I had been a PowerTap customer for years, and like most PowerTap customers had ample opportunity to sample their customer service. They do a solid job at Saris, and turn repairs and refurbs around pretty quickly for the most part. My most recent experience with them was sub-par however. I sent in an old PowerTap (Classic) hub to be exchanged for a new Comp Hub - no wheel, no build necessary, just receive one box and send out another box. A week passed and nothing. Then another half week, so I called them. They had received the box but didn't begin whatever internal process needed to be begun in order to log it into the system and send me my new hub. They told me this would take another week or so. Double plus uncool.
So far, the folks at iBike have been on top of their customer service game, or at least their customer outreach game, as evidenced by some of the comments on this blog from the CEO and their Pro team manager / Coach / Consultant. They seem very motivated to make sure people are getting the best experience possible from their products.
Their tech department so far seems to be a single guy named Aaron. Being a department of one must positively suck, especially when much of your job must be reacting to complaints and problems. Nevertheless, when I sent iBike a note telling them that the center button on my iAero wasn't working, Aaron wrote back quickly with instructions for trying a hard re-set (which didn't work) and then sending it in for repair or replacement (which I did yesterday).
Will it sit in receiving for a week or two like my PowerTap hub? Will it be repaired or replaced? How long must all of you go before you get to see actual statistical data of how ferociously I train (for 45 minutes at a time on occasion)? Stay tuned. The answers to all of these questions and more will be revealed soon. Very soon, I hope.
Mike I am surprised Ibike had you send yours in first. All the times I had problems with mine, I was sent a new one and asked to send the old one back if any problems arouse. You will get one soon I am guessing. That is the one thing I was totally impressed by ibike was their customer service was some of the best.
Posted by: Kyle | July 01, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Really? Hm, they must have changed their policy. Or they're singling me out. Fortunately it's a rest week for me so I don't miss it too much.
Posted by: Mike May | July 01, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Kyle, what made you switch from the ibike powermeter to the SRM? I'm thinking about dropping some coin on two PowerTaps since 5 SRMs are way out of my budget right now, and I'm wondering if it wouldn't be a better idea just to buy an ibike or two.
Mike, I'm looking forward to your comments regarding the customer service from ibike. Saris has been pretty good about answering my pre-sale questions pretty quickly, but it always the post sale customer service that is the most important.
Posted by: Fabrizio | July 01, 2009 at 03:59 PM
Fabrizio, what's nice about the iBike is that it's portable from one bike to the next. You'd need a mount for each bike (which is over $100 as they've got some electronics in them) and you'd also have to spend time calibrating each one. But one head unit would be enough. I think there's a lot of discussion of this on www.ibikeforums.com.
Posted by: Mike May | July 02, 2009 at 05:43 AM
Power meters provide instant feedback to the rider about their performance and measure their actual output; heart rate monitors measure the physiological effect of effort and therefore ramp up more slowly. Thus, an athlete performing "interval" training while using a power meter can instantly see that they are producing 300 watts, for example, instead of waiting for their heart rate to climb to a certain point. In addition, power meters measure the force that moves the bike forward multiplied by the velocity, which is the desired goal. This has two significant advantages over heart rate monitors: 1) An athlete's heart rate may remain constant over the training period, yet their power output is declining, which they cannot detect with a heart rate monitor; 2) While an athlete who is not rested or not feeling entirely well may train at their normal heart rate, they are unlikely to be producing their normal power—a heart rate monitor will not reveal this, but a power meter will. Finally, power meters enable rider to experiment with cadence and evaluate its effect relative to speed and heart rate.
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Posted by: Mike May | March 12, 2010 at 09:47 AM