The uni magazine interview with Roger Davies; he says “I am not a shop keeper by nature”. I find this hard to believe, due to the exemplary service he gave me over the past few months.
I ordered a Schlumpf 29er in April with the intention of getting it in time for BUC. Things started unluckily when somehow an e-mail to me unknowingly went missing. I complained about it in a BUC thread on this forum, Roger somehow knew it was me and replied in the thread, a couple of phone calls and e-mails later and the details were confirmed.
I never realised the ordering process would take a long time, two days before BUC Roger e-mailed me to say “it looks like it’s stuck in customs” so I was to go to BUC with two unicycles, and return with two unicycles. In the meantime Joe Marshall very kindly let me have a go on his so I knew what I was in for.
Two weeks later another e-mail, Florian had actually forgot to send it in the first place! Then a fault in the manufacturing process was discovered which brought further delays. Roger forwarded the e-mail about this delay, on the Bank Holiday Monday, as well as two more e-mails from Florian.
A few days ago light was seen at the end of the tunnel. Roger contacted me to say my Schlumpf wheel and frame arrived, and we double-checked my desired specification together.
Mikefule said to me that “when Roger does go wrong, he does his absolute best to put it right”. But it was Florian who made the mistake of missing out a brake which I would need. Roger decided to fix someone else’s wrong; amazingly he took a brake off one of his own unicycles and fitted it to mine!
So after a wait of three months the Schlumpf finally arrived. But something wasn’t quite right; the brake cable was a rather tight fit as Roger warned me, but the tyre was scraping on it.
I phoned them up and got through to Miark; he would let Roger know and “he would get in touch with me when he comes back from UNICON”. For the next hour I had a fiddle with the brake, discovering that with a cable-tie to hold the cable in a certain position the brake cable could be suspended a little bit above the tyre and solve the problem.
At 6:30pm the phone rings, to my surprise it’s Wodger! Seemingly taking a chunk out of his own time to check my problem. He clarified that holding the brake cable at a certain angle would keep it clear from the tyre, and that a cable tie would be a perfect way to do it.
Copying and pasting “Thank you” dozens of times will never be enough to praise Roger for his effort in getting me a rather special unicycle. The fact that he just gave me one of his own brakes just like that, as well as the communication in his own time shows that he really does care about satisfying the customer.
Sorry Roger, but despite what you said in that interview, you’re the perfect shopkeeper!
