I have been a bit slow to pick up on this thread but thought I might comment as I bought my Haibike sDuro HardSeven SL 2015 Yamaha on the 20th of March 2015 from Martin.
I did a lot of research before buying my bike and found Martin to be helpful and knowledgeable whenever I spoke to him on the phone.
I agree with everyone who recommends that you should ride as many of the bikes you are interested in as possible before you buy. I had also tried a Kalkhoff S10 with a test ride from the 50 cycles store and already owned an Oxygen E-mate City so I was not new to electric bikes.
I attended the e-bikeshop Demo day where I could ride the two systems I was interested in (Bosch/Yamaha) back to back in an off road hilly area. So when I made an appointment to see Martin at his shop in Farnham I was almost certain which bike I wanted.
I did not find Martin too pushy but he is a salesman as I have been in my past and he does try to close the deal, but I am sure you could say no if you wanted to. I wanted to buy the bike so am unaware of how he might of reacted if I had not bought a bike.
The only other bike I was interested in was the Haibike xDuro HardSeven Bosch and I am sure I would have been very happy with it but the Yamaha HardSeven was £700 cheaper and I had found both motors to be very good and quite similar with in my case a slight preference for the Yamaha at the time of my purchase.
I also bought a Moon Comet Rear light and a Moon Meteor front light following Martin's recommendation and have found them really good. The Moon Comet rear light failed within a year and when I spoke to Martin he asked me to let him see it. I dropped round with it and he replaced it with a more expensive Moon Comet MKII free of charge, which I thought was good customer service and that light is working well. For safety I have two rear lights so that if one stops working I have a back up.
I wanted a rack fitted to be able to carry panniers and this was no problem and is still working perfectly after 3800 miles. I did put stronger fastening bolts on the rack myself for my own peace of mind.
I wanted puncture resistant tyres and slime filled tubes and Martin recommended the Schwalbe Smart Sam plus that have proved superb with no punctures in 3800 miles.
The extras were fitted and the bike ready to pick up quickly and the handover was done by Martin with everything explained clearly.
I destroyed the rear Mech and wheel myself off road not long after having the bike and dropped the bike back to Martin who quickly made me up a strong back wheel based on a Mavic rim that has so far taken everything that I have thrown at it. This was done quickly and the bike was ready to pick up and ride again after only a few days. I was pleased that I had bought my bike from a dealership close to me so that dropping it back and getting it fixed was easy.
Recently I heard a noise from the back wheel that I thought might be from the spokes although none had broken and the wheel seemed to be true. However the noise seemed to be getting worse and was annoying. I think Martin thought I was being paranoid but when I drove round to his shop he stopped what he was doing and listened to the noise as I cycled it around the car park. Anyway he took the wheel back and re trued it for me.
He emailed me to let me know it was ready the next day! Really good customer service. This is the email I got from Martin.
I stayed on last night for an hour and managed to get another half turn all the way round on your wheel.
Ready when you are to pick up.
Martin | Sales / Tech Support
I emailed him to thank him for doing it so quickly and to let him know that the noise had disappeared.
I have also bought oversize chain rings from him that he has supplied really quickly.
After buying my bike and then joining this forum I could see that Martin and the e-bikeshop were occasionally the center of some heated discussions! but as a customer i have found him to be very knowledgeable and helpful and ready to sort out any issues I have had after buying the bike. So my own personal experience has been really good.
My other electric bike an Oxygen E-mate City was bought from 50 Cyles in Kingston and when I had an issue with the motor within the guarantee period and contacted them they told me that they no longer sold Oxygen bikes and could not help me.
However I managed to speak to the then owner of Oxygen bikes direct who was very good and sent me a new motor laced inside a rear wheel so although 50 cycles abandoned me Oxygen Bikes were very good.