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Hey, Bike Shops: Stop Treating Customers Like Garbage

Erik Timmerman

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When I decided I wanted my first road bike, I was a huge Lemond fan. Also a pretty big fan of the Motorola team. I saw that they were on the new Dura-Ace with STI shifters. I went to THE bike shop in New Haven, CT to buy one. The guy asked me what category I am in. I was like "what". He wanted to see my USCF license before he'd sell me a bike w DA parts. He said he'd sell me a bike with 105. I was like later dude, and had the shop in my home town order one. The guy in New Haven had the bike I wanted in the size I wanted and wouldn't sell it to me.

I wasn't mad or anything, the guy can do what he wants. So can I.

edit: when I think back on this, it wasn't my first road bike, it was my first new one, I had been riding an old red Bianchi w 6 spd friction Campy
 
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Philpug

Philpug

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When I decided I wanted my first road bike, I was a huge Lemond fan. Also a pretty big fan of the Motorola team. I saw that they were on the new Dura-Ace with STI shifters. I went to THE bike shop in New Haven, CT to buy one. The guy asked me what category I am in. I was like "what". He wanted to see my USCF license before he'd sell me a bike w DA parts. He said he'd sell me a bike with 105. I was like later dude, and had the shop in my home town order one. The guy in New Haven had the bike I wanted in the size I wanted and wouldn't sell it to me.

I wasn't mad or anything, the guy can do what he wants. So can I.
The closest I have some to not selling soemthing to a customer..other than an ill fitting boot because of color is that "I will not sell you this but I will let you buy it". and that has more to do with safety or misapplication than someone not that I deemed not being "worthy".
 

fatbob

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Same for any specialist sale from the hardware store to auto store to camping store. It's quite easy to spend 5 mins on the internet knowing what you think you want which gives you an ability to talk the talk and be assertive in store, harder for the sales assistant to take you at your word when your real needs may be totally different. So I see why some staff grow a BS filter that might not be subtle and nuanced and appears patronizing to the real expert who just wants what they want.

I'm a terrible customer - I quite often browse to familiarise myself before wanting to commit to a sales conversation. If I see prices are out of line or range is poor I really don't want the charade of affecting interest in what I'm offered. Increasingly though I'll do that browsing online then just buy there because then I've done most of the work already.
 

Tony S

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Same for any specialist sale from the hardware store to auto store to camping store. It's quite easy to spend 5 mins on the internet knowing what you think you want which gives you an ability to talk the talk and be assertive in store, harder for the sales assistant to take you at your word when your real needs may be totally different. So I see why some staff grow a BS filter that might not be subtle and nuanced and appears patronizing to the real expert who just wants what they want.

This is very well articulated. Nicely done.
 

EricG

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What sucks the most about that is how much your feet change when you are pregnant, let alone with twins.
Not that I'm the best bootfitter in the world, but the one thing I get from clients all the time is that I take time to listen. This is probably why I get a lot of female fit requests

To be clear I'm not posting a finger at @EBG18T , just pointing out one of my rants about this process.
One thing I absolutely hate, and all men should hear this, is when a guy brings his wife in for a bootfit and decides to go for coffee or something but leaves the kids with the wife while she's getting fit. If a man wants his wife to get the fit she deserves, he needs to lake the kids with him so she can get undivided and give undivided attention to the process.

I went with her the first time & made an appointment for her to go back the following week after confirming availability of several boot options. Budget is not a constraint. She was 18 months post pregnancy and lucky for her she had limited foot shape change.

Unfortunately I’ll be starting this process again with her again in October since she’s unhappy with the current setup. I’m tempted to stick her on a plane to Reno to come see you..
 

Tricia

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I went with her the first time & made an appointment for her to go back the following week after confirming availability of several boot options. Budget is not a constraint. She was 18 months post pregnancy and lucky for her she had limited foot shape change.

Unfortunately I’ll be starting this process again with her again in October since she’s unhappy with the current setup. I’m tempted to stick her on a plane to Reno to come see you..
I know a good fitter :D
 
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Philpug

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I’m tempted to stick her on a plane to Reno to come see you..
Make sure it's a two way ticket...We have a whole box of spouses that were sent here with one way tickets that we don't know what to do with...and quite frankly...some are starting to smell. ;)
 

Jwrags

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While I have not had any "terrible" experiences in a bike shop I would say most have been blasé. I found it interesting that the "featured" shop in that article was River City Bikes in Portland, which is where I bought my new road bike a year ago and Graham, who was mentioned in the article and photo was my sales guy. The shop has been excellent and I am always treated nicely. If I go in for something and see Graham he recognizes me and says hello. Excellent shop with very knowledgeable and friendly people working there.
 

