As you may know, I hate writing negative reviews. I really wanted to give The Good a GOOD review,…read morebut my experience with them these past two weeks forces me to be honest and admit they won't be receiving my business anymore.
For background, I own only one bike. It's not fancy but I've had it for a very long time and have put hundreds of miles on it, making great memories along the way. I have gotten it regularly maintenanced in Texas, Massachusetts, Nevada, Hawaii, and California and never had any issues until now. Two weeks ago, the hubs and I dropped off our bikes at The Good for tune-ups since they been sitting in a garage collecting dust for a while and we expect to be riding them a lot more here in Santiago.
The Good took one look at my old bike and pronounced that mine would need a more extensive (and expensive) tune-up. No problem! I hadn't been having any issues with it, but it definitely needed a wash and I was glad they were going to be more thorough with my baby because 1) I love this bike and 2) road safety is REALLY important to me.
When we went to pick up our bikes, I immediately noticed it was clean and sparkling, yay! I was a little surprised that The Good didn't offer to do any cosmetic work that my bike could have used (e.g., replace grips or seat cover), but no big deal, as long as the bike itself was working. I hopped on and gave it a little spin on front of the store. The first thing I noticed was how noisy the brakes were. They were really tight and the squeak was very distracting. But ok, that's minor and I was sure the noise would subside over time (or I'd get used to it). So I left and made a date with a friend to go riding in a couple of days during morning rush hour.
Friday morning, my girl friend and I set out to ride however far we felt like going before turning around on the flat roads and paths. We left Las Condes and headed toward La Vega. On the ride, I heard some unusual noises that didn't sound related to my brakes. I also noticed that the noise became much worse when shifting gears and in certain gears it was particularly bad. At one point, as we were crossing a busy intersection, I suddenly realized my chain had broken completely. Ugh!
We stopped in the median and I examined the chain. A pin had become detached from a side plate. Hmm... Unusual and definitely a first for me. Had The Good changed my chain during the tune-up? Or had they just lubricated the old one? Who knows? A kind park maintenance worker saw me in distress and brought some tools to help get the chain at least semi-reconnected. Thankfully I was able to call a friend to come pick me up during rush hour, but what a horrible start to my biking excursions in Santiago!
My husband was kind enough to return my bike to The Good for repair the next day for me. Surprisingly, they charged him for the repair, which I thought was inappropriate considering we had just shelled out money for the "superior" tune-up that week and by my estimation, the chain breaking was likely either as a result of their poor workmanship or something they should have prevented during the tune-up.
Fast forward to the next weekend--a different girl friend suggests a morning ride this time to Los Dominicos from Las Condes. We headed out but didn't get far before my bike began making that awful sound again--a loud click and clang. Uh oh. I knew that wasn't good, so again, I refrained from shifting gears hoping it would go away. Nope. Once again, I lost the ability to pedal but this time, upon inspection, it appeared it was not the chain but the back cassette (gears) that were completely broken. What the heck!? How was this not examined, noticed, and repaired in one of the two previous maintenance visits?! This is by no means a complicated bike!
I was about to abandon my bike and call an Uber, but my friend insisted we walk it back in the heat. I felt so awful that The Good had now let two of my friends and me down on two separate occasions a week apart and not only inconvenienced us, but created what could have been a real safety emergency.
When I arrived at the shop yesterday for the third time, I explained the situation and expressed my unhappiness that this should have been caught and very likely was the reason the chain broke last week. While the gentleman who greeted me was very kind and agreed to fix it right away, I was taken aback that they again charged me to repair what should never have broken in the first place.
So for this reason, as much as I'd like to recommend this funky place with an identity crisis and unknown name, I can't because I can't trust them or give them any more of my money. Save yourself the headache and only come here for coffee and conversation, not bike repair.
