Nice gestures from bike companies and retailers

ILIKEFOOD

Had to strip off the handlebar tape from my Canyon. Really like the branded tape they use but couldn't find it for sale on their site. Asked them about it so they shipped me some free of charge..thought it a really sound gesture.

Any stories of note yerselves?

Eamonnator

Yeah, I had to take bar tape off my Canyon, about 6 months ago.I decided to replace it with red Canyon tape. There was none available in the online shop, but I noticed that red tape was being fitted to some of their bikes. I rang Canyon U.K. I was told that I would have to wait 10 weeks for the tape. I ordered it, I think the postage was about 10 Euro, and it took about 12 weeks to arrive. They charged me full price for the tape.
Swings and roundabouts, I guess.
Lovely tape though.

ILIKEFOOD

Eamonnator wrote: »

Swings and roundabouts,l

Indeed! Doesn't seem to be for sale at all now. Asked on Facebook on Monday and got it today, no charge...just gave em my customer ID. Might have something to do with promoting goodwill due to their factory issues they've been having..

StevieGriff

Likewise on the canyon tape actually. The AL SLX I had at the time shipped with white tape, liked the tape but wanted it in black. Was out of stock so emailed canyon as I was ordering some other small bits from them, they threw in the tape for free with the rest of the order.

Alek

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Alek

Friend of mine bought a Garmin 200.

Being a geek, he was playing with all the options and found a bug in the software. Reported it to Garmin and was advised to send it back for investigation.

After a week or so they have replied that indeed there is a problem with Edge 200 and as they cannot fix it, they are sending him Edge 500.

It didn't take long for him to find yet another issue with his 500, and the story repeated. He was offered an Edge 510.

After the New Year he got a message that they are short on refurbished 510s and as a goodwill gesture they are sending him Edge 810.

Nice, hey?

NiallBoo

Alek wrote: »

Friend of mine bought a Garmin 200.

Being a geek, he was playing with all the options and found a bug in the software. Reported it to Garmin and was advised to send it back for investigation.

After a week or so they have replied that indeed there is a problem with Edge 200 and as they cannot fix it, they are sending him Edge 500.

It didn't take long for him to find yet another issue with his 500, and the story repeated. He was offered an Edge 510.

After the New Year he got a message that they are short on refurbished 510s and as a goodwill gesture they are sending him Edge 810.

Nice, hey?

Great value for them too, much cheaper than paying someone to find the bugs

Domane

Placed an order recently with Chain reaction cycles and was emailed the next day to say that they had just run out of stock on one of the things I ordered. So they refunded me the price of the out of stock item and gave me a voucher to spend on my next purchase. The refund would have been sufficient but the voucher was a nice touch.

RobertFoster

I bought my first proper track pump with a gauge from CRC. It worked better than my previous pump, but I could hear air escaping while using it. Thinking it was by design rather than a fault, I ignored it for about 7 months before I decided to use the Q&A section of the product page to see if anyone else heard the same thing.

Within a few hours of my question being posted, I got an email from a Warranty Advisor at CRC asking for details of the fault. By this stage I had opened up the pump, found a crack in the plastic, and fixed it with super glue. I told the advisor this and sent a picture of crack in the gauge, but he still sent out a replacement free of charge telling me to dispose of the faulty one rather than sending it back.

I like how my initial query was intercepted and dealt with, and that I now have two perfectly working (almost) identical pumps

I know this was covered under warranty and shouldn't have been broken to begin with, but I still like how it was handled.

LollipopJimmy

My wheels on my scott keep falling apart. I emailed scott 12 weeks ago.. I've not heard back from them yet. Those good guys there saving my bandwidth

manafana

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

My wheels on my scott keep falling apart. I emailed scott 12 weeks ago.. I've not heard back from them yet. Those good guys there saving my bandwidth

follow up with scott ireland? who you buy off, i know thinkbike dropped them as they where very slow.

Jim Stynes

My mate went to buy a pair of £180 oakleys in store in CRC, there was only the display pair left in the store. They said they can't sell them as they are a display pair and let him keep them for free.

ThisRegard

NiallBoo wrote: »

Great value for them too, much cheaper than paying someone to find the bugs

They have a !massive lab where they test all their equipment, and presumably software, so someone is getting paid. I think it must have DC Rainmaker that had a huge article on it a few years ago.

Yip, here it is http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/04/scenes-garmin-headquarters.html

If you're into tech it's an interesting read.

LollipopJimmy

manafana wrote: »

follow up with scott ireland? who you buy off, i know thinkbike dropped them as they where very slow.

Got my LBS to order it in. In fairness he's been taking care of it for minimal amounts but it's not fair on him.

The tax man

Had a USE titanium seat post fail on me about six months out of warranty. Wiggle didn't want to know about it so got in touch with USE and after inspecting the post they replaced it for me without any hassle.

coppinger

CRC sent me the wrong colour tyre - I left feedback and they sent the correct colour and told me to keep the wrong one - nice - free tyre

Rogue-Trooper

Dropped into 360 Cycles in Clontarf last week to pick up something of very low monetery value (€14). On the way out, one of the lads threw me an energy gel 'to get me home'. It's gestures like that (and insisting on making you a coffee!) which keep me coming back.

