Evans Cycles bad experience

ewssonaht

Hi guys I just want to share with you my bad experience with Evanscycles as i feel like it is worth knowing how the company serves customers when it comes down to resolving an issue.

I am not in the UK (so sorry for the not perfect English). I placed an order for a Genesis Day ONE Alfine 8 bike for a total of 1169 pounds. I received a bike home one week later. Like a little boy on Christmas eve i opened the box... To my big disappointment the bike was used (Ex demo) (See pictures on the gallery here http://postimg.org/gallery/b69fdj18/ ).

Dirty saddle (pictures taken after i cleaned it as it was the first thing I got out of the box and thought it was just dirty from the box
Front rotor unusable so wrapped that it was moving the caliper in every rotation
Scratches on the frame
Logos on cranks faded
Tires dirty from use
Cranks have hits from cleats?
Dirty bar tape

This is where the horror with Evans... I emailed them as soon as i opened the box with pictures attached. Nobody replied so the next day i called after i sent even more pictures of the bike. The person that got my call looked at the pictures and with a dull voice told me they would call me back later when they had spoken to a manager. Nobody called me back so i called again to get a similar response only with a promise that they would call me within a couple of hours. Nobody called me of course so shortly before the customer care would close I made another call. I had to explain again the situation and this time the employee seemed more helpful and nice. She promised me they would call me back the next morning by 10. I explained to her (also on my emails) That I would accept a partial refund of 30% and a new rotor as being in Sweden would mean sending the bike back and waiting for a new one. (the 30% idea came to me after I checked their website and they list "soiled bikes" and even the ones that they sell for 30% off were in better condition than mine... )
She told me that she would have to speak to a manager about that.

The next morning at 13:00 after receiving no call again I decided to call again the CC and ask for the same employee. She came to the phone and offered me a 100pounds refund and no rotor (I would have to pay 30 for that). That because the damage was "only cosmetic". I told her that this is more than unacceptable and i that i wanted a full refund. She arranged it for me without explaining anything to me about the process and the refund, while letting me know that they do not book a time for picking up the bike, rather they book a day (YES, a whole day...)

What is important is that the whole time i felt i was treated as if i was lying and no apology was actually made nor comment about the condition of the bike, mainly tried to convince me to keep the bike as is. Also nobody ever called me back or wrote back to me fast, just some emails with a wrong name and clearly copy pasted from another case. The customer care experience was horrible and indifferent to the point that i thoought that i was getting scammed and they were stalling. The only thing that gave me peace of mind was that I knew they are a big chain.

NOTE that biking is my way of getting around town and going to work, i have no car or any other mode of transportation...

What this has cost me

38 pounds lost to the bank due to the currency exchange. I sent 12100 sek and received 11735 sek back (banks fault but irritates me the fact they did not even apologize)
21 days with no bike and no money to order a new bike
4 hours on the phone
1,5 days off to wait for a delivery and to wait for their pickup van (these days off cost 200pounds if I decided to get them paid)
My nerves

Link to pictures
http://postimg.org/gallery/b69fdj18/


I hope this story makes people more aware of the bad service that Evans seems to be providing. After my experience i googled around and they do not seem to be getting great reviews, but little did I know, i was only after price...

MichelleEvansCycles

I’m really sorry to hear that you’ve had such a negative experience with us. We know how exciting a new bike is, and we’re really sorry that in your case the excitement was followed by disappointment. With regard to marks on the bike – we’ve now invested a great deal of money in special ‘shrouds’ which cover all bikes in our warehouse so they are protected during delivery, and we’re also ensuring all handlebars and saddles are wrapped so that white tape is not marked. I know this doesn't change your own experience (which we are dealing with) but wanted to assure you changes have been made. I am sorry that the advice you received from the contact centre was not consistent and I can assure you that this matter is now being looked into by managers and we are treating it very seriously.

Evans Cycles is a business with a 90 year heritage – we started as a small independent and though we’ve grown dramatically, we absolutely want to ensure we are still offering customers good and helpful service in all cases and that our customer care team recognise every customer as an individual. In your case, it seems you’ve slipped through the net – and I really hope we will be able to make amends for this.

