Impressed with Evans Cycles

gabriel959

Never bought from them before but managed to get some fantastic Specialized S-Works Road shoes a few weeks ago with a fantastic £50 discount. On their arrival I noticed that there were some small marks on them, nothing really major (probably a return?) so I emailed Evans and mentioned this, they came back to me, asked me for photos and I emailed them some.

Today they have sent me £35 of Evans Vouchers through the post. Well happy with this!

And they also do Price Match with Wiggle!

I can see me switching from Wiggle to them if they keep this kind of services/prices going on.

rjh299

Ordered pedals 10 days ago. Nothing arrived yet. No emails either. Gonna contact them today. Prefer wiggle definitely

peanut1978

Oredered a Northwave Jersey.

Wrong size arrived 4 days later.
Called them and then returned the item.
Didnt hear anything for 10 days.
Called to be told that the item was out of stock.
Asked for a refund.

Not very impressed.

furrag

On the 3 occasions I've used them the items have arrived within 2-3 days.

The price-match feature is brilliant too.

jfw

i ordered a bike jacket - after a week no sign so i rang up - oh we're waiting for stock should be with you end of next week

after another week - stil no word/sign - ring up again - still not come in - i cancelled the order as i actually needed a jacket and was going to have to get one elsewhere

if i compare this to wiggle they tell me which bits of my order are in stock and/or have been dispatched, and which they are waiting for.

i think if its immediately in stock with evans your ok - but if it isn't you're in the dark.

furrag

8 days later, I'm still waiting for my Ice Toolz toolkit which they price matched for £32.

I wish I had never previously posted!

weapons

I ordered a lock to be shipped to my local store which was "in stock" at the time of ordering. Exactly a month later and about 6 or 7 chaser phone calls later I'm still waiting. The excuses of "we need to order it in from another branch" and "we're expecting a delivery from our suppliers next week" are beginning to wear thin so I'm giving them till the end of the week to sort it. I've also been promised updates calls on four separate occasions but not once have I received one.

The trouble seems to be their system at customer services seems to be a different one to the ordering system so they have no idea where orders are and rely on chasing other departments up. How the biggest bike chain in the country has such an archaic system is beyond me.

This is my first ever issue with Evans - I've previously ordered loads online with them and never once a problem so hopefully they'll come good and sort it out in the end.

glauciaregina9

To be fair, regarding delivery times, the Evans website states:

In-stock items are usually delivered within 3-5 working days for clothing and accessories, and 5-7 working days for bikes and other large orders.

Note: usually

They don't claim to guarantee delivery within a certain number of days or anything like that. Therefore, you can't really complain about something that was never agreed or promised in the first place?!


Right, I'll take my devils advocate hat off now


I do agree though, from reading the previous posts, Evans delivery times don't seem to be consistent or always compare well to other online shops... and unfortunately poor communication would just compound the problem...

weapons

glauciaregina9 wrote:

To be fair, regarding delivery times, the Evans website states:

In-stock items are usually delivered within 3-5 working days for clothing and accessories, and 5-7 working days for bikes and other large orders.

Note: usually

Fair enough, I appreciate no guarantee is given, but as they have already debited my bank account, I would expect delivery of a product to be within a "reasonable" time frame and I think 2-3 weeks would be generous. Waiting a month is pushing it...compounded by the fact that had I not chased several times, I probably would have been left in the dark.

glauciaregina9

weapons wrote:

glauciaregina9 wrote:

To be fair, regarding delivery times, the Evans website states:

In-stock items are usually delivered within 3-5 working days for clothing and accessories, and 5-7 working days for bikes and other large orders.

Note: usually

Fair enough, I appreciate no guarantee is given, but as they have already debited my bank account, I would expect delivery of a product to be within a "reasonable" time frame and I think 2-3 weeks would be generous. Waiting a month is pushing it...compounded by the fact that had I not chased several times, I probably would have been left in the dark.

