Evans Cycles - Worth a haggle?

richardfj

Hi, Wondering if anyone has had any success with haggling with Evans either by way of getting money off or bundled goodies?

I'll be spending approx £1800 with them (have some vouchers so no choice) but would like to get a deal but heard a few whispers that they can't/won't negotiate, is that a myth?

cheers

Gazzaputt

Not a myth.

invincible

they do have some scope for discount

when they couldnt supply the bike i wanted they offered me the triple at same price (£30 off) or next model up with £100 off plus if i fancied anthing diffference they would do discount

LazyLoki

Evans cycles run a saturday to saturday weekly sales target so if you're looking for a good discount your best bet is probably going in on a saturday afternoon when the manager will be trying to makes sales to hit his target.

They CAN discount almost as much as they want, don't let them bullshit you by saying that the computers or whatever wont allow it. Doesn't mean they will though. You shouldn't have any trouble getting 10% out of the normal sales staff but anything more will require manager approval. When it comes down to it, Evans work on around 65-100% mark up so don't feel bad about taking them to the cleaners if you get a chance.


(source: got a mate working for them at the moment)

rdt

Obviously, while negotiating do not tell them you'll be paying with vouchers that can only be spent there!

Be very enthusiastic about the product, and your very strong intention to purchase there and then, but stress that your funds are tight, such that you cannot afford the bike you want. Unless, that is, they give you a very hefty discount. And name a target price you want. And pick a target price that almost makes you cringe with embarrassment, such is the discount it implies. You can always agree to a lesser discount later, if you wish. But start out bold, be confident, and tell them politely what you want. None of this "I don't suppose you knock a bit off, could you?" defeatist stuff, that tells them you'll buy it anyway, regardless.

Good luck!

thesquireofbanwell

Have had a couple of 'price match' items from them in recent weeks with no hassle
whatsoever so they do appear to up for a haggle. What have you got to lose?

richa

What are you buying. Get them to pricematch.

http://www.evanscycles.com/help/price-promise

swissj

Keep an eye out for their A5 booklets that go in magazines etc

I had one sent to me in the post from them last year giving me 10% off my next purchase

It was beautifully timed cos I was about to buy a Felt AR4 and goodies

Should've cost me £2800, instead I got all the bits for £2520, result!

ratsbeyfus

The price match is great. I've just used it to get some guards - also on vouchers. I did the price match via the web, but made the purchase on the phone as they don't take the vouchers on the web.

Buckled_Rims

If you have a specific bike in mind, they'll be less discount because they may need to order it and they know that you'll willingly pay more for it. Best discounts are bikes in stock (sometimes with crap colours) you can buy immediately.

Evans know what bikes will sell and what wont but need to stock up with demos due to contracts with manufacturers.

As mentioned by LazyLoki, if it's a Sat-sat business and they have the bike already in stock, turn up late Saturday afternoon and that puts pressure on the sales team to agree a good bargain.

Don't mention vouchers until the deal is done

porker33

I never bought from them as they would only price match a deal i would get else where,,,,great, I would sooner give the business to the entity which lead on the price discounting.

chaffordred

I went into their new Lakeside store on a Saturday afternoon to buy a full Di2/dura ace groupset and a few other bits. I had a 10% discount voucher that I printed off their website. Even after speaking to the manager they said they couldn't accept it for Di2. With the 10% discount the total cost (somewhere around £2000) would have worked out around £20 cheaper than Wiggle. I asked them about price matching Wiggle, they said no. I asked about a discount for cycling club or BC members, they said they would be willing to do it, but I would need to get the club president to apply to the manager by letter and it could take a couple of weeks. I ended up ordering from Wiggle.

It seemed to me they were more interested in shifting a few bikes to make up the numbers than keeping potential long term customers. Not all, but most of the sales staff are clueless to anything technical. Evans = A glorified Halfords.

dmch2

I got my trek there last month (80 off as it was a 2010 model) and some other bits and bobs. I said if i get all the accessories can you do me a deal? and i got free pedals. it's only about 4% of the total but better than nothing.

