Jonathan

Unprofessional: lies and deceit

I ordered a brand new bike on the 24th June and paid in full for it very shortly afterwards. Soon afterwards I was then able to "track" progress of the order through the SBF portal. After more than a week of the status showing as "your motorbike is currently being assessed by a specialist technician" I started to wonder how long this process should take and how much longer it would be before the bike would be delivered. To try and get answers to this I tried using the chat bot facility - that proved largely fruitless with answers that didn't actually answer the questions asked. I then tried calling - and got through to a rep, who after a bit of digging came back and told me that he could see no reason for a delay but that he couldn't see within the system what was causing that delay. However he did tell me that he'd follow this up with a manager and ask them to get in touch with me the next morning to explain the situation. I wasn't contacted by a manager (or at least not by anyone who identified themselves as a manager). However, after trying the chat bot facility again I was told: "Hi Jonathan, It is just waiting to be road tested, Hopefully that will be done today. Thanks". To which I replied: "How soon after that for delivery?" Which was answered with: "Hi, our delivery time frame is 7 Working days from when the bike leaves us. Thanks". As that hadn't actually answered the question, I then tried to get a clearer answer with another question, which went unanswered for the best part of a full day. At which point I changed my tack and asked what I'd need to do to cancel the order given that the order had not been fulfilled and that I wasn't getting straight answers. That at least resulted in a Sales Manager writing an email to me that confessed that the bike had been shipped out to another customer a week previously and he presented me with two options: 1/ Take the original bike at a discount due to it now being second hand and with a few miles on the clock. 2/ Take an alternative new bike of a different colour. I replied back with two options of my own: 1/ Deliver either of those bikes to me by this weekend (it was Thursday evening when I replied). 2/ If that wasn't feasible then refund me in full. I expected a reply back fairly promptly on Friday morning but having heard nothing by 10:30-ish I then called SBF again. The rep I spoke to tried to get hold of the Sales Manager in question but found out that they weren't in the office that day. However they were able to redirect me to an alternative manager who was then able to cancel the order and apologise for the mistakes. Now, and just to be very clear about this, because I understand that a title that asserts that I experienced lies and deceit might be challenged: I think that is substantiated by the quotes above which I've copied verbatim from the chat facility (and have screen shots of in case they're required as evidence of these allegations). But just in case that is not 100% clear for anyone thinking of challenging this assertion: The email from the Sales Manager is very clear in stating that the bike was delivered to another customer in the previous week by mistake. I believe that to be true. But accepting that to be true then makes the response that I received the previous day that the bike only needed to be road tested and with the "hope" that will be done today was unambiguously a lie, intended - presumably - to buy some time. It was a lie and it was deceitful. All that said, I'd guess that the kinds of mistakes that were made with my order will be quite rare and therefore I'd also assume that the majority of customers are happy to get the bike that they ordered in good time. If I'd experienced that then I'd obviously rate SBF very differently myself. Of course, it's also clear that mistakes can and do happen - we've probably all made them. But what I find completely unacceptable is the lies and the deceit - I only hope that SBF take this review constructively and look to their processes, practices and company culture to ensure that mistakes are owned up to in a professional and accountable way.