I want to vent my spleen at CambriaBike

Because I am not near any bike shops that deal with Bebop, I ordered a set of pedals from Cambria
Bike. Without warning (no email or anything), they changed my ordering information and sent them to
my billing address instead of my shipping address (due to a fine print company policy that first
orders are to be sent to billing address). The package was returned (without ever attempting to
notify me), and I am charged for shipping that I did not request.

Alas, Craig

 

"Bozeman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Because I am not near any bike shops that deal with Bebop, I ordered a set of pedals from Cambria
> Bike. Without warning (no email or anything), they changed my ordering information and sent them
> to my billing address instead of my shipping address (due to a fine print company policy that
> first orders are to be sent to billing address). The package was returned (without ever attempting
> to notify me), and I am charged for shipping that I did not request.

Instant shoot-from-the-hip analysis: They have probably had a rash of credit card fraud, and figured
if you're the legit credit card holder, the package will make it to you (since you presumably
receive your bill every month). Sounds reasonable. I know some people have P.O. boxes instead of
using their home address for billing, and that can present problems. I'm surprised that you received
no notification. Don't UPS and FedEx make like 7 attempts to deliver, and follow up with a phone
call before the send it back? (That's what the FedEx folks told me.)

Sorry this happened to you. Believe me, it could have been much worse. Cambria is a great shop, IMO.
Cut 'em some slack, and they'll play ball and treat you real nice. They're not a faceless corporate
giant hell-bent on scamming you at every turn. They're just cyclists like you. I've had nothing be
great experiences with Cambria.

They are one of the few online retailers brave enough to sell BeBop pedals. There is a reason why
not too many catalogs list BeBop pedals. (Did you ever wonder about that? I did.) It has nothing
to do with their quality, value or marketability. I can't tell you why, because I'm afraid of
getting slap-sued by their arch rival in the lollipop pedal market. Call BeBop and ask them to
tell you the story.

-Barry

 

Craig,

Do not feel bad. I have had nothing but extremely poor experiences with them.

Derek

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]
(Bozeman) wrote:

> Because I am not near any bike shops that deal with Bebop, I ordered a set of pedals from Cambria
> Bike. Without warning (no email or anything), they changed my ordering information and sent them
> to my billing address instead of my shipping address (due to a fine print company policy that
> first orders are to be sent to billing address). The package was returned (without ever attempting
> to notify me), and I am charged for shipping that I did not request.
>
> Alas, Craig

 

"Derek Swift" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Craig,
>
> Do not feel bad. I have had nothing but extremely poor experiences with them.

Uh oh. I'll admit, it's been a while since I worked with Cambria, and things may have changed there.
Looks like they may be falling to the same force that's ruining other longstanding mail order shops,
like Nashbar (don't get me started).

-Barry

> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]
> (Bozeman) wrote:
>
> > Because I am not near any bike shops that deal with Bebop, I ordered a set of pedals from
> > Cambria Bike. Without warning (no email or anything), they changed my ordering information and
> > sent them to my billing address instead of my shipping address (due to a fine print company
> > policy that first orders are to be sent to billing address). The package was returned (without
> > ever attempting to notify me), and I am charged for shipping that I did not request.
> >
> > Alas, Craig

 

"B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:

>
> "Derek Swift" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...

don't mean to stir you up, but what's going on with Nashbar? I order from them occasionally and have
never had any problems. Love their weekend sales too.($110 shoes for $35)

 

"Jackal" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> "B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:

> don't mean to stir you up, but what's going on with Nashbar? I order from them occasionally and
> have never had any problems. Love their weekend
sales
> too.($110 shoes for $35)

Don't try to order a sale item from the website if you actually expect to receive it. A recent order
was completely botched because they waited 2 days to inform me that one of the sale items was out of
stock. Then they waited *another* 3 days to tell me that - oops! - while we were waiting (with no
explanation given), the *other* sale item went out of stock, and we won't be getting those in again,
either. I decided to ditch the email foolishness and get somebody on the phone. The Nashbar phone
rep responded to this terrible botch by saying, with palms upturned: "I'm sorry sir, there's nothing
I can do about it." I asked for substitutions. The response: "We don't have anything like that." No
suggestions were made, no offers of suitable substitutions, no attempts to locate a similar part
elsewhere (special order), nothing, nada, zilch. Just the empty robotic response of a disinterested
and uninvolved phone rep, powerless and uncaring. I can get that anywhere, and I reject it
everywhere. At that moment, I said goodbye to Nashbar, and I told the phone rep of my decision.
Naturally, she remained robotically unable to respond, caught between powerlessness and apathy. I
wasn't at all surprised.

