You think the bike industry is bad? Check this out for terrible customer service:

Triathlon Forum
21

goooood…I know the rules are the rules,. but a request doesn’t hurt anyone and a courteous answer doesn’t cost much either…

I emailed them when I first thought I was skipping Ralph’s. I just said I figured there must be a waiting list…?

I actually never even got a reply email.

What is really so wrong about having a waiting list and a cutoff date for cancelling, etc.? Like, if the wait list was empty, you couldn’t cancel, etc. You could then be on a waiting-list-to-cancel. More people that want to race could race, and more people that don’t want to race could get most of their money back.

It sure would go a long way toward customer relations.

22

You should have gotten the new blackberry instead. And you could support T mobile who supports Jan.

23

It is very hard to find these employees. That is why I am of the opinion more retail managers need to be in front of thier customers, instead of their offices. This helps the “part-time” or lower wage people be able to properly handle customers requests because the see over and over the right way to do things.

I can’t tell you how many times I put together incentive plans, contests, and other strategies to incent my $10/hour employees to sell top line products, new products and so forth. Many times these “prizes” were funded out of my own pocket, but in the long term it paid off for me. It is a shame many of these larger, service based retail chains do not understand how far a $10 - $15 a week gift certificate can go with these $10/hour employees.

24

For any kind of decent service you have to go direct through Cingular either on their website or through customer service. I have found them to be very helpful in the past.

I have found the stores to be just about worthless.

25

i would actually have preferred no answer at all than a capitalized no…

26

I feel I need to stand up for Ironman Inc. because they treated me well. (though they probably won’t appreciate me telling this story).

In October of 2002, I decided to join the madness and do an IM. Silly me then tried to sign up for Lake Placid only to find out it, and every other North American IM, was sold out.

So, after investigating going overseas, crunching the numbers etc, buying a Community Slot was the best option.

Two weeks after my check cleared, my wife and I found out she was pregnant - our first. Due date, 10 days before Placid.

I emailed IM North America, explained the situation and they allowed to to switch to IM Wisconsin.

Maybe it was because I was a Communtiy Slot person, maybe it was because I gave them 9 months notice. Maybe a nice person answered my email. who knows?

Whatever is was, I became a proud father and and Ironman and I appreciated how the whole situation was handled.

27

Community slots are allowed to switch.

It’s not a matter of rules or no rules etc…I was not debating about this…

it’s just the way the answer is ‘delivered’.

it wouldn’t cost much to say something along the lines ‘sorry, but we cannot accomodate your request’ instead of a very sharp, capitalized NO.

Congrats on the baby though :slight_smile: (3 years late :slight_smile: )

28

Thanks on the baby wishes.

Agreed, a polite no is always better than a rude one.

29

Makes a good case for ebusiness. I think I get the best customer service ordering stuff off the net. Places like nytro.com and trisport.com are excellent.

30

did they have this poster on the wall ?

http://www.despair.com/ap24x30prin.html

I have this one in my home office -

http://www.despair.com/gettowork.html

it is a daily motivator in the start up of my own business

31

Seriously, but the kid at the bike shop said it was ok (what I say to my friend as we drive him to the hospital with lacerations and broken bones).

I have never had a chain fail that I have put together, but frankly I am rather paranoid about the possibility so I just picked up a mavic 10spd chain with the connex link. I really do not like Shimano chains anyways they get dirty way to fast.

32

unfortunatlely, the connex links are not that reliable either. I put up with cleaning the chain on the bike, instead of praying that the tiny connex link holds as I stand and crank a huge gear over a hill…

33

All to common in the retail world nowadays. The problem is we as consumers put up with this service, so it continues.

Not only should we not put up with this, we need to reward those who provide good service. Then hope that the companies that provide good service realize that its turned into a competitive advantage.

34

That is exactly why I drive up to an hour away to buy my bike parts.

35

I’m pretty sure that when the Palm Treo 650 finally hits the store, the owner will post here to say that it arrived… with pics and all…

36

Actually, I will be posting from the Treo 650 directly to Slowtwitch. That is huge.

