jay1680

Has anyone been able to contact Rene Herse Cycles. Seems like there is no phone number nor is there an email address that they respond to.

MattTheHat 

Google returns this phone number for them: (206) 789-0424.

mstateglfr 

Rene Herse Cycles
Website
Directions
Address: 2442 NW Market St #426 , Seattle, WA 98107
Hours: Wednesday 9AM–12PM Thursday 9AM–12PM Friday 9AM–12PM Saturday Closed Sunday Closed Monday 9AM–12PM Tuesday 9AM–12PM Suggest an edit
Hours or services may differ
Phone: (206) 789-0424

call em during the few hours a day they are open. or grab their email from the voicemail.
its a funky business- influential, yet boutique and absurdly limited.

63rickert

It’s just because they are short staffed and short hours for covid. They are still there and just as committed to customer service as ever.

Oh. They also disappear for very long bike rides.

blakcloud

From Rene Herse:
The email address customerservice@renehersecycles.com is no longer active. For questions about your order, returns, warranty claims, etc., please use the forms under 'Support' on our web site, which can be found here: https://www.renehersecycles.com/tech-info/order_faq/

We are sorry that we can’t provide individual tech support at this time. We’ve put very detailed specs, information and instructions on our web site, so most customers can find answers to their questions without having to wait for a reply. Use the 'Support' tab in the top menu to get started. There you'll find information for each product category, including instructions and links to how-to posts.

Thank you!

Rene Herse Cycles
www.renehersecycles.com

Bill in VA

And especially focus on post #28 and #30 on that link.

The owner gives a very well put together response. FOr those in states still locked down, it is challenging.

Some of the posters on the link come across as "Amazonified" want-it-yesterday types. My experiences with Rene Herse (Compass over the years has made it one of my favorites online vendors..

jay1680

The company should be more upfront about its lack of customer service. They don't answer calls, there is no way to contact them on the web page. Even companies on Ebay or Alibaba selling items at ridiculously low prices respond to email. I deal with several small boutique companies for camping equipment and they all respond to email. Not to do so is just plain arrogant.

veganbikes

Oh no a small company under very strict lockdown rules is hard to reach in the middle of a global pandemic ...

If you are only able to have one staff member in the store at a time and you have to do probably more than a billion things answering the phone is probably not one of those things. I work in the industry at a bike shop and we are frequently getting 3+ calls at one time plus a line of people outside plus the 600+ bikes we have in the shop in addition to checking in all the orders, filing warranty claims and following up with them and responding to hundreds of emails as well as a whole host of other tasks. It is not that we don't want to answer your call or help you right away, we just literally can't.

In closing I would really like to thank everyone on the frontlines and behind the scenes working through this pandemic.

Maybe calm down and relax a little and realize people are dying out there and you are lucky to be alive and able to cycle and camp and live life. Be thankful not being able to reach Jan is the worst of your problems. You don't have to get yelled at by customers because they don't want to wait in line because they are more special then everyone else or don't want to have to pay a fee to have their bicycle sanitized with isopropyl alcohol spray so we don't get sick and they don't either. Be thankful you have money in which to spend on awesome parts and time to waste talking bikes and bike parts.

mstateglfr 

Your sarcasm aside, Ill address this with sincerity.

An expectation of our current economy is for answers to be given promptly and product to be available quickly. Call it spoiled, but these expectations have been formed due to past experience.
Yes, a pandemic obviously throws a wrench into expectations. Many(most?) companies that sell online have a covid notice atop their website asking that customers be patient due to the company being short staffed and/or their supply chain running slower than normal.
I think everyone can recognize products(and even responses) may be slower than usual.

Given that, email is something that is easily adapted to remote work environments, so even if someone is physically in a building for only a few hours each day, others could easily answer emails from home throughout the day.
There are expectations when it comes to boutique items that cost 2-3x more than comparable quality items, and one such expectation is that the company selling the boutique items be willing to communicate and help when needed. Again, call it spoiled, but its simply part of the boutique experience. If Compass RH doesnt want that side of the boutique market, then they should lower their quality and prices accordingly.

Also, there is a difference between taking 2 days to answer an email due to being short staffed from a pandemic, and literally never responding to an email. The first scenario is justifiable. The second scenario is not. If a company that direct ships doesnt have the resources to ever respond to some emails, then they need to shut down until they can provide the proper staffing and service.

Koyote

I'll add that even the most basic phone lines now allow easy call forwarding, so it is simple to have calls to their office simply redirected to another number (like someone's home line or cell line) to address CS issues.

The fact that it's a very small seller of relatively high-priced niche items would only raise my CS expectations, frankly.

veganbikes

It seems as if OP is calling not emailing. Though yes it would be nice to email back but who knows how long they have been waiting and even if they have emailed.

Yeah most people don't want to get calls at 3am for work and sometimes you cannot really help from home without seeing actual inventory or other things at the office.

Koyote

Can’t believe that I have to even write this- it’s like I’m explaining modern technology to my elderly mother: there are various ways to ensure that your phone won’t ring at 3am.

unterhausen

I thought the same thing, they could answer CS questions from home. But apparently Jan doesn't think so, and he's a smart guy, so we probably don't have all the information about what is going on.