Mr Dog

+1 Broken 'Price Promise'. Don't use them, plenty of the competion do it much better. 8)

thebigredone

When they messed up my order for a £999 (reduced from £1499) bike (BMC) back in April and the bike turned out to be no longer available, when I chased it up they immediately offered me another BMC that was originally priced at £2099. Didn't take it though as it was an out-and-out racer with a standard set-up and I wanted a more relaxed compact or triple. I got a brand new 2010 £1300 Felt for the £999 instead.

Canny Jock

I negotiated a wheel upgrade from Fulcrum Racing 7's to 3's, because somewhere else was doing it. That was on a 2.5k bike though.

richardfj

Thanks for the advice, very usefull..

for info I'm looking at (budget now £2k)

1 Colnago Ace 2010 £1699 (price matched to £1499 at CRC) and get some decent light wheels with the rest..(dura ace 7850 or shimano rs80?)

2. 2011 Cannondale Supersix 105 £1799 plus maybe some bits (computer etc )

3. 2011 Felt F4 £2200 - over my very very top budget by £200, unless they haggle? unlikely on a new bike tho?

Both the Cannondale and the Felt won't be here till Oct/Nov so will try and ride them both then and see what they have left on offer of 2010 bikes...

i'm torn between 2011 "new and super shiny" and 2010 "i do love a bargain!"

Canny Jock

I think 10% off is certainly possible - don't CTC members get this from Evans anyway?

nferrar

Unlikely to get anything off a 2011 complete bike although I would have thought some free accessories could be had. They seem a bit more desperate to shift 2010 bikes though, I did a ship to store a couple of weeks ago just to try the size (before potentially ordering on-line for the 30 day test ride) and they rang me up after saying they could do a good deal if I bought it from the store as they had old stock piling up they needed to shift.

Aggieboy

chaffordred wrote:

I went into their new Lakeside store on a Saturday afternoon to buy a full Di2/dura ace groupset and a few other bits. I had a 10% discount voucher that I printed off their website. Even after speaking to the manager they said they couldn't accept it for Di2. With the 10% discount the total cost (somewhere around £2000) would have worked out around £20 cheaper than Wiggle. I asked them about price matching Wiggle, they said no. I asked about a discount for cycling club or BC members, they said they would be willing to do it, but I would need to get the club president to apply to the manager by letter and it could take a couple of weeks. I ended up ordering from Wiggle.

It seemed to me they were more interested in shifting a few bikes to make up the numbers than keeping potential long term customers. Not all, but most of the sales staff are clueless to anything technical. Evans = A glorified Halfords.

As I occasionally buy bits from Evans and as a result of this post, I contacted them ( with a cut and paste of the post) re their policy. Here is the reply for those interested -

Dear Sir,

Thank you for contacting us, in relation to our ‘Price Promise’ policy, and discounts generally.

The full conditions relating to this policy can be found on our website at http://www.evanscycles.com/help/price-promise.

Evans Cycles recognise the importance of being competitive on price, and feel that our prices generally compare favourably with other retailers, but where this is not the case we are happy to offer our ‘Price Promise’ in order to give our customers the best possible deal.

As a company Evans Cycles do not currently stock DI2 as a complete groupset, although we can order it as a ‘Special Order.’

We would therefore not price-match on this product, as ‘Price Promise’ is only applicable on items we stock.

We do not offer discounts on ‘Special Order’ items because,when the man-hours required to process the order and postage are factored in, we do not make a profit on these transactions; this facility is provided as a service but I’m sure you can appreciate that as a business we cannot operate at a loss which would be the consequence of discounting such items.

We do stock the various parts of the DI2 system individually, and would happily price-match those, as long as the ‘Price Promise’ conditions were met.

In relation to the 10% discount voucher quoted, without knowing precisely which voucher the customer presented, it is hard for me to comment. Most of our vouchers are not redeemable against items that have already been discounted, and many of the DI2 components fall into this category and have already been discounted by more than 10%, and so most discount vouchers would not be applicable.

With club discounts, these are managed centrally by our Marketing department and any applications would be ideally sent in writing to our head-office address.

In relation to the view expressed about the ability of the staff, all our sales staff undergo an induction program, and ongoing professional development; the Lakeside branch of Evans Cycles is one of our newer stores and unfortunately, as I’m sure you can appreciate, it takes time for new staff to acquire the vast amount of technical knowledge required to effectively assist our customers, who encompass the full range of experience and disciplines.

