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Old 05-18-18, 06:51 AM
  #8  
Bonzo Banana
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Originally Posted by skadoosh
Actually when I first found that thread, I was going to dismiss it as just one person's opinion and I was going to take it with a grain of salt because it was just one side of the story. But the owner of Origami bikes was posting on that thread too. And that was actually the more concerning part of the thread for me. I dismissed the other member's posts and just looked at Pinigis' posts.

First, What was concerning for me was that he insisted that he went beyond what was expected and refunded the return shipping charges. To me, this is not beyond what is normal and expected. Ebay, amazon, jenson, small bike shops online ALWAYS pays for return shipping if something was wrong with the item. So this is not beyond normal customer service. So to use that as an example of what they do when they do to go beyond normal service is concerning. Makes me wonder how low of a bar their normal customer service is.

Second, Pinigis kept posting that they refunded the full cost, when they didn't refund the original shipping. This is concerning for me because they were either trying to skew the perspective and cover it up to make it seem like they paid the cost of the bikes and the original shipping (Which seemed to work because there was one member who thought they did refund original shipping when they didnt), or they really felt like the original poster should have paid the original shipping on the defective bicycle. Both of which are concerning.

Third, it looks like Pinigis used the original poster's real name in the thread and dismissed the complaint as just venting by saying " Anyway, I hope that [you] feel vindicated in your venting." Any company that takes complaints as venting is very concerning to me. This was later edited out, but the fact that it even happened in the first place is very concerning.

Fourth, it looks like it took two months for the refund to finally come. While it may not seem like a big deal to some that they are out $60 for a couple of months, to some people that may be a big deal. I am concerned that issues or problems will take a long time to get resolved.

Fifth, in the whole thread, Pinigis never apologized or admitted that they should have handled that differently. Sometimes when I read reviews on Amazon, if there is a bad review from a user, but a company replies and says something like "We are sorry you were not satisfied. We will do everything in our power to make this right", then I feel better and I know that even if a problem arises, the company will try to fix it. But that didn't happen in that thread with origami. And even in my current thread, Pinigis posted and said that it was a long story and it was a long time ago. That to me seems very dismissive of a very real customer service issue. I would have been more assuaged if Pinigis wrote something like, "it was a long time ago, and we learned from our mistakes. We should have handled that differently. We offer full refund of the bikes and original shipping and return shipping" if something is wrong with the bicycles. But that didnt happen. So still concerning for me.

So while this may just be one person's bad experience with the company, how this was handled is concerning. And while it was an old thread, the fact that the owner of Origami bikes was dismissive of that thread and not even acknowledge that it was a legitimate experience is very concerning. They could have easily said that they felt sorry someone had an unpleasant experience But instead decided to dismiss it as something old and from along time ago.
Your points are completely fair. I personally risk buying from a company with poor customer service if the product is great value and the sort of problems that turn up I can sort myself. I do use box shifters to save money. I consider myself a reasonable person and if a bike turned up with corrosion I would expect a reduction in price and if we couldn't agree on the amount I would expect the supplier to collect and fully refund the bike. If the bike turned up without any issues at all, great I'm a happy customer. It seems most bike companies have complaints about quality or customer service looking at Amazon reviews. Sometimes the customer is clearly wrong and unfair and can be quickly dismissed but in this instance Origami certainly seem in the wrong and it may be fair to draw a conclusion that Origami customer service is worse than its competitors. I suspect you could probably find similar stories about many other bike importers too though. I've emailed companies before I've even bought a product and they haven't bothered to reply with information. Personally I wouldn't dwell on it, you have made the case in your mind that Origami customer service may be poor so move on and choose another product. I doubt at this point Pinigis could write anything that would reassure you.
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