I have a serious complaint about Pedal Power Bikes and Boards. After a month of waiting for my…read morewheel to be respoked, and an increase of their initial estimate from $70 to $184, I found out yesterday that they have lost my wheel entirely!
On June 27, 2013, I brought in the rear wheel of my e-bike after some of my spokes had broken on it. When I brought it in I was quoted $70 and told that it would be ready by the end of the first week of July. The cause of the problem with the original spokes was, as I was told, that the torque of the motor was too much for the spokes. The work required was to cut spokes to a custom length and then be applied to the wheel.
So, on July 5th, I went in to Pedal Power to pick up my tire. I was told that they did not have a chance to work on it.
On July 10th, I waS called by Pedal Power and informed that in addition to the broken spokes, the rim to my bike was damaged in two places and needed to be replaced, and so the estimate was increased to $184, or two and a half times the original estimate. This was to buy a new rim.
Now, this is where I started getting mad. I'm not sure why it took them almost two weeks to find that the rim was broken and more than double my estimate. I felt like I was being ripped off, and considering I am on Ontario Works, I had to find a way to find the extra money. I contacted my case worker who was only able to secure some cash. I was able to ask Pedal Power to purchase the part, and was assured that they would be able to have the bike ready by July 19th.
It wasn't. I came into the store again and spoke to the owner, who told me that the part was not in, and that it should be in on the following Monday (the 22nd), and that the spokes would be in the new rim by the end of the week.
So I come in on July 26th, the Friday, and was told that not only had the part not come in, but that the person on staff was unable to find my wheel, which has a $300 motor attached to it. To his absolute credit, he was very sympathetic and patient with my frustration. I don't like to show anger to people who don't deserve it, so I left the store after making it clear that he needed to find my bike wheel and convey the above facts to his manager.
I haven't formally met the owner, but he needs to get his stuff together. The store is understaffed for a busy season, the staff fails to communicate to their customers about major delays to a project, and their initial failure to fully diagnose the issue with my back wheel added 2 weeks to my wait time, and $115 to the estimate.
I have never been this frustrated with a company in my life. I strongly advise anyone against using their repair services unless it is something incredibly basic, and even then I recommend that you try it yourself first.
