The editors of Marktcheck recently took e-bikes from viewers to bicycle repair shops in the greater Stuttgart area to check the quality of their work. Professional support for the check was provided by the expert Dirk Zedler from Ludwigsburg. And he apparently takes a hard line with the workshops checked in the report tonight. A press release published in advance speaks of “life-threatening defects” with which the e-bikes were returned to the customers after workshop maintenance. According to the press release, Zedler sees the (non-existent) professional acceptance process as one cause for the inadequate workshop performance: “You should expect from your dealer of trust to be accepted properly when you come for an inspection and that this conversation lasts at least ten minutes and is conducted competently.”
In the announcement for the television report, Werner Metzger, bicycle dealer from Freiburg and chairman of Baden-Wuerttemberg’s bicycle mechanic guild, also has his say. He sees not only the shortage of skilled staff in the industry as a fundamental problem, but also the training policy of the bicycle trade: “Without a master craftsman whose skills also include the instructor qualification, I cannot train a two-wheeler mechatronic technician. That’s the problem of many companies that have focused on trade and neglected the workshop in recent years. Now the boomerang comes back, now all the repairs come. And the workshop does not have the capacity to deal with the increasing number of piece numbers.”
The report will be broadcast tonight at 8.15 p.m. on SWR and will also be available afterwards on the Marktcheck youtube channel as well as in the ARD-Mediathek.
Author: Markus Fritsch
Photo: velobiz
