Evans Cycles Struggling!
Discussion
SVS said:
I’ve returned stuff to Evans on a couple of occasions. The staff were great and handled the returns quickly and helpfully. Perhaps customer service varies by store (Evans would hardly be alone in this).
It's a fair point but unfortunately my experience with Evans in those situations wasn't restricted to just one store. However the "We've got your money , now f
k off" ethos isn't unique to Evans unfortunately. I'ts probably the title of a behind the scenes management training manual for large retailers in general.What I don't understand is why the landscape in this country seems to encourage retail stores and restaurants to expand rapidly into chains, to the exclusion of almost all local businesses, until some of them over-stretch themselves and go bang.
Why is every single pub becoming a Wetherspoons or a Greene King? Why is every town centre restaurant or cafe a Nandos or a Chiquitos or a Pret or a Costa, and why do little cafes and independent restaurants fail to survive in most cases?
Probably a chat for NPE rather than PP, but I don't consider myself a stupid person, and it's something I've never understood.
Why is every single pub becoming a Wetherspoons or a Greene King? Why is every town centre restaurant or cafe a Nandos or a Chiquitos or a Pret or a Costa, and why do little cafes and independent restaurants fail to survive in most cases?
Probably a chat for NPE rather than PP, but I don't consider myself a stupid person, and it's something I've never understood.
Usget said:
What I don't understand is why the landscape in this country seems to encourage retail stores and restaurants to expand rapidly into chains, to the exclusion of almost all local businesses, until some of them over-stretch themselves and go bang.
Why is every single pub becoming a Wetherspoons or a Greene King? Why is every town centre restaurant or cafe a Nandos or a Chiquitos or a Pret or a Costa, and why do little cafes and independent restaurants fail to survive in most cases?
Probably a chat for NPE rather than PP, but I don't consider myself a stupid person, and it's something I've never understood.
Really ? Why is every single pub becoming a Wetherspoons or a Greene King? Why is every town centre restaurant or cafe a Nandos or a Chiquitos or a Pret or a Costa, and why do little cafes and independent restaurants fail to survive in most cases?
Probably a chat for NPE rather than PP, but I don't consider myself a stupid person, and it's something I've never understood.
Chains have bulk buying power one set of HR one set of payroll admin etc.
Ilovejapcrap said:
Really ?
Chains have bulk buying power one set of HR one set of payroll admin etc.
Most are franchises actually, as consumers we're a fairly unamaganitive, Conservative and easily pleased lot. We stick to what we know. Marketing works. Chains have bulk buying power one set of HR one set of payroll admin etc.
As for Mike Ashley, is there anything left on the high street that twot hasn't bought? I can't see Evans being a nice place to be for much longer and I've always liked my local branch, nice people and great customer service.
Not really surprised that they’re struggling. My experience hasn’t been great, I’ve bought three bikes from Evans over the years and the last two had issues. Bought a Norco mtb from them and the tyres were perished. Customer service were pretty good at sending out replacements after I sent photos. Although they only sent one tyre so had to start the process all over again to get another.
Bought a Pinnacle Lithium on the C2W scheme (great bike!). However the process of actually getting the bike was a disaster. I ended up in the shop six times before I actually got the bike. They had issues where they ordered the wrong size, then ordered the correct size but it was damaged in transit. The worst part was they kept promising the bike would be ready when it clearly wasn’t. I got them to fit mudguards, the first set were the wrong size and too small for larger 42c tyres. Got a proper set fitted which then weren’t even fitted straight. I ended up sorting that myself. I’ve been in a few times where I’d booked the bike in for work first thing, only to turn up after work at five and they hadn’t even started.
Also, don’t ever use their special order system, I waited three months for a frame bearing/ pivot kit (coming from Canada - don’t buy a Norco for this reason as you have to deal with Evans only) only for the wrong part to turn up. Ended up getting a refund and just replacing the bearings only.
Bought a Pinnacle Lithium on the C2W scheme (great bike!). However the process of actually getting the bike was a disaster. I ended up in the shop six times before I actually got the bike. They had issues where they ordered the wrong size, then ordered the correct size but it was damaged in transit. The worst part was they kept promising the bike would be ready when it clearly wasn’t. I got them to fit mudguards, the first set were the wrong size and too small for larger 42c tyres. Got a proper set fitted which then weren’t even fitted straight. I ended up sorting that myself. I’ve been in a few times where I’d booked the bike in for work first thing, only to turn up after work at five and they hadn’t even started.
