Performance Woes

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10-17-2005, 07:53 AM
CorsairMac

Performance Woes

I just wanted to let ya'll know that I've been having some major problems with Performance in the past week. I would love to know if anyone else has recently or ever or ........and did you get it resolved?

Brief Version:
I placed 2 orders last Mon to be shipped FedexOvernight that were never shipped. On Thurs when I called to check Performance had no record I had ever placed an order even tho I had email confirmations. So I placed the order again over the phone, FedExOvernight and got a 3rd confirmation number. On Fri morning I called Just to make sure my order was shipped and again there was no record of my order. When I asked to speak with a manager I was told they were all busy on the phone. So I sent an email detailing my woes and made sure I included all 3 confirmation numbers and my full name. I got an email response from Performance asking me for the order numbers and my full name so they could research my complaint! :eek: When I emailed back telling them that information was in the body of the original email attached I got a response from them providing me with links to their order status section.

I have since ordered the items I needed from TE - THANKS TE!!!! who not only bent over backwards to help me but answered the phone 1/2 hour before they were "officially" open. Then proceeded to include a 2nd order I placed about 2 hrs later with my first so I wouldn't have to pay any additional shipping and to make sure both orders went out together. Although I love the Performance Century shorts, I'm thinking I'd rather pay more and get better service than pay less and get - well this is a family board so you can fill in the blank! I don't have any problems with people making mistakes - it happens.....I do however have a problem with poor customer service, so I won't be using PerformancBike again.
10-17-2005, 08:00 AM
Trekhawk

Quote:

Originally Posted by CorsairMac

I just wanted to let ya'll know that I've been having some major problems with Performance in the past week. I would love to know if anyone else has recently or ever or ........and did you get it resolved?
Brief Version:
I placed 2 orders last Mon to be shipped FedexOvernight that were never shipped. On Thurs when I called to check Performance had no record I had ever placed an order even tho I had email confirmations. So I placed the order again over the phone, FedExOvernight and got a 3rd confirmation number. On Fri morning I called Just to make sure my order was shipped and again there was no record of my order. When I asked to speak with a manager I was told they were all busy on the phone. So I sent an email detailing my woes and made sure I included all 3 confirmation numbers and my full name. I got an email response from Performance asking me for the order numbers and my full name so they could research my complaint! :eek: When I emailed back telling them that information was in the body of the original email attached I got a response from them providing me with links to their order status section.
I have since ordered the items I needed from TE - THANKS TE!!!! who not only bent over backwards to help me but answered the phone 1/2 hour before they were "officially" open. Then proceeded to include a 2nd order I placed about 2 hrs later with my first so I wouldn't have to pay any additional shipping and to make sure both orders went out together. Although I love the Performance Century shorts, I'm thinking I'd rather pay more and get better service than pay less and get - well this is a family board so you can fill in the blank! I don't have any problems with people making mistakes - it happens.....I do however have a problem with poor customer service, so I won't be using PerformancBike again.

Hey Corsair - I have never used performance but I do think you have done the right thing. If people just put up with bad customer service nothing will change. Perhaps they will notice customers not returning and will think about looking at what could be the cause. I have had experience of this with other companies and I figure hey plenty other places to spend my money. I have ordered heaps of my gear thru TE and will continue to do so as the customer service before and after purchase is excellent and shipping is fast. :)
10-17-2005, 10:04 AM
tatormc

That is really strange as hubby and I order from Performance all the time and have no problems. Unfortunately in a customer service environment there are always going to be people who are not good at their jobs and will not help you. I think in this case I would continue to escalate to management as they need to be aware of the situation.
10-17-2005, 10:46 AM
massbikebabe

Cos...

I have never had problems with Performance, and I refused to join the "extra savings club." I have always found the orders I placed to be there
within a day or two. I was much happier before they closed their store here in Massachusetts. Speaking of Massachusetts, I am freezing and I expect we will be having a good ole fashion snowball fight soon :eek:

karen
10-17-2005, 11:11 AM
Dianyla

Is it possible that the email response you got back asking for the order numbers was automatically generated? If not, that was quite rude and inept on the customer service person's part. :confused:
10-17-2005, 12:19 PM
Surlygirl

Quote:

Originally Posted by massbikebabe

Cos...

I Speaking of Massachusetts, I am freezing and I expect we will be having a good ole fashion snowball fight soon :eek:

karen

Shhhhhhh Karen, don't say that four letter word please, it just gets CorsairMac all excited. I am NOT ready for snowballs yet! How are you by the way?
10-17-2005, 12:56 PM
CorsairMac

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dianyla

Is it possible that the email response you got back asking for the order numbers was automatically generated? If not, that was quite rude and inept on the customer service person's part. :confused:

no - or if it was it had a persons name attached to it. I have since received a 3rd response from them telling me they can find no record of my order (well duh! isn't that what I'm complaining about?) and have turned the matter over to their websupport department and that they have had no problems with other customer orders! (lol..gee thanks) I did write back and tell them one of those orders was placed over the phone - would their websupport be able to research what happened with that one too?