All the best, and if you have any further problems (though I believe your case is now being dealt with and resolution will be swift) – please email evans.marketing@evanscycles.com

Michelle (Evans Cycles)

pdstsp

ewssonaht that's a terrible way to be dealt with - sounds like customer services should be called something else. I am also shocked that a major retailer should try to pass used goods off as new. This compares so badly with the service associated with most small local bike shops. I really hope Evans pull their finger out and get your problems resolved - the bland message above is a start but doesn't really address the issue that the bike had been used then sold as new and doesn't touch on the fact that Evans did not return calls. Very shoddy.

MichelleEvansCycles

Hiya - As I've said - we do apologise for this bad experience and our team are now well and truly pulling out our finger(s).

Our contact centre manager has spoken to ewssonaht - the bike is back with us, we've refunded him already and he is also being refunded the exchange rate difference. We offered a discount on a new bike - but ewssonaht has already bought a new one so would not like this. Furthermore, the department that issued the bike has had this flagged up as a serious error.

I can promise you we would not try to sell a used bike as new. Bikes have in the past become damaged in transit - hence the investment in shrouds which should eliminate this. In this case the damage was not picked up on - and this would have been entirely accidental. We have a 'soiled' bike section of our website where we sell bikes with scratches etc - this is where all damaged bikes we find go - and we would never knowingly sell one of these as new. If this were our policy the 'soiled bike' section would not exist.

ugo.santalucia

MichelleEvansCycles wrote:

Bikes have in the past become damaged in transit - hence the investment in shrouds which should eliminate this.

A Genesis wrapped in a Shroud... that seems a bit of a mismatch between the old and the new Testament, innit?

ewssonaht

Hi Guys,

The matter is now resolved.

Evans offered me a refund of 45 British pounds. After checking with my bank's exchange rates I told Evans that I would be OK with 40 pounds as that amount would cover all my losses with them and my goal was not to exploit this situation and make any profit.

They also offered me a new bike with a discount (do not know how much the discount would be if I chose to do so as I did not proceed with that option). My choice to not proceed with Evans again, is mainly due to the fact that I have already ordered the same bike from a Swedish supplier and I honor my agreements as that store is importing the bike just for me directly from Genesis (I have not yet paid them so i could easily bail). Again my goal was not to gain money or get a discount, but have a bike to the state that I paid for.

I am still not convinced that this is damage that was from Transit, and frankly I was happier with them this morning after I got a call for the refund. Now that I read MIchele's reply that it was during Transit I do not know... But most of you here know enough about bikes to judge for yourselves.

Mistakes can be made from any company and no matter how safe a business process is or how trained your personnel is. The way you handle your mistakes though and unhappy customers, is something you need to look into. It can't be by chance that Evans has such a low score on trustpilot.co.uk while other stores have high ones.

Since I like to be fair, I do not know if that matters at all to you, but Sara was the most helpful of all the agents I spoke to.

Thank you all for the support and the hospitality on this forum.

Pross

ewssonaht wrote:

I am still not convinced that this is damage that was from Transit, and frankly I was happier with them this morning after I got a call for the refund. Now that I read MIchele's reply that it was during Transit I do not know... But most of you here know enough about bikes to judge for yourselves.

Suggest you read again, she didn't say it was damaged in transit she said bikes do become damaged in transit and that if they do they get sold as soiled.

michael_roadie

One thing to note is that Evans allow bikes to be taken on test rides. This is great for those with access to the stores, but as a consequence a given bike can be built/taken out on test rides/dismantled/transported to another store/rebuilt/test ride/dismantled/rebuilt and so on and so forth. And these bikes are sold as new. As a result there is the potential for a new bike bought from Evans to be not completely clean and potentially have some scratches or nicks here and there - though certainly wouldn't expect it in the condition of the photos above.

What I've written above is based on my experience of buying a bike from an Evans store and speaking to staff members about the process of getting the bike in to test, as well as eyeballing the bikes.

