Before I ordered I checked their ratings on google and on their own website and they were still listed as reputable, their COVID-19 updates looked reasonable too stating bike dispatches were up from 1-2 days to a 10-14 day lead time from being ordered. Doesn’t sound unreasonable. I ordered the bike, a week later Evans dropped their lead times to 3-7 days, my bike then went out of stock on the website saying they’d never get that model in that size back in stock ever again. I thought I was ok though because mine was allocated to me in their stock system. Couple of days later I get an email saying my bike is being built then on Wednesday it updated again to say dispatched and I’d get a tracking number through pretty much immediately.
Friday, today, still no tracking number and I could reasonably expect this is the first possible day that it could be delivered. Also my accessories are still listed as waiting to be picked from stock (they are in stock...) but the website states accessories are dispatching in 3-5 days from ordering. So I did some digging to find out which couriers they use and landed on their Facebook page where it all appears to have kicked off in the comments. The last post from Evans was the 4th May with nearly 800 comments on, customer after customer who have ordered from Evans and not received their items, items have been damaged, call centre is shut, no one replying to emails, orders taking 5+ weeks to arrive, customers trying to cancel orders and buy elsewhere, people sending in complaints to BBC watchdog.
I don’t mind the bike being late, I don’t even mind if it’s a bit damaged provided I can fix it and get out on it, then I can sort it out with Evans when their staff are contactable again. But what I’m really bothered about is the amount of people who have had items go missing, I’m not waiting another year to get back on a bike because it probably won’t happen
I’m off to chain reaction cycles for a plan B and I’m glad I bought from Evans on a credit card!