Tator: I've ordered from them before in the past and have never had problems - until now.

I was just shocked that any company could lose 3 orders in 4 days, but a company as big as Performance? :eek: and then to respond to the first complaint by telling me the managers were busy on the phone, and the second written complaint by asking for info that was already included in the letter? followed by another response from yet another person providing me with order status links? I guess my expectation for either a resolution or some form of pacification was a little higher than theirs. I'm not even angry - just very disappointed - and sorry for both them and me coz we both lose out.
10-17-2005, 01:02 PM
gilly

I don't believe there can be any excuse for such poor customer service. Voting with your feet was the way to go.
Don't forget to carefully check your credit card statement to make sure they haven't processed the order in that dept. !
10-17-2005, 02:48 PM
WarriorPrncs

I'm hoping that isn't an indication of things to come. Hubby and I went to Supergo in Laguna Hills yesterday and everyone who works there was upset since Performance is taking over. They thought they would get to keep the name Supergo but it was decided to change everything to Performance.

One of the managers said a lot of their distributors are cancelling their contracts since they don't want to deal with Performance. He said they have a bad reputation and have burned a lot of people. :mad:
10-17-2005, 04:15 PM
emily_in_nc

We live 15 miles from a Performance retail store so do shop there fairly often (we can ride there, after all), and I am a Team Performance member, which is a good deal since you get back 10% on all purchase in coupons, so it does pay for itself if you spend more than $200/year (since the membership costs $20).

Anywho, we were in there Saturday and had about a $78 purchase. First, the clerk said that my Team Performance membership had expired (it hadn't), and second, he asked me for a photo ID with my Visa - even though I had my Team Performance card and was in full cycling gear; how likely was I to be a credit card thief? I have been shopping there for YEARS and have never once been asked for a photo ID, and didn't have one on me since we'd ridden there. I pleaded my case, and the other clerk laughed and said "She'd hardly be trying to get Team Performance bucks for someone else if she'd stolen their credit card!", so the guy did let me make my purchase, but I was a bit steamed about both things.

I later emailed customer service, they confirmed that my membership is good through 3/1/06, so now I have to fax my receipt to them to get credited for Saturday's purchase - they have no way (or claim not to) to look it up in their computer database, which doesn't seem logical to me, since I had my transaction ID and everything from the receipt.....but anyway. I won't stop shopping there b/c the prices are good and it's so close to home (no shipping charges), but they really aren't the best with customer service, that's for sure. And not to have information in the computer that I'd renewed my Team Performance membership makes no sense, since customer service was easily able to check to see that I had, and I was able to check the same online.

They definitely could make improvements!

Emily
10-17-2005, 04:19 PM
DeniseGoldberg

Actually, I'm with CorsairMac on this one. There is no way I would give any (more) business to a company that treated me like that. And Emily's story really just adds to the impression that they are not a customer-friendly place.
10-17-2005, 05:30 PM
nuthatch

Something is seriously wrong when a website loses three orders over multiple days. I mean wrong with security. Corsair, you need to contact your credit card company immediately to make sure you haven't been compromised (or charged by Performance). It's possible they had a real website problem they aren't owning up to. Keep in mind that the stores and the website are two separate corporations.
10-18-2005, 07:45 AM
caligurl

i have a love/hate relationship with performance... i was familiar with them even before i took up riding.. cuz hubby has been riding for years.. so i've been shopping there for him for a looong time...

their customer service has gone downhill the past couple of years.. and it seems to be getting worse.. the bigger they get.. the worse their service gets.. i can't remember the last time i had a successful order.. meaning that i got everything.. on time... without having to make one or several phone calls!

at least they always offer to upgrade to overnight when they mess up an order that doesn't go out on time for me to get 2nd day (i'm also a team performance member... just recently redeemed 35700 point... so that shows how much i spend there) you can't beat their prices when you factor in sales or price matching... 20% coupons.. and team performance points! but i do get sooooooooooo frustrated with their customer service! UGH!
10-18-2005, 08:20 AM
DeniseGoldberg

Quote:

Originally Posted by caligurl

their customer service has gone downhill the past couple of years.. and it seems to be getting worse.. the bigger they get.. the worse their service gets.. i can't remember the last time i had a successful order.. meaning that i got everything.. on time... without having to make one or several phone calls!

