I bought a Stages SB20 a couple years ago. It’s been great. I had an issue under warranty that was taken care of quickly with no hassle. It was a great experience.
I had a minor issue I needed a replacement part for a couple months ago, I submitted a ticket and never heard anything…I called and left VMs and nothing. No call back. I was talking to a friend of mine that had a power meter failure, he contacted Stages in early July the first time on a warranty repair/replacement and in November has yet to hear a thing. NOTHING. After months. I brought this up to a friend of mine that owns a bike shop and he said he doesn’t carry stages but another local shop that he knows pretty well has seen much slower responses as of late.
Is this company about to go out of business? Has anyone else experienced this?
They had some weird business activity earlier this year. If I recall, Giant was going to invest in them, but pulled out because they couldn’t close the deal. Then they signed some deal with Precor (who are now owned by Peloton). Not saying any of that means anything, but it could.
Bit sketchy since we’ve seen similar comments in other threads for months… and I’m still receiving regular emails about sales of their stuff (just got the BF $2k SB20 email days ago).
I’ve also been seeing similar comments on reddit for months. I’m curious if @GPLama or @dcrainmaker know anything about it, if you have any connections there?
Not my experience. I tried contacting them three times earlier this year, and got nothing. I posted that here and was told to ‘give them time’. How much time?
Now that my crankset is going back to Shimano, I’m really considering going with a different company, or just not using one any longer. If I can;t get them to respond to a technical issue, why the hell would I want to risk being stuck with a replacement on my replaced Shimano crank to be denied support later. I had the Powertap C1 chain ring power meter, and was completely shutout after they were sold. Like the door for support closed the day after the purchase closed. Once bitten? Yeah, the silent treatment has been going on for quite a while.
Anyone live near their HQ? Can someone take a drive-by and see if there are people still there?
Former employee here. They’re circling the drain. COVID wrecked their world. They have 2 people doing customer support when we used to have a team of 12.
If that’s true, it would explain a lot. I’ve had stages products for years, and while I haven’t contacted them in the last 2 years, their support was a huge asset - they were very responsive, knowledgeable, personal, and pragmatic. Part of why I stayed with them over multiple bikes in the last 8 years. So sad.
@Pbase,
You don’t have to look too deeply into any part of the cycling/outdoor industry/economy as a whole to see how a short lived “Covid Boom” isn’t all upsides…
I have an SB20 and almost never ride it anymore. I prefer my Kickr 99% of the time. if I had a way to toss the SB20 into my dumpster, I probably would. It’s not simply that I find the power meters to be inaccurate (they are), but frankly I think the pedal-feel is mush and ERG ‘snappy-ness’ is lousy.
Are you all based in the US by any chance? In Europe everything seems to be working fine. I’ve been in contact with them a few times and I’ve only got positive things to say. Quick to respond every time.