A letter of complaint

 

To whom it may concern,

                                            I’d like to advise you of some terrible customer service I received from your Guildford store (Unit 3 Woodbridge House) when taking my bike for its recent 4 week check-up. I took the bike into the Guildford store on Thursday the 21^st of June.  Since the purchase of the bike I have been adjusting the height of the stem using the spacers provided, to try and obtain the optimal riding position. When handing the bike over to the Service and Repair desk at Evans I had asked if the Steerer tube could be cut down during the service but I was told this wasn’t covered in the free service due to the amount of work involved. Upon returning home, having left the bike at the store, I decided to call the store again just to clarify the process as I didn’t believe it would be too time consuming or difficult. I spoke to a Tristan initially but was passed to someone who’s name I can’t remember. I was told that because the steerer tube was carbon they would not be happy in cutting the tube length down as I only required it reducing by 10mil and that a 5mil space would need to remain (above the stem) to ensure safety, ‘so what’s the point?’

I asked the individual to confirm the steerer tube material and I was again advised it was carbon, I said ‘are you looking at it now’ and was told ‘yes’.  Now at this point I thought ok fine, if they are looking at it now they can’t be wrong and thought nothing more of it.  Until of course I got the bike home and decided to lower the stem again and realised that the steerer tube is actually aluminium, you can see this by checking the bike spec on the Evans website (the bike is a Cannondale Caad8 C 105 2012 Evans part number EV149845-54-BLK), which clearly stipulates:  Fork: Cannondale Ultra, Carbon Blades, 1-1/8"

So it appears you’re staff lied to me in that when they said they were looking at the bike, when they were clearly not. They also lied to me when advising that the steerer tube was carbon, when it is clearly not.

I would like a formal apology regarding this matter and I’d also like to know why your staff members feel it is ok to lie to new customers. I think it’s disgraceful that I have been lied to on 2 occasion’s by your paid mechanics. Any bike shop would cut down a steerer tube for a small labour fee,  but to lie to avoid the task is a disgrace.

If it wasn’t for my companies Cycle 2 work scheme being with Evans, I simply wouldn’t step foot in your stores due to this type of inadequate and frankly offensive customer service

I look forward to hearing from you soon

Yours Faithfully

.............

My 1st club run

So screw it, I did it. I've been putting this moment off for so long, simple because I enjoy my lazy Sunday mornings but today I finally got around to riding with a club.

I had a choice of 2, Thames Velo and the rather less fetchingly named Fanborough and Camberley cycling club. From my house it's about the same distance to the clubs ride out points so I thought I'd give the latter a try as I knew the meeting point.

Scheduled meet was 9am @ Speedys on the West Heath Roundabout, could just about manage that on a Sunday morning, I left the house about 8:20am which got me there with 10 mins to spare. (9.9 miles).

I've been wanting to ride out with a club for a while as it's a good way to rack up the miles without having to pay a hefty fee to enter a sportive. Like minded people, good roads, great bikes, can't fault the idea really and as it happens that's just how it turned out. Only 5 of us riding today, all good confident road riders with a nice selection of bling bikes. Now this I could do.

Only now I've uploaded my data to Strava do I actually know where I've been, I recognised certain areas but others were completly unknown to me. Rode at a good pace keeping the ave speed around the 17mph mark, which was great considering the headwind we seemed to be riding into. Got a round of applause at one point as we followed the route of the Phyllis Tuckwell charity ride through Farnham, ok so the applause wasn't meant for me but you take what you can get....One of our riders did try to explain that we were just training on the route but that just made it akward, applause it was.

I really enjoyed getting to ride a route other than my commute, especially on board my new bike. Ok so it rained but thankfully only a shower and most of the ride was complete by that point. I also had a small 'off', nothing damaged other than pride (and a slightly scuffed left brake leaver), very slow off whilst trying to navigate a ridiculously sharp turn when riding up a steep footpath that seemed to continously go back on itself like a zigzag. I seem to forget how to unclip in that situation, I know it's happening and I know what I have to do, I just don't do it and end up lying on the floor like a pleb.

Lost one rider to a mechanical at about 20 miles in but other than that it was a good morning's ride. I had worried how my legs would react as I commute 25 miles daily but they were fine, total ride distance was 62 miles, I guess this next commuting week may turn out to be more difficult.

When seeing groups of cyclist's riding together they always look so fast, I had imagined I'd struggle with the pace in parts but this fear was unfounded and I actually happened to be one of the faster climbers, I was quite shocked at how easy it seemed to distance guys on climbs without really trying and at no point did I feel I was pushing myself, plenty left in the tank.

Anyway, enough of blowing my own trumpet, I'm off to watch the Peter Sagan take stage two of the Tour...