Also, don’t ever use their special order system, I waited three months for a frame bearing/ pivot kit (coming from Canada - don’t buy a Norco for this reason as you have to deal with Evans only) only for the wrong part to turn up. Ended up getting a refund and just replacing the bearings only.
I worked for Evans over 15 ago, I guess during the period of their first big expansion, when I was in between (real) jobs during a downturn, and I needed something to get me out of the house during the day. I ended up working part time on the weekends for a long time after I was back in real work, due to working with friends and I was addicted to cheap bike stuff with the income to feed it, and in the end I worked for them for a couple of years.
A lot of what people have said in the previous 4 pages I would say is pretty correct - I walked into my local shop a month ago on a weekday and was disappointed on how bare the place was, the 1 staff on the shop floor, 4 customers getting grumpy, and poor displays on what was there (I was after a new rear light), and walked out.
I worked for them before and during the first PE sale, and saw the changes starting to happen back then. One reason why they have a mostly poor reputation is at a store level the money paid to staff was poor, most are (at least were) on minimum wage plus a shop bonus if they made target each week. The store managers were the only ones on something decent, and that's only relative to those under him (the big stores with the biggest turnover the managers were on good money). So they would almost take on anyone who would accept the poor pay, so mostly young people, students, and frankly a lot of wasters, and having any knowledge or interest in cycling wasn't a requirement. So you had a lot of people who didn't know bikes, the product range, not experienced at customer service, and it showed. The average shop staff kid on 10k a year at the time, just isn't going to know about the top of the line high end bike, or latest groupset, has never ridden it let alone afford it. Our store was different as it was setup as a service centre in London, so we didn't have many bikes we stocked, but usually had every bike part know to man.
You had a few people who knew their stuff, who usually were the managers, who had worked their way up on the lousy pay as they had a passion for cycling, a few senior experienced mechanics that had been doing it for years and got sent on vendor training courses, and guys who had cycling as a hobby, usually had other jobs or were in the UK traveling, knew their stuff and doing it for the one company perk, cheap bike stuff. Back then we would warranty anything with out a problem if clearly something was wrong with the item, and it wasn't due to abuse/crashing etc. I would just get sent back to the supplier and we would get a credit note, and back them being the largest buyer it was rarely a problem. And before the explosion of the competition online retailers, the company had an arrogance of we are a premium retailer so we don't discount, if someone wants a discount join CTC etc.who would get a discount. That was because head office jumped on top of managers about their profit margins (and their bonus), and on on side, running a shop isn't cheap, but when you were losing sales due to this policy it was just daft. Personally I ignored that policy and did whatever to keep a customer happy and get the sale. As I worked on the last day of the sales week, hitting target was our priority, and I would usually in 6 hours sell more than the guys working a full 5 days Mon-Fri, and I do stuff like build wheels myself if the mechanics were busy and it mean a £400 sale and a happy customer.
I used rolling up mid morning for my shift, as I was friends/drinking buddies with all my managers, but that was because I could run the show when the manager went off for lunch, was older than the others, and could deal with the top end customers.
My claim to fame was when I was labeled by the Company Staff Trainer, who I managed to avoid for years due to working a day a week, and after the training session called me 'The Most Arrogant Employee in the whole Company" to my boss, as I said my my knowledge on our product line was 10/10 for almost everything being a mad mostly MTBer I had used or knew everything we sold, except baby seats, as I don't have a baby so have no knowledge of that! He was a cock anyhow....
The company put a lot of effort into their image and presence, but at the time didn't really put money into the sport at grass roots or sponsor anything. One of my mates mates owned a European UCI MTB team and had the time World Champion riding for them, and lost a sponsor, and needed money to get them to the end of the season, it wasn't much, I can't remember the exact figure, maybe 30k Evan's were not interested, which I thought was very short sighted. In the stores we had a MS DOS Point of Sale system that had been bought cheap when it was only a handful of stores, but was old and creaking in my day with double the amount of stores, and kept it kicking along years after I left - the IT side was a shambles... And they refused to buy CCTV, so we had fake camera's, which the thieving scrotes either knew that, or didn't care (the MET cops though they were real...
), which was great when they ran off with hundreds of pounds of stuff, that came out of our shop target.
