Originally Posted by
guachi
Mike's Bikes was purchased by a competing bike manufacturer. What did they expect would happen? Mike's Bikes really screwed over their customers with this move.
Yes, this is all there is in this story, and the wording Mike’s chose for the letter in the OP reveals as much.
There is simply no way Mike’s could not have expected this, so they are simply lying and shifting blame to Specialized for Mike’s taking a buyout deal, and probably a sweet one at that, but I don’t know if they were in debt or what.
Anyway, no shocker at all, and I would not be surprised if retaining Specialized preorder and deposit dollars for conversion to Pon brands purchases, as Mike’s is clearly trying to do rather than refund, does not net a bonus (or other profit incentive) for Mike’s owners/sellers.
I don’t begrudge Mike’s making money on the sale, but blaming Specialized for their own decisions seems childish. And to the extent Specialized may in fact be the devil in all this, well, Mike’s got in bed with them a long time ago, so again, it’s just simply impossible to believe they did not see this coming, so the whole thing reeks of their dishonesty. I mean, I’m not even in the biz, but I saw what Specialized was doing with the company store model 20 years ago; I saw the impact on my LBS selection, on its workforce, and ultimately the closure of the business. It’s the same story for a lot of shops across the country, that I know too, but Mike’s wants us to believe they had no idea what Specialized would do? Liars.