LBS owners= snobs?

Yes ohhh yes today a customer came in to my shop and after a chat and me doing my usual sales pitch referred to me as a typical LBS owner with refrence to being a snob and walked out!

Huh
Typical is it ?

Well I hope you jolly well gave him a sound thrashing… Did you have your Bentley parked outside?..
We know you’ve all got one…

only ones that complain about customers on forums.

I have in mind the owners my most local lbs, who are the most un-snobbish, friendly and enthusiastic people: euqally friendly whether you buy a patch kit or some dura ace bling, and whether you arrive wheeling in a carbon race sled or a beat-up commuter. Totally not snobs and give lots of support for local racing. Despite their relatively small size, they will also be burning the midnight oil as a trade/shop tent with the some sensible prices and great bargains to be had at the 24/12 if previous years are anything to go by.

I can think of a couple of employees of lbs’ (as opposed to the owners) who come across very haughty/superior (“I suppose you want those spd’s for a spinning class, madam?” etc) but these two tools are happily the exception rather than the rule round our way.

What were you trying to sell him? Was it what he/she asked for?

certainly no bike snobs on STW! 😕

some are definitely pretentious [insert word]s of the highest order who want to sell what they want not what people want to buy.
“Hi, I’m looking for a 140mm Trail/AM bike or frame to build up.”
“We have these lovely 100mm HT carbon 29’s thats more what you want”
(a real example)

others are people who happen to know a lot about bikes and end up knowing what is decent and what isn’t in a market place. Sometimes it’s hard to sell things that are crap.

I also have found there is a growing proportion of people these days who are wandering round waiting to be offended so they can post about it on Facebook/Twitter/Here.

I can think of a couple of employees of lbs’ (as opposed to the owners) who come across very haughty/superior

+1. I was looking to buy a carbon Santa Cruz frame from a certain Lakes bike shop…the bloke serving told me the one I was looking at had just been bought a dentist and then asked me what I did for a living! If that wasn’t bad enough, he then asked my mate a few questions about my employment too!
I bought a similarly priced frame a week or two later, from somewhere where my business was more welcome. 🙂

Some are, absolutely. I was in a bike shop in E. Sussex. I was on my £50 commuter and needed some new tires. The guy stopped serving me to talk to a guy on his expensive full sus. Another person working in the shop ignored me and went to the other customer too.

A few weeks later I was on my MTB and needed a tube. Got excellent service and asked loads of questions about my bike, where I rode etc.

I’ll bet you were trying to sell him one of those 29ers you can’t shift, eh? 😉

makecoldplayhistory and d45yth last week

Typical is it ?

if your face-to-face style is anything like your written style on here, you are lucky for them to get beyond baffled.

I strive to make a sale yes indeed,do not like to see a customer go out of the door empty handed
The sales pitch itself was one of the Trek 29er hardtail range I stock

Too tall exactly I am by far means no snob huh

I’ve never had snobbishness as suich but I have had the “I know better than you” attitude. I asked if they stocked XTR gear cable sets only to be told they don’t exist and that all gear cables are the same. I was like, but I’ve had them before, they’re fitted to one of my bikes and he said they’re not XTR. I gave up and left, not been back since. A lad at work came to me yesterday and asked if I had any bar end caps as he’d lost one. Apparently he went into his LBS and asked for a pair only to be told you can’t buy them! Anyway I forgot to bring them in for him 🙁

[/quote] I was looking to buy a carbon Santa Cruz frame from a certain Lakes bike shop…the bloke serving told me the one I was looking at had just been bought a dentist and then asked me what I did for a living! If that wasn’t bad enough, he then asked my mate a few questions about my employment too!

he is pre qualifying you to ensure you can afford it, such behaviour is normall at Porsche and Mercedes, a bit sad that a bike shop feels the need.. 🙁

Am I a snob because I refuse to repair the Costco bikes people locally seem to keep buying, or to fix poo-covered pram wheels?

Not so much snobbish but two of them definitely have an elitist/clique thing going on.

Most seem ok although some staff can be difficult / stuck up because they work in a shop so know everything.

The only time I’ve cone across snobbery in a bike shop was totally unrelated to bikes. One of the guys from a shop in High Wycombe was into his cars and had an AC Cobra replica that I referred to as a kit car. He got a bit grumpy and pointed out that it was a replica and certainly not a kit car…

Singlespeed_Shep – Member
only ones that complain about customers on forums.

This, if the ones bleeting on about customers on stw are anything to go by then yes it’s typical.

me doing my usual sales pitch

OK I see the problem.

(more seriously, a sample of 1 is not a sample, each customer is different, each shop is probably different too).

Snobs?
My LBS is called BAD ASS bikes and the owner uses expletives at a ratio of about 2/1.
Mind you, I went into a roadie shop in that London (Kingston) once. What a bunch of ****ing ****ers.

I can definitely relate the ‘I know what you want better than you’ attitude that seems to predominate in LBS’s.

I appreciate genuine advice, but it is never given in that way. Having ridden bikes and taken them to pieces for the last 22 yrs, it’s galling when some sales assistant, barely out of their teens, immediately insists on the ‘I know what you want better than you’ attitude.

What gives??? Is this the FIRST thing they teach them at LBS training school?

Predominantly, many LBS IME do themselves a real disservice by taking a generally patronising attitude to their customers – hence I usually avoid them at all costs. I can only think of a handful of brilliant ones who actually treat their customers like valued people.

nice, I picked up the missus bike from my LBS today, chilled & fine, rented 2 bike bags for the week – price slab of beer, which will probably get drunk tomorrow night at closing time

The blokes at my LBS are useless they always try to sell me the opposite of what I ask for.

