SHODDY BMX DEALERS!

[HEYWOOD BMX]

  For the last 2 days I`ve been phoning/mailing various BMX shops in the UK.The level of piss poor service/lack of product knowledge is unbelievable.Plenty of stores that have the product listed on their websites or advertised in the current issue of Ride don`t have the items in stock or can`t tell me how long before they do.The stores I have contacted include Alans & Custom Riders.WTF is going on? 

[wildwood1971]

typical British service mate im afraid.

My girlfriend bought a new car last week and whilst the car was being prepared for collection the sales manager keep me informed of progress via txt message

Soon told him straight 

Were talking a top VW dealer as well - never known anything like it - When i ran my PR business if i had kept my customers informed via txt message id of been on the dole faster than a racing snail

[zed4130]

must admit ive only ever dealy with alans, and they have always been ok , but ive heard about many others that are crap,

[perry]

seems to be a lack of love for it anymore

i only know as far back as mid 90s but back then you were on personal terms with the staff , you could have a laugh with them , had personal pricing etc

now i just get a sense that your just another rider in a long line of just other riders and a lot of the "feeling" is lost 

[Trev]

a lot of shops got stung when "bmx died". they ended up with so much stock that they never thought they'd ever shift and a lot went under because of it. i guess they've all learnt from it. so now a lot of them tend to try and get the orders before getting the stock. it wouldn't be too bad if they were honest with you about it, but their websites and magazine ads state they have them and only once you try and purchase them, do they tell you differently.

[pickle]

have dealt with Alans via phone and email and always been very good, been in custom riders a lot and they've always been great too.

would never deal with winstanleys again......EVER!  

[Trev]

have dealt with Alans via phone and email and always been very good, been in custom riders a lot and they've always been great too.

would never deal with winstanleys again......EVER!  

totally agree with you on that. Alans & Custom Riders have always been good.

Winstanleys.....never ever again!!!

[dialledbikes]

As businesses get more successful they get busier and the owners who may have started them as a labour of love have to delegate.

I guess the hard part of running a rider owned business/company is finding staff who are as passionate about the sport/business as the owner.

[HEYWOOD BMX]

  I have dealt with both Alans & Custom Riders  for years with no problems.I myself have 20+ years experience of working for 2 different service industries,so running a shop/mail order hardly seems like rocket science to me.I`d just take my money elsewhere,but these are 2 specialist shops who often have items that no other UK dealers have.I`d never use Winstanleys again though!

[THIRSTYKIRSTY]

JAMES

YOUR THE SHODDYEST MAN

HA HA

R

[berndott]

talking about alans, is the online shop bugged to you guys too?

[zed4130]

talking about alans, is the online shop bugged to you guys too?

no its just you 

[eloopnai]

i posted a thread on ere a while back saying i was peed off about people saying its in stock then emailing you saying it isnt
does your head right in 


gotta say alans have always been good though

[JT71]

I'm seriously wondering if a BMX shop could pay the mortgage and bills....

problem is Cov is only a small city and the Ride store is pretty much all you need.

[Trev]

I think a BMX only shop may struggle a bit unless it's as big as Alans or CR.
I'm not sure there is enough demand to succeed on BMX alone.
I don't know about other areas of the country and different parks, but to me it appears that only a couple of the kids really buy a lot of new stuff. The rest of it just seems to do the rounds. Most of the kids are generally running frames, forks, bars etc that are on their 4th or 5th owners.
I guess the shops must be making enough money though or they wouldn't do it.

[berndott]

talking about alans, is the online shop bugged to you guys too?

no its just you 

thanks mate, so i have to tune my mozilla browser 

[JT71]

I think a BMX only shop may struggle a bit unless it's as big as Alans or CR.
I'm not sure there is enough demand to succeed on BMX alone.
I don't know about other areas of the country and different parks, but to me it appears that only a couple of the kids really buy a lot of new stuff. The rest of it just seems to do the rounds. Most of the kids are generally running frames, forks, bars etc that are on their 4th or 5th owners.
I guess the shops must be making enough money though or they wouldn't do it.

