mechanic

sales consultant

shift leader

team leader

stocker

99 Bikes

Overall this is a company with shortsighted management, cut-throat sales culture and poor career prospects.

As a sales consultant, sales performance is measured on a daily basis. Sales results are measured by the amount of profit that is earned on products that staff sell. Commission is then paid based on these results. The costs for each shop are divided by the number of staff at the store and this is then set as a minimum target that staff must reach or risk dismissal.

This gives goals to work towards but often external factors come into play and are not appreciated by management. For example a rainy couple of weeks will lead to poor sales which will lead to staff being criticised for poor performance. In addition if a shop is genuinely unprofitable this will be attributed to poor performance of staff rather than a shop that struggles due to location, catchment, competition etc.

Things like having weekends off or being sick will lead to being targeted by management. Head office will shift blame towards front line staff wherever they can. For example head office decides promotions and sales which often impact front line staff commission and sales results. However if a promotion is poorly designed then blame will be laid on staff inability to sell rather than the promotion itself.

While head office is unsupportive of staff, they expect staff to go above and beyond for the company. Things like transferring bikes between stores on unpaid days off, coming in without pay on days off are encouraged and commonplace. Staff are not paid to open or close the shop which will take between 30 min to an hour every day. There are no penalty rates for working weekends or public holidays. Staff are expected to attend (unpaid) team meetings even if these fall on a rostered day off.

This company does not take safety seriously and hurting yourself lifting a bike etc. is not likely to be supported by management. Safety is not a KPI of anyone in the company.

The best thing about this company is the fun culture (monthly reward nights) and good performance will be rewarded in the short term. 

Most of the staff in this company are very young and there is only a handful older than their 30s and only a handful that are parents. Expect little support for a work-life balance.

Progression opportunities are limited for front line staff. Opportunities in head office are not generally offered to store staff.

A company set up to keep it´s staff members in the game by making them compete against each other. 

A company that promotes playing fair, but sacrificing your time whilst they need you to take less comission home. 

A company that has been caught underpaying staff their base rate, and penalises you if your comission does not add up at least to minimum wage. 

Do not expect serious management from here, do not expect consideration about your oppurtunity to earn your comission, and just don´t expect them to take you seriously. With a typical turn over rate of 3 months per staff member...it makes a clear picture of the true, and honest vibes at 99.

If you look for staff reviews, expect a high spike in positive staff reviews from earlier this year. This is after a mass email requesting managers to leave positive reviews about their own company, whilst they are still working there, due to a large collection of poor staff reviews.

A rodeo, cowboy company which takes what they can get from customers and staff combined. With the constant reinforcement and incentive to earn comission (and why you´re the only problem for not earning more), expect low quality work from everybody just looking at their pay slips. Expect a few of your own customers to fall off their bikes on test rides due to poor quality control on their bike builds, and expect your work peers to avoid doing anything that doesn´t pay.

50/50 chance you actually get a manager with their head screwed on enough to run each store in an even and non volatile way.

I can provide many, many examples to prove this review.

A highly political workplace that pays very poorly for the workload. Upper management provide minimal support to team leaders and consultants and instead focus on auditing stores and conducting checklists. Team leaders are paid a very low salary and are incentivised with profit share and the convoluted “Business Ownership Scheme” which is promised to all staff but only granted to specific team members based on head office/Area leader discretion. Unfortunately this feeling of “ownership” that the company aims for becomes shattered when, at the the end of every month internal company “Accruals” are assigned to the team leader PNL based on the outcome of the monthly audit. These accruals artificially decrease the profitability of the store and in turn drastically reduces the team leader profit share. 99 bikes has a very  carrot on a stick mentality and this negative reinforcement leads to an extremely high level of staff turn over, creating leadership instability company wide as Team Leaders and Area Leaders routinely resign or are replaced due to the high pressure and lack of promised incentives. 99 bikes is a company that certainly talks the talk however when it comes to its actions and support you will quickly find that its “People” are the last thing on the priority list. 

