Josh B.
Yelp
May 2022 Update:
Just stumbled upon the owner's response to this review, and am almost as stunned today as I was when I wrote the original review, for much of his response is, well, a complete fabrication.
-At no time was I offered a gift card for a future purchase, or 'first dibs' on a future restocked bike, or offered a bike upgrade. Didn't happen. The only option I was EVER given was to pick another bike from the few options they offered, none of which worked for me.
-I never made any threat whatsoever of writing a review, presumably as a way to extort one thing or another out of them, nor did I mention the topic of a review at all. Just didn't happen. I simply wrote the review after the whole thing concluded to be helpful to other people. Which is what reviews are supposed to be for, right? The review wasn't about getting back at them; it was about paying it forward.
-I didn't change my mind on what bike I wanted; they took my money for a bike they never had, then tried to talk me into a totally different bike they did have.
-I never "made a scene" at their shop, because I was never physically at the shop after the moment I purchased the bike I thought I was getting. I left their shop that day happy I about the bike I thought I had purchased. Everything after that happened over the phone. No "scene" ever happened because I wasn't ever physically there for it to happen.
-And finally, to be 100% crystal clear, I have no issue with the staff at Ham Cycles whatsoever. They were nothing but courteous and professional with me. It was obvious from the moment the staff contacted me by phone, though, that they were very nervous/afraid of what would happen with their boss if they couldn't get me to agree to choose a totally different bike - they knew he would refuse to allow them to refund my money, they knew he would refuse to speak with me when I asked to speak with the owner, and they knew they would be yet again caught in the middle. Which is, well, exactly what happened. I could tell at the time that the situation the staff was in with me was a place they had been in many, many times before. So the problem wasn't the staff. The problem is the shop's owner who puts his own people in completely impossible, no-win situations.