what was your best customer service ever?

Anonymous

i might need to change the outer sleeve on one of my joplins to a 31.6 (its 30.9 at the mo) so i got in comms with 2pure who are the importers for the joplin.

i got an email back this morning (after emailing late yesterday evening) to say a new one would be 28 quid, which i reckon is fair enough.

however, they offered a free one from the spares bin if i didnt mind a used or blemished one instead.

i reckon thats pretty cool.

Anonymous

I phoned up a manufacturer of studio equipment once, to try and get hold of a replacement fader, and how much it would cost.
They decided to send me a dozen of them for free, to show good will, since they should never fail in normal use

ddraver

I ve cracked 2 Hope Pro II hub shells an they ve rebuilt the whole wheel with a new hub and new bearings every time for free, even though some of the spokes were broken...

Endura replaced a pair of singletrack shorts because I'd lost the little waist buckle

Very Happy with both and have bought many more of their things - Altura and Middleburn take note!

Anonymous

sheepsteeth wrote:

i might need to change the outer sleeve on one of my joplins to a 31.6 (its 30.9 at the mo) so i got in comms with 2pure who are the importers for the joplin.

i got an email back this morning (after emailing late yesterday evening) to say a new one would be 28 quid, which i reckon is fair enough.

however, they offered a free one from the spares bin if i didnt mind a used or blemished one instead.

i reckon thats pretty cool.

That dose sound like bloody good service. I'd be interested to see the email you sent. I bet you were polite and to the point.

What people forget is companies and people who work in customer service are humans too.

Moan, winge, pass blame or generally make your self seem like a ass (even if you have a point) and you won't get very far.

Be a nice customer and you'll get good customer service. Act like a cnut and you'll get treated like one.

Northwind

I tend to look at warranty stories and think good service would be makign shorts that don't fall apart or hubs that don't crack in half. People get exactly what they should be able to expect in those situations and act like it's something special. it's good that companies stand behind their products but it's also nothing to make much of a song and dance about IMO.

Many Endura customers know the warranty is good after having their Humvees fall apart several times frinstance (mate of mine is on his 4th pair!), I have no idea what the Altura warranty is like because none of their kit has ever fallen apart on me. But it's Endura that get the rep for good customer service even though their kit is ropey.

So I'm going to say the best customer service i've had is from Altura, Fox, and Cotic, all of whom have made products that just work and never needed to be returned and replaced.

But as for this whole "so and so company made a dodgy product and honoured their warranty" thing I'll nominate Halfords- I got a used Carrera Kraken, and shortly after the freehub failed. Took it into the shop, they clocked the bike and knew it was that year's model so never even asked for receipts, just went direct to warranty replacement. They asked "When do you need the bike", I said "Next week", so instead of waiting for the parts they stole a complete new wheel off a display bike and gave it to me. That's damn fine.

ddraver

Well fair point Northwind but we like fancy light parts us MTBers don't we, plus the last hub I sent back had 3 broken spokes and was 2yrs old so they could well have told me to stuff off...

Unfortunatly My Altura waterproof 3/4 Shorts have fallen apart completely in 6 months and I can't get a peep out of them....

Don't own any fox but My cotic...umm...has nt snapped yet!

Anonymous

RichardSwt wrote:

Act like a cnut and you'll get treated like one.

I've been acting like a cnut for some time, and I still haven't been fingered. So yah boo sucks to you, your theory is nonsense

Anonymous

Northwind wrote:

blah blah moany blah

Thing is though, it's incredibly rare to get a zero failure rate on anything, no matter what it is.
Dealing with those failures involves a lot of communication between a company and it's customer/client, and if that service is good, that person is more likely to use them again.

And, it's not always about failures. Take Sheep's example, he just needed to change something. They didn't have to offer him that at all.

Your opinion of it is like saying that your T-shirts would be a better form of armour for military troops, because you've never died from a bullet wound, whereas troops HAVE died, regardless of wearing a flak jacket.

Northwind

No, my opinion is like saying giving troops good armour is better than giving them rubbish armour and really good compensation packages I'm not looking for zero failure rates, just decent quality. Anything can fail but not many things will fail and be replaced 4 times under typical use.

Sheeps's example IS very good service and well worth applauding. Freeborn taking apart a £350 wheelset for spares because they couldn't get them from Specialized is another one (sorry Freeborn, forgot about that, it was ace though). My Halfords example, not just doing the warranty replacement but going way beyond that. Things like this, they're all great service. Just honouring a warranty- which after all the customer has paid for- is just doing the right thing. And when it's a known defect like Pro 2s cracking, well...

Anonymous

it pains me but i agree with northwind.

the joplin isnt damaged or faulty, just the wrng size for the replacement frame i am buying so its mega that a new sleeve is on its way for nowt as a good will kind of thing.

i was going to quote spesh as a good service thing with my old e150 fork as they gave me a 2 yr warranty as opposed to the usual 5 yr one as i was a 2nd owner even though there was no requirement for them to do so. thing is though, even though they gave me a warranty and fixed the fork within a day and returned it fully upgraded and factory fresh: it shouldnt have failed.

as it happens, i think it was superb customer service but not as good as 2pure who had no reason to be so generous as the product they had supplied wasnt faulty.

Anonymous

Well, you're asking for good customer service stories though, and that's a different factor to good products.

Bar Shaker

My dealings with Oakley have been superb. I have broken goggle lenses and sent them in so they can match and sell me replacements. They have sent replacements to me free of charge, with a note apologising for them breaking. I now only buy Oakley eye wear.

Anonymous

They did NOTHING for me when I accidentally dropped a set of eye jackets into the Menai Straight :evil:

GhallTN6

Dropped my light, the button broke.. so it was near on impossible to turn on etc.

