Wednesday, February 3, 2010

High Marks! Bike Porn and Customer Service


If you're not familiar with the company FSA, or, Full Speed Ahead, allow me to give them a few well-earned marks in the customer service department.  (Disclaimer: Even though I'm currently in the industry, I am not sponsored by nor do I work for FSA in any fashion, aside from ride their high-quality products, of course.)

First, allow me to paint a picture of the ride proper, as it were.  My trustworthy road steed is a an aging Litespeed Atlas and she's been with me through some rough times, hanging tough throughout my early "learning" cycling days and carrying me into my latter ones.  Suffice to say she's been a reliable gal in my life which is what every good man needs, of course.  Moving on...

After getting used to riding the big ring (read: able to keep up with the other kids) I swapped the Campy Centaur double and bottom bracket out for a compact FSA carbon SLK with a MegaExo bottom bracket (it just sounds sexy, doesn't it?!)  Since I bought the bike back in undergrad, and since my campus was in the Appalachians, I became a strong climber pretty quickly.

Cutting to the chase... Fast-forward several thousand miles and seven plus years and the bearings have finally given in to the forces of physics - they've run their course and have taken an extended retirement.  I noticed a 'dead spot' in my pedal stroke on a group ride with the lady after hours in ATL, and upon further research (removing chain and attempting to free-spin the cranks), the dead spot was clearly visible by means of a sluggish rotation in a good third of the arc.

So I called a distributor, and inquired about purchasing the self-extracting cap to get the cranks off as standard tools can't hack it - one caveat: you need the proprietary bolt or cap, which I think the newer cranks come with.  Unfortunately the (unnamed dealer) was out-of-stock and suggested I contact FSA.  I did, and boy was I happy I dealt directly with them.

Expecting the parts to be so far out of warranty, I was hopeful to simply locate the cap.  What happened next blew me away ~ the friendly customer service rep thanked me for being a loyal FSA rider and sent via priority mail their "massage kit" classified under warranty, which will enable me to rebuild the entire BB!  That, ladies in gentlemen, is customer service.  I award thee a gold star, FSA!  There are good people in this world.

(Bike porn, left to right: self extracting cap/bolt, bearing covers for bottom bracket, blue o-ring for spindle, cartridge bearings and 641 loctite)

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