Interesting Trend at Pro's Closet

[cmbicycles]

Ok, everyone saying TPC paid more than the bike was "worth" to them, needs to stop posting. TPC might read this forum and you'll jinx it for the rest of us.

[bikedork]

Hi all — hope this isn't infringing on the community guidelines, but I work at TPC as the brand director and someone forwarded this thread on and y'all have SUPER interesting observations and, tbh, you are spot on: experimental stuff was going on.

If it's helpful, I have some insights. This summer we were experimenting with what we were calling "Early Access" bike processing, and most of the photos posted here are from that Early Access experiment. Basically, our normal flow is we receive a bike, inspect it, clean it, repair/replace anything needing it, tune it up with the new parts, then photograph it, post it, and pack it for shipping.

With Early Access, we would inspect a bike, clean it, then photograph it and post it. Thus the no chains, tape, weird brake lines, etc. Once a bike was purchased, we'd put on a new chain, new tape, repair/replace any brake cables, and then we'd tune up the bike with the new parts and ship it. The bikes would show up to the customer the same, but they were posted "pre-processing." We hope this would let us show people more bikes faster, so they could find a bike that fit for them, then we'd send it off. Obvi, that ended up being an odd customer experience.

After testing Early Access for a few weeks, we decided to drop the program. We're now back to our previous flow, so all new bikes posted recently are in the condition that will show up at your door. You should see that with the newly posted bikes.

Anywho — good to see that people noticed this and your concerns are 100% valid. Curious to see what else is going on here on Paceline, and hopefully this insider POV was helpful.

[miguel]

Go to the introduction thread, post your bike and prepare yourself for ruthless hazing

[jkbrwn]

^^Is this damage control? Genuine question. Always find it very interesting when vendors step in to reply to messages on forums - especially a senior staff member.

[alexihnen]

Hey, it's a guy who replied to concerns shared on this forum...GET 'EM!!!!

I kid, but I do like that he posted a response here.

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by alexihnen

Hey, it's a guy who replied to concerns shared on this forum...GET 'EM!!!!

I kid, but I do like that he posted a response here.

Same. Poertner at Silca has been active here as has Jan Heine, and I'm sure some others. It's nice to hear from the primary source.

The above isn't even defensive in any way - it just says we were trying X because of Y, and we are going back to the old way.

[Joel]

I applaud TPC for jumping on here.

There are so many well intended corporate experiments that end up damaging a brand - not because of malice - rather they become embedded or owned by senior management or teams that simply will not let them go.

The number of time I've had to "assess" why a company lost 30% of their customers - and it traced to just flat out keeping a bad idea alive - would fill a book.

Kudos to TPC.

They made an adjustment for unique business conditions, the adjustment did not work, so they reset and leaned into the successful elements of their business model.

And had the grace to let all of us know it.

[RWL2222]

Ha that’s awesome then. Makes perfect sense now.

[raygunner]

I haven’t bought a bike from TPC, yet. But I do find myself scrolling through their offerings more and more.

Anyone see that Argonaut with the crazy paint?!

[prototoast]

I wish I could make a deal with TPC where they stop showing me ads, and instead, whenever they were going to show me an ad, they add a credit to my account for what the cost of the ad would have been. I'm sure I would have bought a dozen bikes from them by now if they did that.

[bikedork]

Originally Posted by jkbrwn

^^Is this damage control? Genuine question. Always find it very interesting when vendors step in to reply to messages on forums - especially a senior staff member.

Lolz. More personal interest than damage control. Also, I found it interesting that people picked up on the (very visually obvious) Early Access photos.

[KJMUNC]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I wish I could make a deal with TPC where they stop showing me ads, and instead, whenever they were going to show me an ad, they add a credit to my account for what the cost of the ad would have been. I'm sure I would have bought a dozen bikes from them by now if they did that.

Haha….same. Funny how they didn’t comment on the bikes with known carbon repairs that aren’t listed as such on the for sale page details

[bikedork]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I wish I could make a deal with TPC where they stop showing me ads, and instead, whenever they were going to show me an ad, they add a credit to my account for what the cost of the ad would have been. I'm sure I would have bought a dozen bikes from them by now if they did that.

This is a great idea. Maybe in the future.

[bikedork]

Originally Posted by KJMUNC

Haha….same. Funny how they didn’t comment on the bikes with known carbon repairs that aren’t listed as such on the for sale page details

Yah, I just don't know enough about each of those instances to comment. Speaking at a high level, it's not our MO to hide those things (nor in our benefit). Returns because you discover that later are way worse than disclosing it up front. Not saying that instance didn't happen, but if it did, it was a mistake and that's not beneficial to us (or the buyer).

[tctyres]

Originally Posted by alexihnen

Hey, it's a guy who replied to concerns shared on this forum...GET 'EM!!!!

I kid, but I do like that he posted a response here.

I'd love it if bikedork were just a troll coming into a bike forum to allay concerns, acting as an insider, but really just a random person. Or worse, a good guy bot coming in to be nice to the company in question.


Maybe I should make a sock account: SpecializedServicePerson or something like that. Ha!