Giant Bike Outlet - be ashamed

[totallyfixed]

Took a female friend of ours to pick up a hybrid bike from the local Giant franchise on the bike to work scheme. She is 5'3" and they had recommended a size medium, sorted that out and got it changed for a small. Next she gets accessories with the left over amount on her voucher, needs mudguards because naturally being a commuter / city bike it doesn't come with them, the Giant ones they supplied are the worst piece of crap I have ever seen on a bike and I've seen a few. Same with the panniers, truly awful, not worth £5 but charging £30 ought to last a month or so. It goes on, everything was massively overpriced and often poor quality, this is not the way to get people on bikes, very angry.
If you are a beginner always always get someone who is experienced to go with you, I cannot stress that enough.

 

[Alembicbassman]

The Giant pumps are almost identical to the ones sold at Lidl, so they just put their name on stuff. C2W isn't a great way to buy, plenty of discussions elsewhere as to the merits/demerits of the scheme. It's offered at my workplace, but I've always done much better buying discounted end of line bikes and kit. The best bike to get on C2W is a Brompton as they're never discounted.

 

[festival]

There are no Giant franchise's.
They are independently owned business's who have an special, exclusive arrangement with Giant UK.
Having said that its a shame a brand with such a good reputation fails in the basics of sizing a customer to bike.
Are you talking about Giant own brand products? and what models? I agree about the mudguards,its well known within the trade that their mudguards do not match expectations but in my experience the pannier racks (if thats what you mean) compare with other brands for £30
You are clearly angry but you need to be more specific about the goods and there quality if you are going to report so negatively or it does nothing for your argument.
Your comment,"Massively overpriced an often poor quality" means exactly what?
Your last sentence suggests you have no faith in any bike shop?

 

[totallyfixed]

There are no Giant franchise's.
They are independently owned business's who have an special, exclusive arrangement with Giant UK.
Having said that its a shame a brand with such a good reputation fails in the basics of sizing a customer to bike.
Are you talking about Giant own brand products? and what models? I agree about the mudguards,its well known within the trade that their mudguards do not match expectations but in my experience the pannier racks (if thats what you mean) compare with other brands for £30
You are clearly angry but you need to be more specific about the goods and there quality if you are going to report so negatively or it does nothing for your argument.
Your comment,"Massively overpriced an often poor quality" means exactly what?
Your last sentence suggests you have no faith in any bike shop?

Massively overpriced and poor quality - I fail to see any ambiguity there because that is exactly what I saw and experienced on every accessory we were shown. Please read my post again, I said panniers, the pannier rack was fine if overpriced. We were offered lights which again were poor value. I have several friends who run bike shops that offer decent value for money, quite how you come to the conclusion that I have no faith in any bike shop I don't understand.
I have been sourcing biles for people for a very long time including advising on set up / position and sizing and I have a fair idea on what is good quality and value for money and this wasn't. Virtually everything in the Giant store was Giant branded. As to whether it was a franchise or owned by Giant I couldn't give a stuff, that wasn't the thrust of my message. Interestingly as you moved up into the road bike section everything became better quality, almost as if they knew they could fob off the leisure cyclist with poorer quality.
I don't get into arguments on the internet, if you are questioning the truth of what I have said go into a store yourself then we'll talk again.

 

[MrJamie]

In my limited experience Giant bicycles are excellent, but their accessories seem awful, possibly mostly cheap crap rebranded with a silly pricetag. After buying my Giant i was briefly sucked into buying same brand accessories...

The minipump with the gauge was crap, broke a couple of innertubes where the valve joins despite trying not to put any strain on it (even watching a youtube video for technique!), not long after the schraeder/presta automatic bit broke so it stuck on one kind and then it died completely after just a couple of weeks. It looks identical to the one in Lidls as mentioned, but about 3-4 times the price. Replaced with a Lezyne mini pump, which has been faultless and far more effective.

The Giant mudguards themselves arent too bad (40-60mm range), but the fittings were terrible. The stays were way too long for a 700c wheel and the connector needs to sit over the very end to hold the mudguard, so needed a hacksaw to remove at least a few inches from each. I had some problem with the screws, iirc some missing and some were impossible to tighten and would just come undone very quickly so needed replacing. The fitting for the seatstay mount point didnt suit either, so ended up being cable tied around the pannier rack mounts. I know mudguards are frequently trouble to fit, but a friend with the same bike had a lot easier job and better fit with SKS guards and all their fitting options.

Its a shame they dont seem bothered about getting a quality name in accessories.