37

Hmmm, I have not heard bad things about the connex links and have put thousands of miles on them over the years between my bikes and my wife’s bike with no trouble at all. But I guess they are prone to failure no different than any other mechanical item.

I believe this is the key though, any item you do not have confidence in you had better change because it will certainly fail at the worst possible time.

38

The last time I bought anything more than a gu packet at my nearest LBS:
etc.

Conversation at the bike shop near my house (that will go un-named):

Ash: I need some derrailleur cables and housings.

Guy: Well, I don’t know what kind of setup you want.

“Bar-end shifters. Shimano.”

“But what length? How much housing do you need?”

“I thought you might know that.”

“You should bring it in and we could measure it.”

“Well, it’s like that bike over there.”

“Look, every bike is different. I really can’t tell you what to buy if you don’t know what you want.”

etc…

Conversation at the “new” **B&L in Solana Beach **(which I am happy to shout out)

Ash: I need some derrailleur cables and housings.

Guy: Road bike or tri?

“Tri bike.”

“Like this one here or this one over here? Front and rear?”

“Mine is like that one over there. Yes, front and rear.”

“Can you cut the final housing lengths yourself? It’s better that way.”

“Sure.”

(shouting to the mechanics in the back) “I need a derrailleur cable setup! Not internal! Front and rear! Uncut housing!”

(two minutes later…)

“Here you go.”

He hands me a ziplocked bag with the cables, a length of housing, plenty of ferrules and cable ends. All nice and neat. The cable housing turned out to be only about 10" more than I needed.

I have since made all of my 2005 gear purchases from B&L, including shoes, clip-ons and an 808 front wheel. The other shop might never see me again.

If you San Diegans haven’t checked them out since they have been re-born, do so.

39

goooood…I know the rules are the rules,. but a request doesn’t hurt anyone and a courteous answer doesn’t cost much either…

I emailed them when I first thought I was skipping Ralph’s. I just said I figured there must be a waiting list…?

I actually never even got a reply email.

What is really so wrong about having a waiting list and a cutoff date for cancelling, etc.? Like, if the wait list was empty, you couldn’t cancel, etc. You could then be on a waiting-list-to-cancel. More people that want to race could race, and more people that don’t want to race could get most of their money back.

It sure would go a long way toward customer relations.

I’m guessing that the RDs are counting on a no-show factor. If they allowed subs, etc., then they’d have a bigger race than they’d really want. Of course, they could just allow the numbers of slots they actually prefer, and allow subs. But that makes too much sense, and would require maintenance of that waiting list list (might be more work than we think).

40

Actually, I will be posting from the Treo 650 directly to Slowtwitch. That is huge.

My boss got a Treo a couple of months back. The learning curve was big but once she figured out its secrets, she loves it. I needed a new phone badly, wanted a similar Pocket PC/Phone set up. Went to the same Cingular store. They were out of the Treo, suggested a Siemens SX66 made specifically for Cingular. Looks like it will be great. This was one week ago exactly. The phone worked right away, was told I would get a prompt in a day that the internet was set up and I could go online.

Three days later, no prompt, I try following the directions to get connected to the internet and my email. It isn’t working, can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong but I love the PDA/Phone combination, just want the rest to work.

Yesterday I spend over an hour on the phone with tech support, they can’t figure out why it’s not working, has me entering all sorts of things the average consumer would not have known to enter. Still not connecting.

Today, the whole thing freezes, I can not receive or make a phone call…now it’s totally worthless. I’m ready to cry, I need my phone for business and family. Take the PC/Phone back to the Cingular store, two sales men spend almost two hours with it in the back room, on the phone with tech support, still not connecting, but they did change the SIM card and at least the phone works. They looked totally frazzled when I left.

I’m ready to chew someone’s ass big time. I’m seeing the manager tomorrow. If he can not get this working or if I have any more problems, they owe me a refund and a Treo for my trouble. Hopefully I’ll be posting from my SX66 shortly.