Appalling customer service

Wheelies staff cannot be helpful enough when it comes to taking your insurance companies money for a replacement bike, but when that bike fails and is not fit for purpose they take no responsibility whatsoever and merely act as a postbox between customer and manufacturer.

Having had a specialized stumpjumper Stolen and being told by my insurance company that I had to use Wheelies to source a replacement, I was given a choice of a few bikes. Although unable to test ride any of them, having read a few reviews, I opted for a Scott Scale 630.

This is a lovely bike with superb acceleration due to the stiff carbon fibre frame. It is great for road and very light tow path/gravel track trails, but didn't last 5 minutes off road. On my second organized off road trail i was only 13 miles into the ride and pedaling hard through sticky mud when i was stopped dead in my tracks when the bracket for the rear mech hangar snapped and sent the derailleur into the back wheel.

Unfortunately, with this particular bike the hangar bracket is affixed to an integral part of the frame which also snapped off and now effectively renders the bike a right-off. Despite the bike being only 5 months old and having done less than 500 miles I am told by Scott (via Wheelies) that it is not covered under warranty. Wheelies then had the audacity to offer me 24% off replacement parts which as far as I can see is a new bike worth over £2000!

I am currently in an ongoing battle with Wheelies that the bike is not fit for purpose and all I get is accusations that I must have mistreated the bike or crashed it in order to cause such damage.

Would not touch Wheelies with a barge pole in future and can also say the same about Scott. I think I'll stick with Specialized in the future.