After I decided that I had enough of taking the train into London every Saturday, usually a bit hung over, the train fare getting more expensive, and decided I wanted my weekends back, and break my bike buying addiction I quit. Only after a final blow out buying bikes and stuff. After I left, they clamped down on staff purchase scheme, limiting you to buying one of two bikes a year, and I think staff couldn't buy the other items at cost price (which the company lost money on in reality) which was the only real perk to working there. If you ever visited the (work) shop a few doors up from Condor during that period, it ended up getting closed/moved/expanded to Kings Cross so doesn't exist anymore, you might have been served by me - I was the arrogant one
A lot of what people have said in the previous 4 pages I would say is pretty correct - I walked into my local shop a month ago on a weekday and was disappointed on how bare the place was, the 1 staff on the shop floor, 4 customers getting grumpy, and poor displays on what was there (I was after a new rear light), and walked out.
I worked for them before and during the first PE sale, and saw the changes starting to happen back then. One reason why they have a mostly poor reputation is at a store level the money paid to staff was poor, most are (at least were) on minimum wage plus a shop bonus if they made target each week. The store managers were the only ones on something decent, and that's only relative to those under him (the big stores with the biggest turnover the managers were on good money). So they would almost take on anyone who would accept the poor pay, so mostly young people, students, and frankly a lot of wasters, and having any knowledge or interest in cycling wasn't a requirement. So you had a lot of people who didn't know bikes, the product range, not experienced at customer service, and it showed. The average shop staff kid on 10k a year at the time, just isn't going to know about the top of the line high end bike, or latest groupset, has never ridden it let alone afford it. Our store was different as it was setup as a service centre in London, so we didn't have many bikes we stocked, but usually had every bike part know to man.
You had a few people who knew their stuff, who usually were the managers, who had worked their way up on the lousy pay as they had a passion for cycling, a few senior experienced mechanics that had been doing it for years and got sent on vendor training courses, and guys who had cycling as a hobby, usually had other jobs or were in the UK traveling, knew their stuff and doing it for the one company perk, cheap bike stuff. Back then we would warranty anything with out a problem if clearly something was wrong with the item, and it wasn't due to abuse/crashing etc. I would just get sent back to the supplier and we would get a credit note, and back them being the largest buyer it was rarely a problem. And before the explosion of the competition online retailers, the company had an arrogance of we are a premium retailer so we don't discount, if someone wants a discount join CTC etc.who would get a discount. That was because head office jumped on top of managers about their profit margins (and their bonus), and on on side, running a shop isn't cheap, but when you were losing sales due to this policy it was just daft. Personally I ignored that policy and did whatever to keep a customer happy and get the sale. As I worked on the last day of the sales week, hitting target was our priority, and I would usually in 6 hours sell more than the guys working a full 5 days Mon-Fri, and I do stuff like build wheels myself if the mechanics were busy and it mean a £400 sale and a happy customer.
I used rolling up mid morning for my shift, as I was friends/drinking buddies with all my managers, but that was because I could run the show when the manager went off for lunch, was older than the others, and could deal with the top end customers.
My claim to fame was when I was labeled by the Company Staff Trainer, who I managed to avoid for years due to working a day a week, and after the training session called me 'The Most Arrogant Employee in the whole Company" to my boss, as I said my my knowledge on our product line was 10/10 for almost everything being a mad mostly MTBer I had used or knew everything we sold, except baby seats, as I don't have a baby so have no knowledge of that! He was a cock anyhow....
The company put a lot of effort into their image and presence, but at the time didn't really put money into the sport at grass roots or sponsor anything. One of my mates mates owned a European UCI MTB team and had the time World Champion riding for them, and lost a sponsor, and needed money to get them to the end of the season, it wasn't much, I can't remember the exact figure, maybe 30k Evan's were not interested, which I thought was very short sighted. In the stores we had a MS DOS Point of Sale system that had been bought cheap when it was only a handful of stores, but was old and creaking in my day with double the amount of stores, and kept it kicking along years after I left - the IT side was a shambles... And they refused to buy CCTV, so we had fake camera's, which the thieving scrotes either knew that, or didn't care (the MET cops though they were real...
