jefmcg
Guru
TL;DR - took my bike into a shop to have it checked after a collision, they ignored the damage from the collision, and checked the cassette for wear and suggested a part I didn't need. Took another bike into the same shop 4 years later to have a bolt tightened, and the only thing they were interested in doing is a full service, and again suggested a part I didn't need.
in 2011, I had a head on collision on CS3 with another cyclist, bent my front rim and possibly damaged the front fork. I limped in to Evans at Canary Wharf with my damaged bike into for safety inspection and quote. When I came back at the end of the day they said
"Your chain and cassette are worn. And your jockey wheels need replacing"
Um, did you understand I was in a crash? What about the front wheel?
"Yeah, that will need replacing too".
The jockey wheels are almost new.
"Who replaced them"
I did
"..."
So basically, I took a bicycle in for a safety check, and they just looked for things that required a standard service. And invented things that did not need fixing. Needless to say, I reclaimed my bicycle from them and took it somewhere else.
Fast forward to yesterday. On a social ride, I stopped at Canary Wharf and noticed the bolt holding my crank in place was loose! I tightened it, but didn't have a torqued allen key, so hopped over to Evans to see if they could tighten it correctly. A guy took it upstairs for me, and came back a few minutes later. "Your cranks need replacement. Or something else is wrong. We need to book it in for a service" That was it. He repeated "you need to book it in" several times. As that store was not convenient to me, I headed back towards home, and took it to my favourite local place, Giant in Twickenham. As I stood beside him, he removed the crank, examined the splines for wear, noted everything was in good order and tightened the bolts I had not realised were loose. All sorted and good as new with a minute or 2, and I think they only charged me for it because I offered.
So Evans 1) tried to turn a simple turn of an allen key into a £100+ service 2) sent me off on a bike that was actually dangerous rather than fix it and miss out on the potential service (yup, it worked loose again within 5 miles and caused a near fall, when I lost control of the bike when setting off. lucky the car behind was paying attention)
in 2011, I had a head on collision on CS3 with another cyclist, bent my front rim and possibly damaged the front fork. I limped in to Evans at Canary Wharf with my damaged bike into for safety inspection and quote. When I came back at the end of the day they said
"Your chain and cassette are worn. And your jockey wheels need replacing"
Um, did you understand I was in a crash? What about the front wheel?
"Yeah, that will need replacing too".
The jockey wheels are almost new.
"Who replaced them"
I did
"..."
So basically, I took a bicycle in for a safety check, and they just looked for things that required a standard service. And invented things that did not need fixing. Needless to say, I reclaimed my bicycle from them and took it somewhere else.
Fast forward to yesterday. On a social ride, I stopped at Canary Wharf and noticed the bolt holding my crank in place was loose! I tightened it, but didn't have a torqued allen key, so hopped over to Evans to see if they could tighten it correctly. A guy took it upstairs for me, and came back a few minutes later. "Your cranks need replacement. Or something else is wrong. We need to book it in for a service" That was it. He repeated "you need to book it in" several times. As that store was not convenient to me, I headed back towards home, and took it to my favourite local place, Giant in Twickenham. As I stood beside him, he removed the crank, examined the splines for wear, noted everything was in good order and tightened the bolts I had not realised were loose. All sorted and good as new with a minute or 2, and I think they only charged me for it because I offered.
So Evans 1) tried to turn a simple turn of an allen key into a £100+ service 2) sent me off on a bike that was actually dangerous rather than fix it and miss out on the potential service (yup, it worked loose again within 5 miles and caused a near fall, when I lost control of the bike when setting off. lucky the car behind was paying attention)
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