FatBirds - www.fatbirds.co.uk

Thank you very much fat birds. My experience was this: I ordered a bike but it wasn't in Stock. They refunded me straight away. Then I ordered another bike and this was sent to me promptly and I made an error with the size of the bike. I sent the bike back and there was no fuss at all. It was damaged in the post when sent back and yet fat birds still exchanged it for my correct size. This was then not in Stock and they very kindly sent me the newer model instead and didn't ask for more money. I received the bike brand new and nicely packaged. I am a very happy customer and will refer the company to friends. Thanks so much for your great customer service fat birds!!! Absolutely exceptional customer service from the fat birds team.

Lack of attention to detail and shoddy service in general - no stars !

I ordered a Lynskey Sportive Disc bike from Fatbirds and dealt with the MD for this transaction.

After several emails and telephone calls I settled on the specification for the bike ( all confirmed by email ), paid my money and waited for the bike.

I had arranged ( by email ) to have the bike delivered to my work address as I am not home during the day. I waited at work all day and the bike did not arrive. Feeling fairly hacked off, I chased Fatbirds and after a lot of hassle it turned out that the bike had been sent to my home address and had been signed for by somebody I did not know.

Upon arriving home, the bike had been signed for by the neighbours daughter in law - but it could have been anybody !

Upon inspection of the bike, the mudguards had been fitted badly and were rubbing on the disc brakes. After trying to rectify this the mudguards broke. Luckily I had some spares and resolved this. I complained to the MD at Fatbirds about this - he apologised and offered to send me a Fatbirds cycling shirt - a nice touch that I accepted. I am still waiting for the shirt that has never been sent to me.

I then noticed several days later that two items I had ordered had not been fitted - Gore cables and a Hope seat collar. ( Again all confirmed by email. ) I had by now given up speaking to Fatbirds and did not bother to complain as they do not listen or respond with actions.

After riding the bike for approx 180 miles - about 5 spokes in my front wheel worked loose. This is totally unacceptable and I therefore complained to the MD at Fatbirds by email. No response. I then copied the email to [Name] at Fatbirds. No response. Feeling fairly hacked off again, I sent an email to the MD at Fatbirds threatening legal action if they did not respond and finally got a sarcastic response.

The upshot was that they agreed to pay for the cost of having the wheels rebuilt ( I took the wheels to my local bike shop who tested them and found them to be very badly built ). The wheels were rebuilt and have been perfect since. I did not claim the money for the rebuild from Fatbirds as I do not ever wish to have any contact with them ever again.

The service provided by their MD is shoddy in my experience and I would strongly urge anybody to go elsewhere.

I had also previously bought a Van Nicholas titanium bike from these people and asked for Mavic Ksyrium ELITE whels - they supplied Equipe wheels. I put this down to an honest mistake but with my experience above I now truly believe that they are just plain incompetent.

I have ordred from Fatbirds a few times, I always get the delivery time stated on the website and the price is always low (i am a sucker for searching google for the best price for a item and Fatbirds almost always come out on top. The staff are friendly and know what they are talking about (this is a refreshing change compaired with other stores). I highly recommend Fatbirds to any cyclist

I placed an order for a pair of Shimano M161 SPD shoes on the 16th December 2011 for £61.99.

I received an email from Ukmail customer services (Fat Birds mailing service) on Wednesday the 20th December saying that the shoes would be delivered that day to my delivery address (my office).

The shoes did not get delivered.

I called Fat Birds on Friday 30th December to inform them That I hadn't received my shoes; Fat Birds informed me that Ukmail had tried to deliver the shoes to my office but couldn't as I was not known at that address, this of course is utter nonsense. Why would I specifically state in my order that I wanted my goods delivered to an address I do not use?

I then arranged with Fat Birds to have the shoes delivered to my home address.

On January 3rd 2012 I received a phone call from Ukmail asking if I had received my shoes!

They informed my they couldn't find the parcel in their system and would continue searching.

Monday 9th January I called Fat Birds, they did not answer so I left a message with their voice mail to please call me back, they did not call me back.

I called a second time on the 9th January this time they answered so I asked when I would be getting my shoes and to tell them about the phone call I had received from Ukmail the previous week which, before hand, they knew nothing about. Fat Birds then told me they would chase up my order. I asked as it was now nearing a month since I placed the original order if they could send me another pair of shoes to speed things up as I was getting impatient, they said they didn't have any more in stock, the chap I spoke too was not rude but spoke to me with an attitude like he couldn't really be bothered.

I called Fat Birds again on January 10th to follow up on my order, again no one answered.

Later that same day Fat Birds called me apologising for not calling back the previous day and to inform me that Ukmail had lost the parcel. They then told me that the shoes I ordered were no longer available but a new version of them was that were more expensive. I asked if they could waver the difference or at least offer a discount or throw some freebies into the deal as compensation for the inconvenience caused but was told that wasn't possible and that I must pay the difference on the order!

Needless to say I cancelled the order and requested a refund. Again the attitude of the staff at Fat Birds I spoke to was one of couldn't care less.

I have since ordered the same shoes from Ribble for £67.46 hopefully I will get a better service for the extra few pounds.