R&A Cycles of Walnut Creek — Local services in Walnut Creek

Let me start by saying that the final product, my custom bike, is fantastic. It's exactly what I wanted, and I'm thrilled with how it rides. Additionally, the salesperson, Zac M., was a pleasure to work with – knowledgeable, responsive, and genuinely helpful throughout the process.

Unfortunately, the positive aspects of my experience end there. The issues I encountered during the customization and build process left me deeply dissatisfied and frustrated.

Lackluster Customization:

For a shop that prides itself on building dream custom bikes, the customization process was severely lacking. I didn't get to test ride the bike I purchased (over $13,000!), and I ended up having to order most of the custom parts myself. I now have extra sets of nearly every component, which is both wasteful and irritating. While I understand they have to work with the supplier (Yeti), the lack of communication and guidance throughout the process was disappointing.

Excessive Build Time and Mishaps:

The six-week build time was riddled with delays and mishaps. It seemed like every time they started working on the bike, they'd encounter another issue requiring additional parts or tools. This led to multiple setbacks, and the communication about these delays was poor. I felt like I was constantly chasing them for updates.

Dismissive and Unaccountable Service:

The final straw was the pick-up experience and subsequent issue with the gears not shifting properly. After paying a significant amount for the bike already, I was charged $15 shipping for a $12 part. Then when I brought the bike back due to the gear issue, the bike tech, Todd, was dismissive and tried to shift the blame onto me. He even implied that I had tampered with the wheel, despite my assurances that I hadn't touched anything.

Conclusion:

While I'm happy with the final bike build and grateful for Zac's assistance, the overall experience was marred by poor communication, delays, and a lack of accountability by the bike tech. I wouldn't recommend this shop for custom builds, and I certainly won't be returning for any future service unless absolutely necessary (i.e. Yeti says I have to bring it there, as they're the closest dealer).

I'm giving it 2 stars out of 5, one star for every thing that went well (final build, pleasant sales experience), or minus a star for each of the 3 issues I mentioned above. Tally it up however you think...

Hello fellow cyclist, my family and I have made a few purchases from R&A over the last year. I ordered items because some of the staff have proven to be knowledgeable and helpful, however, we bought my son a very expensive bicycle computers with expense being relative I will tell you it was $499. Some time later my son informed me that his computer had someone else's information in it and he dismissed this thinking maybe it was an open box purchase. Once I was informed I did take the time to reach out and spoke to a gentleman in customer service that explained that they do not resale items that someone has purchased and returned. I explained that I have someone else's address in the device. He said they don't do that and gave me an email address to send this issue to. Now he did say that because it was after the 90 days it was outside of the return period. I never got an email or a call back regarding the issue only rebuttal from the gentleman stating that they do not do that. Im not sure if people realize that when you tell someone that something didn't happen to them you are calling them a liar. Calling a customer a liar is both disrespectful and unprofessional and I was raised to give and expect both of those things and have seen a lack of healthy interpersonal requirements within customer service in a variety of industries. It's unfortunate and sad to say the least, but im posting this to say you can't make assumptions about items you purchase from this company if it says new you still have to evaluate and verify that for yourself and if the inevitable occurs you may be called a liar. These are things you should take into consideration before you make a purchase from this company and if you move forward inspect your purchase carefully don't assume something is a brand new unused item check for yourself and if you work in customer service take the time to be thoughtful about the way you communicate with people and the implications of your words so that we can hopefully one day atleast get back to a time when customer service was not the kind of negative experience most us have come to expect...

TL;DR - Josh (and the R&A crew in the background) did a stellar job helping me select and buy my new steed. The shop has great inventory and awesome rides to just look at. I hemmed and hawed for about a month and put together a 25+email chain with Josh which ultimately led to me getting a great deal on a bike I'm thrilled with.

First off, I'd roll into this shop on any given Saturday when I'm around just to look at the bikes. The place is a show room for fancy bikes in addition to the down to earth ones most people would actually buy.

For actual bike shopping, I tried out several bike brands in a multitude of shops and actually rolled into R&A looking at a sale model of a different bike. I mentioned my previous ride was a Cervelo and after talking to Josh for a bit, he put together a comparison between the different bikes I was thinking about including pointing out things that might work well and others that could be challenging. Once the weather dried enough to test ride the bikes, I went out on some great test loops with flats and hills super close to the shop. Josh swapped in SPD pedals every time I switched rides, including going back and forth several times on my top two choices.

Josh was very patient, not pushy and loved pointing out all the cool stuff on the rides I was considering as well as completely out of scope but awesome rides they had in the shop, which as I said, feels a lot like being in an elite show room. I tested out a different size frame of the bike I had chosen at a different shop that had it in inventory a few weeks after my test rides at R&A, and once I'd settled on the size, I found one on sale at a shop 60 miles away. R&A matched the price with absolutely no fuss, saving me about 2 hours of driving while scoring the same deal.

I picked the bike up yesterday, and Josh did a great walkthrough on the Force AXS groupset and frame specific details I needed to know. The ride is set up perfectly out of the shop. I honestly felt like I stole it for how great a bike I got for the deal I got. Awesome job getting this customer...