), which was great when they ran off with hundreds of pounds of stuff, that came out of our shop target.After I decided that I had enough of taking the train into London every Saturday, usually a bit hung over, the train fare getting more expensive, and decided I wanted my weekends back, and break my bike buying addiction I quit. Only after a final blow out buying bikes and stuff. After I left, they clamped down on staff purchase scheme, limiting you to buying one of two bikes a year, and I think staff couldn't buy the other items at cost price (which the company lost money on in reality) which was the only real perk to working there. If you ever visited the (work) shop a few doors up from Condor during that period, it ended up getting closed/moved/expanded to Kings Cross so doesn't exist anymore, you might have been served by me - I was the arrogant one
Just tried to redeem a voucher my daughter bought me for my 50th...
Got this:
GIFT CARDS & E-VOUCHERS
Customer Notice
Unfortunately we are currently unable to accept Evans Cycles Gift Cards or Evans Cycles e-gift Vouchers as a form of payment until further notice. New vouchers are also currently unavailable for purchase.
Any queries relating to Gift Cards or e-gift Vouchers should be directed to our Contact Centre on 01293 574 900.
We once again apologise for any inconvenience caused.
So I suppose it's deemed voucher holders are just bottom of the pile creditors...who will lose out.
Triffic.....!
Got this:
GIFT CARDS & E-VOUCHERS
Customer Notice
Unfortunately we are currently unable to accept Evans Cycles Gift Cards or Evans Cycles e-gift Vouchers as a form of payment until further notice. New vouchers are also currently unavailable for purchase.
Any queries relating to Gift Cards or e-gift Vouchers should be directed to our Contact Centre on 01293 574 900.
We once again apologise for any inconvenience caused.
So I suppose it's deemed voucher holders are just bottom of the pile creditors...who will lose out.
Triffic.....!
MrVert said:
Just tried to redeem a voucher my daughter bought me for my 50th...
So I suppose it's deemed voucher holders are just bottom of the pile creditors...who will lose out.
Triffic.....!
I hope you manage to get a decent resolution to it. I probably won't get anything for the few pence I have left hanging around on a code either.So I suppose it's deemed voucher holders are just bottom of the pile creditors...who will lose out.
Triffic.....!
g7jhp said:
Bought by Mike Ashley.
Not sure I want to line his pocket. We'll soon see boxes piled high in the stores which don't shut.
I noticed that in a House Of Fraser the other day. Every empty space piled high with Sports Direct stock. Can see why, but was hardly the Harrods of the High StNot sure I want to line his pocket. We'll soon see boxes piled high in the stores which don't shut.
MrVert said:
Just tried to redeem a voucher my daughter bought me for my 50th...
...
So I suppose it's deemed voucher holders are just bottom of the pile creditors...who will lose out.
It was the same whe Jessops went belly up before being bought without its debts. You're an unsecured creditor of the old company. The money the receivers have from the sale will go to the secured creditors first. Only if they're all paid off in full will any be available for unsecured creditors. Which means there won't be any for you....
So I suppose it's deemed voucher holders are just bottom of the pile creditors...who will lose out.
All is not necessarily lost though. If your daughter bough the voucher with a credit card she can apply to the card issuer for a charge back (assuming under £100, if £100 or over then apply for a section 75 refund (better)). If she used a debit card she can apply to her bank. They're not obliged to refund, but I had a £50 Jessops voucher that a family member had bought me with a debit card and the bank did refund them. Definitely worth a try.
Edited by SixPotBelly on Friday 2nd November 18:27
Had a look at the money owed by Evans when it went skint. Nasty.
Bmc £334k, Brompton £124k, Cambrian (conti distributor) £201k, CSG (cannondale and others) £2.9m, endura £661k, Mavic £182k, specialized £3.9m, trek £1.9m and many other distributors and wholesalers owed tens of thousands
Sure, there might be a bit to come from sports direct to facilitate future trading, but this is very damaging to the industry
Bmc £334k, Brompton £124k, Cambrian (conti distributor) £201k, CSG (cannondale and others) £2.9m, endura £661k, Mavic £182k, specialized £3.9m, trek £1.9m and many other distributors and wholesalers owed tens of thousands
Sure, there might be a bit to come from sports direct to facilitate future trading, but this is very damaging to the industry
Was in the local Evans shop the other day, noticed they had a distinct lack of any high end mtbs. They used to always have a decent enough selection of Norco full sus mtbs (where I bought mine) but not a single one was there when I went in. Not sure if that’s related to their current situation or not. Sad to see though.
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