Unfortunately, Greg is long gone from the thread so he won’t be seeing all the responses.
I must tell you that I think the policy of no critical comments about retailers leads to some problems on ST. We get a bias toward good reviews. We need to be careful not to end up like the ads for movies where they just put in snippets of the reviews that like the movie.
It sounds like the guy is a pain. And Tom, (thank you for your extensive info on your website, by the way, it is a big help to a lot of people), you seem to have handled things about as well as could be expected. If you were my LBS in Chicago, I would take that as a sign that you are just the type of place to deal with in the future. We should cut the guy some slack, though, in that Tom told us that the things the guy got so agitated about really did happen. If you shell out many thousand bucks for a new bike and you have clanking and your headset comes loose, even if that is some snafu from the manufacturer you can see why he got mad. Sounds like he misdirected his anger at you Tom.
Did we ever resolve why the guy wanted the Felt and not another Softride?
Actually, i would stop short of refering to Greg as a pain. Within the last two hours Greg accepted what was a reasonable reconciliation of the matter.
In my book, that makes him a reasonable man who had a valid concern that has been addressed.
Unless I’m mistaken Dan has repeatedly stated that such negativity directed toward ANY multisport business person will not be tolerated. I suspect this thread will disappear as soon as he sees it.
Second most people that get so insensed about a loose/lose/loooose handle bar and a bottem bracket creak that they are willing to “Warn” people and smear a companies name are likely not easy to deal with.
I think most peoples reaction would have been the same had the OP stated “Stay away from Ford cars because the door on my Focus rattles”.
I do believe Tom deserves more crap than he gets. But probably gives more to the community than most as well…so maybe a wash.
As someone who is a Bikesport customer and an acquaintance of Greg’s, I felt like some sort of positive resolution was possible. I am glad that you were able to make it happen.
Creaks in your bottom bracket and bolts that either come loose or were loose to start with are common problems on new bikes. It’s also common for it to take time for your body to adjust to a fitting and even to make minor setup changes after a fitting. I don’t think that has anything to do with Felt or Bikesport.
It’s fair to have high expectations when you drop $4500 on a bike, but it is common to have minor problems in the first few rides on a new bike. More exotic bikes are also usually less reliable than mid-range bikes, so the chances of odd problems are only magnified when you are dealing with carbon and titanium doo dads.
Any bike shop can fix your creaking BB and tighten up your handlebar binder bolt. Maybe in this case you should take your bike to a LBS and have those two problems fixed. You’re still getting the best of both worlds: Quick availability, a good price, and a good fitting from Tom and good service from a local shop.
excellent points. i really trust my lbs a great deal and told them to build up my bike the way they saw fit within the given budget. she turned out great. but i’ll tell you upon my first ride my saddle ended up being loose, and there were some tweaks that needed done with the bars. took her back in, got it squared up, and then got it tuned up again after a few hundred miles. after that she was pretty much perfect for 2000 or more miles, and have done one tune up this summer. i don’t think it’s uncommon to have an adjustment phase in the beginning with a new bike. or is that wrong?
Agreed. I recently got a Tequilo, not a high end bike, but def not cheap. I had bottom bracket issues in the first 200 miles. Nothing the LBS couldnt fix in a day. I also ride with whatever tools I think I might need to adjust or tighten something. The bike is still new and until it has about 500 miles I will assume that some bolts will need to be tightened over the course of a ride.
Great point Chunky Lover. What a beautiful microcosm of life Slowtwitch is. What started out, at its genesis, as a well-intentioned forum for people to commune, share information, and enjoy a sense of kinship has predictably denigrated into its own mini-reality, complete with a xenophobic mob mentality. The very idea of a “troll” is unbelievably amusing. In fact, the other day I saw a post warning of “trolling,” as if somehow uninformed or mal-intentioned postings might somehow disrupt your everyday life and cause you emotional harm. This Greg dude was called a fraud and a liar, then was publicly castigated, inexplicably researched, and subsequently “outed” for the sin of blaspemy, or as it’s better known here on Slowtwitch, criticizing one of the alpha dogs. I will say, however, the guy had it coming. How dare he voice his complaint about a triathlon retailer on a free, open forum? Well, we showed him. Take a bow everyone!
greg: I just wanted to tell you that you are complete trash. To think you can call someone out to hurt their business b/c you aren’t happy, then get called out is the greatest thread ever.
Having been a bicycle mechanic for a significant amount of time, and having worked in several different shops, i cannot express to you all how many times someone has had a routine problem… The problems this gentleman had while being somewhat rare, are certainly not uncommon nor serious… Uh…he said his handle bars became loose which I would consider a serious problem…especially as I descended at 40mph. Of course I routinely check all the critical nuts and bolts every few rides to make sure something like this doesn’t surprise me if I was unlucky and had you worked at my LBS. :o)
Gee, Greg “can’t get no satisfaction” from Tom. He bad-mouths Tom on ST. Everyone jumps his ass. Tom comes on and is all conciliatory. Suddenly, very suddenly, Greg is taken care of to his satisfaction. Looks like that post worked its magic, eh?
