Happy Bike

Absolutely horrendous.
The bike shop is conveniently located next to the Hauptbahnhof. But all I can say is this is not a shop of Swiss quality. The way they extort money from their customers is not how decent Swiss people make a living. If you want more details, read on…
I have been living in Switzerland for almost two years now, and never had any bad purchase experience. Until I made the mistake of spending almost CHF 2.000 at Happy Bike on a brand new bike.
I bought a bike from the shop about a year ago. At the time of purchase I was told that I could bring the bike back for a free service. This sounded great for me, but even more for the shop as I did not try the bike on and they could close the sale in less than 15 minutes. Why did I not try the bike you ask? Well, I did try on a similar, cheaper bike which worked great and this being Switzerland, vendors are trustworthy and will provide you a replacement if the product is defective.
Fast forward to May 2014, I finally got to use the bike and discovered that the rear break was broken. I went to the shop and told them about it. Two weeks later, I went to pick up the bike, and the brake? Still broken. Now, if you have lived in Switzerland you would know that this level of incompetence is just unacceptable. What is the point of a small service if the shop does not even bother to check the brakes? Worse, I specifically told the guy taking the bike something was wrong with the rear break. In most civilized countries, this is called gross negligence.
The guy who inspected the bike was visibly embarrassed, and I did not think too much about the mishap. People make mistakes, why make a fuss about it? After a brief chat, I was told that the shop would fix the rear brake for CHF 30 – which I believe is fair as it has been almost a year since I bought the bike despite having not used it.
The next day I returned to the shop and on top of CHF 86 for the small service which they wanted to charge me (that’s $ 95 for I have no idea what, but clearly nothing to do with the rear break), they expected me to pay CHF 60 for fixing both brakes. This is pretty interesting considering just yesterday I was specifically told that only the rear brake was in fact broken and that it «would not be more than CHF 30» to fix it. So the shop somehow managed to increase my expense from CHF 30 to CHF 146. Brilliant.
The ensuing negotiation took a disgusting turn when the shop assistants resorted to emotional blackmailing by suggesting that «the normal price to fix the brakes would be CHF 80» and that «we also threw in a new disc brake for CHF 40». So really they wanted to charge me a higher price than agreed and somehow I was their charity case. Really Happy Bike, really?
The shop is a disgrace to the Swiss reputation.

«Money for Nothing»
Mein altes Mountain Bike musste mal wieder in eine grosse Inspektion. Die Reifen hatte ich schon gewechselt, aber die Kette musste getauscht, die Züge kontrolliert, die Schlatung nachjustiert und das ganze inklusive Federgabel komplett gereinigt werden.
Da ich das Bike über den Winter nicht gebraucht hatte, war es nicht sonderlich eilig. Der Termin bis in drei Wochen war OK, und ich wartete auf den Anruf zur Abholung.
Nach 4 Wochen bin ich dann mal vorbei gegangen um nach dem Bike zu sehen. Angerufen hatte mich niemand. Das Bike stand auch immer noch am gleichen Platz im Service. Natürlich im Originalszustand.
Der Chef im Verkauf schob erstmal alles auf den Auszubildenden und versprach mir einen neuen Termin in 3 Tagen.
3 Tage später stand das Bike auf gut gerenigt und mit neuer Kette und nachgestellten Bremsen an Ort und Stelle.
Zuhause bemerkte ich dann folgendes. Die Schaltung lief alles andere aus sauber… mehr fast gar nicht, die Feedergabel sit sehr viel weicher, als vorher und quietsch jetzt zeitweilig.
Gut, also erst einmal um die Schaltung kümmern. Die Züge wurden scheinbar auch nicht nachgezogen. Sonst hätte wohl jemand bemerkt, dass einer der Züge beschädigt ist. Oder dass die hintere Achse scheinbar verbogen ist.
FAZIT: Der Laden sieht mich nie wieder