The tragic failings of Evans bike servicing

Evans (www.evanscycles.com) is a middle to high end retailer of bicycles with stores dotted around much of the UK. While not completely high end they cater for more hardcore cyclists than halfords while not maybe meeting all the needs of the cycling purist after true top end parts. That said you would not struggle to spend a couple of thousand pounds in there if you wished. The chain is aligned also to the bike to work schemes so pulling in custom from people using this tax efficient route to bike ownership which gives them plenty of regular customers looking at making the most of this spend. Buying a bike in store is a slick sales experience with price matching and bike fitting all catered for by enthusiastic sales staff. 

So having bought your bike where else would you head when it needs a service after many miles of hard pedalling but back to trusty Evans for a continuation of this are felt from your purchase. Unfortunately this can be where it all falls apart as you can't book anything on line and need to book in store or by phone which is generally not straight forward as answering the phone seems to be the lowest priority for store staff. Having booked in your service you need to select which level of service labelled bronze, silver and gold linked to the degree of work involved. Unfortunately not a reflection on the customer service received. Arriving to deliver your bike it is whisked away on the day of service parked in the back quickly forgotten. Your pride and joy left idle to fend for itself. You find on returning to collect your bike that it has not been looked at in spite of your pre-booking thoroughness but sat still lonely at the back. You then are told to return at a future date when it will be ready. Meanwhile you receive an email stating your repair is complete. Hurrah. But not trusting those slightly grubby mechanics you phone to check if this is the case. After wasting many hours for the phone to be answered you finally find it has not in fact been fixed but was just it being rebooked on the system because the missed the original slot. Magic. 

Returning days later to collect your fixed wheels you find it hasn't been finished and is in fact in bits on the floor - can you come back later and we will chuck in a 10% discount?  Gold service for £90 quickly disintegrates as you have a melt down after countless phone calls, emails and visits still to be messed around. 

The servicing of your bike is doubtless quality but the booking and customer handling is appalling and completely turns you off from doing any further business with them. Not just servicing but buying more bikes. Evans needs to sort this out or withdraw it as a part of the range of services or risk destroying the customer base it is building.