Evans Safety Issues

squidgee

Evans Cycles, has anyone else had any safety issues with Evans. Recently purchased a Specialized Expedition for my daughter, they set it up and when she rode it they had not set the handlebar stem correctly and she nearly crashed as it came loose, took it back they re set it and again it happened, they are saying I tampered with it. Guildford store manager, customer services manager and CEO have just blown me off.
Did get a full re fund but just wanted everyone to know their mechanics are useless and non of the management have any integrity.

squidgee

Evans Cycles, has anyone else had any safety issues with Evans. Recently purchased a Specialized Expedition for my daughter, they set it up and when she rode it they had not set the handlebar stem correctly and she nearly crashed as it came loose, took it back they re set it and again it happened, they are saying I tampered with it. Guildford store manager, customer services manager and CEO have just blown me off.
Did get a full re fund but just wanted everyone to know their mechanics are useless and non of the management have any integrity. :x

alihisgreat

.. so you got a full refund?

Where is the issue here? Do you want to see heads roll? Perhaps the CEO should resign?

thistle_

It could also be a faulty part rather than constant poor workmanship.

When I bought my bike the bracket that connected the seat post the saddle wouldn't stay tight. I was tightening it as tight as possible and putting threadlock on the bolts and the saddle would still twist mid ride (and because it was done up so tight, I couldn't undo it on the trail to fix it!) I bought a new seatpost, tightened the clamp to something reasonable and it's never come loose in 2 years.

squidgee wrote:

Guildford store manager, customer services manager and CEO have just blown me off.

:roll:

Davsy

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

It could also be a faulty part rather than constant poor workmanship.

When I bought my bike the bracket that connected the seat post the saddle wouldn't stay tight. I was tightening it as tight as possible and putting threadlock on the bolts and the saddle would still twist mid ride (and because it was done up so tight, I couldn't undo it on the trail to fix it!) I bought a new seatpost, tightened the clamp to something reasonable and it's never come loose in 2 years.

squidgee wrote:

Guildford store manager, customer services manager and CEO have just blown me off.

:roll:

It's a bit of a sad state of affairs if there were some kind of fault for the staff/managers/CEO to accuse a customer of tampering before thoroughly checking this out though...

sungod

if true, the issue is clear, the bike was in a dangerous state, someone could have been injured or killed

dangerous incompetence isn't corrected by a refund, at minimum it needs some urgent training and monitoring to prevent a repeat

t.m.h.n.e.t

You got your money back,freely able to go elsewhere and spend it. Yet you still seek what?

PS: There was no need to duplicate this topic elsewhere.

nunowoolmez

Jeez, some people on these forums confuse me. A couple of the comments above leave no constructive advice or opinion, they appear to be just breaking the OP's balls for no reason. There really is no need to leave unhelpful comments, if this is your sole intention, it is sad. It leaves me thinking that you intentially trawl these forums to leave disparaging remarks about whichever topic or OP you like.

The OP was discussing a valid point, where his daughter could have succumbed to serious injury or worse. Yet you still decide to mock him. Pathetic, really really pathetic. Grow the feck up or get lost.

OP. you are totally right to feel aggrieved. Evans are notoriously rubbish. Avoid in future! Hope your daughter hasn't lost any confidence in cycling. Good luck!

CiB

Evans are so variable it's pot-luck whether you get a good or bad version. The Reading and Hendon branches are both pretty good IME yet my local one seems keen to employ only semi-trained baboons that have the customer service skills of a retarded snail. Evans as a group are neither good or bad; they just display all ranges of abilities and scales of enthusiasm. Who you get on the day you in is mostly down to luck, good or bad.

charliew87

I've had some positive experiences with Evans Guildford recently, sounds like a bit of bad luck on your part.

