“it sounds like they are inept”
Or just busier than their projections. Is that their “fault”?
Come on guys, until you have walked a mile in a man’s shoes perhaps it is inappropriate to pass such judgements.
So they underpriced there product, then oversold it and are now underdelivering. All the signs of a tough year in business. I would suggest that overcommunicating might be the BEST route to take. There really is not much worse for the customer than underdelivery.
Yes, it is their fault. I have to make projections everyday and am held accountable for them. I work for a $50 Billion electronics mfg and if we miss a customer shipment by 1 day all hell breaks loose. 3 months is a joke.
Felt is not a $50 billion company and does not have the attendant capabilities.
heh heh. dude, have you ever bought a swanky custom bike from a west coast builder? time projections mean nothing to these dudes. i once asked one - " dude do you even HAVE hours out there? the shortest time span you seem to recognize is the “week”. " nyuk nyuk. he thought it was pretty funny.
so far you are still doing OK, as they seem to be talking in terms of months. here is a little tip - if they start to make references to SEASONS, like, " late spring " you are in big trouble.
now then as tom has explained there are a bazillion things in the production of a “felt” that are way out of felt’s hands. first off, felt doesn’t actually make shit at this price. cheng lin mfg or whoever does. not too mention lee chin mfg for thos e"felt fix hubs, and maybe ho lee chong mfg for the seatpost, etc etc. god only knows where this track bike is, dude. there is chain of supplies and materials and distribution invoved. nobody really knows when your bike is gonna arrive.
and, let us not forget it is a cheap-ass nondescript entry level low volume track bike. not exactly gonna be rising to the top of anybodies must get done today list, i wager. get a bianchi, or a fuji, or a debernardi. those things are hanging like grapes in shops everywhere.
why did you give the dude your money, anyway? live and learn, brother.
Wow t-t-n, thanks for a different perspective.
I was starting to feel like the last man on the ground reaching for his final magazine and substantially outnumbered and surrounded.
Interestingly and conincidentally I just got off the phone with our outside sales rep SuperDave from Felt and he was telling me about a ton of bikes in bound at this time including a seaborne shipment of B2’s that is confrmed to have left port in Taiwan. That is good news.
well there you go tom. leave no man behind.
now then with that slow boatload of b2’s heading east maybe the crew at cheng lo shin can poke around and see about getting our man his track frame done. but then, we gotta get those lockring track hubs back from the powdercoater . . . . . . . and wait the supply of slotted dropouts got lost in shipment. . . . .and . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tom,
Why are you wasting your time with these posts regarding Felt? These people you are responding with must have been spoiled brats growing up and when they didn’t get what they wanted, when they wanted it, they cried. And that’s exactly, not necessarily Cyborg, the mentality some of these people have. You know and I know Felt has a great reputation. My friends own a bike shop here where I live. They are a Felt dealer. They have had nothing but GREAT dealings with Felt. They had a question and called Felt, and who do you think answered their question? None other than Jim Felt. Now is that customer service or is that customer service? As you mentioned, there is a big shortage of Shimano bike parts for whatever reason or another. I have a new bike sitting at my friend’s shop all put together and not even ridden yet. It is my spare bike if there is such a thing. Some people like cars, I like bikes. It’s alot cheaper and certainly healthier. Anyway, they are building up a frameset for one of our club members and they can’t get Dura-ace bar end shifters so they asked me how bad I wanted to ride my new, spare bike. I let them take the shifters off my bike to put on the bike they are building up because this guy is rideless (totalled his CF Trek pulling into his carport with bike on roofrack). From what I understand, all bike manufacturers have been put in an awkward customer service predicament because of lack of parts. Also, I haven’t had great luck sending e-mails and getting responses but when I call the toll free number for the likes of Quintana Roo, Cervelo, and Cannondale I have had my questions answered immediately. I don’t have any personal experience with Felt other than what my bike shop buds have had to say but based on their experience and other Felt owners I have spoken to, they are very happy and don’t regret the decision to buy Felt. One other note, I have been given the run-around by bike shops before only to find out they were BSing me after I took matters into my own hands and made a few calls to the manufacturer directly. Obviously I don’t deal with these shops anymore. In your case Cyborg, I hope your bike shop is being honest with you and not giving you the run-around. Call Felt directly and see what they say. If you’re unhappy after speaking with them, then go get your money back and look for another manufacturer.
How does all that relate to customer service? There’s no excuse for not returning calls/emails in a timely fashion…that’s what the complaint is about.
I just don’t see how anyone can defend a company that lacks common courtesy towards it’s customers.
ahhh.
i see it like this. nobody knows what the holdup is. nobody is gonna be able to find out. the dude on the phone can only tell the guy what somebody told him, which is what somebody lied about, which was based on a wild ass guess from another guy who only said something because he had who received his information from a secretary filling in for the person who really has no way of knowing anyway but was told a best guess from a guy who really was only making it up who heard from another guy. . . . . . . . .
that is the likely truth of the matter. would our poster be happy with that? would he prefer a prompt reply which was really just a wild ass guess??
the bike isn’t made yet. what else is there to say when that is all there is to say ?
