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“An almost unbelievable level of ineptitude”

written by richardboddington on 31/05/2011

I am literally unable to work out how Wheelies can be so inept.
My bike was stolen and so my insurance company directed me to Wheelies to get a new bike. I'm a bit of a bike nerd and so I spoke to their custom build team and wrote a list of exactly what components I wanted, which I sent to them. They then sent a quote back listing those same components and giving me a price.

I waited six weeks for the bike - that's quite a long time. I could have sourced the same kit in two weeks, but hey, I could live with it.
BUT when the bike finally arrived it had NO PEDALS and the WRONG:
Saddle
Seatpost
Handlebars
Cassette
Tyres
(they would have got the stem and cranks wrong too, but a lucky call with them 3 weeks into the process allowed me to point out that they had ordered the wrong ones.... after this incident, I re-sent them the list, just so they could make sure they has got the rest of the kit right - they clearly ignored this...)

I can't understand how they can provide me with a clear list of components and then build the bike with totally different ones. I know some bikes don't come with pedals, but I had specced and paid for these ones, and been told by their guys that they'd arrived in stock. So where are they??!!

It is now two weeks later and I've been told twice that the correct parts have been dispatched, only to find that they haven't. I could have got these components from wiggle myself in 3 days!!

The most frustrating thing is the total lack of communication. Saying they'll call back and not doing it, saying they'll send something and then not doing it. Ignoring emails. The amount of time I've spent waiting on the phone to speak to someone is almost driving me to tears. And still no explanation of how they got it wrong in the first place.

I suspect that I will end up buying the correct components online myself and getting the money back from Wheelies. It's got to the stage where I don't trust them to do anything, even when they've said they will...

Awful, awful, awful. With customer service like this, Wheelies should not be able to survive, and quite frankly, after this miserable experience, I hope they don't.