2 What are the benefits and disadvantages of Zane’s Cycles guarantees? Zane’s Cycles is a bicycle store in Branford, Connecticut. The store has a sales area of around 3,000 square ft (340 square metres)

which includes not only a large selection of adult and children’s mountain bikes, road bikes and hybrids, a range of accessories and clothing but also a large coffee bar (with free coffee) and a children’s play area. In 2004 the company sold around 4,000 bikes and had a turnover of around

$1.8 million from its retail division, plus $4.5 million from 25,000 bikes sold through its special markets division.

Chris Zane is the company president. He described the company’s policy:

We provide a lifetime free service guarantee, so we will service the bike for free while ever you own the bike. We also provide a lifetime warranty, covering not only the bike but anything else you might buy in our store –

helmets, pumps or clothes – and also a 90-day price protection policy that says if you see the same bike for less elsewhere within 90 days we will refund the difference. We added on the 90-day protection policy after feedback from our customers who told us that if we provided lifetime free service and lifetime warranty we must be expensive. So the 90-day price protection policy gives them confidence that not only do we have the best warranties but that we are also competitive.