New bike - with scratches - discount? (+ bad Evans service)

cookeeemonster
cookeeemonster Posts: 1,991
edited September 2012 in Road buying advice
Hi,

After what seems like ages of looking around, researching and trying road bikes I finally settled on a Bianchi Via Nirone Sora from Evans using the cycle to work scheme (I have to go through Evans for this).

Anyway...went to pick it up today...it wasn't ready (didn't have the new tyres and mudguards fitted after I was told it would be ready) but that's ok, I'm pretty patient. On my test ride (fitted like a glove, loved it) I noticed one side of the forks had a number of long scratches - around 3 from between 3 - 5 inches in length I think? though maybe my memory is exaggerating. Very noticeable though.

I told the sales assistant about it and he told me dont worry they would have a look and sort it out. I called them up a few days later to check they had done this - an awful lot of bikes including this one are basically selling out and not being replaced as the 2013 bikes are in soon, and if they couldn't fix the scratches then I wanted them to order a new one in while they still had them in stock - I was told the scratches had been sorted out over the phone.

So anyway, they are still there, there are no more bikes in stock and I have to wait until monday to find out if bianchi have any replacement forks for it - I'm 99% sure they wont.

The sales assistant offered me a set of free tyres worth £40 to make up for it. I said no I'll wait until monday to see if they can source a new fork.

Other considerations - this is an £830 bike that I got evans to price match at £747.

So what discount for the scratches do you think is reasonable? If I were to walk out of the shop and put it on ebay etc against an identical bike with no scratches then in my book it'd fetch £100 or so less - what do you think?

In addition although I wont go too deep into it now I'm really, really not happy with the service I've received at Evans. Hours (and I mean hours) on the phone waiting for them to pick up. Loads of times being put on hold for 5-10 minutes only to be then cut off, multiple times left my number so they can call me back which they didn't. Telling me one thing over the phone that is different to reality (2 or 3 times) and selling a bike (the bianchi xenon model - one up from this one) after I put a deposit on it - and not telling me for 5 days even though I called in that time. And a couple other things...

I waited today for ages (again) in the store for them to sort stuff out and overheard a woman talking to her boyfriend and the sales assistant and her story seemed near identical - tons of hassle, confusion, her bike getting sold and the one she picked up today with a big very visible scratch.

I've not let loose on any staff member yet, I'm pretty patient and just want my frigging bike, but I'm gonna complain to the manager about all this on monday if things are not sorted out to my satisfaction...but like I say, what would a reasonable discount be?

Sorry to be so precious about scratches - I know it'll get plenty of those as an all weather commuter but it's a brand new bike and a poncy italian one at that - I want it to be nice just once (or discounted!) ;)

Thanks in advance

Comments

  • cookeeemonster
    cookeeemonster Posts: 1,991
    wow, bit of a long post - sorry I didn't realise :)
  • sturmey
    sturmey Posts: 964
    If it's not too late i would tell them to stuff it and get your money back and take your voucher elsewhere. Personally,don't think the Cycle scheme is anything like as good a deal as it was when it first started.And the room for extra disounting is all but removed.There are better bargains around anyway. You can get a CAAD8 sora for £500 for example. No worse than that Bianchi I guarantee.
  • cookeeemonster
    cookeeemonster Posts: 1,991
    I've been thinking about ripping up the voucher (I can't use it anywhere else as work only do it via Evans) but I do get quite a discount so I'm hoping things will work out...will see monday I suppose.
  • sturmey
    sturmey Posts: 964
    be interested to know how much saving you actually make as I thought the 'buy back' amount at the end of the year was actually a lot more these days than the token amount it used to be.That alone made it seem less attractive a deal to me.
  • taff..
    taff.. Posts: 81
    put all that in a letter

    Evans Cycles,
    Camino Park,
    James Watt Way,
    Crawley,
    West Sussex,
    RH10 9TZ
  • cookeeemonster
    cookeeemonster Posts: 1,991
    Cheers for that I will do if I'm not happy with what they offer tomorrow.

    Anyone have any idea what a reasonable discount would be for the scratches if they can't get a new fork?
  • pilot_pete
    pilot_pete Posts: 2,120
    The bike will come with a warranty. If you bought the bike under warranty and there was for example a manufacturing problem wit the forks, they would change them under warranty. The manufacturers MUST have some forks available for potential warranty claims over the warranty period surely?

    Funnily, bought my Pinarello from Evans in 2010. After delivery to the shop, it turned out to have scratches on the forks, similar to yours. Turns out they were from transit in its original box, obviously the box got damaged. I queried this and they eventually agreed to £150 off the bike (retail price £2999, as it was a 2009 model it was ticketed £2499) so I got it for £2349. Quite a good deal I thought. As it happens, just 12 months later the blue paint on the forks had faded, making them significantly different in colour from the frame. I took the bike back and they took several photos of the faded paintwork and proceeded to make a warranty claim. I assumed they would give me money, or would have them resprayed, but no, the importer sent a brand new pair of forks with perfect paintwork..... :wink:

    Worked out quite well I thought, although I agree that Evans can be a bit hit and miss with heir customer service.