One example was me asking if they had any FS frames for sale and being told everybody was moving to HT now so they wouldn’t sell me an FS, I already had a HT.

The last time I went in they refused to accept that it is possible to buy inner tubes that were schrader and had lock rings. I had to show them the Continental website before they believed me.

My not so LBS is brilliant, so enthusiastic and willing to help.

it’s really hard to know how to read how staff are with customers, I had two lads working for me whom I thought were brilliant, but after I they left and I got new guys in (who are outstanding) the complaints about the old guys started to flood in. customers didnt want to say antyhing at the time as they felt the old staff were my friends.

But I would be a total snob except I ride a 26″ bike so everyone on their 29ers looks down on me.

such behaviour is normall at Porsche and Mercedes

Not from my experience of Merc.

9 times out of 10 this is the convo i have with my LBS

‘Afternoon *insert sales persons name here*, can I have/order a *insert product here*?

‘Yep, here/well order it for you.’

The other 1/10 is just a general chat. It’s A Good Idea TM to make friends with your LBS.

Dunno about all, some don’t seem to friendly, harry halls at the corn exchange always seemed to me cliquey/snobbish, other places I’ve been to felt a bit like I wasn’t worthy. Dunno if that was partly my problem, I was always on a cheapy bike so felt weird surrounded by bike porn.

Always feel more at ease going into some small, traditional, back street packed to the rafters style LBS than posh bike showrooms.

I can definitely relate the ‘I know what you want better than you’ attitude that seems to predominate in LBS’s.

me too. After all I’ve got the entire back catalogue of mbuk stw so I know exactly what I want.

of course sometimes they may actually have known what I needed. Ho hum.

Or Bentley

My fave bike shop take the pre out of me but I always get a cuppa & a biscuit, I’ve sent loads of people in for their bikes. The staff are knowledgable but not in your face

After all I’ve got the entire back catalogue of mbuk stw so I know exactly what I want.

of course sometimes they may actually have known what I needed. Ho hum.

This. If someone asks for something that I think might not be right for them, I gently ask them why they’ve made that choice, and if I think they’ve got it wrong I’ll try to steer them down a more sensible route – but still happy to build whatever they want no matter how unsuitable.

It’s A Good Idea TM to make friends with your LBS

..why should I have to make this effort? I mean, like, I already have perfectly good friends! 😉

In any other normal high street shop industry I can reasonably expect to receive decent friendly service, simply by virtue of being a customer. What places LBS on this lofty pedestal?

‘Joe public’ is somehow simply not deserving enough of their haloed kudos?

The best bike shops (literally, a few) are where you are instantly ‘friends’ the moment you walk through the door, simply because you are into bikes.

That’s how bike shops should be IMO.

I agree. The esteem that bike shops are held in does baffle me at times. They’re a business and should strive to offer the best service possible to get your business.

You expect that from every other retailer, so why not a bike shop? Just because it’s a hobby diesnt mean they should be able to get away with offering a rubbish service and not listen to customers. The good ones will survive (hopefully) and the bad ones fade away.

One of my best experiences was trying to track down some pads for a set of old M4’s. When I said to the yoof in my nearest shop that they had four individual pads he told me there was no such thing and that I needed the pads for a Moni calliper. Er, no I didn’t.

Why make friends with your LBS? It’s nice to have friends 😉

Turn it around – why would you not want to build up a friendly relationship with people you deal with regularly? I get on very well with my powdercoater, my accountant, the company who fix my shutters, courier drivers, other bike shops,…

It’s A Good Idea TM to make friends with your LBS

..why? I mean, like, I already have perfectly good friends!

Because some people think they are ‘friends’ with their LBS and expect to get freebies and discounts when all the owner wants to do is releive your wallet to the max. I don’t expect to be ‘friends’ with my chip shop, newsagent or hairdresser but I am friendly to them. There is a difference between friendly and being friends.

Anyway I don’t use my LBS (2 mins ride from home) because its rubbish, but I know him well and he knows what I think.

Working in a bike shop can be really depressing, the shit people try to pull is unreal.
Yesterday ….
” can I have a refund on these shorts cos they make my bum bleed”
” I had my bike serviced about three weeks ago and now it’s got a puncture “
” I bought this inner tube And its got a hole in it “
Add to that the bloke who had a warranty frame swapped in super fast time with new cables and heli tape all at no charge only to then kick off because he couldn’t have he old frame as well !
The lady who had a massive rant about her three month old road bike and its rattling gears only for us to find she bought it over a year ago !
I could go on .
It can make it hard to greet you all with a smile .

^ I appreciate that side of the conundrum 🙂

It must be a pretty rough environment to try to make a living in.. :genuine:

It’s A Good Idea TM to make friends with your LBS

Maybe, my experience is it’s also a Good Idea TM to be able to maintain your bike yourself, so you can deal with bike shops because you want to not because you have to.

I’ve had disappointing (or worse) experiences with most of the shops I’ve used, despite spending plenty of cash, and prefer to avoid them when I can nowadays. The internet is a god-send, and if I’m honest the LBSs drove me to it.

I mean no reflection on the LBSers on here, good luck to you, it can’t be an easy way to earn a living. Perhaps I’ve been unlucky, but I can only speak as I find.

plus its hard when some of the customers are simply checking your shop out to come back and rob you later.
or a customer who wanted a shock swapping in super fast time so we sent a new shock and asked the old one to be returned, still waiting three months on.
customer wanted their gears setting up, only for their other half to bring the bike back later that day saying the brakes arent working, despite us telling the other half that they werent working and do they want us to set them up.

its fun and games.

plus its hard when some of the customers are simply checking your shop out to come back and rob you later.

That stinks. But they’re not customers they’re criminals.

The internet is a god-send, and if I’m honest the LBSs drove me to it.

^This!