Sent it back to Exposure, left it for three days, thought I'd give them a ring, but the wife phoned first to say it had been sent back, when I got back home it was all good to go.

Thing is, I'd had it two years, it was my fault I broke it, and it was out of warranty, now that is good service.

GhallTN6

I'll also mention Dave at bikegoo.com

Seal service on my forks, service and bleed my brakes, plus pick up and drop the bike off, all for 40 quid, the brakes are better than new, and the forks are super smooth.

Now that is service.

Mark_K

I lost the clamp lever on my hope vision2 lights and rang hope asked if i could buy a new clamp to get the bits i'd lost and they said no........."we don't charge our customers for things like that whats your address ?" sure enough first thing the next day a envelope dropped through my door with 2 complete clamps and a note saying here's a spare in case you lose anouther :shock: VERY GOOD SERVICE imo

BorisSpencer

Broke my Garmin Geko, just outside it's warranty.
It was in my pocket and I landed full on it against a tree.
I'd taken it apart as it was out of warranty to have a look, the case screws had bent from the impact and although the screen hadn't broken the innards were a right mess.
Sent it back to Garmin UK with a note asking if it could be repaired, got a new one by return FOC. They've guaranteed my loyalty.

alfablue

1)
My VDO analogue cycle computer packed up after 8 years. I sent it back to VDO in Germany, not even asking for a replacement. A week later I received a new computer, digital, top of the range and a letter apologising that my original one had been discontinued! They offer a standard 5 year warranty - they went to 8 years for me

2)
Bought a SciCon seat bag (a tiny thing with a neat fixing system). I wanted a fitting for my other bike too, I emailed them in Italy and asked if I could buy one, they asked for my address, a second fitting arrived in a week, free of charge.

3)
Sealskinz gloves, leaked after 3 years, sent them back to Sealskinz, new pair received the next week.

Moral of the story: you don't ask, you don't get; there are plenty of companies that will serve you brilliantly if you let them (and put some others to shame).

52Teeth

A friend of mine once paid for a massage on an exclusive Thai beach, towards the end of the massage the lady asked if he would like a complimentary 'happy ending'.
Now thats customer service!

pastasauce

1. On One sent my pompino on the Monday and the next day i got an email from the courier saying it would be delivered between 1417 and 1517. It arrived at 1515 !

2. Suspect my Park Tools chain checker had a bent pin so emailed them direct. A new one arrived from the US in less than a week in a priority mail bag.

That balances out the bad experiences in my books ....

sparrowlegs78

I sent an Email to Hi5 asking for info on local sellers of their energy products as I just wanted to see if my guts liked it, they asked me what I wanted to try, so I told them and they sent me a bag of samples of all their energy and isotonic drinks...they have my custom now
Caz xx

mr joey

bought a marin attack frame of my mate ended up snapping it but the shop he got it from still warantied me the frame and got the next years frame wich i thought was bob on

Anonymous

mr joey wrote:

bought a marin attack frame of my mate ended up snapping it but the shop he got it from still warantied me the frame and got the next years frame wich i thought was bob on

I had a very similar dealing with them when I snapped the swingarm on my old wolf ridge. It was in a bad crash, and this was evident from the damage, but it was replaced, next day, no questions asked. They didn't even want to know if I was the original owner.

Lapierre t 400

on one are really good,ordered on the wednesday and it arrived at 9.00 en the morning on the thursday

Anonymous

I sent a email to Ribble this morning at 8am and got a reply back at 9:15am.

That's pretty good, was surprised, people complain about Ribble, so far I like them.

Alex

The thing that sticks out for me, amongst all the dealings with distros and manufacturers, all of whom have complied fully with their warranty obligations as required in law, is my dealings with Lumicycle.

I had an original set of the Halogen Lumis, with the original battery bag. This original battery bag was confirmed to be a pain in the arse to strap to your frame and was replaced by a velcro bag that was dead easy to attach.

So off I trot to see Lumi at a Dusk til Dawn event, cash in hand to replace my fully functioning, but awkward battery bag.

"Can I have a new battery bag to replace the awkward old one please?" says I.

"Let's have a look" says Mr Lumi as I hand over the battery & bag.

"Oh, yes, these are a bit rubbish, have a new battery bag"

"What do I owe you?" says I

"Don't worry about it, we should've designed it like this in the first place"

Conclusion: Lumi are nice people.

kinelljohn

Ordered a pizza for 8pm on hols last week in the S of France.
Waited at the secure entry to the residence from 8 'till 8:20.
Returned to the residence and phoned and the reply was "very sorry we forgot. We will do something special for you".
Ten minutes later an open top 2 seater sports car (z3 perhaps) skids to a stop smelling very hot, guy jumps out over the door with the biggest pizza you can imagine and the driver gets out normally and hands the wife a bottle of wine by way of apology. 8)
Nack all about bikes I know but everything about customer service. Just wanted to share it with you

Anonymous

A smelly, hot guy jumped out of the car you said?
Did they re-capture him?

cycle monster

To be honest it is the service from my LBS for the last two years. They have taken my bike in and sorted numerous problems/additions/adjustments same day (and without charge) despite a fairly constant two week waiting list, never sold me the expensive thing I went in for when i didn't need it and actually refused selling me something I didn't need at all and showed me how to do the job without the tools in question.

Tolk

Bought some pads from Superstar, told them it was my Birthday (it actually was) and they sent me loads of haribo and some stickers! Doesn't cost them a lot, but it's always nice!

cycle monster

Don't mention the Haribos on here. It seems that historically some have always received them whilst others haven't. Terrible sweet envy lives here. There are also people who travel all the way to the south of France to order takeaway pizza and complain when it is ten minutes late regardless of time difference! .