50 cycles compaint

[Neil]

I went to work one morning and noticed the power cut out and then just die. When I got home I notice the one of the contacts had been burnt away. Rang 50 cycles and they suggested that I send it back to them to be fixed (The bike is about 18 mouths old and still within the 2 year guarantee). I also pointed out that the rear light was not working correctly.

Had problems getting them to collect the bike (Their repair man sadly was diagnosed with cancer (I wish him well) during this time. So it sat in their shop until they got a replacement. 3 weeks later they got around to looking at it. I rang up and they suggested that they could do a service at the same time (at a discounted price). The bike wanted new brake blocks (the chain and cogs were 1,500 miles old)

Rang up to check how the work was going, told it was being delivered tomorrow so I ordered a new front cog, 2 chains and 2 back cogs and a new drive cog and paid by card.

The bike arrived. The battery had a broken handle (at 18 months old I did not expect a new one.) so I put on the peddles and adjusted the handlebar. Rode home 8 miles (strong head wind) bike a bit sluggish. The gears are not good, and chain jumping. Next day went to work strong tail wind still slow and all the other faults. On checking the bike noticed the wheel was twisted touching the frame. Borrowing a spanner noticed that one of the wheel nuts was loose! Re adjusted the wheel and the bike was much better. Now I notice I did not have all the gears. Top gear was now number 5. The back light was still not working correctly.

A parcel arrived with the parts I orders. I notice a chain and cog was missing.

Rang 50 cycles and complained about my problems.

Loose wheel nut: sorry

Gears not working properly: “Oh he replaced the cog and chain and couldn’t get the gears to work”. “He replaced the cable and spent 3 hours trying to get it to work” “YOUR GEAR IS OUT OF WARRENTE AS SHIMANO ONLY GIVE A YEARS WARRENTEE” . “ You can try a local bike shop to get it working for you”

Missing cog and chain: “we put them on when we did the service”

Light not looked at: didn’t really make any comment

No mention of these problems when I called. The extra parts were added after we agreed a price of the service so why use them. After all what part are included in the famous 2 year warrantee and what parts are not?

Ps the new to me battery is a good one. I sent them a working bike and spent money on a service that made it a broken one.

 

[Conal]

50 Cycles customer service

Scott

I am amazed in a very pleased way that you are happy to answer complaints in such a public way. I have always thought highly of the reports of David's (Wisper) after sales service and his willingness to post here under the rare similar circumstance. Its great that you make the same effort.

With the recent discussion on cheap bikes v dear bikes, this is a good demonstration of after sales service.

Conal

 

[flecc]

Yes, an excellent prompt and personal response of the sort that gives customers confidence.

Neil,

I don't know your technical proficiency so forgive my posting the following if it's not needed:

For an excellent guide on the Nexus 8 gear inner cable adjustment, see this post by JamesC

Nexus 8 gear inner cable adjustment

For Shimano's technical documents to refer to when replacing the inner core assembly of the 8 speed premium hub, the following links may assist:

Sprocket Installation and Adjustments

Component display and listing
.

 

[Django]

Excellent, Scott. Delighted to see such prompt and comprehensive customer service.

 

[Andy_82]

That is the power of Consumers Centric Communications, the companies these days really have to follow what is going on online and think of it this way when few years back none of the potential customers would never even know of such an incident. This is the power of social media giving the consumers the right to say what they think experience with xy company was.

The recent research on WOM an E-WOM has shown that 90% of companies are not even on social media sites cos the are simply scared to face their customers on the net. Well done for 50cycles for keeping their eyes open

 

[Dynamic Position]

Hi Neil

Having inspected the battery terminal, something had shorted the battery and damaged the connections on the bike. This is the first time I have ever seen this and not quite sure what had caused this. Almost like a foreign object had been inserted or got caught between the two connections upon placement of the battery.


Scott

Is it possible for battery terminals to become degraded by back EMF from the motor coils (by removing the battery immediately after a cycle run or a loose battery causing sparking at the battery terminals) and for the effect to be multiplied by salt deposit (contamination) between the battery terminals?

 

[Old Timer]

I went to work one morning and noticed the power cut out and then just die. When I got home I notice the one of the contacts had been burnt away. Rang 50 cycles and they suggested that I send it back to them to be fixed (The bike is about 18 mouths old and still within the 2 year guarantee). I also pointed out that the rear light was not working correctly.

Had problems getting them to collect the bike (Their repair man sadly was diagnosed with cancer (I wish him well) during this time. So it sat in their shop until they got a replacement. 3 weeks later they got around to looking at it. I rang up and they suggested that they could do a service at the same time (at a discounted price). The bike wanted new brake blocks (the chain and cogs were 1,500 miles old)

Rang up to check how the work was going, told it was being delivered tomorrow so I ordered a new front cog, 2 chains and 2 back cogs and a new drive cog and paid by card.