Gary Stolt

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Funny..I sometimes have to go to a shop to get some specific things done that need special tools. l go in, tell them what I want and get 50 questions about stuff and derisive commentary on my gear. Dude..I'm giving you simple fscking instructions..if you can't do it, just say so. If you don't want to do it, just say so. I'll find someone who can and I don't have to waste my time. They can be such D-bag shops...some are worse than others..
Just to show I can be fair though..from the other side..some customers are complete clowns too..but as my old boss used to say..it only takes one event to lose a customer forever...
You can't win the golf tourney on thursday but you sure can lose it.
 

Brian Finch

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SMH.....

I picked my rig up after some work & it had a new WTB ‘test ride’ saddle. When I inquired what happened: “well -it’s standard practice to test ride the work with the tech’s personal saddle & we lost your’s in the process...”

True story. Guess how many times I returned to that shop after they took my bike for a joyride & lost the seat?
 
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François Pugh

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I know something about ski equipment and skiing. I know next to nothing about bikes. Having played dumb in a few ski shops, and having been a fly on the wall in a few ski shops while the staff were advising clients based on the shop's oversupply instead of the clients' s needs, I shudder to think how sorely abused I would be in a bike shop.
 

Erik Timmerman

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SMH.....

I picked my rig up after some work & it had a new WTB ‘test ride’ saddle. When I inquired what happened: “well -it’s standard practice to test ride the work with the tech’s personal saddle & we lost your’s in the process...”

True story. Guess how many times I returned to that shop after they took my bike for a joyride & lost the seat?

Apart from the loss of your saddle that is kind f funny. Never heard of such a thing.
 

oldschoolskier

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This reminds me of a story that happened in Toronto many (35-40) years ago at a Royals Royce dealership at Bay and Cummberland.

An old farmer walked in dressed in clean coveralls looking to buy a car. Looks around and finds a Silver Ghost and gets to try it out. The salesman walks over and ask what are you doing, the reply trying out the car and asks how much? The salesman replies $100k too much for you, get out of the store.

The farmer leaves and heads to the bank across the street and returns 1/2 hour later, asks for the manager. Sits down with the down with the manager and salesman, asks again how and is told with in a snarky tone $100k. The farmer replies ok, opens the briefcase and shows $100k, this much. The salesman replies greedily, yes! Whereupon the farmer replies no, this store is too rude and walks out and buys a Porsche across the street.

Salesman was looking for a new job the same afternoon, learning the old saying, don’t judge a book by its cover.

A little treatment of a few bike shops like this and the
message should get across.
 
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Philpug

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This reminds me of a story that happened in Toronto many (35-40) years ago at a Royals Royce dealership at Bay and Cummberland.

An old farmer walked in dressed in clean coveralls looking to buy a car. Looks around and finds a Silver Ghost and gets to try it out. The salesman walks over and ask what are you doing, the reply trying out the car and asks how much? The salesman replies $100k too much for you, get out of the store.

The farmer leaves and heads to the bank across the street and returns 1/2 hour later, asks for the manager. Sits down with the down with the manager and salesman, asks again how and is told with in a snarky tone $100k. The farmer replies ok, opens the briefcase and shows $100k, this much. The salesman replies greedily, yes! Whereupon the farmer replies no, this store is too rude and walks out and buys a Porsche across the street.

Salesman was looking for a new job the same afternoon, learning the old saying, don’t judge a book by its cover.

A little treatment of a few bike shops like this and the
message should get across.
Not sure it it's true or not but it is old salesman lore, doean't matter because it does happen. We called that "curbside qualifying". I can tell numerous stories that were similar, the one that comes to mimd was the Montgomery of Janney Montgomery Scott, one of the wealthiest men on the Philadelphia Main Line came into the dealership in an old base model Ford Mondeo, he looked like he didn't have two nickles to rub together and would easily have been dismissed at most dealerships and probably was before he came into ours.
 