I responded again in an email telling Nashbar just exactly what I plan to do about this situation:
I'm going to shop at JensonUSA.com, PricePoint.com, Supergo.com, Universal Cycles, Ultimate Wheel
Sports, Lickton's, WheelWorld, my local bike shops, Ebay and everywhere else *except* Nashbar from
now on. Luckily, many of these companies *do* know how to handle order problems, especially
JensonUSA, who have excellent customer service and the best prices, IMO.

You may think this rather Draconian; but I'm through with companies who botch orders this badly.
Nashbar had better get their act together or plan to lose a lot more customers like me. I've been
buying from them for over a decade; but it seems clear to me that things have changed for the worse
at Nashbar. It's not like it used to be, and that makes ALL the difference.

The last company that pulled this on me was BikePro. Remember them? They went glug less than 6
months after I put them in the rearview mirror. They had great sales, too. They were bailing water
as the ship was sinking. The ship sank.

Bye-bye, Nashbar. If you get your act together, call me. I won't hold my breath.

-Barry

 

I noticed some of the same things with Nashbar. By the time I get their sales mags everything I want
is Out of stock. I ordered a Tru Vativ crankset from them and it was bad ,wobbled, I returned it and
ordered another,same way. I called and talked to their tec services asking if they might have gotten
a bad run of cranks, they had no idea. I tried the crank on a new Bacchetta at my LBS,just to make
sure it wasn't a bb problem, and it was definatley bad. I ended up buying a 105 crank from Mark
powers and giving up on Nashbar also. Ben fox

"B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> "Jackal" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > "B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:
>
> > don't mean to stir you up, but what's going on with Nashbar? I order
from
> > them occasionally and have never had any problems. Love their weekend
> sales
> > too.($110 shoes for $35)
>
> Don't try to order a sale item from the website if you actually expect to receive it. A recent
> order was completely botched because they waited 2 days to inform me that one of the sale items
> was out of stock. Then they waited *another* 3 days to tell me that - oops! - while we were
> waiting (with no explanation given), the *other* sale item went out of stock, and
we
> won't be getting those in again, either. I decided to ditch the email foolishness and get somebody
> on the phone.
The
> Nashbar phone rep responded to this terrible botch by saying, with palms upturned: "I'm sorry sir,
> there's nothing I can do about it." I asked for substitutions. The response: "We don't have
> anything like that." No suggestions were made, no offers of suitable substitutions, no attempts to
> locate a similar part elsewhere (special order), nothing, nada, zilch.
Just
> the empty robotic response of a disinterested and uninvolved phone rep, powerless and uncaring. I
> can get that anywhere, and I reject it everywhere. At that moment, I said goodbye to Nashbar, and
> I told the
phone
> rep of my decision. Naturally, she remained robotically unable to
respond,
> caught between powerlessness and apathy. I wasn't at all surprised.
>
> I responded again in an email telling Nashbar just exactly what I plan to
do
> about this situation: I'm going to shop at JensonUSA.com, PricePoint.com, Supergo.com, Universal
> Cycles, Ultimate Wheel Sports, Lickton's,
WheelWorld,
> my local bike shops, Ebay and everywhere else *except* Nashbar from now
on.
> Luckily, many of these companies *do* know how to handle order problems, especially JensonUSA, who
> have excellent customer service and the best prices, IMO.
>
> You may think this rather Draconian; but I'm through with companies who botch orders this badly.
> Nashbar had better get their act together or
plan
> to lose a lot more customers like me. I've been buying from them for over
a
> decade; but it seems clear to me that things have changed for the worse at Nashbar. It's not like
> it used to be, and that makes ALL the difference.
>
> The last company that pulled this on me was BikePro. Remember them? They went glug less than 6
> months after I put them in the rearview mirror.
They
> had great sales, too. They were bailing water as the ship was sinking.
The
> ship sank.
>
> Bye-bye, Nashbar. If you get your act together, call me. I won't hold my breath.
>
> -Barry
>

 

B. Sanders wrote:

> The last company that pulled this on me was BikePro. Remember them? They went glug less than 6
> months after I put them in the rearview mirror. They had great sales, too. They were bailing water
> as the ship was sinking. The ship sank.