I would like to reassure you that providing the highest level of customer service is our absolute priority, and that the team at the Lakeside branch are completely committed to providing a first-rate experience for customers, whether they are totally new to the sport, or an elite rider.

If I can assist you further in relation to this, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

John Ford-Smith, Customer Relations

Sammyw23

Centerparcs gave out a discount code for Evans Cycles for 10% off full price non-sale bikes which I used on my purchase in May. The code is CP10.

I emailed in advance to confirm that it could be used and took the email response into the store with me.

Got me £175.50 off my Bianchi Infinito though

giant_man

chaffordred wrote:

It seemed to me they were more interested in shifting a few bikes to make up the numbers than keeping potential long term customers. Not all, but most of the sales staff are clueless to anything technical. Evans = A glorified Halfords.

+1 - Basically that's Evans in a nutshell ...

neil69cyclist

giant mancp wrote:

chaffordred wrote:

It seemed to me they were more interested in shifting a few bikes to make up the numbers than keeping potential long term customers. Not all, but most of the sales staff are clueless to anything technical. Evans = A glorified Halfords.

+1 - Basically that's Evans in a nutshell ...

Bit harsh, I think Evans have about 800 members of staff and gotta say that if you are out there buying Di2 then you probably know more than most about bikes and I bet not many people could tell you much about bikes you didnt already know ....I have worked in bike shops as well as been a customer and I have been into some of 'the best' LBS in the country and had mixed knowledge especially across the broad spectrum of bikes from Mountain to road (could you tell me the correct settings for the sag on my XC full susser or tell me the benefits of Ortlieb panniers over Karriomors).

But as far as the haggling is concerned then if we want LBS or even bigger chains like Evans then we need to understand the business model of retail ....Web can sell at low margin as they just have a massive warehouse full of stuff and a team of people to pick and pack, they have a web front end that takes a smallish team to manage and they distribute through a national carrier network .....less margin required to make a profit

Bricks and Mortar - The cost of a building + Staff + stock + distribution + merchandising etc etc etc

But where would we be for a massive majority of the cycling fraternity of we couldnt go into a store and touch and feel.

Price match is pretty good and they obvioulsy do match to online guys and you still wanted to save and extra £20 on £2k purchase

giant_man

neil69cyclist wrote:

giant mancp wrote:

chaffordred wrote:

It seemed to me they were more interested in shifting a few bikes to make up the numbers than keeping potential long term customers. Not all, but most of the sales staff are clueless to anything technical. Evans = A glorified Halfords.

+1 - Basically that's Evans in a nutshell ...

Bit harsh, I think Evans have about 800 members of staff and gotta say that if you are out there buying Di2 then you probably know more than most about bikes and I bet not many people could tell you much about bikes you didnt already know ....I have worked in bike shops as well as been a customer and I have been into some of 'the best' LBS in the country and had mixed knowledge especially across the broad spectrum of bikes from Mountain to road (could you tell me the correct settings for the sag on my XC full susser or tell me the benefits of Ortlieb panniers over Karriomors).

But as far as the haggling is concerned then if we want LBS or even bigger chains like Evans then we need to understand the business model of retail ....Web can sell at low margin as they just have a massive warehouse full of stuff and a team of people to pick and pack, they have a web front end that takes a smallish team to manage and they distribute through a national carrier network .....less margin required to make a profit

Bricks and Mortar - The cost of a building + Staff + stock + distribution + merchandising etc etc etc

But where would we be for a massive majority of the cycling fraternity of we couldnt go into a store and touch and feel.

Price match is pretty good and they obvioulsy do match to online guys and you still wanted to save and extra £20 on £2k purchase

No mate, not harsh at all .....

neil69cyclist

very erudite reply Mancp !!!

Radioactiveman

Evans in kendal is good. Run by an experienced roadie/MTBer/fell runner.

I think unless you have been to every shop or have stats on all 800 shops it isn't possible to summarise Evans cycles in a single statement. Of course there will be sh1t stores,there are in every chain business. They are pretty well priced imo and you can haggle with them.