Anyone scored a bike repair voucher?

[mk one]

Maybe issuing the vouchers through a GP to people that are genuinely overweight and who are trying to address it through cycling, prescribed or voluntary, would make sure the ones in need, and not ones through greed, got them!?

 

[Janners BJJ Clunker Rider]

Dyna-ti,
I think this is a bit like the government car scrap incentive, I was still running my own car sales business then. Those who were running older cars as the second / third car could afford to trade in their car and buy a new one. The car had to be scrapped. Thus those well maintained older cars vanished. The person running the older car because they couldn't afford anything newer still could afford to buy a new one, hence no benefit from the scheme. PLUS the older car that they would have bought had now been scrapped, so they couldn't even upgrade a few years. The rich gained, the big car companies gained, those at the bottom dipped out.
Now look at the bike scheme, realistically what is £50 going to get you if you aren't already riding a bike and looking after it?..Not a lot! But you will be told it needs more money spending on it.
Let's look at a bike that needs £100 spending on it to make it safe, the customer doesn't have that, so you do £50 worth of work but the bike is still not roadworthy. If a bike shop hands the bike back they are potentially in a whole bag of trouble if the customer has an accident....that thing called duty of care which will be screamed from the roof tops by the "no win, no fee legal vultures". Don't believe me? It is already a thing with trading standards and if you still don't believe me ring them and ask.
The other option is the bike shop hands them back the bike and the voucher, does no work on it, and gets a load of abuse.

So nice idea, but as pointed out above, flawed in so many ways.

Janners

 

[FluffyChicken]

Actually, it's to enable people to get out and eat. 50% in McDonalds.

 

[dyna-ti]

I'm not pointing the barends at anyone, as I take all said as being with mirth and tongue in cheek

 

[greencat]

I gave one of my bikes to a local nurse who needed to get about but wanted to avoid public transport a month or two back and didn't have the cash for a new one. I did a bit of basic tuning, but this scheme would have been ideal for her and me to give piece of mind.

 

[ZG862]

Maybe issuing the vouchers through a GP to people that are genuinely overweight and who are trying to address it through cycling, prescribed or voluntary, would make sure the ones in need, and not ones through greed, got them!?

I suppose the cry would be that making new types of vouchers and distributing them would add another administrative task to already red-tape-bound GPs. What you could do is just have the GPs issue a normal prescription and the LBS to collect those prescriptions to claim their money from the government. Reasonably hard to make counterfeit prescriptions and no new paperwork. If you want to give incentives to people who are not clinically obese then extend the existing cycle to work scheme.

It's the lack of thought that goes into government knee-jerks that galls me. Don't even get me started on the complete lack of traffic infrastructure to support all these born-again cyclists. Perhaps, like electric scooters, it will soon be acceptable to ride on the pavement at stupid speeds to save the government from having to think about building usable bike lanes? Oh look, I got myself started without any help... :facepalm:

 

[Peachy!]

Apparently two vouchers per household, so £100.... just need to get Bob Jackson’s signed up and that’s the best part of a spray job....

 

[ZG862]

If you look on the web site, there are long lists about what's acceptable and what isn't, but it's so vague as to mean almost anything. The main thing I got from it was that it seemed to exclude anything to do with your saddle.

Poorly thought through and no surprise when it doesn't do what was expected. Ah well, let's see if I can get some next time.

 

[pigman]

Apparently two vouchers per household, so £100.... just need to get Bob Jackson’s signed up and that’s the best part of a spray job....

Or about a dozen rattlecans from Halfords, so you could paint the fleet

 

[Once A Hero]

Re:

Seems the site is working again.
I'll be popping to my preferred LBS (which isn't actually that local, being 25miles away) at the weekend to chat to them about their take on the service offered. Apparently they are booking new works towards the end of September at the moment - which is fantastic, and given that the vouchers are only valid for 60 days from activation, this could sustain/prop up their business well into the autumn and winter months.

The type of service I would use the voucher for would only be for something I can't do myself, such as wheel truing - which I believe is covered, and won't be a drain on parts supply, just a skilled pair of hands.