nicolai confusion

[lesburn]

hey
i am really pissed off. i had ordered a nicolai 2mxtb which arrived approx 1 month ago. only to find that nicolai had built it to the wrong specs. after much discusion, it was agreed that they would build me a new one. great! i submitted the order on the 14th oct and recieved confirmation on the 15th.
now this is where i get annoyed. the various models of frame that nicolai produce are made in batches. i was lead to believe that you would never have more than 6-8 weeks to wait for delivery.
so why is it i have been informed, by nicolai-uk, that they cannot give me a delivery date- all that i have been told is that it will be in the new year. 9 weeks would have been Dec 17th, surely long enough to build a frame.
the frame including custom paint, headset and reducer cups is costing me about a £1000. this is a large amount of money for me to spend on a frame. obviously this is chump change to nicolai-germany.
the whole situation, which was supposed to be exciting, is starting to sour for me, to the point where i feel like cancelling the lot.
anyway, what do you think. should i cancel and look elswhere? i really, really want this frame but am been kept in the dark as to what is going on. nicolai must have a work schedule that includes alloted build time for my order.
look forward to hearing your veiws
les

 

[chorge]

Hi Les,
I guess you did now the best step you could do. Falco will definitly read this mail and surely he will also be able to answer your questions. It it always much better to contact the manufacturers regarding such problems than trying it via the local distributer - I recogniced this a lot with my HOPE brakes and also years ago with my KLEIN (when it was still a KLEIN!)...
Whish you good luck - it's always a big step to get a NICOLAI into your hands (and a much bigger, to get it in the 100% right configuration )

 

[Speedster]

i was lead to believe that you would never have more than 6-8 weeks to wait for delivery.

According to what I know about Nicolai's philosophy regarding production and delivery schedule, that seems to be a misunderstanding. Makes more sense like this: It will take at least and under the best of all possible circumstances 6 to 8 weeks to deliver a frame which isn't currently in stock ... :-(

 

[splatternick]

Hey lesburn,

it is understandable that ur getting a little annoyed, BUT: i would wait for a nicolai bike as long as it takes, however long, because it is worth it! what are a few weeks more without the bike in muddy uk winter compared to a wonderful and everlasting frame?
"just a little patience, mmmmh mmmmmh" - like Axel Rose sung
cheers nick

 

[lesburn]

hey! good news. i phoned the nicolai factory direct, as advised, and was told that production would begin in 1-2 weeks. i will have it approx 4 weeks later.
i don't know why the uk importer could'nt find this out for me- it only took a short phone call.

Hey lesburn,

it is understandable that ur getting a little annoyed, BUT: i would wait for a nicolai bike as long as it takes, however long, because it is worth it! what are a few weeks more without the bike in muddy uk winter compared to a wonderful and everlasting frame?
"just a little patience, mmmmh mmmmmh" - like Axel Rose sung
cheers nick

 

[Falco Mille]

Hi Les,

the source of confusion can be easily found. When placing an order from the UK your only contact should be the UK distributor. He is a very engaged, expert and also kind guy. He and we too gave you the advice only to talk to Momentum Distribution referring to your order. You talked to him, sent requests to our mail account, to the forum, phoned us, phoned him, talked even to different guys inside Nicolai. So sorry...

For any request regarding your order please contact our UK Distributor Mike Faxholm solely.

Best regards,

Falco

 

[lesburn]

thank you falco.
I appreciate what you are saying. However, the uk importer would not give me a delivery/production date of any kind. Only that it would be the new year (which was really upsetting). By making a simple phone myself, direct to the factory, i have discovered that it will be produced within the next 2 weeks and that i will have delivery before xmas. All this upset and confusion would have been avoided if the uk importer had provided me with this info.
Anyway, i do not wish to cause any bad feeling and am really looking forward to recieving my new frame.
Yours thankfully
Les Burnett
p.s. For the final time, could you confirm what has been said to me on the phone. That the frame wil be produced in the next 2 weeks and that i will recieve it before xmas.

 

[Falco Mille]

Les,

I'm very sorry. Please contact Momentum solely.
This is the only way.

I plea for your appreciation.

Best regards, Falco

 

[Speedster]

For the final time, could you confirm what has been said to me on the phone. That the frame wil be produced in the next 2 weeks and that i will recieve it before xmas.

Les, you have to realize that speaking to Nicolai themselves means moving into German market territory. You probably may not know that, but in Germany, the relation between supplier and customer has been developed to a state where most suppliers use to treat any potential customer basically like nothing better than some nasty obstacle on the way to the contents of his wallet. It is not enough for us customers here in Germany to express our will to purchase - no, no, we have to crawl on our knees, we have to do everything we possibly can in order to finally make the supplier accept that annoying wish of ours: to buy from him! And if it comes to some sort of misunderstanding before that, some sort of friction - guess who's to blame? Well, of course you, the customer!