Cool! You have the company-killing power! Would you take care of Microsoft for me?

> Bye-bye, Nashbar. If you get your act together, call me. I won't hold my breath.

I've had 4 orders with them this winter, and everything was wonderful.

 

> The last company that pulled this on me was BikePro. Remember them? They went glug less than 6
> months after I put them in the rearview mirror. They had great sales, too. They were bailing water
> as the ship was sinking. The ship sank.
>
> Bye-bye, Nashbar. If you get your act together, call me. I won't hold my breath.
>
> -Barry
>
>
>
>
>

I checked my records and I've ordered from them 6 times. All sale items, no problems incurred. I did
send back THREE pairs of shoes before hitting the right size one time without question from them. No
complaints.

 

"B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> "Jackal" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > "B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:
>
> > don't mean to stir you up, but what's going on with Nashbar? I order
from
> > them occasionally and have never had any problems. Love their weekend
> sales
> > too.($110 shoes for $35)
>
> Don't try to order a sale item from the website if you actually expect to receive it. A recent
> order was completely botched because they waited 2 days to inform me that one of the sale items
> was out of stock. Then they waited *another* 3 days to tell me that - oops! - while we were
> waiting (with no explanation given), the *other* sale item went out of stock, and
we
> won't be getting those in again, either. I decided to ditch the email foolishness and get somebody
> on the phone.
The
> Nashbar phone rep responded to this terrible botch by saying, with palms upturned: "I'm sorry sir,
> there's nothing I can do about it." I asked for substitutions. The response: "We don't have
> anything like that." No suggestions were made, no offers of suitable substitutions, no attempts
to
> locate a similar part elsewhere (special order), nothing, nada, zilch.
Just
> the empty robotic response of a disinterested and uninvolved phone rep, powerless and uncaring. I
> can get that anywhere, and I reject it everywhere. At that moment, I said goodbye to Nashbar, and
> I told the
phone
> rep of my decision. Naturally, she remained robotically unable to
respond,
> caught between powerlessness and apathy. I wasn't at all surprised.
>
> I responded again in an email telling Nashbar just exactly what I plan to
do
> about this situation: I'm going to shop at JensonUSA.com,
PricePoint.com,
> Supergo.com,

Nashbar recently bought Supergo.

> Universal Cycles, Ultimate Wheel Sports, Lickton's, WheelWorld, my local bike shops, Ebay and
> everywhere else *except* Nashbar from now
on.
> Luckily, many of these companies *do* know how to handle order problems, especially JensonUSA, who
> have excellent customer service and the best prices, IMO.
>
> You may think this rather Draconian; but I'm through with companies who botch orders this badly.
> Nashbar had better get their act together or
plan
> to lose a lot more customers like me. I've been buying from them for
over a
> decade; but it seems clear to me that things have changed for the worse
at
> Nashbar. It's not like it used to be, and that makes ALL the difference.
>
> The last company that pulled this on me was BikePro. Remember them? They went glug less than 6
> months after I put them in the rearview mirror.
They
> had great sales, too. They were bailing water as the ship was sinking.
The
> ship sank.
>
> Bye-bye, Nashbar. If you get your act together, call me. I won't hold
my
> breath.
>
> -Barry
>

 

