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Canyon Speedmax CF 9.0 SL down tube.jpgCanyon CEO insists customer service "dramatically improved"
Roman Arnold, founder and CEO of Canyon, has written to customers to seek reassure them that the business is doing all it can to satisfy unfulfilled orders and that it has “dramatically improved” its performance in recent weeks.
It’s the second time in a matter of months that he has penned an open letter outlining the problems the company experienced following the move to a new factory in Koblenz in October and the introduction at the same time of a new IT system.
In his letter published today on the company’s website, he said: “As you will already know, the process of upgrading and transitioning did not go as planned.
“Throughout this period of transformation, we failed to deliver the level of service that our company stands for.
“We are heartbroken that this has caused many in our community to lose their faith in Canyon.
“On behalf of the entire Canyon Team, I would once again like to express my deepest and sincerest apologies for this.”
He continued: “As soon as we began implementing the new system unexpected problems arose. Instead of improving our processes, they were brought to a standstill.
“Customer and order information vanished and we subjected many of you to ridiculous delivery times.
“On top of that our customer service was ill-equipped to answer the huge number of enquiries quickly, nor could they access the information necessary to give you the answers you needed.”
He insisted however that the situation is now improving.
“Over the last few weeks we have dramatically improved the situation thanks to the sustained effort and commitment from the entire Canyon Crew,” he wrote.
“Our new systems perform better with each passing day and our production problems are working themselves out.
“We have learned a tremendous amount from this experience and are certain that in the future we will be much better prepared for any challenges,” he added.
Our story last month about the delays some customers of the brand had experienced struck a chord with road.cc users – with many sharing their own experiences of shopping with the company in comments to the article as well as on our Facebook page.
> Canyon responds to storm of customer criticism
One, KoenM, said it would be helpful if Canyon, like some other brands, let people to track their orders online.
“My Rose road bike was also late but because I knew everything that happened with it I was never worried, I knew they were still working on it,” he said.
Some said that even before the recent problems, they were put off buying from Canyon because of the experience of others.
Philthy wrote: “After reading similar reviews online a few months ago, I decided against ordering from Canyon despite really liking the look (and price) of their bikes.
“I went for UK-based Ribble instead, and couldn't fault them. Bike even got delivered before the promised delivery date!”
A number of readers who had bought from the company criticised it for lack of communication and for the way it has responded to the problems.
Milfloat, who cancelled an order he placed in August after being told the bike would not now be delivered before March, said: “I totally understand that things can go wrong, but it is how a company reacts that defines it.
“In Canyon's case they knew they had serious issues back in September, yet in all this time they have continued to take new orders, run promotions and advertise heavily.
“This is just getting them deeper in a hole and misleading many thousands of more people,” he added.
Others were happy with their experience, however, such as mylesrants who wrote: “I ordered mine last year. It came on the week promised and it is lovely.”
Sorebones, who last month was nervously waiting on an order he placed with Canyon for a new frameset, said he had sympathy for the company’s staff who are working through the backlog.
“I genuinely feel sorry for the UK team, he said. “They are clearly overwhelmed and under-resourced, taking an average of 2 days to respond to each email and not being able to give any real information as the info from Germany seems inaccurate.”
Arnold said in his letter to customers today that from now on, “to achieve greater transparency and you all informed on what is happening inside Canyon, we will begin posting regular updates under the News section of our website.
“We have learned the hard way that it is not enough to build award-winning bikes, we must also provide the best service possible.
“Unfortunately, we can’t do this overnight but we are concerting all our efforts on improving as thoroughly and as quickly as possible.
“We have nearly reached the end of this chapter, but a long road still lies ahead of us,” he concluded.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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35 comments
Hello,
I have a Canyon for over 2 years. Great bike. Living in Canada, I had to order it, pick it up and bring it back(this is how good they are), I had some issues on the VAT. I called Canyon (and Roman) and they did a great job.
I guess its the price of sucess...and they are called growing pains..or even better SAP pains.;-).
Nevertheless, I understand the frustration...really I do.
