We recently told you about the latest copycat product (see that blog here) – Our reviewer didn’t have many good things to say about it – Well it seems he was not the only one. Here is a review sent in by a keen eyed customers. See the full bike shed product comparison on www.asgardsss.co.uk or here
The review by wb
Safeguard Bike Storage RRP £598
What follows is a review of the service and bike storage unit as supplied by *****.
Order process:The website was nice and easy to use, everything I needed was there. Ordering the unit was simple and straight forward. After placing the order a conformation was emailed straight through to me.
I had to wait 12 weeks for the delivery of my ***** my bike storage, during this mammoth wait there was virtually no contact at all. I had to constantly chase “littlestor” who is supposedly the automatic customer service response computer. To be told “the units are similar to washing machines, often bits can break” and that there were many problems with production – I have no idea what that means. The website states I would receive a phone call prior to delivery, I never got a call or an email. I had to phone several times to get some idea of delivery.
Delivery:
I did eventually pin them down to a delivery date – The delivery guys turned up on time (actually a little early) they were very polite and really nice guys. The unit was delivered in a 7 year old plain white transit van. I had originally opted for installation as it was free at the time of order, though the weather (even over the extended 12 weeks) prevented us from getting a concrete base down. So I opted for a drop off only.
At the time of delivery each panel was individually wrapped and there was a separate jiffy bag of components (screws etc). No assembly instructions were provided or available to download from the ironstor website.
Some elements of the bike storage shed were semi assembled, the back panels and front panels were already bolted together which was quite handy in principle, though did make handling a little awkward.
Unwrapping/1st Impressions:
After unwrapping all the panel components I was less than impressed to note the following;
The base was buckled and badly scratched with a number of footprints inside. There was a large dent near the locking point.
The roof and back panels were badly scratched so much so they were down to the metal.
The gas struts had a nut missing on one side causing one of the struts to come off. These were loose and rolling around inside the packaging.
No assembly instructions.
Assembly:
Oddly, there were no instructions included with the ironstor bike shed, so there was a lot of guess work involved in assembling the unit.
With the (buckled) base on the floor we proceeded to put the back panels and one side together. One of the screws on the side panel failed to line up with the corresponding hole on the back panel. Another just spun wildly as there was no thread on the back panel. As there are only 5 screw points in this area, this does mean this side is quite unsecured.
The second side went on with similar issues, 4 of the screws lined up with the holes, the fifth did not. Again, I think this may effect the security of the unit in the event of an attempted break in.
Both sides and back also screw into the bike shed base. All of the screws and holes lined up well at this point.
Now the basic bike shed frame was up, I was alarmed how thin and wobbly the shed seemed to be, the doors in particular were all over the place. It was after the shed was fully built that I found 2 brackets that held the front to the sides and straightened up the unit. This stopped the front from wobbling, though the doors were still very wobbly.
Fitting the back, floor and sides took 20 mins.
Roof:
The next item to fit was the roof. This was very difficult to fit. The steel used in the roof is very thin twisting and bending as you handle it. The roof is massively oversized for the unit so it is really difficult to correctly situate it. The hinges are situated on the OUTSIDE of the unit, which is really disappointing, not sure how secure this will be under attack from thieves. The hinge plates and fixings are on top of the roof and easily accessible for any wood be thief. The hinges are secured in place with nothing more than standard nuts, again, this is really poor on bike storage unit with an rrp of £600. I would have expected better.
The hinges were pre assembled (attached) to the back panels, so the massive roof had to be dropped onto the unit and screwed from the underside. So you have to be inside the unit to screw the roof on, in total darkness, whilst your help supports the weight of the roof and tries in vain to line up the hinges with the holes in the roof. One of the hinges was at least 5mm out, so the roof is actually twisted when on.
Gas Lift roof mechanism:
Now the roof is screwed on (sort of)it was time to fit the gas lifts – As mentioned earlier, one gas lift had fallen off, the other was attached. The nuts were missing to secure the gas lift in position, luckily we had some that fit. The gas struts are painfully thin and underpowered, they don’t actually support the roof, it keeps falling down.
Fitting just the roof took 3/4 hour in total.
Access Doors:
The doors are paper thin, they wobble all over the place. The hinges that hold the doors in place are on the outside secured only by standard nuts on the inside of the door. The hinges look like they are plastic with a single exposed pin on the outside, again I am less than convinced that these will last long or be much of a deterrent for would be bike thieves.
Securing the unit to the ground:
I have no idea how this should be done, I was supplied raw/wall plugs for use in plaster board and no corresponding screws. So, at the moment the unit is not fixed to the ground in anyway.
Roof on: Unit in operation.
Once the roof was on, I was less than impressed to find the locking points at the front don’t actually line up (they should slot into some guides) so the padlocks will not fit. I say won’t fit, the “free” padlocks were missing from the unit. I have phoned twice to find out where they are with no response at the time of writing.
Next was the fitting of the hooks, I wanted the hooks so I could hang my bags and accessories in my unit, I got 3 hooks in the bag – alas they don’t fit anywhere in the unit – there are no hook fixing points. I also got some odd bits of metal with holes in them. I have no idea what they are for.
I can’t actually close the roof without sitting on it, as it is so badly twisted, so I can’t actually use the unit properly.
I have a bag of screws left over, I have no idea what they are for.
Conclusion:
This is a dreadful bike store – 12 week delivery, no communications, the unit was damaged, bits were missing, it won’t go together and it leaks. The company claims to be Secured By Design (Police approved) I have checked, they are not registered. I am very unhappy with *****, this is a poorly thought out bike storage unit, made from cheap materials with little thought put into real world use.
Update:
I am still waiting for a response from ****** about my missing padlocks and the quality of the unit. I have left 2 messages with no response. I have used my own locks and have been using the bike storage shed for a week. It rained over the weekend. My ****** Safeguard bike store is 3 inches deep in water inside. The rain has poured into the unit from virtually every point, my backpacks, shoes and helmets are soaked.
Dimensions:
Roof – plan view – 2130 x 1270
Side – 1370 h at back, 1165 high at the front
Aperture – 1340 x 110
Weight - 19.13 stone
Score: 0/5
For the best in tough hardwearing and reliable cycle security visit www.asgardsss.co.uk
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