IF U find fault with their Customer Service...send a letter to who ever is in charge of that
department and a copy to the owner. Let the people higher up on the food chain know about the
problems. Too often people complain only to the people who are causing the problem and no one in the
Administration ever gets to hear there was a problem. One screwed up frontline employee can easily
kill an otherwise good company and it isn't till the Sheriff padlocks the doors that the owner
realizes why his sales went through the floor. U have the right to bitch...use that right.
--------------------------------------------------
"one of the six billion" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > "Jackal" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > > "B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:
> >
> > > don't mean to stir you up, but what's going on with Nashbar? I order
> from
> > > them occasionally and have never had any problems. Love their weekend
> > sales
> > > too.($110 shoes for $35)
> >
> > Don't try to order a sale item from the website if you actually expect
to
> > receive it. A recent order was completely botched because they waited 2 days to inform me that
> > one of the sale items was out of stock. Then
they
> > waited *another* 3 days to tell me that - oops! - while we were waiting (with no explanation
> > given), the *other* sale item went out of stock,
and
> we
> > won't be getting those in again, either. I decided to ditch the email foolishness and get
> > somebody on the phone.
> The
> > Nashbar phone rep responded to this terrible botch by saying, with palms upturned: "I'm sorry
> > sir, there's nothing I can do about it." I asked
for
> > substitutions. The response: "We don't have anything like that." No suggestions were made, no
> > offers of suitable substitutions, no attempts
> to
> > locate a similar part elsewhere (special order), nothing, nada, zilch.
> Just
> > the empty robotic response of a disinterested and uninvolved phone rep, powerless and uncaring.
> > I can get that anywhere, and I reject it everywhere. At that moment, I said goodbye to Nashbar,
> > and I told the
> phone
> > rep of my decision. Naturally, she remained robotically unable to
> respond,
> > caught between powerlessness and apathy. I wasn't at all surprised.
> >
> > I responded again in an email telling Nashbar just exactly what I plan
to
> do
> > about this situation: I'm going to shop at JensonUSA.com,
> PricePoint.com,
> > Supergo.com,
>
> Nashbar recently bought Supergo.
>
>
> > Universal Cycles, Ultimate Wheel Sports, Lickton's, WheelWorld, my local bike shops, Ebay and
> > everywhere else *except* Nashbar from now
> on.
> > Luckily, many of these companies *do* know how to handle order problems, especially JensonUSA,
> > who have excellent customer service and the best prices, IMO.
> >
> > You may think this rather Draconian; but I'm through with companies who botch orders this badly.
> > Nashbar had better get their act together or
> plan
> > to lose a lot more customers like me. I've been buying from them for
> over a
> > decade; but it seems clear to me that things have changed for the worse
> at
> > Nashbar. It's not like it used to be, and that makes ALL the
difference.
> >
> > The last company that pulled this on me was BikePro. Remember them?
They
> > went glug less than 6 months after I put them in the rearview mirror.
> They
> > had great sales, too. They were bailing water as the ship was sinking.
> The
> > ship sank.
> >
> > Bye-bye, Nashbar. If you get your act together, call me. I won't hold
> my
> > breath.
> >
> > -Barry
> >
> >
> >
>

 

I have been buying bicycle accessories from Nashbar since 1990 and have never had a problem, same
for Performance.

"B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> "Jackal" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > "B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:
>
> > don't mean to stir you up, but what's going on with Nashbar? I order
from
> > them occasionally and have never had any problems. Love their weekend
> sales
> > too.($110 shoes for $35)
>
> Don't try to order a sale item from the website if you actually expect to receive it. A recent
> order was completely botched because they waited 2 days to inform me that one of the sale items
> was out of stock. Then they waited *another* 3 days to tell me that - oops! - while we were
> waiting (with no explanation given), the *other* sale item went out of stock, and
we
> won't be getting those in again, either. I decided to ditch the email foolishness and get somebody
> on the phone.
The
> Nashbar phone rep responded to this terrible botch by saying, with palms upturned: "I'm sorry sir,
> there's nothing I can do about it." I asked for substitutions. The response: "We don't have
> anything like that." No suggestions were made, no offers of suitable substitutions, no attempts to
> locate a similar part elsewhere (special order), nothing, nada, zilch.
Just
> the empty robotic response of a disinterested and uninvolved phone rep, powerless and uncaring. I
> can get that anywhere, and I reject it everywhere. At that moment, I said goodbye to Nashbar, and
> I told the
phone
> rep of my decision. Naturally, she remained robotically unable to
respond,
> caught between powerlessness and apathy. I wasn't at all surprised.
>
> I responded again in an email telling Nashbar just exactly what I plan to
do
> about this situation: I'm going to shop at JensonUSA.com, PricePoint.com, Supergo.com, Universal
> Cycles, Ultimate Wheel Sports, Lickton's,
WheelWorld,
> my local bike shops, Ebay and everywhere else *except* Nashbar from now
on.
> Luckily, many of these companies *do* know how to handle order problems, especially JensonUSA, who
> have excellent customer service and the best prices, IMO.
>
> You may think this rather Draconian; but I'm through with companies who botch orders this badly.
> Nashbar had better get their act together or
plan
> to lose a lot more customers like me. I've been buying from them for over
a
> decade; but it seems clear to me that things have changed for the worse at Nashbar. It's not like
> it used to be, and that makes ALL the difference.
>
> The last company that pulled this on me was BikePro. Remember them? They went glug less than 6
> months after I put them in the rearview mirror.
They
> had great sales, too. They were bailing water as the ship was sinking.
The
> ship sank.
>
> Bye-bye, Nashbar. If you get your act together, call me. I won't hold my breath.
>
> -Barry
>