Agreed, in this instance there's plenty of scope for serivce improvement. To put it politely

What surprised and concerned me most about your situation is that the money has been taken out of your account before anything's been despatched. In addition to being wrong, this has just made the whole thing more complicated to reverse.

The worst thing any retailer can do for customer relations is take money without suppyling goods, even if they do (eventually) refund it...

ellie.velo

Have ordered from Evans a few times before, but last order was a bike and helmet- neither turned up.

The bike we had to chase numerous times- eventually got it delivered. We were told they've had a few problems with their new delivery people (they insisted they'd attempted to deliver the bike when my partner was home all day and had left a card).

Helmet took 3 weeks of chasing & us buying a cheap one (for the kid)- they sent out another which turned up 2 days later. Also had to demand compensation due to the buying of the new helmet, they said we could return the one we'd ordered for a refund- hassle of going to a post office and its the helmet we wanted, not a £10 one from Halfords.

All contact was made from us to them. Not impressed.

SparkyP

Never had any issues with any order from Evans.When somethin gdoes not suit(Even on sale) you can drop it back at your local shop for a full refund with no questions

Abdoujaparov

They fitted a new cassette on my bike but didn't leave enough roon between it and the mech. I was doing about 20mph when the mech ripped off and into the spokes, locking my back wheel up and causing a 10 metre skid and almost an accident. Managed to stay upright, clip out and get my feet down, but could have been nasty. Not impressed.

weapons

SparkyP wrote:

Never had any issues with any order from Evans.When somethin gdoes not suit(Even on sale) you can drop it back at your local shop for a full refund with no questions

That's all well and good once you've got the product!

CamR

I Have canceled my last three orders from Evans and do not intend to use them again:

1st Order was supposedly in stock when ordered but turned out to be out of stock

2nd Order, I received the wrong item

3rd Order, 7 -10 day delivery turned into 6 week delivery and they never thought to tell me.

Customer Service on the phone were helpful when you did eventually get through but their lack of order status communication for people placing web orders was very frustrating and I had to do all the chasing.

Wiggle are easier to deal with and there are also many smaller companies out there who can be cheaper than the big boys.

Cam

Alumin-Liam

I hate Evans, they've just taken over my LBS in Brentford. It used to be excellent, if a little too Trek oriented. I went in today for rim tape, and the kid who served me had never heard of it, tried to sell me bar tape!

£25 for rim tape and 4 inner tubes is very expensive when the staff don't know what they're doing!

Now I've got 2 Evans shops and a Halfords and no LBS

furrag

Evans are doing the 700c Specialized inner-tubes online for £1.99; I received them very quickly!

I sent them an email to complain about the delivery time and lack of update. I got an automated email response with another bloody reference number and a 24 hour response guarantee. That was on Thursday morning... :roll:

All The Gears

Must admit,used the voucher code the other week that someone on the forum asked about,I think it may have been you Gabriel959,forgot to say thanks at the time,but saying it now ?

Anyway,I got 25% off a pair of Assos Mille bibshorts and got them for £116.....bargain !
They arrived 2 days later,great service.
Not always the cheapest,but they do price match.

louise148

I waited two and a half weeks for a multitool that was in stock on the website. Had to chase them to get it. Not impressed, probably won't use them again.

furrag

18 days on, and I'm told early July is when they expect more stock. In the meantime, I should be satisfied that they're apparently doing everything they can to source it from another store...

giant_man

I tend to stay away from Evans for reasons like these. Just box shifters.

Support your local LBS, they will look after you in the long run.

