I have two bike shops that are w/i 10 miles of my house. I have not had luck at either of them for the 4 years I’ve been going to them. I tried one for a year to make myself familiar and the service has been poor. I’ve been going to the other one lately in hopes of a change and I’ve received the same lack of service I experienced originally.
I’m not asking for discounts at all. But for a decent customer to receive a quote on a single - meaning 1 - Shimano 105 rear STI shifter to be nearly $170 plus an install charge, it’s insane. An Ultegra 9sp pair can be had for under and close to $200.
Store #2, I ordered a pair of shoes last week in a half size, they only carry full sizes. Service guy says “early next week”. Here we are late Wed., I called because I’m anxious and first they can’t find the order. Then the asnwer is “they’re sold out we can’t get them.” Well thanks for calling me and leaving me hanging all this time. If you’re buying shoes mid-season it must be because you really need them.
Am I being unreasonable? If I leave a wheel with a spoke to be replaced and a twist tie on that spoke and they say 3 days. When I go back on the 4th day to pick it up and it’s still sitting in the basement with the bad spoke still in it and they ask “what was the problem again?” what do I do?
Do I explain myself to them - “I’m trying to find a store that will service me and I will support you with my $$ but my prior experiences have not been satisfactory what can we do about this”.
Or do I expand my radius of available stores further and hope for the best somewhere else? Seems like good car and bike mechanics are worth their weight in gold.
sorry for the vent and the length, but what are my next steps?
it appears (from what you write) that you are getting what i would definitely consider unacceptable service.
that said, i think you are discovering that it may be well worth your while to learn to do these things yourself. although it will take you time and effort, you will save money (maybe a lot of money) and (if you are even passably inclined) you can probably learn to do things better (probably far better) than most shop mechanics.
and the reason I drive 2hrs to Bikesport when my bike “makes a funny noise”. I do frequent a shop 15 miles from me that is good for tubes and gloves and such. Tires? no way, mechanic in this store thought the 650’s on my bike were “cute”. I said something about fit and he commented on the fact that my bike is way too small for me. I asked on what criteria, he commented that i had too much seatpost showing. WTF does that have to do with body mechanics?
Unfortunately, good service at the LBS is scarce. I do believe this is why so many people go online.
LBS’s that don’t have much stock on hand, mechanics who know precious little, and lots of special orders are reasons why the consumer is going the route of the catalogue.
It really pains me why a bike store owner can’t see the forest for the trees as far as making certain to help out the parts-buying guy. A guy who buys over $1500 in parts will make the owner more money than the guy who buys one $1500 complete bike.
You are a reasonable customer in my opinion. But you aren’t a reasonable LBS customer. You’re an excellent mail order customer.
Every LBS has a finite set of capabilities. The things you needed were beyond the capabilities of these two LBS’s. No worries, there are mail order resources for your needs. There is nothing wrong with that at all. Your LBS’s tried their best, and you are a fine customer for going there first. But they can’t do what you asked. -Nothing wrong with that. Exercise your God-given right as a consumer and go elsewhere. That is 100% fair and reasonable.
As for the shop not calling you back? Well, speaking for myself and my business strictly, this time of year that is damn near physically impossible. And before the know-it-all armchair MBA business expert customer service pro retailers start posting “but it only takes two minutes…” That is unrealistic. It could take a half hour easily to track down the whereabouts of one shoe order and phone the customer. That is 30 minutes. If you have a rolling total of about 100 special orders, 20 of which at again given time are perpetually fucked up due to one situation or another then add more time. You get the picture.
You are justified in your concerns and are right in exploring alternatives. Valid comments in my opinion. The ultimate service you could pay your LBS’s is to politely and succintly tell them once about it.
Tom has a great point - communicate your concerns to the owner/manager of each store - reminding them that this is an expensive sport - we need to replace parts/buy parts/buy bikes etc etc for the duration of our involvement in the sport - that you could be a customer for life if you only received the attention you feel you are entitled to as a customer.
