Viewing 6 posts - 41 through 46 (of 46 total)
  • Another day in the LBS
  • MostlyBalanced
    Free Member

    This is going back 9 months or so but then I had a customer arrive with his bike saying that he had had new cables and front mech fitted elsewhere (a large national chain that devotes 25% or so of it’s floor space to bikes) but still couldn’t get the chain on to the big ring. It turned out that one of the screws holding the shifter top cover on had been dropped into the shifter. The rest of the work was so apalling that I had to take some photos:

    It beggars belief both that anyone employed to work on bikes could think that they’d done an acceptable job and that the customer could accept and pay for such work.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    I don’t envy anyone working in retail anymore – current generation of shoppers seem to be more entitled than ever before.

    B2B should be better, but it isn’t always – we sell IT solutions, we only sell to client who we manage their IT for so they’re all known to us, and us to them, but it’s a nightmare sometimes.

    Client – I need to be able to do this*

    *this could be anything from accessing their network from home to a hugely complicated over-haul of their entire network for some business critical reason or other.

    Me – Okay, can I have 3 days to work out the best solution for you.

    Client – ahhh, I was hoping to speak to the board about it this afternoon, see we’ve been planning this for months now – could I have the broad strokes in an hour…

    So I don’t bring up that fact that this massive job they need is 3 months old. but only know 2 hours before they’re working out the budget for it do they ask us how it’s all going to work from an IT point of view.

    So I spent an hour frantically pulling together all the requirements for their new software, working out how it can be done, liaising with the tech guys about how we can do it, and trying to find a gap in the diary to fit it in – oh and breaking it to them it has to be done after hours and give them the basics.

    Several days, even weeks pass before I’m told it needs to be done next week – can they have some figures – quote sent, a quote based on a plan that’s taken about 20 work hours to get to.

    And what do I get? I tyrannical rant that this PC is £4 cheaper on eBuyer or this server we want £5k for is only £400 on Amazon (missing of course, any memory, storage, power supply, OS, someone to build it, oh and instead of the 6 core Xeon they need it runs an i3 – but other than that it’s EXACTLY the same) – why should they pay for CAT5e they’ve already got that and anyway isn’t CAT6 the current one? – can we reuse some of the existing hardware – do we really need to buy a licence for each machine, can’t we buy one and just install it 30 times – what do you mean illegal, how I own the disc!

    Oh and the best one – if I buy all the hardware myself, will you install it? For free?

    vincienup
    Free Member

    Sounds like you need a BOFH…

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

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    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    I don’t envy anyone working in retail anymore – current generation of shoppers seem to be more entitled than ever before.

    B2B should be better, but it isn’t always – we sell IT solutions, we only sell to client who we manage their IT for so they’re all known to us, and us to them, but it’s a nightmare sometimes.

    Client – I need to be able to do this*

    *this could be anything from accessing their network from home to a hugely complicated over-haul of their entire network for some business critical reason or other.

    Me – Okay, can I have 3 days to work out the best solution for you.

    Client – ahhh, I was hoping to speak to the board about it this afternoon, see we’ve been planning this for months now – could I have the broad strokes in an hour…

    So I don’t bring up that fact that this massive job they need is 3 months old. but only know 2 hours before they’re working out the budget for it do they ask us how it’s all going to work from an IT point of view.

    So I spent an hour frantically pulling together all the requirements for their new software, working out how it can be done, liaising with the tech guys about how we can do it, and trying to find a gap in the diary to fit it in – oh and breaking it to them it has to be done after hours and give them the basics.

    Several days, even weeks pass before I’m told it needs to be done next week – can they have some figures – quote sent, a quote based on a plan that’s taken about 20 work hours to get to.

    And what do I get? I tyrannical rant that this PC is £4 cheaper on eBuyer or this server we want £5k for is only £400 on Amazon (missing of course, any memory, storage, power supply, OS, someone to build it, oh and instead of the 6 core Xeon they need it runs an i3 – but other than that it’s EXACTLY the same) – why should they pay for CAT5e they’ve already got that and anyway isn’t CAT6 the current one? – can we reuse some of the existing hardware – do we really need to buy a licence for each machine, can’t we buy one and just install it 30 times – what do you mean illegal, how I own the disc!

    Oh and the best one – if I buy all the hardware myself, will you install it? For free?

    Reminds me of

    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg[/video]

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    @BoardinBob – Member

    Ha ha, yeah I recognise myself in some of that – I’m certainly the one who always says anything is possible and my mate in work is completely the other way, he’s the one who can only seemingly agree something is possible if the client knows the exact way it’s meant to be done – I do realise my only value here is the ability to say yes to everything and then browbeat him into working out how to do it.

    Rorschach
    Free Member

    I like fixing bikes.I’m quite good at it (after 11 years).
    Unfortunately they are owned by people…..which is an issue because

Viewing 6 posts - 41 through 46 (of 46 total)

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