Zane's Cycles — Local services in Branford

05/08/2014 Same 5 stars. Bought my 4th cycle from this place i.e hardrock 29' disc this afternoon.Same unquestioned price match . The manager is a great guy and I went around closing time(2nd time on the same day) to cancel the other order (see 4/21) as the waiting time was now pushed to June and my son was getting frustrated that he was missing out on the summer fun.I decided I would buy a lower model from the same hardrock family at an other bicycle shop.They immediately offered an instant price match and eventhough it was closing hours , the manager personally went to the warehouse to pick the bike . He was apologetic that I had to wait for 45 mins instead of the other way around . He personally fine tuned the cycle as i guess the technicians were leaving and got it all set for me. My experience has been great so far .

I now own 5 bikes now. 4 of them bought from Zanes and 1 from LL Bean. I guess I am all set for now .

04/21/2014Update * Bought my 3rd cycle- Specialized HardRock from there. Awesome service and price match without even verification . Infact I was shopping for a disc brake model and the store had to special order it as only the brake pad model was available, my wife suggested we get a brake pad model and use it till the disk brake comes in(as they have a 30 day return policy), the salesman did not even flinch and said it was OK if I decided to do so. Since I am personally against buying stuff which I know I am going to return , I decided to pass that generous offer and will just wait for the disc model. Again they always surprise me pleasantly.

+++++++++++++ I had a good experience buying the cycle (please read my yelp review) and gave them full marks for making it great along with their lifetime service policy. But when it is time to get the cycle serviced,they take your cycle and tell you it takes them 15 days to get it serviced.Normally I would assume a service would take like 30-45 mins but they hold your cycle for 15 days. Not that I gave them the cycle during a peak summer season but in april 1st week where it is still cold.Probably an indirect way to discourage people from using their "lifetime service " guarantee??? UPDATE** Recieved a call from Zanes Cycle within a week saying my cycle was ready for pickup. The store employee (wish I had got his name) personally loaded both the cycles to my Thule Stand and tried out different combinations and then got the best one right and asked me to click a photo to use the same combination next time.Also was a given a temporary tube as I forgot to bring a bike strap and personally secured it. I guess now I am forced to upgrade it to 5...

Surprisingly disappointing experience. Am in the market for a new bike and since I had a good experience here a few years ago, (I hate shopping and they made it quick and easy), I wanted to be a repeat customer. I had a pretty solid idea of what I wanted and was willing to spend, ( $1500, but could have been upsold to $2k), so walking in door my expectations were that they’d work with me to help select the best option, sell it to me, (meaning “order it for me” because I correctly assumed they’d have nothing in stock due to Covid), and I’d be out the door in 15 minutes. I was going to buy, not shop. Didn’t get the salesman’s name because he didn’t offer it, which isn’t surprising given he seemingly had no interest in selling me a bike. I told him, I’d bought from them before but he didn’t offer to look it up so we could find something comparable, and never asked me what my budget was. He showed me the only bike they had in stock, and it wasn’t for me. That was pretty much the full extent of his effort I told him I expected I’d have to order something and wait. When I asked him about how leads times have been the tone of his answer came across as him trying to dissuade me from making an order, (wait times were in-line with what I expected). Still, I was ready to go through with a purchase so I asked him about choosing something and he told me the best thing for me to do was look on the web, (but, he said, the manufacturer’s site, not Zane’s because it’s a mess). I thought his attitude might be the result of having wasted time on people who aren’t serious buyers, so I made it clear I was fine with the wait and that I expected to pay when ordering, as I’m not the guy who goes to brick and mortar stores for advice then buys online. It had no effect on him. I should add that the problem wasn’t that he was busy, I deliberately stopped in the middle of a weekday when they were slow. At that point I’d had enough, was going to plead to buy something and flat out didn’t want to give him a sale, which is out of character for me. To summarize, I planned stopping in for 10-15 minutes, spending $1-2k, while making minimal demands of the staff, but the customer service was so unhelpful and ultimately off-putting I wasn’t able to do it, (Not even sure he would have place the order if I pushed). Again, very disappointing, (and annoyed because I hate shopping and still need a bike), not sure if this was an isolated problem with a single employee or a reflection on the...

Absolutely ridiculous experience. Had a Yakima Bike rack for hitch connection available at REI. Was convinced by friend to shop local. Spoke to Greg at ZANES (there are 3 apparently who work there). Very cordial, very nice. I explained we need rack for bicycle trip to Vermont. Told home it was available at REI but would like to shop local. He said he can order and have by probable certain date. Was convinced it would come in…That date was delayed so we delayed our trip to Vermont a week. Greg again followed up by phone (nicely) and said rack will be in on a certain day which was the day before out planned Bicycle TRIP..why the caps…show up to purchase…a different Greg works to get rack on the vehicle …(original Greg was in but when i said I’d like to meet him was told “he’s in the back and can’t come out, I’ll handle this” .Tried his best but clearly something he has never done as he was going line by line on the instructions as I stood by patiently waiting…for 30 minutes…finally gets it assembled. I say…”I don’t see how the bikes are supported or attached”…he looks at things, goes back inside, comes back out and says..”oh, you only ordered the holder…the assembly for the part that holds the bikes is a separate order and you didn’t order that”…I said..”this is a joke correct?..I ordered a BICYCLE Rack for a BIKE trip to Vermont so we could ride our BIKES..”..Well sir, that’s not what you ordered, you just ordered the frame portion that can hold a large cooler…if you want to hold bicycles that’s an additional for the parts to hold the bikes…you didn’t order those parts”. Ok, I’ve wasted enough time..i gotta go… .20 minutes to get the “rack” off the are and get refund..Waste of 1hour of my day and lost bike ride on vacation…absolutely no call to apologize …complete blow off..my friend called in as she was embarrassed as she was the one to convince me to shop local… She called to ask what had happened…spoke to manager…..zero accountability ..only told…”well that’s not what you ordered …I hear what you are saying but that’s not what you ordered…you needed to order the other parts” She says’…”he ordered a BICYCLE RACK for a BICYCLE TRIP and Waited a week when he could have bought at REI who had it in stock…and the final answer “ Well, I don’t know what you want to to do about this”…Well here it is…my first 1 start...