I noticed a while ago that a certain small pawled hub brand went consumer direct. Not really news but it was just another in a long line of bike brands adopting the model.

Years ago, factories would do anything they could to NOT talk to the end user. Language was sometimes an issue but it was really more about labor; They just didn't have the staffing to deal with the emails and subsequent running around. I know a few carbon vendors in China were early adopters but labour is cheap there so I can understand why they did it first.

I'm just wondering how customer service is being handled by these brands now. I sometimes hear people complain about how they sent an email to some such company and never heard back but I am wondering if they are just the squeaky wheels. So I guess my question is about how well the industry is handling the transition away from the brick-and-mortar/distributor model and into consumer direct sales.

No real mission here. It's raining pretty hard and I have time to kill.