SLX01

Evans are a waste of space in my experience. I was trying to purchase a Cnnondale via the bike to work scheme and waited 3 weeks for the bike to come into stock only to be told it was discontinued. They took a week to answer an email on the subject and I finally bought another bike. 3 weeks later the alledged discontinued Cannondale is back in stock!!
I tried to buy a pair of shoes only to be told they only had one pair in stock because it was the weekend and stock usually sells out by the end of the week? Surely most people shop at the weekend so why have no stock.....crazy!
The staff on the whole are clueless student types with little product knowledge.
I now shop locally at Sigma sport who are not cheap by any means but are VERY knowledgable and use Wiggle online who have been faultless in service.

bilirubin

I went into Evans Mortimer Street branch last week looking to spend £1,000 from my ride to work voucher, stood in the shop for 10 mins looking at the bikes getting completely ignored and finally when when a member of staff did talk to me it became clear very quickly that I knew more about bikes than they did.

Finished up in my local shop and spent £980.00 on a new Giant defy 2, a pair of clipless pedals and a new pair of shoes, happy days.

MrJim007

Ordered a bike from them which didnt show up for 2 months, the day of the delivery I went into the store to collect to be told they didnt have it and no sign of it on their system!!! Hopeless!! And like some of the other posters I was the one doing all the chasing!
Ordered from Wiggle instead, cheaper and arrived in four days!

weapons

weapons wrote:

I ordered a lock to be shipped to my local store which was "in stock" at the time of ordering. Exactly a month later and about 6 or 7 chaser phone calls later I'm still waiting. The excuses of "we need to order it in from another branch" and "we're expecting a delivery from our suppliers next week" are beginning to wear thin so I'm giving them till the end of the week to sort it. I've also been promised updates calls on four separate occasions but not once have I received one.

The trouble seems to be their system at customer services seems to be a different one to the ordering system so they have no idea where orders are and rely on chasing other departments up. How the biggest bike chain in the country has such an archaic system is beyond me.

This is my first ever issue with Evans - I've previously ordered loads online with them and never once a problem so hopefully they'll come good and sort it out in the end.

Just to follow up my case, I rang Evans on 23rd June, ready to give up (5 weeks after orginally ordering) but just my luck that I spoke to the first useful person I have dealt with at the call centre. He called the Wandsworth store who managed to find one they had in stock in their back room (not one they had shipped in for me I don't believe) which I was able to collect.

I have since written to customer services and their MD, Michael Rice on 25th June informing them of the poor service I received, asking for an explanation. I have also sent them a link to this forum thread highlighting that mine is clearly not an isolated case. Hopefully they'll be courteous enough to reply so will keep you updated.

dombo6

I have only ever had good experiences with them:

Mail order recently - bibshorts arrived within 24 hours

Bought my son a mtb in their sale earlier this year. Last one in stock at the Gatwick branch but it had a small scratch on the paintwork. Not only did the mechanic touch up the scratch but they gave me another £20 off.

Finally, my Kona mtb developed a crack in the frame at the rear shock mounting point. This was in Sept 2003 on a bike bought from Croydon branch in Jan 2000. In less than 2 weeks the shop had stripped the bike, received an upgraded replacement frame from Kona and rebuilt the bike. There was no charge for labour. That deserved a letter of thanks to the MD, which I duly sent.

guttertrash

Paid for priority delivery on my last two orders from Evans, and both of them took longer than their 2 working days maximum promise. Ordered on morning of 30th June with priority delivery, and its still not turned up. Emailed them and its not even left their warehouse yet.... priority delivery my arse. Won't be using them again.

weapons

Credit where credit's due, after an abysmal shopping experience, Evans have come good. After writing in to the MD, I received a call from the customer services manager a week later, who wanted to talk to me about my experience so she could improve the training for the call centre staff. It's encouraging to see a big company actually take note and make changes to improve the service we receive.

Along with some complementary gift vouchers, my confidence in Evans has been restored. Though I may be spending them instore rather than online still!

Thomsonp811

I have bought from evans a few times. Online they were fine, right item, arrived quickly for shops price. However from what I have rea here I was lucky!! So for online stick with wiggle.

In store I have only used the Bristol branch but they were excellent, friendly, knowledgable an efficient. Couldn't praise them highly enough!!

BTw I hate chains like this normally. Evans in Bristol has just massively impressed me!