Mikes bikes changes ownership, Specialized drops them
 

Just got this email, thought is was pretty interestingDear customer,



For over 20 years, Mike's Bikes maintained a close partnership with Specialized Bicycles. We've built a strong business here in NorCal and beyond, as both of our companies have grown together.



A few weeks ago, Mike's Bikes was acquired by an amazing family-owned company in Amsterdam, and we couldn't be happier. Upon learning of this, however, Specialized abruptly terminated their relationship with Mike's. They later notified us that they would also be canceling the orders of over 400 customers who had bought and paid for their bikes in advance. They further informed us that as of October 31, they will no longer provide manufacturer warranty support through Mike’s Bikes for the many thousands of Specialized bikes that we’ve sold.



It is unfortunate and extremely disappointing that our Specialized customers are being affected in this way. This is definitely not a situation that we wanted or expected.



Our Wheelsmith Tech Departments will still be able to provide the same professional service on Specialized bikes that we offer on every other major bike brand, but for Specialized customers who need support through the manufacturer's warranty, we encourage you to contact your closest authorized Specialized dealer, or to reach out to Specialized rider care directly at (877) 808-8154 or www.specialized.com/us/en/ridercareform



To our customers impacted by Specialized's cancellation of your order, we are reaching out to each of you directly to help find an alternative bike from other excellent bike brands that support us. We will work our tails off to help you find a replacement bike. If you decide to cancel your order at Mike’s and order a Specialized bike elsewhere, we totally understand, and we will issue prompt full refunds.



Looking forward, we’re excited to be able to offer a broader selection of brands in both equipment and bikes. Over the next few weeks, we will announce new partnerships with some of the best brands in the business, and we’ll be offering you more options and more selection than ever before. In the end, nothing has changed at Mike’s Bikes. We continue to be fully dedicated to helping you get the most out of your ride.



We really appreciate the support of our loyal customers, over the years and today in times of change.



-The Mike’s Bikes Team

The new owner of Mike's Bikes apparently also owns Cervelo and Santa Cruz.

Sounds like an upgrade.

So they were probably going to drop SBC anyway.. still a dick move by Spec to pull the plug on valid orders.

If this means less ugly ass Spesh bikes on the road, I'm all for it:lol:

Sbc
 

Involving their mutual customers in a battle between companies is terrible service from Specialized.

It doesn't endear them as a Brand.

Barry

Exactly. Oh, you bought our bike from Mike's 2 years ago? GFY and find some other place to get your bike serviced. This is not the first dooshy thing they've done either.

Do you expect Mikes Bikes to turn away prior MB customers from having their Specialized bikes serviced?
I don't see why they wouldn't take the service work?

Barry

It's just the warranty work and "authorized rep" requirements. Mike's can take on any service on any bike they want to so long as they don't need to send SBC an invoice and it won't invalidate the warranty.

And it won't be the last . . . .

Why?

why not

Because SB cancelled orders of SB customers that have been patiently waiting for their SB bikes.

I understand cutting off MB as a competitor, but convert the mutual customers reservations to online orders.

Barry

The real 'dck' move here would be for the manufacturer, Specialized, to support someone outside their dealer network before their own loyal dealers. If I was an authorized Specialized dealer and heard that Specialized was sending bicycles to a non-Specialized dealer before for my customers, who are also waiting BTW, got them I would not be happy at all. I believe it might against the agreement with their authorized dealers for Specialized to compete with them by selling directly online to consumers.

This is really a no-brainer for the manufacturer in this environment. (1) You redistribute the bicycles within the remaining Specialized distribution network, in this case some customers are going to be excited to receive their bikes weeks or months earlier than scheduled and will be spending money on services and accessories in stores remaining loyal to you, helping your dealers. Maybe you lose some customers at one place but you exceed expectations and create brand loyalty in a new group of customers at a different place. (2) You avoid a potential of a PR nightmare of someone needing warranty service through a non-Specialized dealer and complaining bitterly on social media that 'Specialized doesn't care about it's customers' because he can't get warranty work done at that store that isn't an authorized dealer.

If bicycles where moving slowly I can see Specialized and the former dealer coming to some kind of an arrangement, but bicycles are mass market commodities and are in an under-supply situation. It's not the manufacturer's turn in the barrel right now. Give it a few years and Specialized might be begging shops to take the bikes, but that is not the situation today making this an easy decision.

that does not make it a "non dik" move just because the market is in their favor.

What makes it 'non dik' is Specialized is prioritizing their own authorized dealers rather than trying selling as many bikes as possible and screwing their own people.

at the time the bikes were purchased MB was an authorized dealer. It would have been nice to fulfill all existing orders / or give the option to cancel with the knowledge that MB could not provide covered warranty work.

