Pro-Lite Oz, Dean Attard and getting a little touchy
Aushiker | August 28, 2009 1:43 amLatest blog posting on ProLite (Pro-Lite) can be found here.
The last few days have been most interesting at the Australian Cycling forums. It seems that a new forum member, Mr Deon Attard of Pro-Lite Oz, also known as Jacks1071 has not taken to kindly to me after I removed links from his first few postings in the forum. Links which directly linked to his business and lacked relevant context in the threads posted, i.e, spamming which is in breach of the forum guidelines.
This it seems means that if others make a point it is okay, but if I express a similar view, Mr Attard gets a touch upset. Rather amusing I thought. Here area a couple of his most recent examples.
I gave them a call [Ay-up] this afternoon and it seemed nothing was too much trouble. With your outstanding personality I am not surpised [sic] they didn’t want to do anything outside of the square as to most likely avoid dealing with you.
I think they dodged a bullet there.
Maybe you could take them to consumer small claims for not offering to remove the case from the price for you????
Sue – do it.
Maybe you can bully them into getting what you want.
Source: Thread on Ay-Ups. Mr Attard made these comments on page 5 of the thread. The thread is quite interesting in its discussion of lights and dynamos, well for the most part anyway and by the way another respected member of the forums had also contacted Ay-Up and got quite a different response to that suggested by Mr Attard.
and in another thread on a wrong sized bike, Mr Attard had this to say:
Andrew,
You must think everyone is out to rip you off, how sad that must be for you. And how much spare time you must have on your hands because you’re ready to pick a fight with everyone you deal with?? No wonder you have to buy everything on-line. From what I hear no bike shop in WA will sell to you.In this case, by being polite the guy had his frame swapped. If yet again he took your advice of legal action, the shop would have got their backs up and said f*&k you – I’m not doing crap for you you rude pr*ck and wouldn’t have helped. Did you learn something today???
By NOT following your advice the guy got a new frame.
The curious thing about this was that my suggestion, also made by a number of forum members was to go back and talk to the LBS and if necessary the state consumer protection department. Mr Attard’s advice was to sell the wrong sized frame on eBay and get another one. Thankfully the purchaser took the step to go back to the LBS after seeking advice from consumer affairs and is now expecting a replacement frame.
All this raises an interesting questions about Mr Attard’s business practices . At the time of writing:
- Pro-Lite Oz did not have a returns policy or other sales policy on his website;
- Mr Attard is big on supporting Australian business going by his posts in the Australian Cycling Forums yet his business seems not to be about Australian product but rather importing or representing Pro-Lite International Ltd, a Chinese company. Pro-Lite International is linked directly from Pro-Lite Oz via the “product information” banner.
- Mr Attard given his postings in the Australian Cycling forums does seem to have an issue with consumer rights.
So you may say so what it is just a dummy spit and to some extent it is, but I think it also raises an interesting question about the way Australian bike shops conduct their business. I know of others who have issues with local bikes shops such as Durx with Glen Parker Cycles and myself with Fleet Cycles and it seems to me that there is no surprise when people shop overseas for bikes, parts and accessories when we have experiences like this. Is it time for the local bike shops to understand that good service is expected? That the behaviour of the likes of Mr Attard, Glen Parker Cycles and Fleet Cycles really do the local industry no justice?
Maybe my next bike will be purchased from the UK like 700×23 has done … maybe we need to do more of that.
Update – November 3, 2009: In light of the above I found this thread in the Australian Cycling Forums started by Mr Attard rather interesting …
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Tags: Australian Cycling Forums,Fleet Cycles,Glen Parker Cycles,Pro-Lite Oz
Categories: Bicycling
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