Wow - I can't believe that you continue to do business with them. I can understand an error once in a while, but my patience disappears after one order with an error. You may be getting your items at a good price, but when you factor in the time and annoyance - well it wouldn't be worth it for me.

And I suspect that as long as people continue to buy from them, they have no incentive to fix their problems!
10-18-2005, 08:25 AM
caligurl

they really are THAT much cheaper....
10-18-2005, 08:27 AM
Trekhawk

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeniseGoldberg

Wow - I can't believe that you continue to do business with them. I can understand an error once in a while, but my patience disappears after one order with an error. You may be getting your items at a good price, but when you factor in the time and annoyance - well it wouldn't be worth it for me.
And I suspect that as long as people continue to buy from them, they have no incentive to fix their problems!

I agree with Denise. I refuse to offer patronage to a company that could care less whether I am happy or not. Plenty of places out there to spend my hard earned dollars and plenty that offer great customer service.
10-18-2005, 08:28 AM
Pax

Quote:

Originally Posted by Queen

I placed a large order with Performance a few weeks ago, I was charged a bunch for shipping plus sales tax. The order took 13 days to get to my house with no mention of a backorder (since they chose to hit me up for sales tax maybe they could have shipped the goods from in-state?). I emailed my displeasure to Performance as well as my reasons for no longer doing business with them. As I told them, there are too many good compaines trying to earn my business (like TE) to spend my money with a company that seems to have lost their customer focus.

I posted this recently in the Apparel forum, I'm done with Performance.
10-18-2005, 09:03 AM
Irulan

Bad customer service is one thing, but as a business owner who charges shipping, don't get me going. Shipping costs are skyrocketing. Even a light box going half a coutnry away is $8-10. Plus, you all want insurance, tracking and so on. That stuff isn't free. If your order gets lost en route, the business owner is the one who hears about it. If a business has a brick and mortar in the same state you live in, they are required by law to charge you sales tax.

Irulan
10-18-2005, 09:07 AM
snapdragen

I've never had good luck with Performance. Even if I do overnite or 2-3 day shipping, whatever I order doesn't get to me for at least a week. There are plenty of other places out there to order from, so I've taken them off the list.

Yes, I'm posting from Maui - it's the crack 'o dawn and I'm still on west coast time!
10-18-2005, 09:17 AM
Susie

Problems with Performance

About 8 weeks ago, I placed a web order with Performance. I had 3 items in the order and after 2 weeks, I emailed to find out where it was. I was told that 1 item was backordered. Another week went by and I was shipped the backordered item and one of the other "in stock" items, missing the 3rd item which was apparently "in stock". I emailed again and they had forgotten to include the 3rd item.. When they did ship the 3rd item, I was charged shipping again. I was really frustrated for getting double charged on the shipping when they had made the mistake and forgotten to include the 3rd item. Anyway, it took over a month to get my entire order and there was no communication on my order status until I questioned them. I'm never ordering from them again -- there's too many other places with good customer service out there.
10-18-2005, 09:41 AM
Nanci

Wow, I have never had any trouble with Performance. I hope they haven't undergone some sort of change in management that is now being reflected in worsened customer service...

I always liked Supergo, too.

Nanci
10-18-2005, 04:23 PM
Crankin

My family has been buying stuff from Performance since 1999. We have never had a problem. I don't buy as much stuff there, because they don't have a lot of extra small sizes or jerseys I like, but between my husband and son, who raced for 4 years, we have spent enough there to open our own bike store! My husband is a Team Performance member and we use the points to buy things like leg warmers, booties, etc. We also buy equipment there, as my husband does all the work on our bikes. When my son was racing this saved us tons of money; he bought all of his bike mechanic equipment from them.
I'm not pushing them, but we've never had an issue. I buy most of my stuff from Terry, even though the owner once had a political statement in the catalog that I thought was really obnoxious and had no place in a bike catalog. I wrote an email to her about that one.
As for the weather here in Massachusetts, it's the rain that has been a pain. Last weekend was ruined, but I did take a short ride Sunday in the 30 mile an hour winds. It's not that cold out, yet. I rode today after work for about an hour, but next week is the last week for that... Daylight Savings Time ends and even on my teacher's hours it will be too dark to ride when I get home. I am hoping to be able to ride on the weekends until the end of November, because I have about 270 miles to go to meet my goal for the year.
10-20-2005, 07:39 PM
eofelis

We have ordered lots of stuff (and returned stuff too) from Performance, Nashbar and Supergo (all are owned by Performance). We have not had any problems.

