Boycott

I don't do business with people who don't take me seriously, or who multiply (or multiple times) don't show any competence. I don't mean people may not make mistakes, it's primarily about the attitude (incompetence is an attitude problem as it means no self criticism). So, if you want parts from a manufacturer listed here, or that are only available through a wholesaler that I decided not to do business with, then I can't help with those...

Examples:

• Shimano Europe (=Shimano Benelux) (distributor for not just Shimano parts): Didn't ever reply in a normal manner, didn't give the information I wanted. I talked with others about this, and this is apparently customary with them. To quote someone else: "Shimano is alwas vague" (in their responses, he means). How can anyone take such a company seriously?! Further, getting Shimano parts via a distributor here in the Netherlands (and in Belgium and Luxembourg) is more expensive than getting them from an internet webshop in Germany! This is absurd. I will therefore not do business with them and will not use any Shimano components. This may apply to other manufacturer's products as Shimano Benelux is also a distributor for other brands (e.g. Park Tool).

• Agu (dutch distributor for various brands): Didn't take me seriously when I started and didn't want to supply SRAM hubs nor Brooks saddles: These nutters told me to buy saddles from a local bicycle shop first, until I could order more (My first shipment with Brooks saddles had more Brooks saddles than most bicycle shops see in years, and it's not about quantities anyway, as bicycle shops can order a single saddle from them without problems) I'm therefore not inclined to ever do business with Agu. This means I won't supply SRAM hubs in the bikes. I do use Brooks saddles, as I don't need Agu for that...

• Kruitbosch (dutch distributor for various brands): I gave them a 3rd chance as an experiment, which I thought would be pointless (the chance I gave them I mean, the experiment was useful in a way), and it was. I will never ever do business with these people. They didn't come round at the time/date of an appointment they made. They never sent a message about that (I waited a few weeks to see what would happen) and when I rebuked them about this, they lied that someone had come round but forgot to make an appointment, and allowed me to order but set some ridiculous demands: a minimal order of €5000 per year (I don't know beforehand what I will order with them, if this is to do with overheads, just use a minimal order amount) and they said it was not allowed to sell Brooks products below the recommended retail price. This latter demand is illegal and they undoubtedly know this. If they don't know this then I won't do business with them because of incompetency, if they do know this I don't do business with them because of that. Oh yes, and I wouldn't deal with them anyway because of their lie...

• Supernova (LED lamps, Germany): Repeatedly told me lights would come 'next week', but after 8 months nothing had happened. I was already no longer interested, and the improved availability of the Edelux makes their lamps not appealing anyway as the Edelux has a better light beam. All in all I decided not to do business with them independent of the availability of the Edelux. Of course, the Cyo was also already available, which is a bit ugly but also has a better light beam, so there were plenty of options for good LED headlamps anyway.

• Not bike parts related but deserving a mention: Rabobank (in Roelofarendsveen, but I think it's a general problem): The epitomy of incompetency, wanted me to make up numbers of projected sales after they actually admitted that such numbers were impossible (that sort of behaviour caused the current financial 'crisis'). They (the person I was originally to speak with + his replacement) didn't prepare anything nor looked at my website, the person I spoke to (Sjaak den Haan, of the Rabobank at Roelofarendsveen) didn't even know the giant mortgage bank Bouwfonds nor its new name Florius (that was truly unbelievably amateurish!), showed a total lack of insight and interest, and much more.

I placed a list of all things I encountered from mid to late 2008 (*) on http://forum.fiets.nl (ca. 20 December 2008, I started a thread there about the amateurism I encountered up to that time; The attitude on that forum made me disinterested in ever going there again btw.). There is something seriously wrong with the bike-business and the attitude of people in that business. One of the problems is that there's often no competition. As a private individual you can chose not to do business with a bad bicycle shop and shop somewhere else for the same part/bicycle, but as a bicycle shop or small bike building business, you often don't have the option of not doing business with a certain distributor if you don't like the way they do business. Well, you do have the option but then you can't use certain components... The latter is my solution to this problem. Note that often in NL, there is an exclusive distributor for certain parts. This is bad as it means there's no incentive for those distributors to give service. The attitude I encountered with various distributors clearly shows this.

* Summary of what I encountered: Upon contacting distributors (usually by email as that's how I prefer to do business), they usually do not respond. When prompted again, mentioning that I contacted them but nothing happened, something else happens: They then respond (phone or email), ask for more details and say they will contact me or someone will come round. So a phonecall is something some of them can manage at that point, but that usually ends with making an appointment or with them saying 'we will contact you later', as they want to see what I'm up to, or something... Then in many cases nothing happens: either the appointment isn't kept or if no appointment was made yet in the case of 'we will contact you later', none was made at a later date. In the latter case they don't do any effort to contact me again or to make an appointment. In another case a distributor said they did reply to my email and that I was referred to a smaller local distributor for the parts I wanted. Bullshit! They didn't do that! Another case recently is Kruitbosch, not only did they state illegal requirements, but they made up a story that a representative had come round. Is it strange that I'm fed up with these idiots here in the Netherlands? I don't think so...

Last modified: Tue Dec 25 08:23:25 CET 2012