 

Jackal wrote:

>>The last company that pulled this on me was BikePro. Remember them? They went glug less than 6
>>months after I put them in the rearview mirror. They had great sales, too. They were bailing water
>>as the ship was sinking. The ship sank.
>>
>>Bye-bye, Nashbar. If you get your act together, call me. I won't hold my breath.
>>
>>-Barry
>>
>>
>
> I checked my records and I've ordered from them 6 times. All sale items, no problems incurred. I
> did send back THREE pairs of shoes before hitting the right size one time without question from
> them. No complaints.
>

I have also had great experience with Nashbar. Competitive prices. The few things I have need to
return were accepted back without question.

Don

 

"Joshua Goldberg" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> IF U find fault with their Customer Service...send a letter to who ever is in charge of that
> department and a copy to the owner. Let the people
higher
> up on the food chain know about the problems. Too often people complain
only
> to the people who are causing the problem and no one in the Administration ever gets to hear there
> was a problem. One screwed up frontline employee
can
> easily kill an otherwise good company and it isn't till the Sheriff
padlocks
> the doors that the owner realizes why his sales went through the floor. U have the right to
> bitch...use that right.

Excellent suggestion, Joshua. You're right on all counts. Even before I read your words of wisdom, I
did a little soul searching and realized that I like Nashbar - a lot. I have a long history with
them. They've done right by me many times. I was wrong to blame the whole company for what could
just be new employees who were poorly trained. (They knew *zilch* about bikes. That was obvious.) It
is my general disgust at the rapid decline of customer service that perhaps caused my knee-jerk
reaction. For that, I must apologize to Nashbar, and to all of you.

I've decided to do exactly as you have suggested. Complaints need to be seen by the people at the
top. I wouldn't want to see Nashbar go out of business. Heck, I'd like to work with them to
synchronize their website with their inventory. It can be done, and they need to do it. That way, if
you see a sale item available on the website, then it is available. When an item is sold out, it
simply won't be displayed. I assumed that was what was happening at Nashbar. According to Nashbar's
phone rep, the website inventory has no correlation with the actual inventory. Can you believe it?
How the heck can they keep track of all that merchandise without some kind of live website updating
from the inventory database? They're using bar coded tags, so they must have an inventory management
system for each and every item. The next step is to link it to the website (which I thought they had
done long ago.)

I'm happy to announce that I was wrong, and to cast my vote in favor of Nashbar once again. They are
a great company, in general, despite my recent bad luck with certain among their crew. My change of
heart was made easier when my Nashbar order arrived today (an order that I forgot I had placed). It
was packed perfectly, and I marveled at the bargains that they offered.

I will be back.

