later, has he? pigs might fly!
I pick up the bits, the CB mule is a SCUDO! and my park allen keys are the wrong ones, and worst of all, the Altura Attacks are replaced with the nearly £50 cheaper Alltitudes (or something similar). I'm really annoyed now! Jeff ( the guy who runs the shop) trys to tell me I'm wrong, but then when I make him go and look at my original order, he decideds its someone elses fault and gets the zyro catalogue out and tells me theres no such thingas Attacks, i take the catalogue and find them in less than 5 seconds. I give him back the cheap shorts and he says "i'll never sell them in this size" as they are XL. I nearly tell him to go f**k himself, but I don't, I go back another week later and take the Attack shorts, but they aren't 3/4 length, they are normal length, so I take them, tell him what I though of his crap service in front of all 2 customers he has that day, and leave. Useless! Spectacular!

So avoid that shop like the plague. Or you might live to regret it....

boogercj

Crikey, that's a great rant! :twisted:

Now, I could bang on about how "well, you've just had a bad experience", but that's properly shocking. I don't think I'd ever go back there.

Why do shops do this?! When small, local businesses are being ditched in favour of big chain stores, it's only the ones that offer exemplary service and decent products that can be sure to survive, especially through the recession. :roll:

hoathy

yes, that turned out to be a rather longer monologue than i expected...

I am never going back these, I told the guy so at the time and I plan to stick to it. You might think I just had a bad experience, but since then I heard a friend took her son there to get a bike and let him test ride it without the stem/steerer bolts done up! and then didn't say sorry!

dunker

ride past there quite often coming off arreton down into godshill so that makes it my lbs, not that i've ever been in there yet as i get by with wiggle. merlin and crc but it's a shame to hear you had by the sounds of it awful service. hopefully they'll take on board what you said and try to improve. maybe they've been under-manned in the holiday season as i think they do bike hire? that's alot to service, still no excuse though.

hoathy

Possibly, and had Jeff ever at any point apologised for anything that he did wrong, then I'd be a little more forgiving, but he didn't... not once...

fwb2006

Eh? Have i just lost the ability to read??

hoathy

fwb2006 wrote:

Eh? Have i just lost the ability to read??

why?

canada16

Some guy wrote a bunch of swears and could not speak english so mods removed

fwb2006

I read his "sentence" about 4 times, couldn't decipher it..

canada16

Maybe he was deslexic. Is that how you spell it?

Something about someone being a fat wan%^&^er

fwb2006

And the word shoot about bezillion times. Brightened up my afternoon anyways.

scotto

ever heard of paragraphs?

canada16

scotto wrote:

ever heard of paragraphs?

?

scotto

canada16 wrote:

scotto wrote:

ever heard of paragraphs?

?

clearly not !!

canada16

What are you talking about mate? :?

The first post or the guy that left a stupid rant that got deleted.

hoathy

yeah, probably could have done more paragraphs there...

The Bike Shed

Without prejudice

An unhappy customer in 13 years ! And one that by his own admission that acted inappropriately by shouting out in the middle of the store to vent his frustration regarding the parts that he had incorrectly ordered. Quote ; 'tell him what I though of his crap service in front of all 2 customers he has that day, and leave'

Thanks for the opportunity to respond to a bizzare member who has posted 690 posts ..... get out riding more Mr perfect customer

hoathy

I didn't order incorrect parts, you did. I knew exactly what I wanted an I was quite clear. Incidentally I thought the service by the blonde guy who initially served me was pretty good, but when I strews having to deal with the owner it really tailed off. You're stores a joke. Unlucky.

cat_with_no_tail

I call shennanigans on the post by Bike Shed!

Why would any bike shop, good or bad, want to trawl up a 14month old thread just to have a pop at a guy who is clearly never going to shop there again?

:roll:

diy

Needs to learn what "without prejudice" means too..

There is nothing in the statement to prejudice and it certainly wouldn't protect either party from a defamation or damages claim.

hoathy

Update!

A friend of mine took her son to look at a bike at the bike shed, and allowed him to test ride it without the stem bolts done up! Safe! - and then didn't apologise. Nice work!

coxy17

the bike shop in newport is good i had a lenghthy discussion in their and they seem to be a good set of guys
i think its wight cycles check them out

hoathy

wight mountain, and they are very good.

hoathy

Update:
This terrible shop has now opened a branch in the old surf shop in Ryde! Avoid. There's a a decent shop higher up the town called TAV.

cooldad

First post in two years, and it's the same old sh1t. You seriously need to get a life.

cooldad

ps Since when has Liverpool been on the IOW?

hoathy

Thanks for your input.

cooldad

Anytime. Hope it helps.

chrisw333

I'm with CD here, you had bad service over 2 years ago. Trying to kybosh their new store this long after is a bit petty and in my view out of order. Just let it go.

hoathy

You weren't there man! This is the sorta stuff that scars you.

97th choice

Move on and stop living in the past, complaining about poor service at the time is one thing, dredging up old topics to slag of a shop is a bit sad, they may have half a dozen fully cytech trained staff by now.

Inactive topics should really be locked to avoid this crap.n