First and foremost, apologies for my lack of involvement in the club over the summer. Please glance at this photograph; you can tell this is a sorry tale from the off.
One sunny afternoon in early June, I was cycling home with the usual absence of despair that comes from riding the Guvnor. I’m sure you know the feeling too: heightened moments of appreciation, widened perspectives, issues solved. Yet upon a sturdy climb the handlebar set loose a little. A first, and only a minor inconvenience for sure? I was three minutes from a family homecoming so decided to keep calm and carry on.
Later that evening an investigation revealed the break you see above. A disaster, no doubt about it. A day or two was spent investigating online and by telephone the options available to me.
- Several high street bike shops: no stem available, try elsewhere.
- Bobbin Bicycles of Islington: we’re very sorry to hear about this and we’ll happily order a stem (they kindly did, and I foolishly told them I no longer needed it)
- Velorution of Fitzrovia: we can order a stem for you, but we strongly recommend you make a warranty claim. The handlebar stem is a dangerous item to break and the manufacturer ought to know about it.
As the warranty was just a couple of weeks shy of expiring, I followed Velorution’s advice to the letter, and took the injured machine to where I bought it, Cycle Surgery of Highbury.
On the shopfloor, numerous mechanics were rounded up for their opinion. The predominant message was thus: the claim is unlikely to be valid because there is a washer missing from the stem. It was made pretty clear that I would be better off simply ordering and paying for a new stem.
I strongly disagreed. It was at this moment I began to identify a hitherto unrecognised maxim of bicycle sales, doubtless unwritten but integrated into retail prioritisation:
A sale is about maximising profit, so a warranty claim is about minimising loss.
More on this later. I pressed the staff to process the claim despite the difference between their professional opinion and my amateur one, and left the shop, Guvnor-less but still optimistic, on Sunday June 13th.
What day do I write this? Ah, Monday August 9th. Where did July go? Oh, it came and went. Today I rode the Guvnor to work for the first time since then. What happened inbetween?
Weeks 1–2
Why am I even having to describe the timetable of a warranty claim in fortnightly intervals?! Anyway, a couple of follow up calls to Cycle Surgery per week, but no sign of progress. “waiting for Pashley to pick the bike up” was bandied about around week 2.
Weeks 3–4
“Haven’t heard from them as yet” was the unhelpful response from the shop. “Can you chase them up?” “To be honest it always takes ages, I wouldn’t expect the bike back for a while yet.” So I contacted Pashley myself by phone, essentially “You need to speak to the shop”. Hmmm. By this point the shop was not returning my calls as the ‘warranty guy’ was conveniently missing or on lunch or on holiday (clearly a busy and highly-skilled man).
Weeks 5–6
Hang on a minute, it takes 6 weeks to get a brand new Pashley Guvnor built and shipped to most of Europe. Why on earth is it taking this long for a single part to be replaced? Pashley again, this time in email. An apology, an explanation of a staff member unexpected time off, and a promise of an expedited order. Hope at last. Calls to the shop every other day, almost never returned, still no sign of the part.
No, I think you mean 8 weeks
Weeks 7–8
Endless calls unreturned, yet eventually I hit the jackpot of someone who knew what they are talking about on the very day they had something to talk about. The part has come in and will be fixed immediately, they’ll let me know. Next morning I call (have you noticed who is doing all the calling and emailing here?) to arrange pickup. Oh, a new problem, the old stem is seized. Okay, how long do you think it takes a professional bike shop to free a seizedhandlebar stem from a 2 year old bike? An afternoon, maybe a day of soaking? Think again.
7 days later (after more unreturned calls) I finally get the message that the part is replaced and the bike is ready. I pick it up the following day, 7 weeks and 6 days since I dropped it off for a minor repair.
Most of the summer lost, never to be ridden. Countless frustrating calls, repeatedly unreturned. A strong sense that the only reason it got fixed in as little as 8 weeks is because I spent the entire time reminding both Pashley and Cycle Surgery that I was a customer in need of some service.
Lessons learned.
- When a customer makes a warranty claim they are already at a low point on any satisfaction chart. You can choose to either let them down (much) further, or convert them back into a satisfied customer with some good service and attention to detail. Neither happened here.
- When service has got so obviously bad it is universally agreed by all parties, one party needs to stand up and take responsibility, whether or not they think they are fully responsible. The party that does this reveals their understanding of good service and will convert the most dissatisfied customer.
- After sales support is where a short term small gain can be turned into long term larger gain. Or it is where a desire only for short term gain can be revealed.
- It’s too late now for me to be a Cycle Surgery customer again, in any capacity. I am rather stuck being a Pashley customer, but this has thankfully been more positive over the last 2 years.
Finally, the bottom of the receipt above contains the following warning: “If repair is not collected within 1 day of agreed collection date a storage charge of GBP 10.00 per day will be levied”
I think it’s time customers began issuing similar warnings to shops.
In 1902, about a decade before creating 