    PP
  • cookeeemonster
    cookeeemonster Posts: 1,991
    Thanks Pete, I'll update this thread later after finding out what's happening...
  • prawny
    prawny Posts: 5,439
    sturmey wrote:
    be interested to know how much saving you actually make as I thought the 'buy back' amount at the end of the year was actually a lot more these days than the token amount it used to be.That alone made it seem less attractive a deal to me.

    The buy back has been sorted at my company, they gift you the amount and then you pay tax as a benifit in kind on that amount, so although mine was supposed to be £60 it actually cost me £12 in tax. So with the 32% tax/NI saving, it still works out pretty good, as long as you shop carefully.
    Saracen Tenet 3 - 2015 - Dead - Replaced with a Hack Frame
    Voodoo Bizango - 2014 - Dead - Hit by a car
    Vitus Sentier VRS - 2017
  • petemadoc
    petemadoc Posts: 2,331
    Evans CS is pretty iffy from my experience. Only ever ordered small things but it's rarely a smooth transaction.
  • jordan_217
    jordan_217 Posts: 2,580
    I bought a bike from Evans a few years ago (on the C2W scheme). First ride I experienced a chain failure, resulting in broken mech, chain, mech hanger and a few spokes. The worst part was being flung off my bike, thinking I'd been hit from behind by a car. Luckily, I was just shaken up more than anything.

    I was on the phone to Evans within the hour - they didn't give a 5hi7. The cheeky ba5tard5 even tried to sell me the replacement parts (not even at a discounted price). The bike hadn't even covered 5 miles. The store I bought from, Milton Keynes just referred me straight to the central CS dept. They didn't apologise or offer to rectify the issue. They basically couldn't get me off the phone quick enough.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again - Evans are as much use as a c0ck flavored lollipop.
    “Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
  • giant_man
    giant_man Posts: 6,878
    jordan_217 wrote:
    I bought a bike from Evans a few years ago (on the C2W scheme). First ride I experienced a chain failure, resulting in broken mech, chain, mech hanger and a few spokes. The worst part was being flung off my bike, thinking I'd been hit from behind by a car. Luckily, I was just shaken up more than anything.

    I was on the phone to Evans within the hour - they didn't give a 5hi7. The cheeky ba5tard5 even tried to sell me the replacement parts (not even at a discounted price). The bike hadn't even covered 5 miles. The store I bought from, Milton Keynes just referred me straight to the central CS dept. They didn't apologise or offer to rectify the issue. They basically couldn't get me off the phone quick enough.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again - Evans are as much use as a c0ck flavored lollipop.
    +1 - absolutely!!
  • cookeeemonster
    cookeeemonster Posts: 1,991
    once again thanks for all the replies people - much appreciated.

    picked it up yesterday (with the scratches, which are not as bad as I remembered) and they have ordered a new set of forks which will be swopped over for the current ones when they come in

    so I'm relatively happy now that has been sorted out. Overall before price matches and discounts I've got a grands worth of bike and accessories for less than £500 over 12 months (with all the discounts and ride to worth thing) so I'm very happy with that.

    The white handlebar tape was a bit grubby and there was a few other things they could've done to give me a better impression of them but I just wanted to get the hell outta there before the shop exploded, or something.

    still might write to the head office though, but at the moment I actually feel drained from my evans experience :)
  • Thought I may as well update this.

    Got the forks changed over 2 weekends ago along with a terrible first service that made the chain fall over far more than it did before (posted about this elsewhere and fixed it myself after some good forum advice, but I wont be taking anything there for any work ever again :) )

    I wrote to the head office a couple of weeks after these posts (I was too drained to do anything sooner) and after initially acknowledging my letter they finally sent me an apologetic email 2/3 weeks after that...just arrived in fact.

    They've offered me a £25 voucher as compensation - sound fair to you?
  • maddog 2
    maddog 2 Posts: 8,114
    yes, now go and ride your new cheap bike :wink:
    Facts are meaningless, you can use facts to prove anything that's remotely true! - Homer
  • maddog 2 wrote:
    yes, now go and ride your new cheap bike :wink:

    750 miles done and still counting ;)
  • siamon
    siamon Posts: 274
    No it doesn't sound fair. Sounds like a pee take.

    A Gore jacket for the winter would be a decent gesture. Costs them next to F all and you get a top jacket.
  • Sprool
    Sprool Posts: 1,022
    I went into Evans Castleford a couple of weeks ago ready to buy me a new entry level road bike. Its about 50 mile round trip for me so when i got there to find no stock under a grand i wasn't too happy. I wanted to sit on a few, see what frame size i needed, get an idea of specs and quality but all i got was 2 knobby sales assistants more keen on pulling stupid faces to make the other one crack up when i was trying to have a conversation with him. I had cash in my pocket but thats where it stayed. I was told they would order in any bike i was interested in at a cost of £50, returnable if I purchased. I wondered how I knew if i'd like to buy it if they didnt even have one to show me, let alone measure for frame size. All in all very shoddy. I sent them an email when i got home and they apologised and offered to send me a £20 voucher, but you can't redeem it online (yet). I spent my money at a local bike shop, got looked after and had someone take the time to explain sizes and gear and specs properly. Sadly I think when a lot of companies get to the size of Evans, more cracks start appearing with customer service and staff attitude.