FatTed

Ordered a Castelli Espresso Due delivered in record time, certainly far faster than Ribble and cheaper. Unfortunately they charged me 17 GBP by mistake, which they will refund, but only to my credit card which will put me out of pocket by around 140 p (exchange rate charges on credit card) which is a little irritating and I have to phone them from NZ to get the refund!

meursault

Seems like the issue dealt with professionally. Nice to see a spokesperson from a retailer respond too.

bendertherobot

FatTed wrote:

Ordered a Castelli Espresso Due delivered in record time, certainly far faster than Ribble and cheaper. Unfortunately they charged me 17 GBP by mistake, which they will refund, but only to my credit card which will put me out of pocket by around 140 p (exchange rate charges on credit card) which is a little irritating and I have to phone them from NZ to get the refund!

Not really following. They charged you £17 for a £170 jacket?

or £17 more than advertised?

FatTed

charged me twice, 170 and 17 for a 170 jacket

FatTed

Happily resolved with a little extra to cover inconvenience, credit card charges etc
happy to purchase from Evans in the future.

The Mechanic

I think we have to accept that everyone makes a mistake now and then. The good guys rise to the top because of the way in which they deal with the mistakes. It seems like Evans have sorted this in the end but should have done so earlier. I guess that make for a neutral result. I had a similar iisue with Evans, not concerning a bike, but it was eventually sorted and I was happy. Ergo, I will use them again.

barrybarryr

I've just bought a Trek Madone 3.5 from Evans and whilst I love the bike I am not particularly impressed with Evans service.

The bike was ordered and took a week to arrive. When it came into the shop it was dirty like in the pictures of the original poster. The mechanic in the shop tried to tell me that it was just dirt from his hands when putting it together, but this was a load of crap. Anyone who rides a bike knows what has and hasn't been used!

If I order a bike as new then I expect it to be new, not a shop demo one. If it is a shop demo one I expect to be told it will be a demo one at the time of order and for it to be sold at a price that reflects that. The staff member told me that they have no control over what is sent from the warehouse and called my bike a "sleeved" bike.

I've kept the bike because it is the one I want, I have to use an Evans Ride2Work voucher and because it is a 2013 bike I was significantly discounted over the 2014 model but that shouldn't matter or excuse Evans shoddy service.

If it wasn't for the fact my work insist on using the Evans scheme and I had already got the Ride2Work voucher I would had told them to get stuffed.

I can't recommend anyone use Evans to order "new bikes".

philhumphrey

I have to say, that unfortunately I've just had a bad experience with Evans Cycles recently.

I ordered a set of Enve 6.7 carbon road wheels, which I was pretty excited about. I paid extra for the 4 day international shipping option, as I was due to pick up my new bike that weekend.

Well upon arrival, and opening the box I was pretty shocked to see scratches, marks and at least a couple of what looked like impact marks on the wheels. As you can imagine, I was pretty disappointing.

Anyway, I rang Evans and spoke to a helpful chap and arranged to send in some photos of the damage.
That evening I sent the photos, and then followed up with 2 or 3 calls to work through the issues. Every time a different person, and they didn't seem to be able to find my photos. I was told someone from warranty would call me, and that never happened either.

Anyway a couple of days later (I've been calling them since then) I get what looks like a generic reply email, telling me that the damage looks "purely cosmetic" and i'm offered a voucher as a goodwill gesture....

After speaking to two more people in the contact center following this, it seemed very clear from their attitude that they really wouldn't help me anymore then that, and they were really not keen on warranty or return.

But with the original bike pickup date now passed, a new one provisionally planned, and facing the prospect of not having a wheel set (I live in Switzerland so sending the wheel set back would potentially cost me days or even weeks of delay), disappointing and let down as I was, I didn't see any other option than to accept their voucher and have the wheels fitted. Which I did, and then took them to the bike shop for fitting.

This is when bad turned to worse, upon attempting to fit them (to a 2014 BMC SLR01), I get a phone call to tell me that the Chris King hub is 10 speed, and not the required 11 speed, plus the Enve skewers are missing..... Enve skewers come with all Enve wheels. So I need to pay for a set separately.....

All CK R45 hubs have been 11 speed compatible since early 2013 however these hubs appear to be old ones (?!?), and i'm told by the LBS I need a conversion (the freehub conversion to 11 speed cost me an additional £200), so now i'm really annoyed, and call once more.