When my Galibier Mistral jacket arrived in the post, Galibier had put in a pair of their socks too as a little pressie. I was well chuffed - great socks too I might add! Apart from the awesomeness of the jacket, it's nice touches like that which has won them not only a happy new customer, but an ambassador for their brand!

deandean

My Hope Vision 2 LED light that I purchased back in 2009 started acting up.

I posted it to Hope UK. They repaired it free of charge and posted it back.

Thumbs-up to Hope Tech for a warranty repair after seven years of hard use.

joey100

+1 for 360 degrees cycles, had a bike in getting a bit of work done an when I was collecting it brought in a different bike to get them to check something. Didn't charge me for the second bike and charged me very little for the first, a lot less than I had been prepared to pay. Really nice lads and good service too.

Mercian Pro

Noticed a crack in my Fizik Pavé saddle about four years after it came fitted to my Cannondale Synapse. By then it had taken a lot of wear including the Alps and Pyrenees. When looking for a replacement, one of the guys in Cycle Superstore suggested I check out the Fizik warranty on their website. Filled in the details online including photos of the crack and the date of manufacture stamp. Two weeks later a brand new version of the Pavé arrived in the post and is still my saddle of choice. Full marks to both Cycle Superstore and Fizik.

Jawgap

Remember when CRC used to throw a little something into the box? Part of the excitement was seeing what little freebie they'd sent.......not any more!

Went into Quay Cycles in Drogheda recently to see if they had any ideas about fixing a minor niggle - they spent a good 30 minutes tracing the problem, then quickly fixed it. I had the money out to pay and they said "Ah just forget about it. By a tube and we'll call it quits" - you can always use a spare tube!

10 Carrolls

Bought a bike in McLoughlins in Newbridge 3 years ago. When I brought it back for the free check up there was a bulge in one of the hutchinson tyres that came on it. They replaced both tyres with frame matching coloured schwalbe ones. They also replaced a tube that blew out shortly afterwards from a pinch flat. Needless to say when my cycling buddy went to buy a bike he was sent there to make the purchase.

Thargor

Asked the guys in Giant on the Long Mile Road for anything they had lying around instead of the not so great generic Giant tyres on my Defy when I was getting it on Bike To Work a couple of years ago and they said probably not, went to collect it a week later and it was sitting on a pair of Gatorskins which is what I ride on anyway, €60-80 worth, guy fitting me didn't know anything about them. Asked if they had any bottle cages lying around and got 2, Giant branded black and white ones, €20 each, asked the boss if I could have a Giant water bottle on the way out the door and he said help yourself, took a premium one off the shelf, another €20. Cant complain about any of that...

hardCopy

The lads in the Bike Hub in Howth were really sound for things like this. I bought a roll of bar tape and the guy on the till got one of the mechanics to put it on for me. Another time I lost an oversized hex wrench and couldn't change my pedals, one of the lads did it on the spot and said he'd be embarrassed to charge me for it. I bought a tenner's worth of gels at the till after that.

glennbhoy

+1 Galibier

Wanted to buy a jacket and facebooked them as it wasnt up on their site, they wrote straight back and said there were technical issues and would throw in a pair of gloves for my inconvenience

Sound

Rogue-Trooper

Jawgap wrote: »

Remember when CRC used to throw a little something into the box? Part of the excitement was seeing what little freebie they'd sent.......not any more!

I ordered tyres last week from CRC and there was a High5 sachet (CRC-branded) in the box when it arrived.

Mind you, grapefruit wouldn't be my flavour of choice but still, nice gesture!

The Noble Nudge

I find a few lads in Cycle superstore always look after me with repairs, bits and bobs for the bike....

greenspurs

Love it in my LbS , after buying a couple of tubes, the owner always throws something at ya.
Last time it was 'here will you try out these new gels for me, and let me know what you think of them "
Cant beat that kind of gesture...

greenspurs

Love it in my LbS , after buying a couple of tubes, the owner always throws something at ya.
Last time it was 'here will you try out these new gels for me, and let me know what you think of them "
Cant beat that kind of gesture...

