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On 13th May I ordered a Topeak item from Evans that was apparently in stock. Yesterday I got an email saying that it has been passed to their courier Hermes along with a tracking number.
The tracking web site shows the cryptic message "Hub Trailer Via Sorter" and this has not changed for 12 hours 🙁
Are Evans always this slow and Hermes this crap? As an Amazon Prime customer I have got used to next day deliveries. I did not expect that level of service from Evans but over a week to deliver a small, in stock item? - they are not going to survive if this is their typical performance.
How do other people who use them find the service?
I've just had an order for a jersey cancelled today as they had "miscalculated predicted demand".
I ordered it Easter Weekend in a special offer deal but as it was a summer jersey I wasn't too fussed that the predicted arrival date was 15th May. I am however bloody annoyed that I ordered that one in preference to another one they had in stock - which was £30 less than it is now priced at 🙄
Mrs ordered a new biker for h1ghland3r junior from them at the weekend as they had the one we wanted available from stock. Ordered it to be collected from the shop and figured we would get it after school today.
Mrs got an email from them yesterday to say the bike was in the store but we wouldn't be able to pick it up until Saturday as that was their earliest 'appointment'..?!?!
Phoned the shop to see if we could just pick it up as we didn't need much in the way of assistance. Apparently Specialized bikes now arrive in the boxes completely dissassembled. To quote the guy on the phone.. 'It's just a frame and a collection of components in the box.!!'
Now it's been a few years since I worked in a bike shop but people used to be able to just walk in, get some help picking and sizing a bike and then wait or come back another day when it had been PDI'd which usually took no more than an hour depending on the manufacturer.
I'm buying a £300 kids bike for (insert choice languge here) sake not an Aston Martin.!!
Apart from bromptons most bikes come in some state of dissasembly, with some brands even as far as needing bar tape done and such like. Since stuff needs built it's a case of assigning builds for when people want it, if the mechanics are fully booked up then they can't shunt an already booked in build as that would be unfair to that customer. Sometimes stuff can be squeezed in but would you be happy of you had a build booked in and they told you it wasn't done because they'd built a bike for someone else?
The Evans warehouse (Gatwick) is my nearest branch. No point going in there at lunchtime or at the weekends, it's ridiculously busy.
I ordered a Minion SS Silkshield from them Tuesday, turned up today which is good, what's not so good is that it isn't a Silkshield one. Can't find them in stock anywhere so guessing they're not out yet. I would just send it back but I need a tyre for the weekend. Will give them a call tomorrow and see what they say, if nothing else they'll correct the site
I ordered a waterproof jacket 5 days ago, said to be in stock. Email today stating it was an error, no stock, and suggested I call them.
They agreed a slightly more expensive jacket, next day delivery for the same price I originally paid.
I've always had great service from Evans via their next day option.
I got uncharacteristically organised and ordered something via their normal despatch.
7 days later after numerous Hermes clusterf*^@ks I spoke to their customer service, had the order cancelled and recalled and the same items re-sent via next day at no cost for the inconvenience. DPD told me when I was going to get it and allowed me to track the carrier.
Great service, rubbish carrier. Hermes is complete sh*t.
I had the same thing with the minion SS turned up expecting a silk shield one and it's just the normal exo job, tbh couldn't be arsed to moan about it and the delivery was slow turned up when I was out, checked the tracking that morning and had the hub sorted trailer message. Luckily Hermes chap left it in the garden
When I ordered my C2W bike there was one showing as in stock at a relatively local store so I opted to pick it up from that store. It's a bit more of a faff to get to, but worth it to get my hands on the bike a bit quicker. After a few days I'd heard nothing despite it saying available to collect next day or something similar and got in touch to find out that it had been sent back to the main distribution centre and would then be sent back to them, which delayed the whole thing by about a week.
Grrrr!
(And then there was the time when I tried to by a Croix de Fer from them. It turned up with a dent in the frame and the wrong pedals. I had to get the spec on screen and point at where it came with SPDs to get them to believe me that it shouldn't have flats on it. I didn't buy it in the end due to the dent, and they didn't have any more of that size in stock)
Phoned up yesterday and the very helpful guy checked to confirm they didn't actually have the silkshield, which they didn't, then price matched ze germans for me with a £10 refund. Can't grumble at that