I have been waiting to post the R&R of my broken Shimano 6703 shifters for Performance Bike Shop to complete the exchange - which they have FAILED to do.
Out of frustration, after 7 weeks, I took the duplicate set of shifters they sent me to the local store and asked them to credit my card. Because the item was over $100 they FAILED to do so. This after waiting 8 days for a snail-mail that was supposed to contain a Fed-X label for the return - the 2nd such label has FAILED to materialize.
After 9 days, I called the local store, and they have FAILED to receive any indication my package was returned to PBS's return center, or resulted in a refund.
It is very apparent to me that Performance Bike shop is on the ropes financially. There are a few indications of this. 1st, and foremost, any healthy company would have a functional CRM software system in place by now. PBS's system seems to be ancient, and badly broken. After a half-dozen extended phone calls, and a store visit, NOTHING is in any system anyone at customer service can find back. This is beyond pathetic.
By contrast, Amazon.com had good CRM in place by the 2nd yr of their existence, and currently handles all returns completely online, printing both the return authorization and mailing label on your printer so you can ship the package back, with complete confidence it's being tracked, and everyone knows the complete history of both ends of the transaction at all times.
The other indication PBS is on the ropes, is they've dropped a lot of vendors, and my guess is, the remaining ones are having to finance PBS's inventory.
Finally, their prices are no longer the best. Amazon can usually meet or best their price, and offers free shipping and no taxes to boot. The tax treatment is something PBS can do nothing about, but even ignoring that, PBS no longer is price competitive. My guess is, Amazon has pushed them to the brink, and they are going down.
The local PBS guy asked me to wait another week. After that I'm going to call my card company and take my money back. I'm beyond disgusted with these nit-wits.
UPDATE: 7/ 26/2012
I got a call from the shipping manager (the person who I hand-delivered the redundantly shifters to on 7/11) at the local Fair Oaks Performance Bike shop on Monday the 23rd, in response to inquire on Thurs the 19th. Nothing.
I called today, Thur the 25th, 2 weeks and a day after returning the shifters, and talked to the sales manager. Nothing. Promised they would escalate the matter with the store manager tomorrow and call me back after I threatened to have my credit card company revoke the charge, and/or call the local TV stations. Beyond pissed off!!!
UPDATE: 7/27/2012
Got a call from the shipping manager at noon today. The return package was received on the 24th, but only after burning up a lot of phone line were the local shop people able to find this out. I wasn't entirely satisfied until I found my credit card had been credited. So 7 weeks after this debacle started I've saved $339, minus the shipping that PBS failed to reimburse me for. Draw your own conclusions. I think I'll pay a little more and get a real guarantee in the future.
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