Poor quality, poor support

[sigmet]

I bought an A-Bike Plus direct from Mayhem in October of 2009. It was immediately apparent that thing was poorly made:

- handlebars wobbled due to out-of-round holes for the pop-in buttons
- seat stay wobbled due to bottoming-out of bolt in nutplate
- steering was so stiff as to make riding dangerous
- right pedal was cross-threaded into crank, leaving it covered with metal filings, very loose and unable to tighten.

After several requests, Mayhem finally sent a return authorization and I sent the bike back to the UK at a cost of $80. It sat at the Post Office there for two months, while Mayhem repeatedly refused to accept delivery while claiming no knowledge of it. Finally, the British Post sent it back to the US, and I had to ransom it back from the US Post Office in March 2010 for an additional $50.

My conclusion: there was absolutely no difference in quality between the "genuine" A-Bike and some cheap Chinese knock-off. Since Mayhem won't back their product anyway, save your money - if you must have an A-Bike, buy the cheapest eBay crap you can find. There's hardly any difference...

-Steve

[Garry]

Hi Steve

Very sorry to hear about your bad experience and I've passed this onto Mayhem today. Hopefully there's a good explanation.

[Stevbike]

Too bad to hear about your experience with your bike. Hopefully the replacement will be better. I have a copy version myself with the 8" wheels but like the overall design of the bike. I found the build quality ok but with small fit problems. After riding it 100 km in a 4 week time frame last fall, I would recommend it to others.

When used within its designed purpose, it makes a great bike to use.

stevbike

[Garry]

Here is the official response from Mayhem. It looks like the post office are to blame (as so often!) Hopefully Steve will read this and contact Mayhem again.

We are sorry to hear about Steve's experience in purchasing an A-Bike from Mayhem UK. I am Mark Cornford senior manager at Mayhem UK. Let me explain what really happened. Steven says he tried to return an a-bike to our offices. We believe him. However it never arrived . It got held up and lost somewhere between HM customs and the Post office. This is unfortunate but not uncommon. I can also confirm that we did send a returns authorisation email within 3 days of receiving his email to Steven......But the claims regarding us refusing delivery are simply untrue .

Mayhem UK receive and send dozens of packages on a daily basis and as a result have a good working relationship with most couriers. Our office is open between 8.30am and 6pm Mon - Friday. Outside of these hours we have a 24hr manned reception where couriers can both collect and drop off parcels. So not at any stage would Mayhem UK or our receptionist refuse a parcel . The fact was that unfortunately this particular parcel went AWOL for a period and when it was finally found the post office returned it to the sender. This has happened twice in the last three years and on the previous occasion it went back to Japan!

As regards to counterfeit copies being of the same quality as the original A-Bike from Mayhem UK, we would not normally waste time justifying why an original A-Bike is better than a counterfeit copy. Fake A-bikes may look similar but this is all they have in common. We as responsible manufacturers have to adhere to a many safety regulations and certification standards. The copy companies simply pretend to have passed and fraudulently quote the tests we made on our authentic bikes. There is a world of difference between them, as anyone who has ridden a fake and an original can testify. We have spent years testing and developing the high standard of components and materials necessary to create an ultra lightweight bike at an affordable price. It is sad to see so many copies on the market but it is in a way a compliment to the original designer.

If Steve would like to get back in touch I will do my best to sort things out with him. But please do not blame us if packages get lost.

Mark Cornford
Sales & Marketing Manager