During my final prep ride this past Sunday for the upcoming LP Ironman, I noticed a faint metal grinding noise coming from the rear of my bike – I didn’t know if it was the bottom bracket, rear hub or something else but I knew that it was serious. I was finally able to get my bike into the first of two Washington DC area tri shops – Tri-nergy -- late Tuesday morning (both are closed on Mondays). They called me later in the afternoon to tell me that the grinding noise was from my tire rubbing due to a frame crack near the rear dropouts, essentially rendering the bike unrideable. I was one strong turn or flex of the bike away from a serious frame failure and crash.
Knowing that I was leaving Wednesday morning, they offered to move most of my relevant components (e.g. aerobars, D.A. 10 speed derailleurs and other related items) from my tri bike (QR Tiphoon) to my road bike (Cervelo Super Prodigy) as soon as I could get my road bike over there. Not thinking that this was the ideal scenario but knowing that it was a reasonable last resort, I called the other local tri shop (Bonzai Sports) who offered to swap out my wheels to a similar setup that they had on hand. When I got to Bonzai, they actually agreed to swap out my aerobars, pedals, cables, rear derailleur, and seat – all right on the spot -- thus making it as close as possible to my current tri bike setup. What I’m so amazed and grateful about is the fact that both of these shops knew that I would be leaving the next morning for IM Lake Placid, both shops certainly had a bunch of other work orders to take care of, yet both were prepared to go way out of their way to get me situated correctly. From my perspective, it felt like they were ready to drop everything else and take care of me. I did get the parts swapped over to a similarly sized Principia frame from Bonzai and it appears that all is now well. While they were doing the work, I went for a Starbuck’s run for two of the mechanics working on my bike – I was so thankful for their quick efforts and I figured it was the least I could do for them considering the circumstances.
Now that is truly great customer service.
Paul
Knowing that I was leaving Wednesday morning, they offered to move most of my relevant components (e.g. aerobars, D.A. 10 speed derailleurs and other related items) from my tri bike (QR Tiphoon) to my road bike (Cervelo Super Prodigy) as soon as I could get my road bike over there. Not thinking that this was the ideal scenario but knowing that it was a reasonable last resort, I called the other local tri shop (Bonzai Sports) who offered to swap out my wheels to a similar setup that they had on hand. When I got to Bonzai, they actually agreed to swap out my aerobars, pedals, cables, rear derailleur, and seat – all right on the spot -- thus making it as close as possible to my current tri bike setup. What I’m so amazed and grateful about is the fact that both of these shops knew that I would be leaving the next morning for IM Lake Placid, both shops certainly had a bunch of other work orders to take care of, yet both were prepared to go way out of their way to get me situated correctly. From my perspective, it felt like they were ready to drop everything else and take care of me. I did get the parts swapped over to a similarly sized Principia frame from Bonzai and it appears that all is now well. While they were doing the work, I went for a Starbuck’s run for two of the mechanics working on my bike – I was so thankful for their quick efforts and I figured it was the least I could do for them considering the circumstances.
Now that is truly great customer service.
Paul