Finally got my Witcomb bike bike on Saturday. For some reason, they'd had to put a new bottom bracket in (I'd had a Dura Ace one in there for a couple of years). Not sure what that was about, but whatever. The spray job looks nice - a lighter blue than I'd stipulated, but I guess it always comes out slightly different to what you expect. The whole thing - seatpost extraction and the subsequent respray and rebuild - cost me £320, which seemed fair enough.
Went to ride it to work for the first time today. Didn't get far down the road before it became clear all was not well. At first there was only about 20% engagement in the whole pedal stroke, then the left crank became disengaged altogether. I 'rode' one-legged to Brixton Cycles, thinking maybe something just needed tightening up. Got there to find that Witcombs had put a BB in (XTR?) that was incompatible with my Dura Ace crankset, with different splines -totally ruining it. Already catastrophically late for work, I got them to put everything in a bag, wheeled the now cranksetless bike back home and came in on my Cannondale (which is now sorted, by the way - OYB came good in the end).
So, in the course of rebuilding the bike, they've f*cked up my DA crankset. The guy at BC said this is a schoolboy/novice/only-ever-do-it-once-in-your-career error.
I'm going to give Witcombs a ring later on. Assuming I get through , would you agree that I'm within my rights to insist they replace the crankset like for like (not with whatever they've got kicking around that shop that fits)? I'm also inclined to 'suggest' they come and pick it up from me.