Trek SA Concept store Design Quarter

[Cyclingpilot]

Not sure if this is the right forum...

I recently had a new bike Trek Top Fuel 9.8 AXS (total of 597 kms) serviced at the abovementioned shop.

The only reason I took the bike for a service, I had just ridden Wines2whales and currently live outside of SA. I didnt want to have an issue with the bike while I was out of country for three months (the country I live in has no bike shops).

Anyway, the workshop manager spoke a good story, but in the end messed my bike up worse than I gave it to them.

The bike was never serviced, the AXS messed up, the frame is chipped, I am guessing they dropped the bike as the rear derailleur is bent. The AXS battery cover was not returned, I only noticed this when I got back to my destination.

R4000.00 later, they replaced pivots, BB's, they wanted to replace fork seals too, I said no to that.

After receiving my bike back is this condition, I spoke to the shop owner, he denied everything and told me to bring the bike back... they had it for almost 1.5 days. I wasn't prepared to let them mess it up more... now I sit 7000 kms away with a ^&*0'ed up bike.

I messaged Trek USA, but I am guessing Trek SA is blocking anything from getting through as I suspect there is a link with the shop.

 

 

[ChrisF]

Bought my bike from a concept store ... (different brand) ... sadly a very similar experience, right down to scratches on the frame.

 

My bike is now in the shop for its annual service and shock rebuild ... at an independant workshop.  

 

 

Sadly a shiny front of house is no indication of:

1. Quality of workshop staff

2. Quality control

 

 

Most brands suffer from this.  Even many, if not most, car dealerships.

[madmarc]

 

If the AXS settings are out then its an easy fix you can do in 5 minutes, but if they bent the RD then thats a big problem - Are you sure it's not the hanger that is bent - either way the shop needs to replace them and unfortunately you need to give them the opportunity to do that, if you don't send it back they will say "Well then we can't help you" I wouldn't want to send it back either and you on the back foot here being 7000 km away, but at least you gave them the opportunity to rectify their F/ups before you take further action.

Oh and BTW - There no such thing as a general bike service ... I mean WTF do they actually do in the service other than washing it and lubing the chain. Its like when they service your car and tell you they filled your window washer bottle with their brand approved watered down windolene with a cap of rubbing alcohol mixed in and then charge you 180 ronds. 

Don't expect any help from TREK USA they will simply forward your complaint to the local importer to deal with.

 

 

[thebob]

This is why I do as much of the maintenance on my bike myself. That way if there is a mess up, the culprit is known to me and I can force him to make good

[Ispeed_V]

27 minutes ago, thebob said:

This is why I do as much of the maintenance on my bike myself. That way if there is a mess up, the culprit is known to me and I can force him to make good

Look yourself in the mirror. A slap on the face and carry on.

[Mongoose!]

15 hours ago, Cyclingpilot said:

 

I recently had a new bike (total of 597 kms) 

they replaced pivots, BB's, they wanted to replace fork seals too, I said no to that.

 

joh 👀 on a new bike?

[dave303e]

48 minutes ago, Mongoose! said:

joh 👀 on a new bike?

I would be pulling the place that sold the bike over the coals. Because 597km means that they never greased or assembled the bike correctly in the first place.

[finallygotabike]

17 hours ago, Cyclingpilot said:

 

R4000.00 later, they replaced pivots, BB's, they wanted to replace fork seals too, I said no to that.

After receiving my bike back is this condition, I spoke to the shop owner, he denied everything and told me to bring the bike back... they had it for almost 1.5 days. I wasn't prepared to let them mess it up more... now I sit 7000 kms away with a ^&*0'ed up bike.

I messaged Trek USA, but I am guessing Trek SA is blocking anything from getting through as I suspect there is a link with the shop.

 

 

Not great and understandably frustrated.....

 

But what do you want the outcome to be here considering you are now 7000 km's away? After-all they did ask you to bring the bike back.........

[Paul Ruinaard]

Then when you buy a water bottle or similar widget when you are there they seem to think its time to recover all the margin they lost in Covvid. Specialized and Trek concept stores are IMO to be avoided like the plague, mostly for the smarmy superior counter staff who want to explain why their brand of carbon is better than someone else's and the Trek Madone/Domane is better than the Tarmac SL7 or whatever it is.

And because you are older and a bit round in the middle they also look down their young ultra fit pointy lean noses at you when you are looking for bigger sizes of their gear. FWIW I was on bikes when they were still in nappies.

Honestly my experience is that concept stores they have screwed up the bikes i have taken them more than fixed them and i have to go back to corner bike shops to get it fixed.

And don't ask them to do or work on anything else other than their brand. It may corrupt their workshops and bring viruses in.

 

[Zebra]

...keen to hear how you REALLY feel, Paul?!

[droo]

3 hours ago, dave303e said:

I would be pulling the place that sold the bike over the coals. Because 597km means that they never greased or assembled the bike correctly in the first place.

Unless you're doing a custom build or have bought a boutique brand it's unlikely that there's anything other than factory grease in the pivots anyway, which tends to be minimal - the bikes spend a fair bit of time in transit, and the heat in the containers can melt out the grease which stains the boxes...

Most shops won't strip and rebuild pivots on a new frame, and most of these things are semi knocked down so it's basically straighten the bars, pop the wheels on, both check and roll out.

People think I'm nuts when I tell them their almost new bike needs a pivot service because of a "BB creak".

That said, I've also seen new bikes need all kinds of work after being handed to stage race bike washes, or just being pressure washed to death by the owner cos they've seen it done on the Gram.

[MORNE]

1 hour ago, droo said:

 

That said, I've also seen new bikes need all kinds of work after being handed to stage race bike washes, or just being pressure washed to death by the owner cos they've seen it done on the Gram.

some of my riding buddies 'aggressively' disagree with me that you CAN over-wash a bike😅

I wont leave a bike dirty for weeks on end and i always make sure forks and shocks are properly wiped and cleaned after a dirty ride...but that doesn't mean im going to muck off and degrease the whole thing to showroom condition after 15km of dusty fun. Getting that much/frequency of water on seals and bearings etc cant be good in the long run. on my gravel bike though...i built that to be as maintenance free as possible...and i like it when it's dirty - looks less pretentious haha

Edited November 17, 2022 by MORNE

[Shebeen]

2 hours ago, finallygotabike said:

Not great and understandably frustrated.....

But what do you want the outcome to be here considering you are now 7000 km's away? After-all they did ask you to bring the bike back.........

If you're in the figurative gamadoelas (I'm guessing arab gulf from the clues you dropped) then it's worth the investment of time in learning how to maintain the bike yourself. Also means that when you do get it serviced aqt a shop you know all the questions to ask and things to look out for.

 

not really helpful right now, but hope you can make a plan and get riding.

[NeverNotRolling]

1 hour ago, droo said:

 

People think I'm nuts when I tell them their almost new bike needs a pivot service because of a "BB creak".

 

This.

[droo]

A final point from me is always to make sure you've got time to get a ride or two in after a service before embarking on any kind of mission, which is generally an event but in your case it boils down to the same thing. That way, if something does go wrong (nobody's perfect, it'll happen) you've got time to get it sorted by the guy that got it wrong rather than ranting at someone by remote control when there's very little they can do to solve your problem.

(In your case it sounds like an apology or admission of guilt may have helped, but in real terms your bike still doesn't work all that well.)

[ChrisF]

5 hours ago, dave303e said:

I would be pulling the place that sold the bike over the coals. Because 597km means that they never greased or assembled the bike correctly in the first place.

 

Standard TREK practice ....

 

My EX5 went back creaks in the first week ...

 

Also a TREK concept store