 

[festival]

Massively overpriced and poor quality - I fail to see any ambiguity there because that is exactly what I saw and experienced on every accessory we were shown. Please read my post again, I said panniers, the pannier rack was fine if overpriced. We were offered lights which again were poor value. I have several friends who run bike shops that offer decent value for money, quite how you come to the conclusion that I have no faith in any bike shop I don't understand.
I have been sourcing biles for people for a very long time including advising on set up / position and sizing and I have a fair idea on what is good quality and value for money and this wasn't. Virtually everything in the Giant store was Giant branded. As to whether it was a franchise or owned by Giant I couldn't give a stuff, that wasn't the thrust of my message. Interestingly as you moved up into the road bike section everything became better quality, almost as if they knew they could fob off the leisure cyclist with poorer quality.
I don't get into arguments on the internet, if you are questioning the truth of what I have said go into a store yourself then we'll talk again.

I confess, I assumed wrongly that you just might have been referring to a rack not bags as people often do in my experience, especially as £30 is more in line with the price of a rack than a pair of bags suitable for regular commuting.
I also agreed about the mudguards and to be honest many of there accessory range is suspect, considering the status of the parent company in the world of cycling.
Its fair to say some of the range would not be my choice for value for money and I am confident my knowledge on this subject far exceeds yours, but I choose not to explain why.
I can't speak for the quality of service your friend received but I assure you there are many excellent products in their accessory, parts and clothing range. In fact its because Giant do not use another name in branding these products, unlike Specialized,Trek etc that they are not more widely used.
You say you do not want to get into an argument on the internet, who's arguing! I wasn't, but your aggressive and nasty manner would suggest that you must have plenty of experience of contention and altercation.

 

[rollinstok]

The victim if any here is the unsuspecting lady who purchased the bike and accessories.
Its very sad that today, even with the internet and access to information, people will gladly part with their money to a salesman with a vested interest who gives advice based on profit margin and whatever happens to be in stock that they cant shift to anyone with a bit of nous.
I feel sorry for her but its also her fault for not bothering to take anyone with her to give advice, and also for being lazy in not finding out about the items she was spending her hard earned on.

 

[ttcycle]

I don't think it is the fault of the purchaser. Granted it's wise to research beforehand but a lot of people don't and trust sales staff. Poor advice from idiots at point of sale shouldn't become the norm.

 

[rollinstok]

There are 3 types of buyer. The shrewd, the ignorant and those with more money then sense.
If as I suspect, the lady falls into the middle category she really should have taken someone with her.
A salesman will hardly ever recommend something that is ideal for the ignorant, they will almost always recommend something that just happens to be in stock or is easy and profitable to get into stock.

 

[e-rider]

A few things to note:

1. Giant doesn't have a particularly 'good' reputation, it might be the largest bike company in the world, but a huge part of its market share comes from cheap bikes (less than £500). You would be insane to compare Giant to the likes of De Rosa etc.
2. Any shop will sell all kinds of shoot to someone who just walks in clueless - Giant themselves are not to blame for this.
3. £30 for panniers is very cheap indeed - I certainly wouldn't expect to get high quality for that price! Decent panniers are £90 to £120 a pair. I expect the same can be said for the mudguards and other accs. You get what you pay for and it sounds like you are out of touch with the price of decent quality items.
4. All that said, you could argue that everything we buy is overpriced - depends what you consider to be a fair mark-up. Still, the producers/workers in the far east get a worse deal as they have no choice and often work for peanuts, we can at least decide if we want to buy it or not.

 

[e-rider]

[QUOTE 1790682, member: 45"]I don't think it's fair to say that selling bikes at under £500 gives a brand a bad reputation.[/quote]

no, but most of Giant's sales are for cheap mass produced bikes. These might be good value for money compared to the competition so I guess what I'm saying is, they might have a good reputation for selling value for money cheap bikes, but not for selling high quality items. The OP sounded like he thought because he was buying Giant, it was some sort of guarantee of high quality, when the reality is cheap mass production in China.

I appreciate that Giant also sell high end bikes too. This was what I was saying about De Rosa. Brands that onl sell high end stuff kind of provide a guarantee of quality - ie. anything with their name on will be good quality because they make no cheap stuff. This can not be said about Giant that make a whole range of stuff from very cheap to very expensive, so each item needs to be asessed individually.

 

[festival]

I appreciate that Giant also sell high end bikes too. This was what I was saying about De Rosa. Brands that onl sell high end stuff kind of provide a guarantee of quality - ie. anything with their name on will be good quality because they make no cheap stuff. This can not be said about Giant that make a whole range of stuff from very cheap to very expensive, so each item needs to be asessed individually.

I dont know what shops you go in but shops as you describe would not last long if that were true and I would suggest Giant may not have as "Trendy "a name as some but a "Bad reputation" as you imply just is not true.
If you include BSO's in your range of bikes from "very cheap to expensive" I would argue that Giant do not make this kind of bike as their cheapest adult bike starts at £299. Cheap yes, but a world of difference from the BSO's offered at the supermarkets for £80.
Its unfair to imply only cheap mass produced bikes come out of china, I assume you are aware Giant have made some models for Trek,Cervelo,Colnago,Pinarello and some tubing for Specialized, but not De Rosa as far as I know.