EricG

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Swung by the local shop yesterday, very nice folks. Cool stuff in stock & great beer on tap. I needed another star nut so I could do my fork install and can’t seem to find the last bag of star nuts i had sitting there. (I really need to get organized). Needless to say I didn’t want to spend $15.50+ tax for 1 star nut. So I bought my MTBVT hat and left. Sometimes it nice to have a place to pickup random things, but prices need to be reasonable. I’ll be back for beer and $15 burritos another day.
 

Primoz

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The guy in New Haven had the bike I wanted in the size I wanted and wouldn't sell it to me.
I wasn't mad or anything, the guy can do what he wants. So can I.
Bike stores are pretty much only sport stores that I go in and buy stuff (I'm lucky enough that for all other sports I do, I have privilege of getting equipment for free, and for ice hockey I just buy online), and normally I have completely different experience.... except for one single store. All but this store, want to sell you way more then what you want to have. If I come to store to buy xc mtb with Shimano XT equipment (which honestly, is probably too much and SLX would do fine for my riding, but I just like to have it), most of them would want to sell me twice as expensive enduro or at least all mountain bike, as xc is not popular anymore, with XTR, preferably Di2 of course :)
But then there was one store, where I went some 20 years ago, as it was really local one, to get new wheel build. I wanted some Mavic wheel and owner was arrogant (I knew that before) telling something like "why would you need that" which more like sounded "you don't need new wheel anyway so stop wasting my time". My answer was, just before I walked out of it forever, that just because I want it, and I would pay for it regardless what he would ask for, and didn't expect him to give it for free anyway. And after I walked out of store, and never come back. Until now, I rather wait for week to get stuff from some online store then go to that store again. Sure, he has right to decide I don't need that particular thing, but I also have right to shop elsewhere. And today, with whole bunch of online stores all over EU with delivery in 2 or 3 days max, it's even easier then it was 20 years ago.
 

Andy Mink

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This reminds me of a story that happened in Toronto many (35-40) years ago at a Royals Royce dealership at Bay and Cummberland.

An old farmer walked in dressed in clean coveralls looking to buy a car. Looks around and finds a Silver Ghost and gets to try it out. The salesman walks over and ask what are you doing, the reply trying out the car and asks how much? The salesman replies $100k too much for you, get out of the store.

The farmer leaves and heads to the bank across the street and returns 1/2 hour later, asks for the manager. Sits down with the down with the manager and salesman, asks again how and is told with in a snarky tone $100k. The farmer replies ok, opens the briefcase and shows $100k, this much. The salesman replies greedily, yes! Whereupon the farmer replies no, this store is too rude and walks out and buys a Porsche across the street.

Salesman was looking for a new job the same afternoon, learning the old saying, don’t judge a book by its cover.

A little treatment of a few bike shops like this and the
message should get across.
In Reno, you never know who's going to be dressed how. I've walked into dealers to just kick tires wearing shorts, running shoes (not because I run, oh heck no!) and a t-shirt with holes in it. Yes, I can afford what I'm looking at. No, I'm not going to get it here if you're a jack weed. I'm sure I'm not the only person who dresses "casual" during pursuit of a high $$ item. Any store should be very aware of that.
 

EricG

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I'm sure I'm not the only person who dresses "casual" during pursuit of a high $$ item. Any store should be very aware of that.

When I bought my first 911 I got shrugged off because I was younger and went to dealership (Prestige Audi - Porsche) in cargo shorts & t-shirt, it was Saturday!. The sales guy wouldn’t give me the time of day. I ended up emailing the GM, told him the car I was interesting in and that his sales guy wouldn't help me. The GM had another another sales guy call me and suggested I wait a couple weeks as his existing customer was returning his 911 and getting a new one. So I ended up with a 1 year old CPO’d 911 at a much better price. The GM made sure the original sales guy was there when I went to pick it up so he could apologize to me for not giving me the time of day when I first went in. The 911 only lasted a year till I got the RS4 and I used the same sales guy.
 

Mike Thomas

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Swung by the local shop yesterday, very nice folks. Cool stuff in stock & great beer on tap. I needed another star nut so I could do my fork install and can’t seem to find the last bag of star nuts i had sitting there. (I really need to get organized). Needless to say I didn’t want to spend $15.50+ tax for 1 star nut. So I bought my MTBVT hat and left. Sometimes it nice to have a place to pickup random things, but prices need to be reasonable. I’ll be back for beer and $15 burritos another day.

Well, I know who your local store is...
 

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