Balfe's Bikes Streatham Reviews Summary

Customer Service

Pros:

• "Fantastic service from Balfe's bikes. They really went all out, and delivered my bike ahead of schedule - impressive given the lockdown status."
• "Balfe's continues to provide an excellent service to the biking community of SW London."
• "Some of the best service I've ever had. Went in for buying advice and they didn't try and upsell at all."
• "Noah and Ed were amazing. Very patient with my nagging and were interested in my satisfaction above all."
• "The staff there is so welcoming, friendly and helpful."
• "Excellent customer service. Very patient while a tried multiple models, honest input on what choice I was making."
• "10 out of 10 customer service and great bikes!"

Cons:

• "Certainly disappointed. Note to self: never again."
• "It's frankly astonishing how clueless and unsupportive this bike shop comes across. Shocking."
• "Summary, avoid like covid."
• "Customer service here is poor: they didn't complete the job as agreed, nor did they call me to avoid wasting my time, nor did they apologise for their failure."
• "Complete shambles beginning to end with my order still haven’t had wrong child seat collected before correct one can be sent."
• "Very poor customer service 👎"
• "I have never been spoken to in such a rude manner, having just a simple question about the price of their service."

Staff and Assistance

Pros:

• "Helpful and friendly staff that helped with my queries and crimped my daughters break cables for free."
• "Balfe's Bikes are the best! They are incredibly friendly and so helpful."
• "The guy in the shop (8am, Wednesday 23rd Jan) was incredibly polite and helpful."
• "Really helpful, polite and friendly service."
• "Helpful staff and quite polite."
• "The staff at Balfe's are very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful."
• "Very helpful and knowledgable staff helped me to find the perfect new bike."

Cons:

• "Plus I could never get through and they never rang back to keep me updated."
• "Surprisingly they said no, which was annoying because it was one of those evenings I didn't have my tool roll."
• "Unfortunately this shop has lost a lot of respect in its honesty especially the mechanic who was in today and the assistant after talking nicely initially and promising never delivered their words and actually lied."
• "While I appreciate a bit of sarcasm I feel that this is an unacceptable way to address another person and someone who is in need of your services."
• "What made the whole experience really appalling was that the very same shop assistant tried his very best to insult my intelligence by giving me very poor and ridiculous excuses."
• "They are severely understaffed and it takes ages to arrange a repairs/ service...This isn't the same shop as it was 2 years ago."
• "This review is not about the staff per se... my experience has been marred by my failed attempt to collect the bike."

Quality of Repairs and Services

Pros:

• "The bike's now running like a dream."
• "They gave my Cannondale hybrid a fantastic full service - they quickly diagnosed and repaired quite a few issues (chain, brakes, gearing ratios etc.) and got me back on the road in only a morning."
• "Maintenance team kept the bike in top condition as part of free first service, including sole small adjustments I requested."
• "I brought in my bike that was producing the most awful squeak when it braked and the team did a full service and replaced the brakes."
• "Great bike shop! Had a pretty major overhaul of my bike... Although it was a decent cost I felt it was completely worth it."
• "They fixed it on the spot and charged a reasonable price for it. I was done in about 10 minutes."
• "They've done on-the-spot fixes as well as bigger pieces of work from them quickly, professionally and for always reasonable prices."

Cons:

• "I dropped the bike off three times as they did not have the parts and that was not an issue for me as I wanted the bike serviced and repaired properly."
• "Bike was not serviced or repaired properly."
• "Adding extortionate extra charges afterwards, and threatening to not give bike back unless paid them."
• "However when I got home, tyres were half inflated, rusty front brakes cables not replaced but worse handle bar rise fork stem was loose."
• "When I got to the shop they told me there was a mistake and that my bike was not ready, not even seen by the mechanics because they didn’t have time to look into it that day."
• "I found the hydraulic brakes had not been bled, leaving my back brake redundant."
• "This is amongst a whole heap of errors which should have been a straight forward transaction and has become a nightmare."

Communication and Responsiveness

Pros:

• "The team at balfes are really nice, and the communication is relatively prompt."
• "They've shown real interest in how she's doing. And for that alone they've won my loyalty!"
• "The team at balfes are really nice, and the communication is relatively prompt, so it's reluctantly I'm giving a low score."
• "Staff are really friendly and make time for customers."
• "They never tried to upsell me a better service, than what my bike needed."
• "Great local bike shop. The team at Balfe’s are all super helpful, approachable and quick!"
• "These guys are fantastic. Have been using them for years. Completely trust them with my bikes."

Cons:

• "Free check service after 8 weeks booked over the phone. No email confirmation received."
• "When dropping it off we were quoted £50 for some work and when I collected it, the bill I received was for £67.45 with no breakdown of what had been done."
• "Sometimes there can be a queue to get assistance, which can take some depending on request from customers ahead."
• "I understand as it was a discretionary decision and it was contingent upon the system being up and functional. Anyway, my review reflects my experience based on the failed attempt to collect my bike and not how staff were communicating with me."
• "I will never go to anyone else again in London!"
• "Good to have local bike supplies and service in Streatham Hill."
• "Thank you Balfe's Streatham!"