ISOTUNED Suspension aka drakethomas (threads merged)

It's true. Perhaps I'm still a little touchy.#-o

 

Well said... Situations will always happen, it's how a company reacts and responds to a bad situation that defines their customer service. Thumbs up!

 

Actually you handled it very well.

I would have been much less patient to be honest and likely would have posted something - or left messages that I might later regret.

And yes, I would still be a bit salty about it as well.

But a ride or two will probably take care of that!

:beer:

 

Oh c'mon, I'm trying to be reasonable here. Read what I wrote about my experience a few pages back. There was no reaction or response for weeks. Does anyone think that hand delivering me my fork after all of that somehow transforms this into a story of stellar customer service? Seriously?

It's totally true that bad stuff happens and it is how you deal with that defines the customer service. The problem is that when you apply this truth to people like me who couldn't get ahold of Drake for weeks on end while he had our fork or shock, it doesn't help his case.

To be clear, I have no problem with Drake anymore. He's acknowledged the mistakes and is doing what he can at this point to do right by me. I appreciate that.

I'd like to move on but I'm not too stoked at folks on the internets with no first hand experience of what went down making excuses for a guy that isn't even making them himself. If and when folks do that, I'm gonna feel compelled to respond.

Do Drake a favor and just let this discussion die here.

p.s. If this is not referring to my recent experience and posts about it in this thread, may I suggest y'all take the abstract discussion what constitutes good customer service elsewhere.

:beer:

 

Now what inquiring minds REALLY want to know is the other half of the equation. How's the fork?

 

Fork is great. I didn't have Drake do anything fancy, just a standard service/rebuild. Had gotten pretty bad over the last year and a half is riding at least as well as it did new. The bushing play is gone the suspension action is super smooth. I imagine it'll get even better once the new bits get broken in.

 

The unfortunate irony is how much he was incessantly promoting his store on this website, how great it was going to be with regard to quality and customer service, etc. and then once it's up and running something immediately happened to contradict most of that hype.

just an observation. . .

 

we get it your not satisfied with his service. you dont need to constantly dis his business. some ish happened on his part and he tried to fix it. SUCKS FOR BOTH OF YOU!

Give the man a break running you own business is not easy. If you have ever been in a important position you will know.

 

This is my short version of a recent transaction experience with Drake and Isotune that was initiated on Feb16 and was completed April 11. With the many recommendation and satisfied customers here I decided to go with Isotune rather than PUSH.

My situation was similar to Sliverbike but with a few twists of it's own. The transaction included a rebuild of a fox 36rc van and an old fox rc rear shock. Long story short: I ended up with a great responsive fork and like sliverbike, the cost of a rebuild and missing parts of the rc rear equaled to a new rear shock which I got. I got the fork back on March 15 and just recently the shock.

If I had known prior that he was in the process of opening a shop I would have not gone to him because of how busy it would was. And I got caught up in what was quoted to be a 3-5day turnover for a rebuild. Just through reading the threads here I found out he was opening a new shop. After all was said and done I was left with good products but not the same satisfaction/experiance as most have on here.

I just merely want to express that Sliverbike was not just the only one who was caught up in this ordeal. My review is to enlighten the few who are likely to look for suspension service in the now or the near feature. As Sliverbike suggested, if you want to go to Isotune, you should wait until everything gets ironed out with opening a new shop. As far as Drake, he is very knowledgeable and was professional everytime I spoke to him except for one time in an email response.

Sliverbike, I'm glad to hear things got resolved.

 

Just a note.... I don't really have the attention span to go through all the posts, just wanted to give props! I had my fork gone through with a two day turn around (Races back to back weekends) and it has never worked as well since new. I have had the manufacture go through the fork twice with less results.

Thanks Isotuned, you made my race this weekend much more palatable. I have been fighting my knee due to a pre-season injury and there was one thing I didn't have to fight this weekend. My forks...

Thanks!

C.K.

 

Drake stop Bogarting and hire an assistant or a phone person for the peeps.

 

i gotta agree, if i were down there i'd volunteer

 

If this were Best Buy, REI, Amazon, etc. and it took 6 weeks to get a product that was promised in a matter of days (this after countless unanswered calls, emails and PMs) you'd be ready to strangle someone. Because Drake is a fellow rider you think Silverbike should just give him a break because "running your own business is not easy" :lol:

I don't know Silverbike, but his post was a reasonable last resort from a desperate guy that wanted his fork back so he could ride. Silverbike seemed very understanding despite continual delays and either intentional or inadvertent miscommunications. I think everyone - including Silverbike - shows their LBS more patience and understanding than they do with other retailers, but this is the free market. You can't expect someone in a transaction to be a happy doormat when one party is failing to meet obligations.

 

I agree 95%

i dissagree (sorta) on the 5% about the giving him a break because running a buisness ain't easy.

Best Buy, REI, Amazon, etc are all well established with a huge infrastructure to hold it up. Drake is (i think) one guy that just started and is having some bad growing pains.

Even then, silverfish has plenty to be pissed about, i'm not denying that, lol nobody would...

 

The only error he is fixing is his own for not staying in communication with this customer. Was he going out of his way when he didn't respond to 10 voicemails, e-mails etc etc?

 

They own us all.

 

Hey Silverbike, no I wasnt using you as an example at all. Sorry if that got misconstrued. I wouldnt use one particular customer as it would be extremely unprofessional. I know of multiple customers he has done this for. As far as him not getting back with his customers(was messed up as Turner Rob pointed out) as he should have, well, I'm sure he realizes he was wrong for that. Anyway, have a good one!:wave:

 

Just got back from Demo in Santa Cruz. Spent two days pushing some limits on the newly Draked front fork. I'm really happy with the quality of the work and the fast turn around. I had low/high speed damping added to my Fox Talus 36, plus overhaul and tuning. Thanks Drake, it made all the difference and I appreciate you getting it back to me in such a short time frame.

Satisfied customer.

 

I hate to be the one to point this out........ But yes personally driving a hundred miles to hand deliver a part does show a remarkable CS level. Anyone like myself that has had something like this happen with a parge company would already know that this just doesnt happen. I have dealt with Rockshox, Fox, marzocchi........ All of them have dropped the ball like this if not worse.... gues what my recourse is..... call holler, get a product back in a body bag, or call ask nicely, and wait.... seen big companies like those I already listed, and large electronic companies such as best buy, sports companies like REI, Internet comapnies.......................... you just wait, and wait, and wait............ If you want it back you end up paying more.




Yes people have a reason to be upset, but at the same time YES people will see how it was handled and interpret it in different ways, yes mistakes were made, and mistakes were righted.

Fact, alot of companies for the sake of getting a part back will just return it in the same or worse conditioon than it was when they got it.

Yes I do say to cut him some slack, he is just getting hiw company up and running yet still found time to go hand deliver a part at a 100 mile range.

Now at the same time, I also say to keep an eye on how things are handled as the future comes, this situation is most likely an isolated time frame happening, now that things are getting ironed out, I can just hope that people will keep the reveiws coming.

 

I don't know any of the parties involved here but I will at some point in time need some suspension work done. No offense meant, but it seems that those who have come to Drake's defense are folks with prior experience/relationships with him. I thought the original post was fair and that Silverbike has extended quite a bit of grace to Drake in what had to be an incredibly frustrating experience.

I'm wondering if we could get Drake's direct explanation of what happened. That would go a long way toward helping me make a decision whether or not I would trust him with my bike.