Brunswick St Cycles.. Never again

The other half and I wandered down to BSC recently to buy her a
commuting bike - this one happily paid for by her employer.

The fellow who looked after us on that day, Mick, was very helpful, and
within an hour or so we had tallied up everything she needed in terms of
bike & accessories, and they prepared an invoice so we could get said
employer to foot the bill.

Was about $1300 worth, so not a bad hours' work for the bike shop. As
we browsed, I noted that everything was moderately to horrifically
overpriced, but didn't mind much because a) not our money, and b) the
service seemed very good, and that can be a nice/useful thing.

The purchase order was duly prepared, and she rang BSC to ask if it was
ready for pickup. We had been assured that all the accessories listed
on the invoice would be put aside so there would be no hassle when it
came to pickup time.

She rang 3 times trying to get someone who could actually answer the
question "Is the bike on invoice no. xxx ready for pickup yet?" with
something other than "uhhh, I'm not sure" without much luck.

On the 3rd time she was assured that, yes, it was ready for pickup. So
she headed over to BSC and, as expected, found that it was not ready.
She twiddled her thumbs for 20 minutes while they faffed around and
eventually rolled it out to her.

She loaded it and the accessories into her car - roll forward a few
hours and we check it out when she + the bike arrive home.

A cursory inspection by me revealed:

1. Mudguards fitted (unrequested) to suit 26" wheels, not the 28" ones
this bike has. (!!) So the front wheel rubbed, HARD, against it. How
the guy who rolled the bike out the front of the shop failed to notice
this, I have no idea.

2. Silver bidon cage instead of the black one explicitly requested.

3. Opened box to find a red helmet instead of the grey one we selected.

4. Tail light hanging loosely from under-seat pouch, pointing pretty
much at the back wheel, whilst its mounting bracket was left on the seat
post, rotated away from the the pouch so as to scrape your thighs when
riding. Nice attention to detail.

5. Substituted a different rack to the one purchased without consulting
us - supplied the very rack that we had discussed in-store and I had
said "no, definitely not that one".

6. Panniers had mysteriously disappeared from the invoice so of course
were not present. Admittedly we should have checked each item on the
invoice instead of trusting the clever sales person who prepared it.

Hey, at least they pumped the tyres up. No doubt they took great care
whilst assembling the bike to ensure it was safe to ride.

Yesterday she went back to the shop to swap the helmet for the right one
and give some feedback. Sales-drones were of course largely
disinterested in her feedback, and told her the grey helmet has sold
out, but they can order one in if she is happy to wait.

All up, an amazingly disappointing experience.


Cheers,
Jules

Jules Wrote:
The other half and I wandered down to BSC recently to buy her a
commuting bike - this one happily paid for by her employer.


Which store? IIRC the three of them are run as separate entities, just
under the one company 'banner'.


--
gplama

Jules Wrote:
Was about $1300 worth, so not a bad hours' work for the bike shop. As
we browsed, I noted that everything was moderately to horrifically
overpriced, but didn't mind much because a) not our money, and b) the
service seemed very good, and that can be a nice/useful thing.

Are you sure? In my experiance BSC's prices are cheaper than your
average bike shop.

On the 3rd time she was assured that, yes, it was ready for pickup. So
she headed over to BSC and, as expected, found that it was not ready.
She twiddled her thumbs for 20 minutes while they faffed around and
eventually rolled it out to her.

That I can sympathise with. I'm assuming you were dealing with the
fitzroy store, as their workshop is by far the busiest. After several
attempts I gave up on getting them to work on my bike and switched to
Paul ( http://www.astroboyracer.com/ ) who is just around the corner.

1. Mudguards fitted (unrequested) to suit 26" wheels, not the 28" ones

28" wheels?


--
SomeGuy

SomeGuy wrote:
Jules Wrote:
Was about $1300 worth, so not a bad hours' work for the bike shop. As
we browsed, I noted that everything was moderately to horrifically
overpriced, but didn't mind much because a) not our money, and b) the
service seemed very good, and that can be a nice/useful thing.

Are you sure? In my experiance BSC's prices are cheaper than your
average bike shop.

On the 3rd time she was assured that, yes, it was ready for pickup. So
she headed over to BSC and, as expected, found that it was not ready.
She twiddled her thumbs for 20 minutes while they faffed around and
eventually rolled it out to her.

That I can sympathise with. I'm assuming you were dealing with the
fitzroy store, as their workshop is by far the busiest. After several
attempts I gave up on getting them to work on my bike and switched to
Paul ( http://www.astroboyracer.com/ ) who is just around the corner.

1. Mudguards fitted (unrequested) to suit 26" wheels, not the 28" ones

28" wheels?


--
SomeGuy


28" - 700c? I just bought a couple of 700c tubes recently and they
were labelled 28" on the box as well. That was something new to me as
well.

My experience with BSC has been mostly positive. They do get very busy
on Saturdays, but that shouldn't excuse the poor service and simple
mistakes that Jules is reporting.

On 2007-03-02, Jules wrote:
The other half and I wandered down to BSC recently to buy her a
commuting bike - this one happily paid for by her employer.

Hey, at least they pumped the tyres up. No doubt they took great care
whilst assembling the bike to ensure it was safe to ride.

I've had experience at that store which lead me to suggest you check the
bike over very carefuly and not assume it has left the shop safe to ride.

I had V-brakes fitted to an old drop-bar touring bike which required a
gizmo fitted in addition to the brakes to change the mechanical
advantage of the levers, after picking the bike up I noticed on the ride
home that the pannier rack was now missing two attachment bolts. I turn
around back to the store and get them replaced.

When I get home I give the bike a once to and notice the gizmo they've
fitted on the rear brake has no nut on the bolt which holds it together.
Pure luck had gotten me home before the brakes failed.

Now mechanics from BSC had seen this at twice, once when they installed
it and again when I went back to point out the parts of my pannier rack
they'd lost.

Unforgivable.

Cheers

Joel