ugo.santalucia

Evans is a boutique shop, where you see more clothing than bikes. When you see carpet fitted in a bike shop, you already know there is something wrong. In a company of that size, all they care about is certificates and ticking boxes... I am sure they will tell you their mechanics have Cytech 2 and they have been trained and certified and blah blah blah... incidentally I was in Evans at London Bridge the other morning. A guy walks in with a punctured tyre... they booked him in for the following week... very helpful. I felt like fixing his puncture, but I didn't have anything with me. The shop employee did look more like a front of house than someone who should be seen in a bike shop.
I normally steer clear of Evans and the likes, but it was the only shop open at 8.30 in the morning

Monty Dog

$hit happens and nobody was hurt or injured - the OP gets a refund and should put it down to experience. Sounds like the OP was seeking to make some sort of spurious claim on Evans and rightly so got the brush-off. Accepting that Evans might have a training issue, but their response needs to be proportionate to what actually happened.
If I'd sued myself everytime I'd forgotten to to tighten a screw or bolt on my bike before I'd ridden it, I'd be a poor man!

bottom_bracket

squidgee wrote:

Guildford store manager, customer services manager and CEO have just blown me off.

I'd call that exceptional customer service. Now what time are the buses to Guildford?

BillyMansell

nunowoolmez wrote:

Jeez, some people on these forums confuse me. A couple of the comments above leave no constructive advice or opinion, they appear to be just breaking the OP's balls for no reason. There really is no need to leave unhelpful comments, if this is your sole intention, it is sad. It leaves me thinking that you intentially trawl these forums to leave disparaging remarks about whichever topic or OP you like.

The sole purpose of the OP in joining the forums was to leave disparaging comments about a retailer. The OP has since contributed nothing to the forums so deserves the ire of the boards for what is yet another 'I blame Wiggle' thread.

As with many blame Wiggle threads, we hear nothing of the responsibility of the consumer to maintain their bike(s). If the part had failed when their daughter rode the bike the first time why did they wait to let it happen again? It wasn't an immediate failure so any problems could have been rectified through regular checks and basic maintenance, neither of which the OP suggested they did for the safety of their daughter.

As for the attitude of the Evans staff, we only have the unbalanced view of the OP to suggest that he was treated in that way. The OP has received a full refund so Evans have been fair in this case.

cougie

Bit harsh to say their mechanics are useless.

Someone cocked up on this one incident. Nobody is perfect. No harm done. Refund given. Move on.

Even the best mechanic in the LBS will miss something one day.

markp80

What strikes me from the original post is that this happened not once but twice, the second time being after the bike was there for the specific purpose of having this problem addressed. The OP may not be technical but should be able to true in the skills of the shop technician.

If it were me, I would be looking for Evans to take seriously the fact that something has gone badly wrong. That isn't fixed by a refund. Future serious accidents are prevented by taking action when you hav a near miss. So no, I wouldn't personally want to see disciplinary action but I would want someone to acknowledge there was a training issue and demonstrate they were going to do something about it. Hiding behind statements that staff are trained to level x serves no purpose and nor does sweeping it under the carpet by giving a refund.

I certainly dont want to point a finger at the specific bike shop involved and i have no personal experience of them. However i do have strong views on safety and accident prevention. How would anyone feel if this had killed someone? Or worse, if the technician isn't given further training makes the same mistake and an accident happens with more serious consequences next time?

Cheers,
MarkP

mikebikemike

I thought this thread was going to be about taking on Wiggins and Froome in the Alps

JonnyJH

I bought my first road bike from Evans in Gatwick about 6 weeks ago now. Quality of service really does seem to vary by HUGE amounts depending on who you deal with.
I booked it in for its first (free) service start of the week and told the guy that it wasn’t changing gear properly and wouldn’t even go in the last three rings on the cassette. His immediate response... “Ahh well, that’s probably because you crashed it and bent the mech” needless to say I was less than happy with that answer and made sure he knew it!
So anyway, dropped it off on Wednesday and told a different bloke about the problem, he said will make a note of it.
Picked it up today and changes like a dream, breaks all nicely adjusted and even re-did the masking tape like stuff on the bars that was coming a bit loose. All in all no complaints, today........

