A couple of weeks ago I saw a work colleague’s stolen bike in for repair at a local shop. We spoke to them and they agreed to hold onto the bike while things got sorted.
We knew he’d originally bought the bike from Evans Cycles, but when we contacted the store he’d bought it from they told us they don’t keep serial/frame numbers for the bikes they sell.
I think that’s pretty poor. So much so, that I wrote to the MD and Operations Director. Here’s the text of the original letter. I’m yet to receive a reply; if I do I’ll post up their response.
To: Mike Rice, Managing Director
Cc: Andrew Terrington, Operations Director
November 12th, 2010
An appeal to log the frame/serial numbers of bikes sold by Evans Cycles
Hello to you both.
I’m writing to you following an incident that happened to a work colleague. Until recently he owned a Moulton bike, purchased from Evans in Spitalfields. Unfortunately it was stolen from our office secure bike store during a break-in a few weeks ago.
Yesterday, fortune was smiling on us, as we spotted it in a local bike workshop.
We called your Spitalfields store to ask for a frame number check, as this would have identified it as his bike beyond any doubt.
We were very surprised to find that according to that store Evans has no policy of recording frame numbers and logging them against a customer’s account.
Your store staff told us that there is no facility to record frame numbers on your computer systems, and this is a feature that they have asked for repeatedly.
As one of the UK’s biggest bike retailers I think you should be taking a lead in fighting bike crime. Being able to trace bikes back to their owners is an important part of dealing with it. Many people become very attached to their bikes, so the repercussions of bike theft go far beyond the material loss.
Can you please look into adding this simple step into your bike sales procedure, and your IT system capabilities as a matter of urgency.
I look forward to your response.
To my knowledge the original owner and the unfortunate (and we believe entirely innocent) person who bought it second-hand are still trying to sort things out.
Perhaps if you’re buying a new bike it’d be worth checking to see what details the store keeps, in the event it disappears.