Evan's Cycles in trouble - ?

[stephec]

About 30 years ago I went to college to do a City & Guilds as a Cabinet Maker it was a 2 year 'full time' course but they also ran the same course for 'day release' apprentices. Come Exam time (a mix of written and practical) of our group of 40+ 'full timers about 65% of us passed whereas with the 'trade' lads none of them passed the exams.........they just didn't have the skillset to cut dovetail joints etc. and as for veneering work not a hope, things like that aren't done in industry, something needs veneering it goes to the veneer man.

Probably being used as the tea boy when they're at work. 😂

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Not without pedals, I suspect :x)

If I remember correctly he showed up with his own.

 

[raleighnut]

Probably being used as the tea boy when they're at work. 😂

Nah I've worked in the industry, everything is glued and pinned/screwed together. Veneer panels are bought in with either chipboard or MDF substrate and any 'lippings' are put on by machine. High quality means they might use biscuit joints and don't mention 'knock down' cupboards held together with the 'cam and dowel' system. The concept of being able to cut a mortice and tenon joint or a dovetail is long gone in industry and those were the skills I wanted to learn (and did) In a factory environment you are taught to operate one machine and then work on it for 6 months or a year before being taught how to work another maybe.
I ended up working in shopfitting where I'd get a set of drawings dumped on my bench to make a display stand or somesuch but at least I saw the entire job through to completion from making a 'cutting list' to ordering the materials then constructing it.

 

[Jameshow]

Four pages in and no pedantic smartarse has asked ...

Who is Evan, and why are his cycles in trouble?

A guy on the radio took a taxi in Lancaster.

Or did he do a taxi a Lancaster!!;

 

[Alex321]

We have two in Cardiff. One in Sports Direct and a large store at the end of the High Street. Plenty of stock in the main store, but not a lot in the in-store one. Never had work done there so cannot comment.

The Cardiff office of the company I work for is moving early next year from the Bay to the Coal House - about 50 yards from the Evans under Dumfries Place car park.

 

[Illaveago]

I went into an Evans cycle shop in Barnsley yesterday. I was bored and just wanted to look round. 2 chaps in there, I expect they were bored as I was the only potential customer in there. I had a look round but nothing really grabbed me. Trek, Specialized, Pineapple, Cannondale, Ridley. I prefer buying oldish bikes and doing them up but sometimes it's nice to see some new bikes which look really smart.

 

[Mr Celine]

I bought my latest n+1 from E vans, for the sole reason that it was a bargain I couldn't find it in stock anywhere else.

I don't think they understand the concept of click and collect, or collect from store as they call it.
I bought and paid for it online, to be collected from the Edinburgh store.

A few days later I started getting texts from ArrowXL about delivering an item from Studio, asking me to contact them about a delivery. I'd never heard of either company but they were persistent. According to the interweb Studio is a Frasers Group furniture store. I'd still never heard from Evans so phoned the Edinburgh store, who said ArrowXL did sometimes deliver to their store. They couldn't explain why they would contact me rather than them to arrange a collect from store. Anyhow, I duly responded to the email and requested delivery for the following Saturday.

I got another text the Friday night informing me the delivery would be between 7:00 and 8:00 the next morning. This was received after ArrowXL's helpline had closed and they didn't respond to my frantic attempts to contact them at 7:00. I got a call from the driver's mate at 7:40 to say I'm next delivery. He confirmed that it was going to Evans Edinburgh Store, and no, he didn't think I lived in a shop and on further reflection agreed it was unlikely anyone would be in a bike shop over an hour before it was due to open. He phoned back again after checking (he said) with his boss who said they couldn't change their route and would have to take the bike back to the warehouse.

It eventually arrived the following Thursday and I picked it up on the Saturday. To be fair to the shop staff, they did offer to adjust the seat, bars etc but I declined this as I could do it myself anyway. However, I would have expected the bars to be straight. Having fixed that, adjusted the saddle etc, went for a test ride and had gone a few miles before realising the bars weren't even centred - they were actually offset to the left by 10mm. The front derailleur hadn't been set up properly either.

I declined to take it back to the store for a free 200 mile check and adjust.

 

[Alex321]

I bought my latest n+1 from E vans, for the sole reason that it was a bargain I couldn't find it in stock anywhere else.

I don't think they understand the concept of click and collect, or collect from store as they call it.
I bought and paid for it online, to be collected from the Edinburgh store.

A few days later I started getting texts from ArrowXL about delivering an item from Studio, asking me to contact them about a delivery. I'd never heard of either company but they were persistent. According to the interweb Studio is a Frasers Group furniture store. I'd still never heard from Evans so phoned the Edinburgh store, who said ArrowXL did sometimes deliver to their store. They couldn't explain why they would contact me rather than them to arrange a collect from store. Anyhow, I duly responded to the email and requested delivery for the following Saturday.

