Revzilla is THE BEST!!!!!

[trepetti]

Long story short.... I have had a pair of Alpinestars GP Plus R V1 gloves for years and I love them. But they are getting a bit weary and I need a replacement. Naturally I went for the GP Plus R V2 gloves. Bought them from Revzilla a week ago and they arrived yesterday. And I think they are AWFUL! I wear a size Large, and the V2s have a much longer finger length then the V1s, and they feel terrible. No problem, Revzilla RMA processed and ready to go.

So here is the problem. I had $50 in 'ZillaCash', their rewards program. I applied this credit to the original purchase, and typically won't get it back until they receive and process the return. I wanted to replace these with a pair of Dianese Druid gloves, but they only have 1 pair left in my size, and surely they would be gone by the time the Alpinestars got back to them and they processed the return. Bummer.

So I called them and explained the issue. The guy on the phone looked at my account (I am a regular) and said 'no problem, we will sell you the Druids and apply the $50 credit'. Credit for the gloves that I haven't even shipped back to them yet. Now THAT's customer service.

Some of you may remember the problem I had with a tire I bought from them 2 years ago, when after 3k ish miles it fell apart, and after seeing the pictures they immediately credited me the full purchase price.

Metzler M7RR rear with HUGE bubble!!!!

I was just about to go for a ride and was T-Clocking before I mounted and look what I found! Haven't ridden in a week, and the last ride was short and uneventful. These have less than 3,000 miles on them. The scuff mark is from where it rubbed against the rear hugger when I rotated the...

www.600riders.com

I cannot heap enough praise on these guys. When they were bought by Cycle Gear I expected them to lose their customer focus. Boy was I wrong.

If you need gear, parts, anything, put these guys on your shopping list. Their prices are competitive and they price match, which lots of places do. But if they continue to stand behind their merchandise and they keep going the extra mile to take care of their customers, They are the best.

 

[Motogiro]

I have always had good experience with them!

 

[bigborer]

It's extremely easy to "go the extra mile" (aka throw free stuff at customers and price match) for a large corporation. They have access to much better deals from manufacturers, they have access to low or even negative interest loans (aka free or almost free money), they have access to top law and accounting "firms" to aid in "creative accounting", etc.

Let's not be naive and believe that they offer any "service" to anyone other than to the owners of the corporation. They don't care about customers. They don't care about their workers. Heck, we don't even know who "they" are. At best they put a front man while majority stake is owned by some fund, owned another fund, owned by another fund, owned by God knows who. All they care about is getting more and more market share, so that after a while they manage to bury their competition, win monopoly and "ideally" get bought by an even larger corporation. What does one do after winning monopoly? Whatever the fuck they want.

Support your local shops! Yes, they might not afford to give you the occasional free tire and free voucher (are those really that substantial in regard to ones overall expenditure)? But you will put money back into your community, which will make the community flourish, and on the long run make it nicer for you.

Some say money is the root of all evil. It's actually lack of money that's the root of all evil. Globally we're already at some of the worst numbers since WW2. Worst rate of unemployment. Worst rate of homelessness. Record number of small businesses going bankrupt. Worst rate of inflation. The real estate prices artificially inflated. The middle class is simply vanishing day by day, getting into poverty.
Imagine the whole economy is one pie. Who got the slices that belonged to the middle class? No, it's not "corona", and no, the pie didn't just shrink. The pie simply gets transferred to the guys owning these corporations. Which in turn will pay little to no taxes, and give nothing back to any one or any community.

Fun fact: while small and medium sized businesses closed in record numbers, amazon revenue almost doubled! No wonder bezos is cruising around in a penis shaped shuttle, probably laughing and showing the planet his middle finger.

Would you rather live in a world where:
1: your local community is flourishing, a large % of population has a good standard of living, the streets are safe and clean, the wealth is somewhat distributed
2: the only businesses left locally are some mcdonalds and apple stores, a large % of population is in poverty, the streets are dirty and dangerous, all wealth is in the hands of the very small groups owning the monopoly corporations

Each single cent spent is a vote for one or the other. We can be either part of the solution, or part of the problem. Something as small as buying a random coffee from a local shop instead of starbucks still matters and still has a positive impact. A drop in the ocean is not much, but the ocean is made of just drops summed up.

I know some will misinterpret this post and find some reason to get offended by it. Each to their own however don't hate the player, hate the game. But I'll be very happy if this post will make at least one single person think twice about whom they vote to support.