Koobcam

Rose gave me two free continental go 4000s II tyres and a couple of schwalbe tubes when I bought a bike fro them last year. Not sure fi it was cos I upgraded the wheels to Mavics (which come with their own tyres and tubes) but was nice anyway to get kind of expensive tyres for free. They also threw in a Rose backpack which is actually moderately useful. Cyclesuperstore are pretty sound as well-lost a small screw for attaching mudguards and they had a bunch of spares (mind you I did also buy a new pair of sunglasses). Canyon have also been pretty sound to me in the past-I made a complete bollix of installing the cables on my Aeroad and broke the plastic adapter for the rear brake. They sent me a new one for free. Later on, they replaced the frame on warranty when I found a crack in it. It took them abut five months to actually send a replacement, but still they did replace the frame eventually, including swapping over the groupset, cables etc (which would have cost me a fair bit in the lbs). Garmin also deserve a mention. Was out for a spin in Wicklow a few years back and my Edge 500 started doing funny things. When I got home, it was dead. Sent it back to Garmin and they replaced it under warranty. I suppose you could say that they were obliged to replace it, but I still thought it was decent of them to replace without asking loads of questions. They also sent extra mounts. Last one I can think of is Moon (they make bike lights, Hong Kong brand I think). My rear light stopped working, I told them and they sent a new one (though that one also died, outside of the warranty period-so I guess I'm saying Moon have good customer service, just don;t buy their rear lights cos they are sh*te).

Unknown Soldier

Canyon have been very nice to me but in fairness I have bought three bike off them
They have done me special prices on pedals etc and sent me free Ass guards and one of those neck warmer fancy technical "headwear" yokes.

Swimcyclerun have edited "live" prices to help out mates too. Great company to deal with. For a few quid difference, I'd always send my cash their way. Seriously fast delivery times.

Galibier are great for adding "gifts" to orders, as mentioned above.
I've had socks, 2 x Multifunctional Ardennes headwear, a "Musette" which is a bag in my world and Cap yoke

I have given Galibier a fair bit of business though! Their stuff is perfect for me.

Domane

+1 on Galibiers little extras with your order. I got a musette with my mistral jacket and socks with my bib shorts. My new winter bib tights are waiting for me in work tomorrow. Wonder if I'll get anything extra???

Mercian Pro

Domane wrote: »

+1 on Galibiers little extras with your order. I got a musette with my mistral jacket and socks with my bib shorts. My new winter bib tights are waiting for me in work tomorrow. Wonder if I'll get anything extra???

My money is on a "multifunctional Ardennes headwear" on the basis that that's what came with my jacket on Monday. Was hoping for a musette or socks:( Just shows you can get used to being pampered.

jamesd

I've their new galibier gilet on the way and hoping for something too, I've already gotten a musette and headwear from them as a gift.

Luxman

I emailed galibier last night around 8pm to ask a question about some gloves. Put babies to bed. Returned to email to find a reply about 15 mins later. Emailed compliment to them. Placed my order and now await some socks or something else freeðŸ˜႒

dermabrasion

Ordered a handful of gels (among some other stuff) from Swimcyclerun. The gels were 1 month from the sell-by date, so he sent me the entire box!

torydiver

Rose have nearly always included some extras with orders,
Amongst the freebies I've got are, rucksack, tyre levers, puncture kit, multi tool, saddlebag, skullcap and socks

joey100

Ordered a set of arm warmers, tyres and few gels from swimcyclerun yesterday. Arrived at work at 7 this morning with a few extra gels and a water bottle thrown in. Great service.

Bambaata

My 2011 Classic Power2Max started acting up the past few months. I suspected water ingress as there was some rusting on the battery area. I sent it back for repair/update for temp compensation and left/right update but alas i was right in that water had penetrated the battery area and hence the unit is dust. I can be held partially to blame here as i think i may have caused the water ingress in some regards when washing the bike! Anyway long story short, they've offered a new type S P2M for half price! Happy with that seeing as i was already about to pay 120 for the service and temperature/left-right upgrade so just another 240 and ive now a brand new unit with full warranty on its way to me!

dahat

joey100 wrote: »

Ordered a set of arm warmers, tyres and few gels from swimcyclerun yesterday. Arrived at work at 7 this morning with a few extra gels and a water bottle thrown in. Great service.

Posts like this have encouraged me to use SCR, just popped off a small order, €65 but will continue to use them in the future.

Rogue-Trooper

Yet another shout out to Galibier. Some stitching had started to come away on the cuff of my Mistral jacket. Emailed them at 11pm on a Sunday night and had a reply within 10 minutes telling me to send it back to them. They repaired it and had it back in the post to me the same day.

Great repair and swift turnaround, but the best bit was the pair of Galibier Mistral toe-covers they popped in the package when they sent it back!

cromcruach

I've several Galibier multi-scarves.

Had the usual vouchers and gels thrown in by CRC, but when I enquired once about a chain I'd bought with a sticky link they sent out a replacement and just asked I dispose of the faulty one.

I'd use their Doagh showroom for servicing, and something is always comped. I needed new shifters about a month after getting a service, bought them and left the bike to have them put on and no charge as the mechanic 'remembered seeing my bike recently' - it's not like I'd bought it from them in the first place! Just had a bike build with no charge even though I brought a few bits of my own.

Multi-tools, gels and lubes routinely thrown in too. I'll stop now as it's all getting a bit kinky ...

dragratchet

I just received a new groupset from an English webstore, was delighted to find that they also threw in a complimentary multi-tool and can of spray oil..... until i found some poor lads order form for them bundled into my box. Notified the company but hoping i don't have to go through the trouble of posting them back over.