The bike arrived. The battery had a broken handle (at 18 months old I did not expect a new one.) so I put on the peddles and adjusted the handlebar. Rode home 8 miles (strong head wind) bike a bit sluggish. The gears are not good, and chain jumping. Next day went to work strong tail wind still slow and all the other faults. On checking the bike noticed the wheel was twisted touching the frame. Borrowing a spanner noticed that one of the wheel nuts was loose! Re adjusted the wheel and the bike was much better. Now I notice I did not have all the gears. Top gear was now number 5. The back light was still not working correctly.

A parcel arrived with the parts I orders. I notice a chain and cog was missing.

Rang 50 cycles and complained about my problems.

Loose wheel nut: sorry

Gears not working properly: “Oh he replaced the cog and chain and couldn’t get the gears to work”. “He replaced the cable and spent 3 hours trying to get it to work” “YOUR GEAR IS OUT OF WARRENTE AS SHIMANO ONLY GIVE A YEARS WARRENTEE” . “ You can try a local bike shop to get it working for you”

Missing cog and chain: “we put them on when we did the service”

Light not looked at: didn’t really make any comment

No mention of these problems when I called. The extra parts were added after we agreed a price of the service so why use them. After all what part are included in the famous 2 year warrantee and what parts are not?

Ps the new to me battery is a good one. I sent them a working bike and spent money on a service that made it a broken one.

I agree that a company to come back on here in reply to a complaint is commendable (period) BUT! it doesn`t change the fact that Neil (although buying a bike with a UK based back up service) didn`t receive the service he was expecting. I could understand it more if the LBS had a crack at it but not from the suppliers.

Just my two penceworth

 

[Stumpi]

Surely the correct etiquette here is to make the complaint to the shop manager/owner privately first and give them a chance to sort things out. IMO making issues public on an internet forum is only expectable if step one has been exhausted first.

 

[jerrysimon]

Overall I have to say I have been very impressed with the two or three manufactures/suppliers that post on here. I think they go out of their way to help members on this forum.

<<< Sucking up in case he needs his Cytronex sorting

Actually I been thinking about selling it as I now use my EBrompton all the time.

Regards

Jery

 

[Alex728]

Surely the correct etiquette here is to make the complaint to the shop manager/owner privately first and give them a chance to sort things out. IMO making issues public on an internet forum is only expectable if step one has been exhausted first.

IMO what would have been much better was for the shop to complete the repair in a timely manner and with the problems solved, thus removing the need for him to go public with the problems. The response of the dealer is admirable, but I can't help but wonder that if people didn't shout on public forums these problems would be left to fester, especially in businesses owned by younger folk more orientated towards technical innovation and a "fun" business environment than customer service.

he had already given them a lot of slack. Although its a shame the first mechanic got ill, its really not the customers problem and businesses should have steps in place for an incident like this. Someone else made a post questioning 50 cycles abilities to make repairs in a timely manner..

Even Powacycle (whose service has unfortunately slipped recently) who sell bikes at lower price managed to employ a new mechanic fairly quickly when one of theirs was badly injured in a RTC and on his recovery they now have more resources to cope with repairs (although even these have proven inadequate)

Wisper wasn't always as good as they are now (the early 905SE's clearly suffered from some reliability problems, all fixed now) although to be fair it was more often the local dealers than the central company who let them down - but because of discussion on here they improved their service to the point they are now one of the market leaders.

 

[Old Timer]

IMO what would have been much better was for the shop to complete the repair in a timely manner and with the problems solved, thus removing the need for him to go public with the problems. The response of the dealer is admirable, but I can't help but wonder that if people didn't shout on public forums these problems would be left to fester, especially in businesses owned by younger folk more orientated towards technical innovation and a "fun" business environment than customer service.

he had already given them a lot of slack. Although its a shame the first mechanic got ill, its really not the customers problem and businesses should have steps in place for an incident like this. Someone else made a post questioning 50 cycles abilities to make repairs in a timely manner..

Even Powacycle (whose service has unfortunately slipped recently) who sell bikes at lower price managed to employ a new mechanic fairly quickly when one of theirs was badly injured in a RTC and on his recovery they now have more resources to cope with repairs (although even these have proven inadequate)

Wisper wasn't always as good as they are now (the early 905SE's clearly suffered from some reliability problems, all fixed now) although to be fair it was more often the local dealers than the central company who let them down - but because of discussion on here they improved their service to the point they are now one of the market leaders.

+1 from me alex

 

[RichardB]

If the OP is happy with the response this thread is now closed.