Sigh. FYI, I am a woman. And I haven’t cried about this at all.
t-t-n, when I grow up, I hope to be as cool as you.
I feel like a chump for spending the money now. If it’s true that I have exceedingly high expectations (i.e., a response, any response, even a response saying “I have no info”) for customer service on this inexpensive bike, maybe the retailers can help set the expectations.
You know, “for the amount of money you are paying, no-one at the company will talk to you because you are completely insignificant.” I might have taken that deal, and would be much more staisfied with where things seem to be now.
Sorry, I forgot you were clairvoyant.
So it’s better to ignore a customers requests for answers than to state…" I honestly don’t know, but I’ll get back to you as soon as I do"
If you read my post again, you’ll see that I wasn’t implicating you as a crybaby. I said, “not necessarily Cyborg.” And I never made reference to your sex and could care less whether or not you are male or female. You are caught in an unfortunate situation. Tom D. has been selling and fitting bikes for a long time and if Tom D. says Felt has a good reputation for customer service than I would trust him. Don’t feel like everyone is attacking you, I am quite sympathetic to your situation because I have been there before. If you aren’t getting the answers you want to hear and you don’t want to wait for your track bike anymore, regardless of the price of the bike-I think that is irrelevant, shouldn’t matter whether you paid $400 or $4000 for it-customer service should be the same, then pick out another track bike from another manufacturer. Felt is not the only show in town.
I was referring to all of the references to me in this thread as “Dude” and “Brother” (not you, don’t feel I’m personally attacking you)
I don’t think you were personally attacking me but you sure painted everyone else in this thread with a broad brush!
you are correct. i made a broad reference and that wasn’t fair. my apologies to any i offended. look, Felt is a reputable company, and if you don’t mind the wait, you’ll be pleased in the long run. why don’t you get your LBS to contact their Felt rep and put the heat on the rep? My friends who own the bike shop have never had any problems getting info. out of their reps when they needed it.
alan, the excuse is they are busy trying to fill orders.
OK, so in summary:
Cyborg is not happy that her bike is not here.
Some feel that Felt is to blame.
Some feel it is beyond Felt’s control.
All valid points.
Now, can’t we all just get along??
You advice is good. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
1)Talked to my shop and had them call the rep. This is how I’ve been getting my info so far. Included two different occasions where Felt said it had already shipped he bike to the shop.
2)Sent three emails.
- called (during normal business hours). To be told (by the Controller) that there was no one there who could help me and that I needed to call back. Of course he did not want to take a message. I will admit that this was a real turn off. I have worked for many, many young companies and it can be a real problem when officers have the perception that there is some work that they are too good for. But maybe that’s my issue.
So Tom, whose experience I have come to respect from reading this board, says that they have great customer service, but he also says that they don’t have the bandwidth to deal with customers.
So that leads me back to my earlier point, what is good customer service in this context (and when does it start?? kidding). Is it just that I can expect them to service the warranty? What are reasonable expectations? And can the retailers help with setting thse expectations?
I hope I’ve been clear that my biggest concern at this point is Felt’s refusal to respond to me (even if it’s to say they don’t know what’s going on).
well apologies on the gender thing, cyborg - not to mention my conversational style.
paying up front was not a wise move. this is the store’s fault, not felt’s.
never believe delivery dates in the bike biz - especially ones involving bike companies which do not actually make bikes, forks, or anything that you are buying with their name on it. they are at the mercy of the people that DO make the stuff, who have agendas and problems of their own.
when dealing with a person who themself is faced with the same unanswerable questions day in day out consider cutting a person a little slack before standing in line with your OWN demand for the answer of an unaswerable question.
in light of all tom ( and i) has discussed, do you still think it reasonable to define felt’s " customer service" in terms of this one obscure little entry level low volume track bike? your choice but i don’t think so, as one man’s view. if it was a one-off waterford well yeah, sure demand and expect the moon. i don’t think this is the same, myself. and, it is purely a production delivery issue. i would not equate it past that - particulary in light of the other posters who all report felt is great in this area in general.
why not just get the money back?
fianlly, it could be your lucky day anyway. you mentioned you were gonna rid fix, as opposed to ride track. you should ride fix ( road) on a steel bike. that is the Way.
Lots of differing opinions on this issue. My opinion is that someone like Tom who is in the business will obviously have a good idea of what Felt is going through, their number of employees, and problems in more detail than the typical consumer. Since most customers would be purchasing their bicycle through a Felt dealer it would probably be a better idea for Felt to concentrate their limited resources on trying to keep the dealers informed as much as possible so that customers can access them for information. In addition to this strategy, Felt should remove their e-mail address from their website so that customers don’t all bypass the dealer and go to them when they don’t have the staffing required to answer 1000s of questions. As a consumer, when I see an e-mail address for customer support, I would expect a response (sooner rather than later) and not have the knowledge that tom has about the workload on their employees … which of course would lead me to think that their customer service was crappy. Keeping their dealers well-informed would also make it useful to purchase through a dealer (there were some posts a few days ago slamming the LBS for their prices, service, etc.) which would probably keep the bike shops happier. My $0.02.