Beyond that - you can act as a referrant - in either a positive or negative way which can have a direct effect on his/her business - again - either way.
It may be that the owner is not aware of this - and unless brought to their attention - there is no way they can make improvements on the situation for you.
Get to know the wrenches in each store - and the salespeople - let them get to know you. Once they see you dropping cash here and there - you will become a name and face and person and “Customer” to them - which they will value - rather than some guy of the street. TALK TO THEM - communicate your needs yet show interest in what they are doing and ask their opinon and advice - heck - this is what these people do for a living - they are into it - and would love to talk about it.
Maybe not at the stores you have been to - but at the next store - try the above and see what happens - even communicate that you have had difficulty at other stores (without naming them) and want to give the new store an opportunity!
You are right to feel the way you do - but I had the exact same problem here when I moved to the US - not knowing any LBS’s - I went out and tried a bunch - eventually finding a store maybe 30 minutes from my home, however, they know me by name, they give me great customer service - repairs on the fly for little things - fast turn around for routine service - and I have spent quite a bit with them as a result. I’d gladly pay full retail in exchange for knowing my bike is being maintained properly and to have a great relationship with the owner/salespeople and mechanics - it makes a world of difference.
If you are not happy then the service is unacceptable to YOU. Nothing wrong with that. You have a few choices of action here. 1. You can live with it. 2. Change it. You can attempt change by talking to the management, You can attempt change by finding new shops. You can attempt change by lowering your expectations.
But if you learned to work on your bike yourself, you’d be happiest of all. I do all of my own work, from scratch builds to repairs to maintenance. Learned from a few books, trial and error, and sheldon brown’s website. Don’t need to rely on anyone. It takes committment to learn, but well worth it.
i guess we are lucky here. Only one really good LBS (2 actually, same shop, different location), ‘Crazy Cat Cyclery’.
Things are done fast, they get lots of stuff, can order whatever you need and will get it to you quickly, and Scott is an awesome bike mechanic.
Apparently, considering his work with jmhtx, he also does a fine job at fitting people…
Learn to do the work yourself. Between searches on Google and the resources on Slowtwitch, you should rarely have the need for an LBS. Bikes are fairly simple machines.
Tom’s point is valid: Most LBSs can’t manage their way out of a paper bag. Sorry, but if you can’t find time to call a customer that’s trying to give you money, well, you deserve to lose that sale. Why not just stop doing special orders if they’re too much hassle?
If you really just don’t want to be bothered by learning to maintain your own bike, then you can expect to encounter bad service. After all, the mechanics generally don’t care much about you or your bike, and it will show in their work.
Learn to do stuff yourself. You may actually be held in higher esteem by the bike shop people if you do that.
Be calm and polite. ALWAYS.
Go to the store and just browse. A lot. Ask questions. (Warning: There IS such a thing as a stupid question at a bike shop)
Get to know the proprietor (this will happen sooner or later if you hang out a lot).
Bribery never hurts. The proprietor of one bike store I frequent likes cheap beer.
Appearances can be decieving. My favorite bike shop has kind of a dumpy look and specializes in fixing cheap bikes that people bought at wal-mart. But I swear, the guy (Mr. Waltzer to you) builds the best wheels (by feel, even), has taught me how to build wheels, and loves to work on nice bikes on occasion. The beer helps too.
thanks for all the input. I guess I will take several bits of the advice here and apply them. I’ll try the few stores more out of the way, speak to the current stores when I’m there for quick fixes and do more work myself.
This year I did the most work ever on the bike. I added New STI shifters, front and rear derailleurs and cables. This was a huge job for me with my limited time and once I got going it wasn’t as hard as I thought. It’s that darn rear der. adjustment that troubles me. I don’t like to fool with it, especially before a race, so I’ll bring that to the store. But I’ve had trouble dialing in the shifting on all cogs with the B barrel adjustment, I can get most to be very smooth but not all, all the time.