 

[bigborer]

PS:
NOBODY sells at a loss. I can tell you that medium sized stores have around 40% margin on bike gear. Revizilla likely has around 50% or higher. So for them it was either:
1- sell this dude the gloves at lower price and win $70 instead of $120 while increasing the likehood of customer retention. All this while $70 is still more than what a local brick and mortar store would have made selling the same gloves.
2- don't sell the gloves and win $0 while decreasing the likehood of customer retention

From a business perspective it is more than clear which is the best option for the business. It has zero to do with benefiting the customer. Yes, it happened that option #1 also benefited the customer, but strictly coincidentally.

And re the rear tire: it's very likely that it could have been a legal liability for them. Even if one sued the manufacturer, they as resellers would have likely been summoned in court (if only to prove correct handling, etc), which would have resulted in legal fees much larger than giving you $100-150 (that's what it cost them to purchase the tire from the manufacturer). $ which you already more than covered with the margin included in your previous purchases, and will likely cover again with future orders.

Personally I've given "free" stuff of much higher value than a tire, taking losses just to get rid of legal actions which though I'd have won, the hassle would have exceed economic viability.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

I think you missed the point of this "Vendor review".

It's exactly that, a vendor review, not a thread debating the pro's and con's of buying locally
or on-line...

I personally appreciate someone posting the good or bad of any vendor, shop, etc... That may keep me from having a bad experience..

.

 

[trepetti]

It's extremely easy to "go the extra mile" (aka throw free stuff at customers and price match) for a large corporation. They have access to much better deals from manufacturers, they have access to low or even negative interest loans (aka free or almost free money), they have access to top law and accounting "firms" to aid in "creative accounting", etc.

Let's not be naive and believe that they offer any "service" to anyone other than to the owners of the corporation. They don't care about customers. They don't care about their workers. Heck, we don't even know who "they" are. At best they put a front man while majority stake is owned by some fund, owned another fund, owned by another fund, owned by God knows who. All they care about is getting more and more market share, so that after a while they manage to bury their competition, win monopoly and "ideally" get bought by an even larger corporation. What does one do after winning monopoly? Whatever the fuck they want.

Support your local shops! Yes, they might not afford to give you the occasional free tire and free voucher (are those really that substantial in regard to ones overall expenditure)? But you will put money back into your community, which will make the community flourish, and on the long run make it nicer for you.

Some say money is the root of all evil. It's actually lack of money that's the root of all evil. Globally we're already at some of the worst numbers since WW2. Worst rate of unemployment. Worst rate of homelessness. Record number of small businesses going bankrupt. Worst rate of inflation. The real estate prices artificially inflated. The middle class is simply vanishing day by day, getting into poverty.
Imagine the whole economy is one pie. Who got the slices that belonged to the middle class? No, it's not "corona", and no, the pie didn't just shrink. The pie simply gets transferred to the guys owning these corporations. Which in turn will pay little to no taxes, and give nothing back to any one or any community.

Fun fact: while small and medium sized businesses closed in record numbers, amazon revenue almost doubled! No wonder bezos is cruising around in a penis shaped shuttle, probably laughing and showing the planet his middle finger.

Would you rather live in a world where:
1: your local community is flourishing, a large % of population has a good standard of living, the streets are safe and clean, the wealth is somewhat distributed
2: the only businesses left locally are some mcdonalds and apple stores, a large % of population is in poverty, the streets are dirty and dangerous, all wealth is in the hands of the very small groups owning the monopoly corporations

Each single cent spent is a vote for one or the other. We can be either part of the solution, or part of the problem. Something as small as buying a random coffee from a local shop instead of starbucks still matters and still has a positive impact. A drop in the ocean is not much, but the ocean is made of just drops summed up.

I know some will misinterpret this post and find some reason to get offended by it. Each to their own however don't hate the player, hate the game. But I'll be very happy if this post will make at least one single person think twice about whom they vote to support.

Somebody must have really broken your heart. I am not offended, just perplexed by the negativity. Appreciate the business lesson, but I am older than you think. I have been part of a group that owned a few restaurants (you want to talk about a TOUGH business to get recognized for customer service!). I understand the economies of scale, have run my own technology consulting company, struggled through the challenging accounting and legal issues, and a lot more. And I agree that a company like RevZilla 'risking' $50 is not a big risk at all. But here is the kicker.... most companies that CAN afford the risk, DON'T take the risk. No need to. What would their bottom-line look like if I decided never to buy from them again?

This post was about a vendor that did the right thing. Simple behavioral modification..... If you want more of something, reward it.... if you want less of something.. punish it....