I don’t usually go in for rants about bike shops, the attitude of sales assistants or the fact that shops actually charge more than mail order companies (duh!)…however…something happened on Friday night which is still irking me somewhat and I wanted to see what the masses thought…

So, as I said, Friday night at an hour to closing time at a bike shop which will for now remain nameless. Admittedly, an hour to closing time on a friday night is possibly not a good time to be asking for slightly obscure bits of kit, but on the other hand I’m an ex-employee of said company and I didn’t think the 9 Speed Ultegra STI shifters I was after would require anything more than a quick phone call to Madison (or Ultimate Pursuits as they now call themselves) on Monday morning to confirm whether or not they still have any and how much they cost.

My first encounter was with a friendly enough individual who admitted to being ‘out of the loop’ regarding road kit and, after checking their stock files he confirmed that they, the shop, didn’t have any. For further information he referred me to a colleague of his who was involved in serving another customer. After waiting for 20 minutes (with not so much as a nod or ‘be with you as soon as possible sir’) the indicated individual was collected from elsewhere in the shop (where, presumably he had scurried off to rather than speak to me) and he adressed me in a manner I would normally reserve for the eternally and profoundly stupid and imbecellic. His whole manner indicated a sort of disgust that anyone should be considering using 9 speed road kit even going so far as to inform me that “Everyone is using 10 speed these days!” (to which I politely replied “Thankyou…but I don’t). Anyway…he informed me there was no point going further with my enquiry as there was no way that anyone would have any 9 speed stock left. Somewhat irritated, I left and went to the shop down the road who informed me that Madison do indeed still have stock of said items and quoted me a price.

So what does everyone think? Bad moment or a bad employee?

please don’t mention r**d in polite company 🙁

Bit of both probably.

However, name and shame.

Bad employee…sadly not uncommon it seems!

bad employee no question

Name and shame…fair one…but the individual or the company? Or should I just phone the company and have a moan?

Oh…and I just checked the UP website, they list the STIs I was after, but they have no stock. My problem isn’t with whether or not they were available, but about the guy’s attitude and the lack of effort he made to aquire me the components I need.

Just thought maybe I should qualify that.

Please Lord don’t let it be another bike shop in Stourbridge thread

arrogant and superior employee. Had a few in our old place. Name and shame. Or phone and ask for the boss.

I feel you should be annoyed and I would be if it happened to me. We are often made to feel bad for not using the LBS and for just saving a few quid we are putting local traders out of business for using the likes of CRC, Wiggle etc. However although not all of them, some LBS have some serious issues and often if you aren’t in the little group of regular big spenders they don’t seem to want to know.

I recently had a issue with a 4 quid bottle cage, first ride it broke and I lost my bottle. So I returned it to the mail order company I bought it from who gave me a full refund and out of good will actually replaced my bottle for me. Now I know my LBS wouldn’t have done this!!

With the internet companies offering good service and good prices I think LBS need to step up and evolve into something better….

Imagine yourself as the lowly-paid bike shop employee…

There you are, Friday evening breathing down your neck. Your thoughts are focussed on a weekend ahead, maybe all your mates are riding but you have to work Saturday. Your world is turned from a casual slumber by some errant roadie looking for vintage kit. Your mate in the shop has clearly slopie-shouldered it on to you, even though you have no idea other than “10 speed”.

No wonder you hacked him off, he was probably wondering why you didn’t just buy it from wiggle like everyone else.

A good employee would have picked up you probably had some old roadie clunker and had you play with the latest 10-speed wonders while he searched and eventually found a way to sell you a new bike or upgrade to the old.

just checked the UP website, they list the STIs I was after, but they have no stock.

So he was right, then 🙂

You should definitely tell the manager. If I were managing a shop and one of my staff acted like that I’d really want to know about it. It cost me a sale after all and by the sound of it a regular customer.

That’s the point Count, I have been the poor lowly paid bike shop worker. I spent a good 4 years of my life never having a weekend, so I know what it’s like. I’ve been there, I’ve done it, and yes it sucks.

Firstly I wouldn’t consider myself a roadie (I’m mostly a cross rider at the moment…and not much of that), I also wouldn’t consider 9 speed Ultegra particularly vintage. Finally it wouldn’t have taken much to say “Sorry mate…don’t rate your chances of getting hold of that, tell you what tho, I’ll give Madison a ring on Monday morning and see what they’ve got, is that ok?” If he had done, I’d have been happy, but the arrogant “Oh you caveman!” attitude really got up my nose!

Anyway…methinks it might be time to make a polite call to his boss.