I got another text the Friday night informing me the delivery would be between 7:00 and 8:00 the next morning. This was received after ArrowXL's helpline had closed and they didn't respond to my frantic attempts to contact them at 7:00. I got a call from the driver's mate at 7:40 to say I'm next delivery. He confirmed that it was going to Evans Edinburgh Store, and no, he didn't think I lived in a shop and on further reflection agreed it was unlikely anyone would be in a bike shop over an hour before it was due to open. He phoned back again after checking (he said) with his boss who said they couldn't change their route and would have to take the bike back to the warehouse.

It eventually arrived the following Thursday and I picked it up on the Saturday. To be fair to the shop staff, they did offer to adjust the seat, bars etc but I declined this as I could do it myself anyway. However, I would have expected the bars to be straight. Having fixed that, adjusted the saddle etc, went for a test ride and had gone a few miles before realising the bars weren't even centred - they were actually offset to the left by 10mm. The front derailleur hadn't been set up properly either.

I declined to take it back to the store for a free 200 mile check and adjust.

And on top of all that, Evans are the only store I have come across where you have to pay to collect from store (almost as much as having it delivered to home).

 

[Mr Celine]

And on top of all that, Evans are the only store I have come across where you have to pay to collect from store (almost as much as having it delivered to home).

It stated that in the T & Cs when I was considering buying it but they didn't actually apply a delivery charge at the checkout.

 

[Psamathe]

And on top of all that, Evans are the only store I have come across where you have to pay to collect from store (almost as much as having it delivered to home).

To me that highlights the Ashley changes and deterioration of the company.

When I purchased my bike from them pre-Ashley days I'd chosen the bike but was worried about the size so wanted to test ride the probable size and the size above (in the days when sizing was in 2 cm increments). Branch only had the likely size but another branch had the size larger so they got the other branch to ship the bike to their central warehouse and then back out to my branch so I could test ride both same visit. (I had to pay a £10 deposit returnable if I just turned-up at the branch even if that was for 5 secs to "don't like the colour").

 

[Illaveago]

To me that highlights the Ashley changes and deterioration of the company.

When I purchased my bike from them pre-Ashley days I'd chosen the bike but was worried about the size so wanted to test ride the probable size and the size above (in the days when sizing was in 2 cm increments). Branch only had the likely size but another branch had the size larger so they got the other branch to ship the bike to their central warehouse and then back out to my branch so I could test ride both same visit. (I had to pay a £10 deposit returnable if I just turned-up at the branch even if that was for 5 secs to "don't like the colour").

When I worked in Halfords it would have been down to the good will of a member of staff who lived near to where the other cycle was. They would have picked the bike up and brought it in to work with them the next day.

 

[Drago]

Its probably very difficult to make decent money via the traditional retail model in a bike shop.

Look at how people regard car dealers. Ita a rip off, a con, say the people who couldn't themselves change a wiper blade and then get uppity when someone runnjng a business intending to make a profit wants paying to do it for them.

And most adults, despite the moaning, rightly or wronly regard a car as essential and grudgingly pay.

So imagine whatnit must be like in a bike shop, where manufacturers in recent years have repositioned themselves as makers of expensive lifestyle accessories rather and as providers of a means of transport. I fear thwt even the world's greatest Eric Pickles impersonator will eventually fail and the company will fold.

 

[Psamathe]

To me that highlights the Ashley changes and deterioration of the company.

When I purchased my bike from them pre-Ashley days I'd chosen the bike but was worried about the size so wanted to test ride the probable size and the size above (in the days when sizing was in 2 cm increments). Branch only had the likely size but another branch had the size larger so they got the other branch to ship the bike to their central warehouse and then back out to my branch so I could test ride both same visit. (I had to pay a £10 deposit returnable if I just turned-up at the branch even if that was for 5 secs to "don't like the colour").

When I worked in Halfords it would have been down to the good will of a member of staff who lived near to where the other cycle was. They would have picked the bike up and brought it in to work with them the next day.

Branches were far enough apart that it was shipping between branches across the country I think in my case they had to get the 2nd size from Yorkshire down to Reading (not many Reading staff commute daily from Yorkshire). Hence back to central warehouse then out to different store.

 

[Rusty Nails]

When I worked in Halfords it would have been down to the good will of a member of staff who lived near to where the other cycle was. They would have picked the bike up and brought it in to work with them the next day.

The Halfords my father bought me my first bike. They were really good in those days.

 

[Rusty Nails]

Another photo of Halfords from the same time.