I think you are right Trev, Ride does BMX, Road bikes and Skate board stuff.

I'm looking at getting into some new school stuff (not Fly & Proper though) but I've seen your stuff, and whilst I don't know how well you do, which I'm sure is okay, I'm very conscious of getting stuck with loads of expensive year old stock no one wants.

[meticulous]

alans has always been good to me too, but when a friend rang up the other day with intentions of getting advice about biulding up his 2007 pk ripper, the guy who he spoke too just kept saying look on the website, he didnt want that as a answer and wanted the guy to say yes we can do that, you need this you need that, sometimes it all depends on who you actually speak to.

[Trev]

I think you are right Trev, Ride does BMX, Road bikes and Skate board stuff.

I'm looking at getting into some new school stuff (not Fly & Proper though) but I've seen your stuff, and whilst I don't know how well you do, which I'm sure is okay, I'm very conscious of getting stuck with loads of expensive year old stock no one wants.

I do okay, but barely enough to really make the effort worthwhile. I am aware the money is not gonna roll in instantly. Need to build up a reputation first. Every now and again you get a good week, but most of the time it's fairly quiet. The biggest problem is where you sell it. With some of the smaller stuff, the mark up is so low. If you sell it on ebay, it has to be cheaper than the main shops to attract the customers and by the time you've paid your insertion fees, your final value fees and your paypal fees, you'll be lucky to break even. But I'll tolerate that sometimes in order to help build up a good reputation.
You will end up with certain stock which no one buys then gets out of date and is worth squat (unless you keep it and the next generation of RAD members decide to build Mike Miller or Mark Webb replicas). A lot of the time, I'll let the old stuff go for less than cost price just to shift it. But hey ho, you've got to be in it to win it.

[TwoBobRob]

When I had my little shop the biggest frustration was the distributors. They simply didnt have the quantities in to serve the little guys like me, so most often the limited stocks of new cool stuff went straight out to the bigger more established shops and I'd go begging.

I suspect the problem still exsists now. The shops just go ahead and advertise everything thats current and just live in hope that the distributor will actually have it on the shelf when they ask.....

[bmxmatt1974]

you all knocking winstanleys but i got to say when my wife ordered my fit complete last year it turned up next day so cant complain about that for service.  not ordered anything from them since mind

[Trev]

you all knocking winstanleys but i got to say when my wife ordered my fit complete last year it turned up next day so cant complain about that for service.  not ordered anything from them since mind

even a blind squirrel will eventually find a nut....

[TwoBobRob]

There could be a good reason for that....

If the distributor had that Fit in stock, then Winstanleys would have just made a single phone call and the bike would have been shipped direct from the distributor.  So in fact, it was the distributors efficiency that got the bike there so quickly   

[Trev]

I don't think they go out of their way to be useless, so if they had the item in stock, there would be no reason for any sort of delay.

In fact when I bought my Haro Sport from there, i believe it arrived fairly quickly. The problem I have with them if their aftersales treatment I received. The bars were chipped to fook and the fork bolt was broken. They didn't seem the slightest bit interested after they had got my money. 18 months later, I'm still waiting. For that reason only, I will never use them again. But a lot of other people have had bad experiences from them too. Too many bad stories for my liking, considering that you rarely hear a bad word against Alans or CR and I'm sure more of us shop there than Winstanleys.

[TwoBobRob]

I shopped with Winstanleys twice. First time was spot on, friendly on the phone and the stuff was shipped out nice and quickly. Second time it went the way of so many others - order turned up wrong and incomplete and has never been rectified. In their defense they didnt take any money they shouldn't have, but I never got the stuff I ordered.

Personal service is the key. I never lost a customer all the time I was in business, I'm proud of that