My SO John actually worked as a mechanic at a Performance store in San Diego. He has plenty of horror stories about Performance. They fired him.....two weeks after he quit.
10-21-2005, 09:33 AM
caligurl

OH! i have a performance store tale!

when i was looking for a bike last year.... when performance still sold giant's... we went to supergo to look at the speicalized and performance for the giant ocr (the silver w/pink highlights that they has some WDS stuff on)... (i've since learned about buying a bike from either of those places! so no lectures!)

i liked both bikes (but leaned toward liking the look of the giant)... so we walked back over to performance (in huntington beach they are both right there on the same corner/shopping plaza)... hubby asked to have me fit to the bike.. to make sure it did, in fact fit me.... (as in adjust the handle bars, seat, check leg plumb.. you know... basic stuff).. the JERK.... said "you have to buy it first." my hubby said "i have to buy a bike that i don't know if it fits her or not?"

we walked out and went back over to supergo and bought my dolce.... (granted.. supergo wasn't that great of a place for fit either.. we found out after the fact my reach was too far... but at least they were willing to help out... put it on the trainer... check plumb.. etc.... heck.. they even taught me about shifting! :rolleyes: )

and "funny" thing... i NEVER see any bikes in the repair area at performance?????
10-21-2005, 09:36 AM
caligurl

[QUOTE=surlypacer]We have ordered lots of stuff (and returned stuff too) from Performance, QUOTE]

that's one of the BIG reasons i buy from performance... no matter WHAT... i can return it! if i buy shorts i hate after wearing them one (or two) times.. i can return them.... if i buy a shirt i hate.. i can return it.. if i buy a component i change my mind on.. i can return it! NO QUESTIONS ASKED!

they have the BEST return policy (along with their CHEAP prices!) i don't know of ANY other bike store.. on or off line that allows that!

it's handy for us too a lot of times.. if we are driving down to huntington beach.. we just take our returns with us and return them in the store! occasionally they won't take an item (we bought the wrong torque wrench.. and they don't stock them.. so i have to send it back)....
10-21-2005, 11:49 AM
AutumnBreez

Performance is not bad compared to others like...

Airbomb is worst of worst! Gave them several chances and each time was headache and stressful!

Gear Direct is getting on my nerves a bit, but getting my polar at a great price.
10-22-2005, 05:30 AM
eofelis

[QUOTE=caligurl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by surlypacer

We have ordered lots of stuff (and returned stuff too) from Performance, QUOTE]

that's one of the BIG reasons i buy from performance... no matter WHAT... i can return it! if i buy shorts i hate after wearing them one (or two) times.. i can return them.... if i buy a shirt i hate.. i can return it.. if i buy a component i change my mind on.. i can return it! NO QUESTIONS ASKED!

they have the BEST return policy (along with their CHEAP prices!) i don't know of ANY other bike store.. on or off line that allows that!

it's handy for us too a lot of times.. if we are driving down to huntington beach.. we just take our returns with us and return them in the store! occasionally they won't take an item (we bought the wrong torque wrench.. and they don't stock them.. so i have to send it back)....

That's why we buy there too. REI is good for that too. John says that I don't buy things from REI, I borrow them. :D Actually, We've kept most of what we buy from REI. We have a small REI store just a few blocks from where we live. Hazzah! (They carry bike stuff, but don't sell bikes)
10-22-2005, 12:35 PM
pkq

I love the support I've gotten from my local bike shops. Over the years, they have given me great discounts, even on bikes. Occasionally, I have been given gear. I've gotten lots of free wrenching despite my protestations. I know those guys don't make much money so I don't mind paying full price, and they've always been real good and quick on service. They order items I want to try and return them, if I don't like them. When they prefer me to order, they tell me. The flip side of their support of me is they know I prefer not ordering from catalogs; I prefer supporting them. I have ridden with them many times and drop in for visits during dull winter evenings. We trade barbs, which get hilarious most of the time. We trade movies and socialize occasionally. I know what goes on in their lives and they know about mine. You can't get that from a catalog.

Dealing with customer service can be a most unpleasant, frustrating ordeal. I feel for those who endure it. It's good to hear no one is having trouble with TE. They do carry some stuff the local shops don't, which I may order in the future.
10-22-2005, 06:14 PM
kmoty

Performance Woes

From Maryland...my husband has bought from Performance online with no touble so far in about a year, but we were in the local store a couple of weeks ago, and staff (very young) seemed to know little and care less. I'm happier with TE (*xcellent* service) and others, like my LBS, who seem interested in keeping their customers. A couple of dollars seems a small price to reward good service and reduce my agida (I know I'm privileged to be able to say that).

I have a friend who says "50% of people can't do their jobs. Of the remaining 50%, 25% won't." Pretty much my experience, which makes me try all the harder. Sigh. Reward those who can and will.

K