I explained the situation, and that I was expecting a new wheelset which is 11 speed compatible, only to be told that this was a 2013 model (I doubt that, as they were 11 speed then, and it doesn't specify that on the site) and they will not compensate for the conversion (it also doesn't state 10 or 11 speed on the site anywhere).

So at the end of the day, I have a wheel set which has damage, old hubs and missing skewers. These issues mean I'm out of pocket by several hundred pounds (£200 for the conversion, £50 for the skewers), and very disappointing.

Not at all what I expected from Evans, who I've always had good experiences with in the past.

gethinceri

Let's hope Michelle still works for them, looks like she's a dependable asset to them.

philhumphrey

I hope so, as I'm really not happy now.

giant_man

Gethinceri wrote:

Let's hope Michelle still works for them, looks like she's a dependable asset to them.

Not really, cos they're still getting it wrong!

gethinceri

What I meant was that everyone else from Evans who's been involved is clearly a dick.

markhewitt1978

Just realised again why I stopped buying from Evans and tended to use Wiggle instead. They insist on using DPD to deliver everything, nothing wrong with them, but you have to be in to sign for the parcel, whereas Wiggle tend to send by Royal Mail so the parcel ends up at the post office around the corner. So ordering from Evans usually ends up being a week long saga

jamiemc_donald

This is my experience with Evans


26th May 2014:
Ordered a Cannondale Synapse Carbon 105 5 Compact 2014 for £1849.00 Click and Collect ...sales rep advised the Cycle with be ready for collection 1st June 2014 from a store of my choice.

Anyhow few days went by and I had no emails in-regards to order ... So I deicide to give them a call on the 28th May 2014 to query the order only to be advised that the order will be delayed until 6th May June

31st May 2014:
Still no correspondence from Evans in regards to the order ...I give them a bell again but this time only to be advised the order will be delayed until the 10th June 2014

2nd may 2014:
Eventually I receive a email confirmation of the order will be delayed until 10th June 2014

2nd may 2014: time 13:55
Ive had enough of their crap and I cancel the order ....well done Evans ... will never shop with you again.

Pross

So they are crap because you got an email confirmation 29 days before you even ordered it??

simonhead

jamiemc_donald wrote:

This is my experience with Evans


26th May 2014:
Ordered a Cannondale Synapse Carbon 105 5 Compact 2014 for £1849.00 Click and Collect ...sales rep advised the Cycle with be ready for collection 1st June 2014 from a store of my choice.

Anyhow few days went by and I had no emails in-regards to order ... So I deicide to give them a call on the 28th May 2014 to query the order only to be advised that the order will be delayed until 6th May June

31st May 2014:
Still no correspondence from Evans in regards to the order ...I give them a bell again but this time only to be advised the order will be delayed until the 10th June 2014

2nd may 2014:
Eventually I receive a email confirmation of the order will be delayed until 10th June 2014

2nd may 2014: time 13:55
Ive had enough of their crap and I cancel the order ....well done Evans ... will never shop with you again.

Fibs??

arran77

Pross wrote:

So they are crap because you got an email confirmation 29 days before you even ordered it??

That is outrageous isn't it :roll:

alan_sherman

Sounds like things haven't changed much. I refused a new £2000 tarmac about 8 years ago as it was scratched. They need to look after their (expensive) stock better.

kingstonian

The Evans shop in Kingston is ok, until you want to pay for something. It takes FOREVER.

ddraver

Another one here

Bpought a Fixie from Evans on the C2W scheme (which took forever, but that was partly down to the HR too). 3 or 4 rides later the fixed sprocket stripped the hub. This is frustrating but probably no ones fault, so I take it back to Evans expecting a quick swap of componants.

The mechanic, however, claimed that it was clearly my fault the hub stripped and that he would not honour any warranty (at that point I had not even taken the wheel off the bike). There is no other way of putting this but that is a flat out lie!

I was offered 10% off some new wheels but I'd learnt my lesson by them and went to a proper bike shop. I don't go in Evans any more.

If I hadnt had to use Evans because of the C2W scheme i wouldnt have but, man, way to confirm suspicions there guys! :roll:

Yellow Peril

ddraver wrote:

Another one here

Bpought a Fixie from Evans on the C2W scheme (which took forever, but that was partly down to the HR too). 3 or 4 rides later the fixed sprocket stripped the hub. This is frustrating but probably no ones fault, so I take it back to Evans expecting a quick swap of componants.