Barry

> --------------------------------------------------
> "one of the six billion" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >
> > "B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > > "Jackal" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > > > "B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:
> > >
> > > > don't mean to stir you up, but what's going on with Nashbar? I order
> > from
> > > > them occasionally and have never had any problems. Love their
weekend
> > > sales
> > > > too.($110 shoes for $35)
> > >
> > > Don't try to order a sale item from the website if you actually expect
> to
> > > receive it. A recent order was completely botched because they waited
2
> > > days to inform me that one of the sale items was out of stock. Then
> they
> > > waited *another* 3 days to tell me that - oops! - while we were
waiting
> > > (with no explanation given), the *other* sale item went out of stock,
> and
> > we
> > > won't be getting those in again, either. I decided to ditch the email foolishness and get
> > > somebody on the
phone.
> > The
> > > Nashbar phone rep responded to this terrible botch by saying, with
palms
> > > upturned: "I'm sorry sir, there's nothing I can do about it." I asked
> for
> > > substitutions. The response: "We don't have anything like that." No suggestions were made, no
> > > offers of suitable substitutions, no
attempts
> > to
> > > locate a similar part elsewhere (special order), nothing, nada, zilch.
> > Just
> > > the empty robotic response of a disinterested and uninvolved phone
rep,
> > > powerless and uncaring. I can get that anywhere, and I reject it everywhere. At that moment, I
> > > said goodbye to Nashbar, and I told the
> > phone
> > > rep of my decision. Naturally, she remained robotically unable to
> > respond,
> > > caught between powerlessness and apathy. I wasn't at all surprised.
> > >
> > > I responded again in an email telling Nashbar just exactly what I plan
> to
> > do
> > > about this situation: I'm going to shop at JensonUSA.com,
> > PricePoint.com,
> > > Supergo.com,
> >
> > Nashbar recently bought Supergo.
> >
> >
> > > Universal Cycles, Ultimate Wheel Sports, Lickton's, WheelWorld, my local bike shops, Ebay and
> > > everywhere else *except* Nashbar from
now
> > on.
> > > Luckily, many of these companies *do* know how to handle order
problems,
> > > especially JensonUSA, who have excellent customer service and the best prices, IMO.
> > >
> > > You may think this rather Draconian; but I'm through with companies
who
> > > botch orders this badly. Nashbar had better get their act together or
> > plan
> > > to lose a lot more customers like me. I've been buying from them for
> > over a
> > > decade; but it seems clear to me that things have changed for the
worse
> > at
> > > Nashbar. It's not like it used to be, and that makes ALL the
> difference.
> > >
> > > The last company that pulled this on me was BikePro. Remember them?
> They
> > > went glug less than 6 months after I put them in the rearview mirror.
> > They
> > > had great sales, too. They were bailing water as the ship was
sinking.
> > The
> > > ship sank.
> > >
> > > Bye-bye, Nashbar. If you get your act together, call me. I won't
hold
> > my
> > > breath.
> > >
> > > -Barry
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>

 

I'm very big on JensonUSA -I've had only very good experiences with them so far, and they usually
have the best prices. They seem to have their act together with informing the consumer what's going
on.... nothing worse than seeing your order go into a black hole.

I had an order with Universal Cycles go in the "Black Hole", and I had to call to get it sorted out
-got the impression they were certainly honest, just that they don't have systems in place that keep
everything in order. My personal feeling with Universal is if you place an order, follow up on it
with a personal phone call and you should be ok. Still, I'd rather go for Jenson since I don't have
to do this!

Anyway, I haven't ordered from Nashbar for about 8 months, but when I did I didn't have any issues
and found them really good to deal with.

cheers

Nige

 

"B. Sanders" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I was wrong to blame the whole company for what could just be new employees who were poorly
> trained. (They knew *zilch* about bikes. That was obvious.) It is my general disgust at the rapid
> decline of customer service that perhaps caused my knee-jerk reaction. For that, I must apologize
> to Nashbar, and to all of you.

It took a person of integrity to do that.

>
> I've decided to do exactly as you have suggested. Complaints need to be seen by the people at
> the top.

Most pissed-off customers just leave, never to return. This is as true, if not more true, of "click"
than of "Brick" businesses because the alternative is a click away and not a highway away.

I've taken customer-service courses where they quoted the percentage of customers who voice
complaints, and it's small. Infinitesmal.

So you're performing a service to the owners of a company when you voice your "complaint". One man's
"Complaint" is another man's "Opportunity To Improve". Complaints have been described as the gold in
the mine. They help target customer-service efforts where they'll do the most good. They help
separate the significant few issues from the trivial many. What's important to the order-taker or
other customer service person may be insignificant to the customer, and what is a real deal-killer
to the customer may not even be on the company contact person's radar scope. Complaints get to the
common ground and to what's really important.

So do as Joshua suggested.

 

> I have been buying bicycle accessories from Nashbar since 1990 and have never had a problem, same
> for Performance.

I have had few problems. The ones that I did have were made up for far beyond my expectations.
Incidentally, Nashbar is owned by Performance.

Derek

 

"Derek Swift" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > I have been buying bicycle accessories from Nashbar since 1990 and have never had a problem,
> > same for Performance.
>
> I have had few problems. The ones that I did have were made up for far beyond my expectations.
> Incidentally, Nashbar is owned by Performance.

Really? When did that happen? Is Eric still running Nashbar?

-Barry