Pim Siebers
2/5
The short version of my story below is that my Pole is a fairly nice bike but the customer service is horrible. For the price you pay for their bikes you may expect excellent service in case of questions or issues but you will not get it. If I could do it over again there are plenty of other brands/shops which sell nice bikes with (much) better service. 2 Stars for the bike, the other 3 are deducted because of the horrible service.
The details. Earlier this year I ordered a Pole evolink 140 EN from Pole's outlet section. A demo bike which had done about 20 hours of riding according to Pole. Pictures on the outlet page were not great so I asked for some more detailed pictures. Also these pictures did not really suffice to get a complete idea of the state of the bike and its components but I was excited about the bike so I ordered it anyways. Pole stated that they would give the bike a full check before it was sent my way and I had the full 2 years of warranty on the frame and three months of warranty on the bike's components. Contact with the customer service desk so far was good.
When I received the bike it had a number of problems even though it was supposed to be fully checked by Pole.
1. The eagle cassette missed 1 tooth completely and another was half of what it needed to be.
2. The lower chainstay missed about 10 cm's of paint.
3. One of the rear wheel bearings needed some grease.
4. The rear wheel was out of true.
5. I thought the front chainring was worn but this was a non issue and a mistake from my side since the profile was different than what I expected.
Recent issues.
6. The rear shock seems to be having some problems.
7. I just found out recently that the adjustment dial for one of the brake levers is broken and has never worked.
Point 2 and 3 were solved easily. Pole did offer to send some touch up paint but in the end I chose to cover this section (and the upper chainstay) with mastic tape. I did find it disappointing that Pole did not inform me upfront about this. The bearing I greased myself.
Point 1 and 4 were less easy. Point 1 remains unsolved. I got back to Pole about the cassette. Pole told me I could just go to the shop with my receipt to get it replaced under warranty. So I did but this needs to be sent to SRAM themselves for inspection. I had some holiday plans with the bike so I decided to take the bike myself to them to speed up the process. I spoke to the European warranty manager there which informed me that the cassette is a wear and tear part which would only be covered by warranty when it would be manufactured incorrectly. On top of this my bike was a demo bike which made the warranty claim impossible. I have gotten back to Pole with this information and expressed my desire to come to a solution for this. This all happened within their 3 months time frame of warranty on the components. Next to this the SRAM warranty manager informed me since they stated this would be covered under warranty it makes them legally liable to do so. I have sent Pole four mails over the period of a couple of months specifically on this item but have not received any response from them any more. Regarding the wheel that is out of true I have decided to not even bother with them anymore and get it fixed by the shop I like in my neighborhood.
The bike itself is fairly nice. It pedals well for a big bike and the ride is comfortable. The big 29 inch wheels maintain speed well and cornering is ok for me on the bike. With 184cm I ride a size large.
Part of my problem is the demo bike itself of course but this wouldn't have been an issue if their customer service was good. As stated before, when you're spending this amount of money I would look elsewhere for a bike.