The mechanic, however, claimed that it was clearly my fault the hub stripped and that he would not honour any warranty (at that point I had not even taken the wheel off the bike). There is no other way of putting this but that is a flat out lie!

I was offered 10% off some new wheels but I'd learnt my lesson by them and went to a proper bike shop. I don't go in Evans any more.

If I hadnt had to use Evans because of the C2W scheme i wouldnt have but, man, way to confirm suspicions there guys! :roll:

That's just an output of serious wattage Dave. Wear it as a badge of honour

johnmiosh

Just a thought, but at 3 to 4 months the bike still belongs to the company. Contact your C2C rep in HR. Get them to deal with it.

geobz

My experience with Evans so far is way bellow satisfactory as well.

All started a month ago when I went into my local bike store to buy a bike. I ordered the bike, because it wasn't in the actual shop and it got assembled within a day and shipped.

I used the bike for 3 days and people were stopping me down the street saying that I have a flat tire on the back wheel. I went straight into the shop and the person that inspected my bike pumped the tires a bit and he said "Your good to go".

A week later and after using it for another 3 days ( I use my bike only to commit to work, and I commit 3-4 times a week) on the 4th day while I was getting back from work the wheel was buckled. I had to carry it for over 2 miles to get it to the bike shop where the mechanic that inspected it on the spot said that my spokes were lose and that is a problem from the manufacturer.
I asked what would I do in this case and he said that they will have a look and see if they can tighten the spokes or they will have to get the bike back to Scott and get a new wheel in.
I said that I would like a refund in that case cause obviously that's a new bike and I am not going to wait until the bike gets to Scott and back, that's just bizarre. He then short of avoiding commenting on the refund case.

Next day I got a call from the store that my bike has been fixed and I could go in and collect. I went in picked it up and off I go.

2 weeks after (6 days of use), I am back in the store again with a buckled wheel. This time the spokes were not lose but the mechanics that inspected the bike said it might have been a mistake after the spokes were tighten that it wasn't fitted properly.
I left it in and I get an email next day saying that my bike is ready. I went there and the guy said that the bike is not 100% yet it still needs fitting and I could go back late at night and pick it up.

I went in the next day early in the morning (I was busy at night) and the same guy says to me that they fixed it the best they could but the spokes are going up and down so I can ride it to work and back and do whatever I want with it and that they have ordered a new wheel.
I went off to go to work, on my way it was buckled and I had to get a taxi back + extra fees for carrying the bike.

While I was at work I contacted their customer service which were awful, but manage to get one thing out of them "if I wanted to resolve my problem I should go into the store".

I went into the store and after reading my statutory rights thoroughly, and I asked for a full refund of the product as it wasn't fit for purpose since the start, and I have the proof of their own notes from the repairs saying that the bike was problematic since the start.
After a young man inspecting my bike, he went to the manager, took a bit for the manager to come and see me.

Manager came to see me just to tell me that "You are not entitled to a refund, because the bike is not at the same condition as it was when it was bought, and that's in the statutory rights". (The bike has no scratches, no crashes no dirt, no problems)
Who is this guy that they appointed as a manager and he doesn't even know the statutory rights... I had to come into work and go to my legal department and ask them, had 2 lawyer looking at it and they both said whatever the manager said is completely WRONG!

Anyways the manager after speaking all those bonkers to me he went off to his system saying that the new wheel should arrive tomorrow and they should fix it by tomorrow (which is Today).

Problem here is that I have completely lost any trust on Evans after that... Trying to skim me by giving me a faulty bike.. trying to hotfix it without the problem being resolved, then again trying to hotfix it, and then the manager refusing to give me a refund stating that the laws of UK and the legal rights of consumers are wrong?

How am I supposed to trust a company that treated me that way?

I am going to do exactly what the lawyers advice me to do, which is to get the manager of the Head offices on the phone and explain to him that I don't want to be in a binding contract with Evans anymore.

I hope that helps some people out there that are considering on using Evans, I don't want to say to you where to buy from and what to do, just be cautious.