Koyote

fwiw, during the stay at home period of the pandemic, I have spoken a few times to Garmin customer service - the reps were all working from home. (Their call mgmt system connected me to them.) And on the other end of the spectrum, the owner my favorite LBS has also called and texted me from his cell phone. It’s not rocket science. In fact, I think I could actually remotely (from my cell phone) program my office phone to automatically forward calls to my cell phone.

jay1680

[QUOTE=veganbikes;21531114]It seems as if OP is calling not emailing. ------The OP would be happy to email if only he could. The OP would be satisfied with an email answer within 2-3 days. It is a small company after all, I don't expect Amazon level of customer service.

blakcloud

Take the pandemic out of the equation and see how difficult it is at the best of times to contact Rene Herse Cycles and get a reply. Want to talk on the phone, not going to happen. Read the thread on Paceline, Jan makes a hundred excuses and blames the pandemic but what about before the pandemic?

Of course he can run his company any way he sees fit and as consumers we can make a choice if we want to purchase from that company. Also contrary to a few here, we are allowed to complain. Every business is open to critical evaluation even if they don't like the end result.

I have ordered from Compass/Rene Herse on a three occasions and have been pleased each time. I don't need to talk to RHC just like I never need to talk to Shimano or Trek or the hundreds of other cycling product companies that I buy from. I will keep ordering tires from RHC but I also accept the fact that if I have a question and I want a person to answer it, that isn't going to happen.

With that said I do see a pair of Stampede Pass tires in my future.

unterhausen

What do you want to talk to them about? Just curious. The paceline thread was about someone who put the wrong address in for shipping. Huh.

Most times RH ships really fast. I have gotten things in 2 days here in Pennsylvania.

southpier

let it slip you want to buy tires; they will call you!

Charles Wahl

Here's the deal:
1. I ordered tires last Wednesday AM; there was no notice on their website that there were any problems whatsoever related to the pandemic. I made an login at the same time as the order, but see below under number 3.
2. Received an auto-email saying I'd get an email when the order shipped. Nothing to date, and it's been four full business days.
3. There is no phone number listed on "contact us", nor any ability to email them. All it says there is "To contact our customer service, please select the appropriate section under the ‘Support’ tab in the main menu above. Thank you." The Support tab has a listing for "where is my order". If you go there, it says "We ship most orders within 1–2 business days." When I received no shipment notification by Saturday, I tried to login using the login I had created, and there was no such account. I just wanted someone to tell me where things stood. When you use the "contact us" link on the "where is my order page" you go straight to "return policy" followed by a return form -- which isn't very useful if you don't have an order in hand to return.
4. PayPal reports both an email address and a phone number, but email to that address gets only a "this email is no longer active" bounce. And the phone number, which I called this afternoon, has only a female voice message giving you the information that nobody's going to pick up and talk to you. I left a message, for all the good it will do.

Somehow, it seems that most businesses that are trying to remain afloat in this pandemic are bending over backward to give customers service. We're in lockdown here in NYC still, in the same boat or worse than Seattle, and both online and bricks-and-mortar places that I deal with regularly are shipping, delivering, and doing so with a smile that you can see through their masks. Jan Heine's apologia on the paceline forum referenced above is simply full of excuses, lame ones it seems to me, and as usual have his trademark certitude bordering on outright arrogance. I see no intention in that to address problems that were brought up. The complete absence of customer ability to reach a person by email or phone seems to me an antisocial way to approach a business. I call this a "funny" business -- maybe it is just a hobby, after all. One thing is certain: had I known this up front, I would have bought tires elsewhere. I have absolutely no expectation that they will call me, even though I ordered tires.

southpier

maybe a call to PJ would help get you in the door?

just don't forget to drop $20 in the jar!

unterhausen

Sounds like their website failed somehow.

Koyote

I do know (from previous experience) that it was borderline impossible to contact Rene Herse with a routine question in the best of times; in the pandemic it may be worse.

If it's any consolation, I have a small CS issue with Specialized, which is a giant, and their CS is basically non-existent these days. No response to emails, and if you call their phone line 20 times, someone may pick up once - and then not do what is promised. Other companies (Garmin, Rapha, my LBS) have been highly responsive. Now more than ever, it's a crapshoot.

unterhausen

Big bike companies really don't have CS, they want you to go through a bike shop. But they generally don't answer questions from the public even if they say they will.

I am a little surprised I have never set up an account with RH. But if I had and they said I didn't, I would try to register again and see what the site says.

Koyote

Are you addressing my comment about Specialized? If not, ignore the following. If so, I will note that, in my experience (I order a lot of stuff from websites, including theirs) it's usually (until the Covid-19) been very easy to reach their CS on the phone and resolve issues. I've done it many times. Garmin is very large, too, and I have (in the past month) spoken to three of their CS people all working from their homes. But that should stop now, since I have completely given up on the Edge 530.

unterhausen

You got through to Spesh? I'm somewhat surprised by that. I know Garmin will answer the phone