BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
The criticisms levelled against Madison started appearing just after Christmas and were sprinkled around a variety of topics, but then Paul Briggs crystallised the comments in his ‘safe sex’ topic:
http://www.bikebiz.co.uk/…/read.php3?f=1&i=11382&t=11382&v=t
Other IBD contributors then joined in, including ‘Evansbuyer’, an employee of the mammoth London IBD chain.
In September 2002, Madison CEO Terry Bowles, responded to criticism of Madison supplying mail-order retailers such as Chain Reaction of Northern Ireland:
http://www.bikebiz.co.uk/…/read.php3?f=1&i=7701&t=7653
Because, Bowles has responded in the past, BBS contributors demanded he respond on the ‘safe sex’ comments.
With three businesses to run, he can’t keep up with all the Madison-related comments on the BBS so Madison’s sales director has responded instead:
Bill Baxter:
"I have noticed over the last couple of weeks a few contributors asking
Madison or Terry Bowles to respond to questions asked on the BikeBiz forum.
I am sure that to date you will be aware that there has been no response
from Madison.
"We value business to business communication with our customers, but most
contributors to this bulletin board are anonymous and none of us at Madison
have any perspective on who is asking the questions, is it customers,
competitors, journalists or members of the public? We simply don’t know.
"Our relationship with each of our customers is confidential, and we don’t
believe we should discuss them with anonymous strings on a bulletin board.
"All of this said, I am very keen to speak to any of our customers that has an
issue with Madison at any point, my direct phone number is 0208 385 3473 or
I can be reached by fax on 0208 385 3443 or simply e-mail me on
bill.baxter@madison-cycles.com.
Alternately visit us at the Madison Dealer Convention, taking place from
Sunday February 23rd until Wednesday February 26th. Madison’s entire senior
staff, including Terry Bowles, will be available throughout this event to
answer all and any issues our customers may have.