I think the pricing is great. When compared to other big name brands..(pinarello, colnago,merida,kuota,willier,look et all). Canyon wins on price and quality and you avoid the univsersity fro the son and daughter from the LBS.
If you're speculating on the oeverall cost I suggest you build your own.
Mass...please define mass BMW,Rolex,Trickers, Shimano? Sram? Limited quantities does not mean quality either.
My only issue is they don't deliver to Canada. At least, you have a choice of ordering them.
I bought my Ultimate AL from someone in the UK, second hand.
Best bike I have ever owned, by a mile.
In 2013 I purchased an Aeroad from them and then in 2014 I purchased 2 Ultimate AL SLX framesets.
I'm very pleased with the products, but the order processing left a lot to be desired.
I had to chase them up by phone and email several times for all 3 orders to find out when the products were shipping. In all cases the product was "In Stock" at the time I placed my orders but were not shipped for 4 or 5 weeks. You're pretty much in the dark at all times because there's no online order status to tell you how your order is progressing.
The major bug-bear of mine was with the frameset orders. I can understand a delay in shipping a complete bike that someone has to build up, but why delay shipping of framesets and other products that are in stock and ready to go?
Long and short of it was they seemed to ship in the same order they received the orders and this meant I had to wait 4 weeks for them to pick a box off the shelf and put it on the back of a UPS van. Not very good.
Distinct lack of evidence of a recovery, just someone saying, yeah, please buy from us, please.
I've not seen any demonstration of atonement to the many customers they've kept waiting either.
@Vinerman
your information on Canyon frames is somewhat incorrect
all their carbon fibres are manufactured at Giant's C-Tech plant in Taichung, Taiwan; one of, if not the leading carbon fibre production facility for bicycle frames globally.
Cheap carbon fibre comes out of China, quality carbon fibre comes out of Taiwan
Totally disagree with you. I have ridden this bike, I won't buy one if it was the last bike on earth.
on what evidence Taiwan produce quality frames? any idea how problematic Far Eastern frames? overall durability of the frames?
I've got a Giant carbon frame and I'm very happy with it. Top notch stuff. It's not really a secret that they produce frames for their 'customer brands', such like Canyon and other big names, either.
Here are some pictures of the factory:
http://www.bicyclingtrade.com.au/features/inside-giant-s-c-tech-carbon-f...
Simply type into google "Where are [insert brand name here] bikes made"...you'd be surprised.
Precisley the point, if i had to buy Taiwanese frame i'd buy Giant, one thing Giant doing their own frames and one thing doing it for Canyon on requested budget and price roof.
It is not true that they have sorted themselves out. They still continued to take orders knowing they could never deliver them anywhere close to the stated date, they still push the big advertising budget and still treat their customers like crap. Yes, I am bitter, but more importantly I am annoyed at their antics.
My mate raves about his speedmax, I'm sticking to my Specialized tarmacs. Never let me down and get the support I need. £5k on something you've never ridden or seen in the flesh? No thanks.
Why on earth on would buy Canyon for? its Chinese 150$ crap frames, snap like pensils, rides like a iron bar and has all component deliberatley made to buy only from them.
Canyon is an example of internet dominance and taking the spirit out of the sport. the pre-sell bikes then try to make it as cheap as possible in China, this is why there is some people wait so long. 3k Canyon has an average cost to them @ £450 by best.
OTIO
Had to look up OTIO (was a bit confused about whether term had its Latin meaning). Probably right.
ōtium n (genitive ōtiī); second declension
time free from activity: leisure
time avoiding activity: idleness, inactivity
peace, quiet
Confused?
Whatever that means!!! if you can be more clear would be nice.
Obvious Trolling Is Obvious.
Meaningless comment.
Hardly, I think a few people know exactly what the implication was and why. A couple of folk have also pointed out to you a couple of your more obviously incorrect pronouncements, but you could always go and check yourself. You might also want to add up some of the component cost, even at a decent level of OEM discount, add on some QC costs and overheads and see whether your maths add up. Here's a clue - probably not.
Frame $200
Groupset $250[ being generous]
wheels $ 100[ again very generous]
finishing kit $ 70
misc $50
Add them up and convert.
