Lying simpleton. Theirs always one idiot. This short sighted simpleton. theres always some idiot who'll neva b pleased. I think we have a few idiots this month. This guy is a fool. Complete fool. This guy is French & can barely speak English

Dave loves his customers.

i do wonder if DH has become a badge of honour and that is what keeps him in business - most companies with poor to average service go out of business - with DH it is so truly awful that people go and buy things despite the warnings so that they can tell everyone what an appalling experiance it was - and so he gets to continue to trade and abuse more people 

Like Wong Kei on Wardour Street - no one went there for the food, but for the rude waiters.  And it's still there, like a bad odour (or Dave Hinde).

How dare you malign me beloved Wong Kei's.I've been going there since 1996.I loath obsequious waiters,and though the food is, er, basic,it's cheap,and it's deep in the heart, of texas,sorry London.  

Should have tried it in the 80's Eliot - truly astounding service behaviour, genuinely bizarre.  I think now there is probably some acting going on (although I haven't been there for an MSG fix for over 10 years).

Dave Hinde is the Basil Fawlty of bike sales though, isn't he?  Fawlty ran a hotel but you knew he didn't really want any guests...

I suppose Wong kies wanted a cachet to make it stand out from the rest.They do keep their staff an extraordinary length of time,and I suppose as they have matured the acting skills have gone by the by.You are right though that back in 1996 even then they were giving it the full montie now and again.

It was clever marketing, and it worked.With dear old Basil it was about location-you could see the Torquay seafront from the upstairs rooms......you can see where I'm going with this....and with DH it's about the location of his frame supplier,and the good chef he uses to supply the meals(groan!)

Don't know about Dave Hinde because i've never bought anything off him but Ribble Cycles takes a bit of beating IMO , i've used them sporadically over the years and every time they've managed to mess up what i ordered , ordered an internal headset and they sent me an ordinary one , returned items and it took forever to get a refund , basically a couldn't be bothered  , uninterested service , it can't be the most interesting job in the world taking orders over the phone but if you feel like that then you don't do it.

Gary - odd thing with dRibble - in the past I have had problems with phone orders (back in the days when you looked things up in the comic and gave them a call) but internet placed orders seem to work better - maybe it is because it produces a print out for them it is harder to get it wrong - that said my next order will go wrong!

Could be Puddings , i order everything off the net nowadays and don't phone for anything , i wanted to order one of those Ribble winter frames and build it up with mudguards and the like , you know the frame , the blue one that was always advertised in Cycling on Ribble's page , anyway the chap on the phone was so unhelpful and uninterested when it came to sizing the frame and my questions about top tube length to suit me that i just gave up on the idea , a possible sale for them but it was lost because their staff weren't interested.

Best place for service for me has to be Parker International , have been buying stuff from them since 98 and every order has been spot on.

I think their ebay shop has changed names from no1bikebits to fastpartsforbikes in October 2008, too much of a coincidence they are based in Northwich Cheshire. I was after some tyres and stumbled on it. They've managed to rack up some classic negative comments already along with a lot of positives.

I got a pair of Pro 3 Races for £42 delivered (thanks also to a 10% off paypal voucher) from High on Bikes.

Hey Bally, further evidence might be if the answer to the negative comments blamed it all on the Postal Service strike and the customer not being home the 18 times they called to try and deliver the packages.

Never used DH. Have used ribble quite regularly for groupset parts and never had a problem to date. Nobody can beat wiggle, though. Parkers were also very pleasant. Poshbikes are a friendly lot, too.

Great wheels.Done 14000 miles on mine and they still run like new.Very good hubs and easy to maintain.The loose ball bearings are a lot cheaper than cartridge ones,and work better as well  

So the talkback box on the Shimano WH-R500 Wheels review links to a Dave Hinde thread. Proof that computer systems now integrate the concept of irony.

I bought a bike from DH on ebay about 2 years ago. Great bike but the seatpost was seized - it arrived with a seat shaped lump sticking up from the parcel.... classic

I sent them an email saying that I was disappointed but if they sent me a couple of bottle cages I'd call it quits - nothing heard until the cages arrived.

I have a bombproof set of DH wheels on the winter bike and my son (11) now rides a perfectly scaled DH road bike with 650c tubular wheels which gets admiration everywhere we go.

The service may be questionable but our experience of the kit is only good