xendistar.co.uk

A rather mixed lot I think you will agree, so from the top, childless, dear son is off on a school residential for four days, left for school normal time on Friday morning and is not due back until Monday end of school. It is his first time away from home where he is not staying with relatives and he can’t contact us and we can’t contact him. The peace in the house is deafening!!

Bad ankle, I have what the doctor called an inflamed tendon in the back of my ankle. If you have ever suffered from tendinitis in your wrist then you know what it is like except mine is in my ankle. I normally take Ibuprofen for it and it is normally gone within 3 or 4 days. Well it started last weekend and eased of during the week until yesterday when I decided I would walk from and to the garage when I took the car in for a service. By the time I got back home last night my ankle was screaming, this did not bode well as I was supposed to be taking the wife to Esher in Surrey on Saturday for a Bead Show. I hobbled around Sainsbury doing the weekly shop (which was quicker as dear son was not with us) and then it was home to rest my ankle.

Before heading off to the bead fair I had to get the Cannondale over to CycleFix to have the crank and bottom bearing removed the bottom bracket faced ready for new bearings. As I was changing to a different type of crank and bearings there was no point in me buying the tools to remove the old bits so I opted for Cycle Fix to do the job. As I was resting my ankle last night I had to remove the chain and pedals from the bike first thing this morning. Getting the bike ready was quite a quick job even under the deep red sky this morning. With the bits removed and the bike locked in the bike rack on the car it was time for breakfast. An hour later we were sat outside the bike shop waiting for them to open so I could drop the bike off and head for Surrey, about a 2hr journey.

We left the shop shortly after 9am and arrived at Sandown Race course just on 11am. Parking in the car park I was faced with a stiff uphill walk to the main entrance and every step hurt like hell. Now you may be wondering why I am going to a bead show, it is simple. I have dragged the wife around to various days out in the past where she has had little interest but has duly come along. Well now it was my turn, the wife is interested in beaded jewellery and it was my duty to ensure that she attended this show, that not quite how the wife worded it to me, unfortunately I can’t repeat what she said to me for fear of this blog being censored…….

After resting my ankle for a few minutes I was able to walk around the show reasonably comfortably, neither of us had ever been to one of these show so were were not sure what to expect, I guess there must have been around 50 stalls, many of them selling the same as each other but several with some unique beads. I did what many other husbands were doing just walking past the stalls scanning the contents and then standing back and letting the wife’s do the closer inspections. After one tour round the hall we had refreshment in the cafeteria, the wife announced that she only wanted to go back to two stalls to purchase some beads which I thought was pretty good as I was considering staying in the cafeteria while the wife went around the hall again on her own. Having purchased the beads we headed for the car and lunch before we headed off to the next part of the day.

Being close to Guildford we decided to pop into Evans Cycle store just to be nosey, I have to admit I was little disappointed. The store was nice and clean, but the staff outnumbered the customers and while it was big store it seemed empty, there were plenty of bikes but the accessories side of things was very scant. We only spent a few minutes in the store and then left without buying anything (not that I had intended to).

We now took a leisurely drive home via CycleFix to collect the Cannondale and boy was he busy in the shop, I have never seen so many bikes in the shop (all repairs, he does not sale bikes), apparently the good weather has got everybody thinking about riding their bikes.

Back home I had time for a cup of tea before we were back out again to visit one of my nieces poorly computer. Said computers is currently on its second virus scan having already removed a handful of nasties.

So no ride today hopefully going out tomorrow, ankle permitting

I have written a blog three days running, not bad going by recent standards

While writing last nights brief interlude I noticed that 95% my blogs for the last few weeks (or more) have concentrated either on my bike riding or my dieting (or not as the case may be). Well there is more to my life than just those two thing and I am quite happy to blast those who upset me (see the bus drive incident from a couple of blogs ago) so here my latest blast.

Evans Cycles, a major Internet cycle retailers as well as having high street stores. Well on the 4th June I ordered a pair of knee pads from them online, the order stated they were out of stock at the warehouse but were available in store at one of their shops so they would call the knee pads back from the shop and post them onto me.

OK first question, why not post it direct from the shop to me??

Anyway the stated delivery was 10 to 14 days, I was in no hurry for them so I was happy to go with the flow.

On Friday the 19th having heard anything from Evans and not being in possession of any knee pads I checked my online account with them to see if there was any info on my order. I found no detail of my order (apart from it being placed) but they had already charged my credit card for the purchase.

Second question, why charge my credit card when you are not in any position to send the items to me?

So I send Evans customer service department an e-mail asking why they had already charged me and when could I expect delivery, the auto responder on screen said to expect a reply within 24hrs. OK it was Friday night so I was happy to wait till Monday. So Monday 21st came and went and Tuesday evening arrived so I decided to phone customer services. I was told that a second request had been sent to the store and it should be with me by the end of the week. I was also told it was normal procedure to take the money at time of order regardless of delivery time.

Well the end of the week arrived and there was still not the owner of a pair of knee pads. So I phoned customer services. I was told that the department the customer service rep needed to talk to had gone home for the weekend and that he would chase it up for me on Monday 28th for me and promised to call me back on Monday, sounded OK but I was not going to hold my breath. when I asked why the shop could not send the knee pads to me directly, he then let himself down, apparently it was company policy that they had to come back to the warehouse and the probable reason they had not come back yet was there was no room on the van!! for f*** shake they are a pair of knee pads not a complete bloody bike.

Monday dawned and I was working from home and about to pack up for the day when the mobile rang. I did not recognise the number, it was the customer service guy from Evans with the promised return phone call (I had forgotten all about it to be honest). Apparently the department that handles the call back from stores had sorted out the problem and I could expect them by the end of the week (2nd July).

So I come home this afternoon and what do I find has been delivered, yep my knee pads, no explanation as to why it had taken over three weeks. I don’t even know if this was the knee pads the guy was talking about yesterday although I doubt it based on time scale of telling me and them arriving.

So why did it take so long, I have never had this problem with other items I have ordered online with Evans in the past. Then their is customer service, either they do not know what they were talking about or were just fobbing me off?

Ordering on line is a game of trust, you trust the supplier to supply the items at the correct price, to handle the financial transaction appropriately and to supply said goods in a timely fashion or keep you informed if problems arise. In this case Evans failed on all counts. In future I will think twice before I make another purchase from Evans online or recommend them to somebody else. Once you lose trust it is not easy to get back.