Gavcb

My personal experience of evans is that they're sh1t. I paid for their top end service (inc chain check) a few months back, not only did it take several days longer than promised "we've got a couple of people on holiday" I had further problems a few weeks later and took it to my lbs for quickness. They pointed out I had chain stretch and needed it replaced asap. Evans either missed it or were happy to see me destroy my group set. I'm currently waiting on part of an order I placed online with them on 6 june. Email requests for a refund have gone 'missing' and they've only recently been in touch to offer it because i've publicly harangued them on twitter. Not really sure what else the op can expect if he's been offered a refund but it certainly sounds as if he's had the shitty end of the stick from them. Like most poor service the best solution is to vote with your feet. I won't have anything to do with Evans again. It's not as if we're restricted by choice.

xpc316e

I think that the sad thing about this tale is that it shows that Evans have probably got too large. At one stage they must have been a really good bike shop that grew because of their reputation. Having got to the point where they have branches everywhere it is very difficult to maintain a consistently high standard of service in each shop. The only thing they can do is have some pretty attractive deals because of the amount of bikes they can buy from a manufacturer. That is not a bad situation for those of us who have the mechanical knowledge to carefully check out a bike when we buy it, but for others like the OP it results in an unhappy customer.

The lesson here is to buy from someone you trust: I bought my last new bike from a shop that has only one mechanic and he works on the shop floor in full view of all the customers. You know exactly who will work on your bike and he knows that any poor workmanship will come straight back to him. They did not offer me a fantastic price, but I did get a bike that was absolutely faultless at a fair cost.

CRAIGO5000

squidgee wrote:

store manager, customer services manager and CEO have just blown me off.

Put it down to a lesson learnt. They are a big outfit and with that, you're always going to get the odd bit of poor workmanship.

I've a two year old daughter and to be fair, I'd have gone over the bike myself before letting her use it. I'm not blaming you, but it's just my way. Can you imagine how many kids bikes come out of places like Halfords and haven't even been 'spanner checked'? Scary!

kevprimer

i use to work in cycle surgery highbury. we use to get loads of new evans bikes coming in to be checked out due to build issues. unfortunately it seems evans stores in london seem to have some very poor mechanics almost on par with halfords. i did buy a bike from there gatwick store with no problems tho.

andy46

I remember when I bought my first road bike after years of riding mtb. I went to Evans and to be honest I didn't have much idea at the time about how a road bike should fit or feel.

The comment off the guy there when I couldn't decide between 2 sizes..... "well it's your bike" and "there's not a lot of difference really" Great help!

I ended up with a bike that was too small for me and sold it one year later. I got my current bike from my lbs and almost always go to him now, apart from certain parts and accessories which I get from various online retailers.

Rushmore

Evans are almost as bad a halfords....

I always stay well clear... Use your Local Bike Shop...

rozzer32

Rushmore wrote:

Evans are almost as bad a halfords....

I always stay well clear... Use your Local Bike Shop...

+1

I'd never trust the big chains like Halfords and Evans with my bike if they were the last stores on earth.

I remember popping into Halfords to pick up some grease, when I asked the guy behind the counter for some he then asked me why I would want grease for my bike :roll:

migrantwing

nunowoolmez wrote:

Jeez, some people on these forums confuse me. A couple of the comments above leave no constructive advice or opinion, they appear to be just breaking the OP's balls for no reason. There really is no need to leave unhelpful comments, if this is your sole intention, it is sad. It leaves me thinking that you intentially trawl these forums to leave disparaging remarks about whichever topic or OP you like.

The OP was discussing a valid point, where his daughter could have succumbed to serious injury or worse. Yet you still decide to mock him. Pathetic, really really pathetic. Grow the feck up or get lost.

OP. you are totally right to feel aggrieved. Evans are notoriously rubbish. Avoid in future! Hope your daughter hasn't lost any confidence in cycling. Good luck!

+1