Expect now they are not.
Specialized should fill orders to authorized dealers that remain loyal instead of a new competitor.

Also, don't sell a product if you can't guarantee a consistent experience for all your customers.
There's no value of having some strange option at some place that's not even your dealer anymore. That's only going to create problems.

If the customer made an order and put down a deposit, the sale has been made, or at the very least a contractual agreement has been made. SBC breached that contract and the customer should get liquidated damages because they lost the value of their time and the opportunity cost of starting over. But SBC probably has weasle words in their orders to prevent it.

Then again, my experience is with legitimate contractors who act in good faith.

SBC isn't a direct to consumer brand, and by extension there is no contractual agreement directly between the manufacturer and consumer, Any contract is between the dealer and the customer. If MBS was acting in good faith they would redirect any Specialized orders to other SBC authorized dealers in the area. But then that would mean they would be losing sales when maybe they could convert these orders to a different brand, easier to blame the bad old manufacturer beating up on the poor bedraggled bike shop isn't it? Any damages or opportunity cost borne by the consumer would be be against the bike shop and their poor 'exit strategy'.

It isn't being a weasel to cut off a dealer that breaches your agreements or is acquired by a competitor. I didn't work in the bike industry, but if we found a dealer that breached their agreements with the factory their orders would go right back to the warehouse.

I worked for a shop that sold and serviced Specialized bicycles. There were a group of MTB riders that wanted a specific bike from Specialized, but they (Spec) would not allow the sale to the shop unless they were a "premium" dealership. The owner opted to follow through with the requirements to become a premium dealer. Specialized then forced the owner to take a package that included a very specific group of bikes, many of them well higher end than we had the market to successfully sell. Also made him change his fit program to the specific program that Spec has, as well as tools and computer programs, etc. He had been a fitter of a different program for years prior to this. The only other bike brand that the shop was allowed to sell after this was Felt. I have no idea why this brand was ok, but the shop had previously offered several other brands alongside each other. Afterward, two.
Being a "premium" location meant that he also had to get rid of all other clothing and gear options and only stock shelves with the Spec clothing, gloves, accessories. There were a very small amount of products that were allowed from one specific supplier of (various) parts on order. Just about the only other things that could be displayed in store were Park, and the Continental and one other "off" brand of tires that I can't recall the name of ATM.

At first it seemed like it was going to be a good thing for the shop. The aforementioned customers got the bikes they wanted, the store was filled to the brim with really nice products across a range of level and price. Some time into this new classification we had warranty repaired two of the frames from this specific Spec MTB, all of the low and mid end bikes were sold out. The shop was filled with high end bikes that sell way less. We were selling Felt at a much higher rate based simply on availability and price. Spec themselves wanted to be paid for all this equipment forced on the shop. The owner balanced that against sales, against their unwillingness to supply the bikes we were selling outside pre-set packages they wanted to push based on the new classification, and opted it was a better choice to close the doors than continue trying to operate under these new guidelines. Took just at a year to ruin a prosperous business.

I like the Specialized Roubaix that I own, as a bike, piece of equipment. I have quite the distain for their practices and this seems to be another brick in that wall.

is this how it really works though?. my understanding was that mike's wasn't "special ordering" bikes from spesh, but rather pre-selling their future allotment of incoming bikes. which of course, is just fine... until you decide to sell your business to a competitor of your supplier. that's 100% on them, IMO, and once they did that i seriously doubt specialized had any requirement or commitment to keep sending them bikes for a year.

i've shopped for bike's at mike's, and while they were nice enough and had a good flow of specialized bikes, they wouldn't "order" a particular bike for me, nor would they allocate one that was "on the boat" to me without payment in full. i opted to buy my specialized bike at an LBS which had more customer-friendly policies. on top of that, mike's "we only service specialized bikes we sold you because we're too busy" rubbed me the wrong way.

I am sure both sides are acting within their rights and immediate business interests. But as a consumer, in the long run, this would push me towards direct to consumer brands so I don't need to think about the relationship status between the reseller and manufacturer, which would hurt both Specialized and Mike's Bikes.

If that's true, you're right. There was no contract between SBC and the shopper, and there was at least an agreement between MB and the shopper. The contract bicker between SBC and MB winds up screwing the customer. The MB website will still allow you to buy a SBC bike on-line for delivery or store pickup and it appears you pay full price at time of order, and it still lists a short waiting period. That's absolutely a contract between MB and the customer, and it looks like a special order, not a pre-sell of a future allotment.

My guess is MB will offer a refund of any deposit, or a different bike for the same price and probably a couple years of maintenance package to appease their clients.

My sympathies to anybody who got caught up in this mess.

it will be interesting to see if there are any other domino effects, like on existing cervelo dealers that are close to mikes bikes locations, other than more places offering cervelo