Best company or product you have dealt with?

My vote is for DeSoto - Emilio's customer service is tough to beat...

Cheers, Chris

De Soto

X3 on desoto

Bell Helmets. 
I sent an email to Customer service to ask where I could purchase replacement pads for my helmet., After a few days of no response I called the Cust Service 1-800 # and asked where I could purchase the pads. The nice lady mailed a set of pads -- no charge -- and recieved within a week.  A week after I recieved the pads (day 16 from the original email), I got an email answer that I must get the pads from an online retailer for $9.99 + $5 shipping.

Moral of the story -- Bell Helmets = great customer service IF you call the 1-800 Number

Husband and I get protein powders and shaker bottles from Bodybuilding.com.  They have fantastic customer service.

Easily Aevero.. their Tri Shorts are amazing quality for the price.. and they would not stop giving me stuff..

but seriously.. great customer service, and they stand behind their product. 

Edited by serenityau 2009-08-25 7:17 PM

Specialized folks were a HUGE help when I ran into brake problems on my new Transition. (Esp. when the LBS folks were completely clueless and/or useless)

Profile Design - NOT!!! Their customer service STINKS, if it even exists. I had one of the plastic arm rests on my T2 clip on tri bars break in half so I tried contacting them via phone and could not reach them, tried via email twice and never got a reply. The bars were less than 1 year old and they were supposed to have a 2 year warranty.

Infinit

Desoto

www.teamestrogen.com

www.trisports.com

I had the exact opposite experience with Profile Design. My one aero bar is turning a copper color and I emailed them, I had a reply within an hour with a return authorization number, replacement is on it's way.

x 2 for Aevero.  I ordered tri shorts, which came with a free running hat.  When they weren't here in a few days, I emailed customer service and received a phone call the same day.  Because I had a race that weekend (they asked me if I had a race coming up), they offered to FedEx me another pair of tri shorts at NO CHARGE, and they sent another running hat too!  In the end, I received 2 pairs of tri shorts and 2 running hats, for $29!  They definitely stand behind their products, and they sound like they actually care about their customers.  Imagine that! 

Running Warehouse, Xterra Wetsuits, Desoto, Infinit. They are all phenomenal to work with.

Edited by atasic 2009-08-25 8:53 PM

and the Tri-Shorts are just the best things ever.. I do bike-swim-bike bricks most mornings, and these shorts are super comfy.. I keep going back to their site looking for more products.. mainly the Tri-suit.. hopefully they will be out soon. 

Jet Lites

How often have you calle dto place an order and end up talking to the owner?  And then he talks you down to aproduct that is half of what you were willing to spend because he figured what you wanted was more than what you needed?  And he turned out to be right!

Unfortunately, a couple of month safter dealing with him, he had a horrible skiing accident.  But I think his company has carried on the level of service he provided.

Trakkers

I've never worked with a group of people who were so committed to developing and putting out a product to really help triathletes and the familiies better and more safely enjoy this sport. The company is run by folks who seem to care more about creating something that will help this sport rather than how much money they can make off of it.

Renn, RotorUSA (Q-rings), ZeroGravity..

I bought a used Renn disc that UPS put a hole in (something in that truck must've been long, pointy and not well packed...). Of course UPS says insufficient packaging (double boxed, wheel wrapped in bubbelwrap, plus all space filled with peanuts... go figure) and denies any claim. I contacted Renn to see if they had something like a crash replacement (being 100% honest that the disc was used and damaged in transportation) or if you could replace the disc part reusing the hub and maybe save a couple of $. Frank Rehnelt asked me to send him the disc so he could look at it... two weeks went by and I got a delivery from FedEx... Frank fixed my disc for FREE AND PAID shipping back! Not only does Renn have a great product, but with service like this... customer for life.

I bought a pair of 52/36 Q-rings for my tri bike (Look 496) and no matter how much I tweaked the front derailleur, I couldn't get it to shift correctly (it either rubbed on the big ring or on the small ring). I contacted RotorUSA and they suggested different ideas to get the derailleur set up. Not working... so they asked me to take a couple of photos and send them to them. Then I get an email asking for my address, they think they might have a solution that they want me to try. In the mail a week later, I have an aluminum spacer that moves the derailleur back just slightly, giving me enough clearance for both the 52 and the 36. For free of course!

I have ZeroGravity brakes on one of my bikes (and my wife has a pair on one of her bikes). The problem was that the brake shoes hit the inside of the fork on my Colnago. I emailed ZeroGravity and they custom made a spacer in titanium to move the brakes forward, creating clearance. To the store should be added that I was in Sweden at the time, but no problem... mail gets here as well!

Trisports.com  They didn't have a heel in stock for my cycling shoes, and told me that they would try a different one that came in within a few days, it came in, they replied back, said it wouldn't fit, and recommend me to another tri shop.  wow!

Aevero shorts.  Contacted them about a small thread loose on my shorts, looking for a tip to fix it before it was un-repairable.  Aevero replied immediately stating they were sending me a replacement pair. 

Overwhelmed with the service, I felt I should buy something else, so I ordered a jersey.  With a quick response of "they are both on their way, no charge for either" and they also paid for shipping.

Although I am very impressed, I feel I should buy more from this impressive company.  Can't wait for them to come out with more products!

Profile Design / Fuel Belt (both owned by the same company).  RunningWarehouse.com

My Fuel Belt bottle holders starting getting loose after 15 months of use and lost two bottles in a week.  Emailed CS to explain, they UPS'd me a new one the next day. Two emails from start to finish! 

I broke an arm rest on my aero bars and asked for a replacement.  Same deal, they UPS'd me a pair of new ones the next day.  Two emails start to finish!

RunningWarehouse.com - Awesome prices, same day shipping, free 2 day shipping, free returns.  I have gotten about 5 pairs of shoes from them one.  One pair for my wife did not fit properly.  Free return label in the box, sent it back, had new size in my hands the same week.  Didn't have to talk with anyone, just fill out return form and away I went.

For the most part, I have had very good customer service in relation to this sport.  A few of note:

trisports.com
Performance Bike
Saris
wheelbuilder.com
DeSoto
RnJ Sports

There are others where service met my expectations and there was no need for me to 'test' their customer service (Probikekit, swimoutlet, running warehouse, lickbike, infinit, and others). 

I have had much more mixed experience in using LBS services.  Some great, some OK, some poor.  For business that should be almost entire service-oriented (not price competitive with on-line), that's a bit surprising.

All3sports, they have helped me tremendously in several different ways.  Earlier in the summer I had a zoot trisuit I bought from them that tore at the seam and Robert from all3 had me a new trisuit by the end of the week for an upcoming race.

I will also second Avero.  For the price they are hard to beat.