Lack of leadership and resources and basic upto date systems and tools. Culture is a boys club mentality and promotion is based on friendships. Rewards program is unfair and mismanaged and should be reviewed as it's very political and destructive to motivation. This organisation focuses on profit over people and low market salaries for extreme manual workloads. Leadership is not willing to listen to improving or employee concerns or suggestions. There is no development opportunities or resources and no benifits are not part of the offer. Lack of communication form all departments and a mentallity to take ownership and invest in a business that will not be honest and clear is alarming. High staff turn over both in stores and support office. No HR or diversity or inclusion policy. This byisness has a mentallity to dot he same thing every time and expects to get a different outcome. Very unprofessional workplace. Managers are printed based on friendships and connections and do not offer any leadership.

99 Bikes has a high turnover of staff and extremely low pay for the hours you put in. The pay you get is the minimum wage plus commissions from what you sell. You'll do many hours of unpaid overtime and then 99 Bikes will try and make you feel all warm and fuzzy by giving you a pizza or hamburger once a month. There goes your public holidays, weekends, budgeting for your bills or repayments. You'll have trouble with financing or obtaining a loan due to the base rate being $23hr and have no prospects of advancing because the management is very clicky and only advance personalities with narcissistic money hungry attributes. This business preys off people who are needy of employment and especially university students. Theyr'e a prime example of what a business run by capitalistic snakes in the grass is. This business is everything opposite of what the workers and unions fought for to make things fair and equal for the average person. It's the LNP's wet dream!

I have pretty good mechanical knowledge and have previously worked in bike shops. I secured a job as a bicycle mechanic, I passed a small skills assessment and the job advert stated only a mechanical aptitude was needed and training would be provided. On my second day with the company they made it clear that I didn't meet their expectations, it appeared I was replacing a senior mechanic that had been with the store for a good 10 years and the job advert just didn't reflect what that store wanted or needed. This created a particularly bad atmosphere and I thought very unfair on someone who had just joined the company, I wasn't given a chance and was pressured to find another store to go to or leave. I tried another local store but it didn't work out so consequently left. Ultimately the company has very high expectations given they pay minimum wage and so I wouldn't recommend the company, very metric driven and customer service comes second to that. 

Day to day is full of work to do, they will keep you focused with giving all employees personal reasonability's. You will learn alot about the bike industry however the mechanics get more hands on work with the business as the sales staff just learn the specs of most bikes. 

Management is interesting, all TL's basically buy into the company so you will find that they are very invested in the company but they are usually heavy audited by management above them and that piles onto your own role at times.

The company rewards you if you can stick out 12 months and somehow manage to go to there global event however you have to make a large amount of sales and you will be broke from the minimal wage and unfair commission structure.

The hardest part of the job is trying to make sales during winter time and as sales make up most of your income, it can be rough.

The most enjoyable part of the job is the group rides and staff nights once a month. they do this really well.

99 Bikes is cult-like in terms of workplace culture, toxic, abusive and deceptive would be how I'd best describe the company.

50+ locations,
No IT support.
One person running their entire backend.
No HR team.

Low wages, unrealistic expectations, management takes no responsibility for failures and faults.

"Uncapped" commission is absolutely capped, during the Covid boom, entitlements were cut across the board even as record sales targets and profits were being met.
excuse given: "Sales consultant salary range is $50k-$80k, going above that with commission isn't something we want to do"

Horrendous, don't work here.


Minimum wage base plus "Uncapped Commission!" except the goal posts are moved every year and the company is insistent on winning a race to the bottom for pricing meaning earnings and margins are unsustainable and customer service suffers.
Team Leaders are chewed up and spat out by terrible leadership who are more interested in chanting the company line than doing the right or smart thing.
Not a bad place to work if you just want a basic job in a bike shop and don't need more than minimum wage but if you are looking for a career you will be frustrated by the overpromises and incompetence of the leadership who have worked their way to the top, not by merit but by how well they tow the company line.

I've worked at 99 for many years and loved it. I've had so many opportunities that never would have existed at other companies. The company has grown so fast over recent years and I've always been impressed by the accuracy of future goals in the company, which are always shared openly. There's a very flat reporting structure in the company so it's easy to raise any ideas you have. I worked in shops for years and benefited so much from it; learning about our customers and helping improve shop systems. 99 Bikes has a very strong culture of working hard and celebrating rewards.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mechanic 1 salary reported	$81,000 per year
Sales consultant 3 salaries reported	$53,667 per year
Shift leader 6 salaries reported	$100,000 per year
Team leader 3 salaries reported	$88,333 per year
Stocker 1 salary reported	$100,000 per year

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