Babboe bakfiets - non-dutch service levels? Or was I just lucky?

In April of 2009 we bought ourselves a fancy, fashionable bakfiets from Babboe, the so called "Babboe Big".

We ordered it with some customized things to make sure it doesn't look like all the other ones, plus I do not like riding around like a billboard for a brand (at least, not if the brand is not paying me for it).

There are several ways in which you can order the bakfiets online:
* construction package delivery
* fully assembled delivery
* Pick up yourself construction package
* Pickup yourself fully assembled

Us being lazy went for the fully assembled delivery way. You pay a bit more, but have a lot less hassle.

When the bike was deliverd first thing we noticed was how great it looked with our huge photo of Amsterdam on it (beautiful photo taken on the Zeedijk in the direction of the St. Nicolaaschurch).

When riding it for the first time however, we noticed that the breaks were not well set, in fact, the break on the back tire was not doing anything at all and the breaks on the front tires were not breaking equally, e.g. when breaking with those you start zigzagging like a drunk.
The 5 gears that were supposed to be available on the bike were nowhere to be found. You could change gear alright, but nothing useful would happen.

In other words, not everything was as great as we hoped for.

Adjusting the break settings for the front was easily done. Adjusting the breaks for the back was a bit more difficult. The rear break feels as if either the break is not well installed or simply already over-used.

Fixing the gears properly took me quite some time, but that too now all worked fine.

After these few months of actively using it to bring Ted to the creche, do groceries etc. I was quite happy with the bike.

Then one day, while cycling, we heard a bang from the bike, sounding as if something broke. Stopped cycling, investigated but didn't find anything wrong with it other than a dent in the wheel which was not there before.
This sound was heard a few more times over the course of the next few weeks and the dent in the wheel slowly got worse.
I was beginning to fear the worst: broken spokes in the wheel

Last friday my fears were proven to be true: thus far 5 spokes have broken and now the wheel is twisted so much that it has become impossible to cycle on it.

I then decided to get in touch with Babboe Klantenservice. I wrote them a nice email telling them what was wrong with the bike and to my huge surprise, within an hour I received an answer from a CS rep stating that he was very sorry for the inconvenience and had passed my issues on to their service department who will contact me shortly to make an appointment and come by to resolve any or all issues there are.

Being born and raised in Netherlands I am not used to any customer oriented operation what so ever, so I was delighted to hear this information and quite surprised they came back so soon and in such a useful way.
Now we wait for the Service people to come by and replace my wheel, after which I guess we will have to go through several iterations of getting the breaks and gears sorted again.

Thus far however, I am very happily surprised at the great way in which Babboe.com has responded and seems to operate. If they keep this level up, I would suggest to everyone to go for one of their bikes, even if you don't need a bakfiets!