Urban AdvenTours — Local services in Boston

tl;dr A broken community bike pump (given/placed by this company) gave me a flat tire, and my experience at the store ensures that I will never come back to this place to spend my money, or recommend it as a store to anyone else I know who cycles.

Confession: I came here for a less-than-preferred reason, and so while I really wanted to have a good experience at this shop despite some of the other unfavorable reviews listed I came already a little disappointed/upset.

Earlier in the morning I had gone to the Whole Foods Market on Cambridge street because I had seen there was a bike pump. This pump has a pretty official looking sign that has the Urban AdvenTours sign (picture to be posted later). Now, this is partially my fault because I didn't check the pump before using, but instead of filling up my tires back to their normal air pressure the pump instead let out the rest of the air that was in them. Thankfully I don't work too far from there, so I locked my bike up, and talked to site management (because I really didn't want to get my bike towed/removed just in case I had to leave it there overnight; there's a no-overnight storage/lock-up at that plaza) and then walked to work.

This afternoon I went to their bike shop which is about a 15 minute walk from where I work. This was my first visit and their shop looked pretty well kept and well stocked. I usually go to another bike shop (not sure if I'm allowed to say which, but it's in Cambridge by Naco Taco) for my accessories/tune-ups, and I might have been a repeat customer if this experience had turned out a little differently.

I told the sales associates about what happened this morning and while I did receive some condolences, it felt somewhat shallow and there was no hint that they were thinking about really doing anything to help my situation. I was asked if my bike was with me, to which I responded "No, it's still at the Whole Foods because it has a completely flat tire", and then directed me to their hand pumps.

After looking through the options and finally selected a model I went to check out and tried to see if there was any promotion/discount/some form of "hey, I'm really sorry this happened to you on something with our name on it. Here is a voucher for __". Or, I don't know, quickly called the owner/manager to see if anything could be done. Or even if one of them volunteered to bike to where my bike is locked to fill it for me so I can ride home after work.

What I got instead was a, "that pump is there as a community donation/resource from Urban AdvenTours and so we don't assume any responsibility with it." After asking how often the pumps are checked and receiving a "about once a month, but bike pumps that are used a lot tend to break more often" (so why don't you check them more often? It's only going to help the community if it functions) it just tells me that as far as customer service, they as a company don't have a great attitude or compassion for their customers.

As I mentioned before, this shop is pretty close to where I work and had this situation turned out a little more positively I more than likely would have been back as a customer in the future. I love my bike. I use it daily. I'm at my preferred bike shop at least once a month.

Instead, I'm now writing this incredibly long review of their disappointing customer service practices (not really sure how this would be classified, but maybe that's close enough) and, as far as I can see, never go back to this company/store to spend money or recommend any other cyclists I know to spend money at this company.

(thanks for reading, if you made...

I write to you as an extremely dissatisfied customer. Until Wednesday I had been pretty happy with the service of your shop and had gone out of my way to recommend it to others. On Monday June 27, 2016, I brought my bike in for a front flat repair and to inquire about the condition of the rear tire which had begun to literally break apart. I purchased this tire, along with a new rim and front tire from you last Fall, on the recommendation of your staff.

On Monday afternoon after receiving a call that my bike was ready I paid for the repairs. Your tech kindly swapped out the defective rear tire and said based on his conversation with the sales rep it would be covered under warranty. At that time, I had asked what caused the tire to go flat the first time, but no one there could answer my question. So, until Wednesday I did not know if they replaced the tube or patched the tube. I brought the bike to my apartment on North Street and did not try to use it again until earlier this afternoon when I saw the front tire was flat again.

The puncture in the tube is not in a spot where anyone could have vandalized it. Therefore, it is either (a) a manufacturing defect; (b) installation mistake; or (c) cause by something I could have been informed of, but was not. If the rim needed new tape or some other work why the heck didn’t the tech just call and ask before putting on a new tube? Instead he put on a new tube without replacing the tape. I had no part in this decision. Therefore, it follows that it is not my responsibility.

What’s more your staff started arguing with me that somehow this is my fault. I really did not appreciate that while there were other persons in the store. I will say the tech guy who actually did the repairs on Wednesday did not participate in the criticism of me.

It was a dark haired fellow and someone with a British accent. They stated that the service notes in the computer indicated something about the bike needing more work, but nothing was a provided to me orally or in writing during or after the repairs on Monday. Had that been done and it was new rim tape for $4.00 I certainly would have agreed. So blaming me for something for which I was not aware is clearly beyond the pale.

I left the tube with your staff and asked them to put a name tag on it. The puncture in the tube is not in a spot where anyone could have vandalized it. It is either (a) a manufacturing defect; (b) an installation mistake; or (c) caused by something I could have been informed of, but was...

We rented ebikes through their website for 5 days. The day before we left, we had a pet emergency and had to delay our trip by a day and a half. We left them know via email that we would be picking up the bikes a day late but would be returning them at the same time. They immediately charged our card $40 ($20 a bike) for "changing the reservation." We didn't want to change it, just pick them up a day late. When they changed our reservation, they just pushed it back by one day and kept it as a 5 day reservation. We didn't ask for a refund for the unused day, nor would we expect one but if you're charging $40 to change a reservation, maybe a 4 day rental would be appropriate. We did ask why the $40 charge and they were immediately defensive and said it was very clear on their rental page. It's not - see the attached picture. The policy that comes up with the rental does not talk about any charges for picking up a rental late. It does say they will charge $40 ($20 a ticket) if you want to change a TOUR. That makes sense and is fair.

When we picked up the bikes they told us we had to return them at the same time we picked them up but since they extended the reservation, we actually were entitled to keep them the entire day and into the next.

We returned the bikes without issue but then received a voicemail two days after returning home demanding to know where the bikes were and telling us we owed more money and perhaps the entire cost of the bike. Three minutes later they called again and said they found the bikes.

The bikes we rented were fine, dealing with the employees was not. It felt like they went out of their way to be unpleasant. We also heard them being pretty rude to another group of customers when we...