Try again with realistic prices for their three grand model you were referring to and imagine that that they have to pay for infrastructure and power and that their entire workforce doesn't work for free.I'd also like to understand why you think that Taiwan can't produce good quality carbon frames given the manifest evidence to the contrary.
You said they were using Giant or similar establishment to produce frames? so what investment are you refering to? Mold? I would put that in initial cost of when Canyon decided to build the brand, hardly can be spread on every frame sold!! Staff? how many the employ? if there was enough people and high cost thier issue would have been sorted.
As for Taiwan, on what evidence? and please do not tell me Pros ride them, overused feeble and nonsense.
Quality frames? here is a question for you, how do you define quality?
Having worked for a multinational that f**ked up an ERP install, it takes a LONG TIME to fix regardless of staff numbers.
Fair point
Well it wasn't me, not important, but yes - the C-Tech plant in Taiwan is used for Giant frames (mainly, ~70% of output to them last I heard) and others such as Trek, Colnago and Canyon.
I don't think you grasp what proportion of the world market of bike frames of the major vendors comes out of Taiwan... and although you may not like people mentioning the use of such frames by the pros, that over-abused phrase "an inconvenient truth" seems appropriate to me in this discussion. Many performance bikes by Giant, Trek, Colnago, Cervélo, Scott, Merida, Specialized, Ridley, Wilier, Focus and Canyon have frames made in Taiwan - think what proportion of the World Tour pro-peleton that covers, excuse me if i've missed some - and i've not heard of enormous number of these frames snapping 'like pensils'... don't you think we might have noticed ?
Good question - whilst this is not a definition i'd say that for me frames on bikes which engender highly positive reviews from journalists, professional and ordinary users, bikes that win awards for excellence, frames that don't have reports of endemic catastrophic failures, which ride comfortably and accurately... those sorts of frames I would call 'good quality'. There appear to be quite a few of them - and most of the ones I can think of were born in a factory in Taiwan. How would you define quality ?
Before we go any further, perhaps it might be worth you having a quick search for bike frame supply chains, that might short cut some questions later one.
Brilliant, similar views from my end...however.
journalists, and professional reviews: we all know second is paid for in cash, the first in advertising campaign.
ordinary users: believable- best testimony if : not new comers Pro team kit wearer, knows how a bike should ride = very rare.
awards for excellence: isn't that given by journalist who are given official photos and draft on what to say?
endemic catastrophic failures: Oh dear dont you get started on how many bikes snap like pencils, How many recalls these so called performance brands do? please please do check.
ride comfortably and accurately: you kidding me? you saying a one piece monocouq frames ride comfortably and stir accuratly? then we live on two different planets.
Mass does not mean quality.
Whatever mate - good luck with your planet. Ride on.
good luck to you too.
Don't believe their shit. They're still fucked. Yesterday I ordered a bike - an Ultimate CF SL Team 2014. I thought it was a steal as it was listed at under three grand. Despite their confirmation email confirming the price as I ordered it, they tried to take over five grand from my credit card. Thankfully my limit is below this so it wasn't honored. I very quickly cancelled the order.
When I was chatting to their advisor, I pointed this to him (link below) and asked if I purchased this bike how much would the charge? He said they'd charge me over five grand (which is what it should be listed at) but the web team are working to fix the pricing. Nothing is fixed. It's listed at £1,799. Their staff are aware of the problems, yet they're still trying to charge people thousands more than what they think they're agreeing to. I wonder how many people will have to go through the process of returning a bike they've unwittingly paid a lot more for than expected?
https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/factory-outlet/#category=road-bikes&sort=pr...
They're just a total fucking mess
This type of pricing issue from the above sounds to me like a company on the verge of going bust!
That does indeed look like a bargain. Interestingly, the current price of 1799 euros is then backed up by this statement in the sales blurb:
"The most up-to-date carbon technology for well under 2000 Euro this dream has become reality thanks to the launch of the new Ultimate CF SL!"
To me, this suggests that the website price isn't wrong as such - you'd have a meeting between the product team, marketing and the website guys to agree the text, so presumably the price is what they intended. Quite why they then tried to charge you over 5k is a mystery!
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