It’s been a hectic month and I’ve been silent here and on justonething. I hope to be able to keep up the pace of the blog posts going forward…I think I need to carve out a little time each week to keep you guys posted on what’s going on. Must. Try. Harder.
Anyway, I have to tell you about the bike debacle and how honesty, often/always the best policy, doesn’t always get you the best deal. Not where your conscience is concerned anyway.
I ordered a Specialized Roubaix Comp 2008 from an online retailer. I won’t name them for someone may get in trouble. the order went in on teh 23rd or something of December and when I got back from Sheffield it rocked up on a TNT delivery van. Excitedly I lugged it into the house and opened the box.
“It’s the wrong bike!”, I said to Jax. “They’ve sent me the wrong bike – this is a Roubaix Comp 2009.”
That’s a £1,700 bike. The one I ordered was discounted to £1,000. I immediately thought about this situation and mulled over just keeping it and seeing if they would call me, wanting it back. Only a couple of minutes passed before I was on the phone. I figured that if they’d sent me a cheaper bike, then I’d be calling up immediately and asking WTF.
“You must be the most honest man in the country” came the response down the line “we’d never have known.”
Cue me shoving my fist into my mouth and muffling out something like “FFS”. The guy didn’t know what to do about it, so said he’d call back…which he duly did, offering me a discount on the bike but that he’d confirm the following day.
When they called the next day, they said I could keep the bike and they’d turn a blind eye. I was so staggered by this that I muttered something about “having to think about it” (duh) and that I’d call back. I obviously just wanted to keep the saga going.
Seems ridiculous, I know, and I guess most people would just have said “thanks” and kept the bike. But I wasn’t sure whether someone would get in trouble for sending out the wrong bike and in the financial climate, a £700 loss on one bike is pretty hefty.
Yeah, lame I know. I should’ve just kept the bike.
Anyway….when I called back the (now different) guy said “oooooh, this is a mix up. Send us the bike back or we can knock you £400 off it” – not a bad discount but at £1,300 it was still more than I wanted to spend.
So, I figured that by this point I didn’t have much to lose and asked if they could do me a deal on the Roubaix Elite 2009. “Sure, we can sell you that for £1,130″.
I snapped his hand off as I wasn’t going to look this particular gift horse in the mouth twice. The £350 discount was pretty good.
So, in the end it all worked out. I got the bike I really wanted, I did the right thing and my conscience is clear. If I’d have been riding around on that Comp 09, I’d never have felt comfortable.
Yeah, right. I’d have gotten over that pretty quickly I think. (who am I trying to kid…going all gangsta there and pretending I could’ve toughed it out).
Here’s the bike I ended up with 