You don't believe that? Just remember what "Falco" wrote:

the source of confusion can be easily found. [...] You talked to him, sent requests to our mail account, to the forum, phoned us, phoned him, talked even to different guys inside Nicolai. So sorry...

Got it? So it was all your fault! You and your behaviour were "the source of confusion" ...

Quite honest: You know for sure you're dealing with German salespersons if you get a statement like this. Salespersons from any other country I know would swallow their tongue or brake their wrist rather than making a statement like that addressing a customer ...

So you better forget about getting that confirmation from "Falco". Well - just my 2 cents.

 

[phatlizard]

Speedster .... ich hab gerade richtig viel Spass mit Deinem Posting gehabt!

 

[Deleted 8566]

Speedster .... ich hab gerade richtig viel Spass mit Deinem Posting gehabt!

Nicht nur du.

 

[lesburn]

falco
i appreciate that you would like me to deal with the momentum. however, why have they give me no production/delivery date when all it took me was to phone the factory and ask? i will respect your wishes, but PLEASE could you advise them to confirm what i was told directly from nicolai on the phone i.e. that the frame will be here before xmas.
thanks
les

Les,

I'm very sorry. Please contact Momentum solely.
This is the only way.

I plea for your appreciation.

Best regards, Falco

 

[lesburn]

one more thing. nicolai must work to some kind of schedule. and having placed an order, my order must be included in that schedule. surely all this confusion could be avoided over something as simple as looking at the schedule then informing me.

 

[Falco Mille]

Hi Les,

we've got a production schedule and we can give estimations on
delivery dates. But that's not the problem. Your order was sketchy about the customisations. That was the reason why we were not able to register your order in a satifactory manner and the production date could not be assesed as recently as we cleared everything with Mike.

We are in permanent contact with Momentum distribuition. They are our
contracting party. Momentum is allways well informed about all their orders and we would attack them from behind if we brief their customers directly.


Regards, Falco

 

[phatlizard]

Falco mal so einen kleinen Tipp zwischendurch ...
Der gute Les hat ja offensichtlich die Info von Euch bekommen, die ihm Momentum nicht gegeben hat.

Also ist es etwas müssig, permanent das gleiche zu wiederholen und den Jungen noch wilder zu machen!
Überhaupt ist das ein wirklich interessanter Ansatz jemandem der öffentlich sein Missfallen äussert noch zu erzählen, dass er eh Schuld hat ... schon mal ne private email mit ihm versucht???

Ich komme hier hin, weil ich mich für ein Nicolai (Rennrad!) interessiere und das erste was ich sehen muss ist so ein Thread ...

Ich bin leicht irritiert ...

Les if you should post on STW or mbuk - don't tell them we are a bunch of dickheads - they are really nice over here but seems like the efficiancy had a bad day ...

phaty
P.S.: Next time a bike from Halifax?

 

[Speedster]

[...] but seems like the efficiancy had a bad day ...

Problem is: Nicolai manufactures fantastic frames - driving one, even just touching one gives you the sensation of enjoying a true artwork of both fine engineering and workmanship. But that's it! Nearly all other services you might expect from a company like Nicolai inevitably turn out to be really poor compared to what their frames might make you hoping for.

 

[phatlizard]

Problem is: Nicolai manufactures fantastic frames - driving one, even just touching one gives you the sensation of enjoying a true artwork of both fine engineering and workmanship. But that's it! Nearly all other services you might expect from a company like Nicolai inevitably turn out to be really poor compared to what their frames might make you hoping for.

Small cool and innovative companies have to tendency to be like that ... which is fine as long as they find a way to get stuff done in the end - and telling people in a public forum that they just did wrong while they very obviously did the right thing is kinda ... funny!

phaty
never knowingly understood

P.S.: Les I damn sure hope you read this because thanks of you some Germans talk English to each other now ...

 

[lesburn]

falco
PLEASE don't make me panic anymore than i already am. in what way was it sketchy? if there is any queries about my order don't hesitate to ask me. the last thing i want is for the same thing to happen again.
best wishes
les
p.s. i appreciate that you must think i am harrasing everyone, but i really want everything to be right with my frame/order. it is intended to be my dream bike.

Hi Les,

we've got a production schedule and we can give estimations on
delivery dates. But that's not the problem. Your order was sketchy about the customisations. That was the reason why we were not able to register your order in a satifactory manner and the production date could not be assesed as recently as we cleared everything with Mike.

We are in permanent contact with Momentum distribuition. They are our
contracting party. Momentum is allways well informed about all their orders and we would attack them from behind if we brief their customers directly.


Regards, Falco