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My son went in on Saturday with his GF and said said to the chap who came over that she'd like to get into mountain-biking. Now she was wearing heels and is a slim attractive blond and after telling the seller shed like to look at mountain-bike he looked at her and laughed. He then proceeded to ask her of she's ridden a bike before. She said 'no, but I've done spin classes' this seemed to amuse him even more and laughed at her again. He then turned his attention to my son and tried to sell him a DH bike even though the assistant knew my son already had one. He ignored the girl-friend until they left the shop which was when he laughed at her again and said "cycling's a lot different from spin-classes."
Disgusting sexist un-professional behaviour.
Rant over.
Nothing to worry about.
She won't be his girlfriend much longer if he won't put some oik in his place about inappropriate behaviour towards her.
I can only pass useful comment once you have posted photos of the slim attractive blond wearing high heels (only high heels)
Any pics of the G/F ? I have a spare she can borrow 🙂
Pics of girlfriend please. 😉
Have you posted this rant on Google reviews?
Justified complaint.
Reasonable spelling and grammar.
No swearing.
Your ranting skills need work.
What does your son think of you fancying his mrs?
oooh, was it Peter Poddy ???? that's where he works I believe 🙂
I'd be making some calls to the weekday store manager, because that is a great way to repel a potential customer rather quickly!
oooh, was it Peter Poddy ???? that’s where he works I believe
The greatest bike mechanic known to man? surely not....*
*Please, let it be his shop! 🙂
What kind of idiot turns up to choose a bike wearing high heels? Are you even going to sit on it or have a spin around the car park before buying?
Rubber Buccaneer - it was a case of "oh, shall we go in and see what bikes they've got" whilst doing something else entirely.
Heels seems a pretty weird choice of attire for going to look at bikes. Doesn't excuse being a **** though.
@ RB & njee sounds like the sales person could of been someone with the same attitude as you both.
I think your sons GF should definitely complain, and then 'accidentally' take her new Specialized into the Giant store for it's free 6 weeks service. "Oh no, I didn't buy the bike from here did I, you were the ****s..."
Justified rant - looks like you had time to call down and compose yourself.
In an unrelated rant - I contacted Giant to find out what the kit number was for my 2004 NRS composite - sorry it's too old for our records.... FFS
I once saw a slim blond woman in high heels riding a VFR750 in Monaco. True story.
In an unrelated rant – I contacted Giant to find out what the kit number was for my 2004 NRS composite – sorry it’s too old for our records…. FFS
Are you fit, blond and wearing heels? If so it might explain their attitude to you.
I once saw a slim blond woman in high heels riding a VFR750 in Monaco. True story.
Pics or didn't happen.
Are you fit, blond and wearing heels? If so it might explain their attitude to you.
Far from it, 54 balding male, it was via the Giant website so Marcus wasn't to know.
@ RB & njee sounds like the sales person could of been someone with the same attitude as you both
Hell no, if I were in the business of selling bikes I'd have wanted to sell her the most suitable bike. Heels just struck me as a really bad choice for bike buying attire.
Why have you aimed the ‘big rant’ at the Giant store in general, and not just the pillock working in it.
Staff training is one thing, but you can’t expect the store to know in advance what every member of staff is going to say.
Why not bring it to the attention of the management, rather than bad mouthing the entire shop on the internet because of one kid?
Kid?
Probably. I thought the tone of the OP was assumptions and generalisations so I’d make one too.
Why have you aimed the ‘big rant’ at the Giant store in general, and not just the pillock working in it.
Staff training is one thing, but you can’t expect the store to know in advance what every member of staff is going to say.
It's a perfect example of how one sexist dick in your staffroom can lead to your whole store getting slated.
Make sure the girl in question sends them lots of pictures of her riding the bike she didn't buy from them.
That's the amuse-bouche dealt with. When's the "big rant" being delivered?
Probably. I thought the tone of the OP was assumptions and generalisations so I’d make one too.
I didn't see any assumptions or generalisations in the op. Just a factual account of the 'service' offered to a potential customer.
Why have you aimed the ‘big rant’ at the Giant store in general, and not just the pillock working in it.
Because 'the pillock' is a representative of Giant. Encountering that type of ingrained behaviour in a professional setting from someone representing the brand might suggest that Giant condone the behaviour.
The training and store culture can't be all that healthy if any member of staff treats any customer that way, regardless of their gender, age etc.
I'm sure a regular spin class attender would probably whop quite a few of us on the uphills, anyhow.
Out of interest, and as incidental as it seems, what is the girlfriends opinion of what happened?
@ RB & njee sounds like the sales person could of been someone with the same attitude as you both.
Dafuq? Like RB I just genuinely think that's a weird choice. I presume if she doesn't ride she's not the most confident person on a bike, so turning up to try bikes in heels just seems a bit strange. Like I say, totally unrelated to the dick serving her, and perhaps they were just there to talk about bikes rather than try anything. I just find it weird that the conversation presumably went "shall we go and look at a bike for you?", "great idea, I'll get my Jimmy Choos on".
Would you go for a ride in heels?
heels would make it difficult to "test" a bike
I just find it weird that the conversation presumably went “shall we go and look at a bike for you?”, “great idea, I’ll get my Jimmy Choos on”.
I'd guess it was more a case of having spoken about buying a bike recently they were walking past the shop and decided to pop in. Seems perfectly logical to me. Either way, that kind of service really bad indeed.
I've walked into a bike shop wearing suit and tie and carrying a laptop bag. Not great for test riding bikes either. But i wasn't there to test ride a bike after all, I was passing and went in to ask about the range and see what I needed to do to have a test ride at another time.
I didn't get treated like a dick. Wonder why.....
Ridiculous behaviour! Especially from a bike store that has big signs outside mentioning their "Womens specific section" in the store....
Because you don't have one?
I’d guess it was more a case of having spoken about buying a bike recently they were walking past the shop and decided to pop in. Seems perfectly logical to me.
And unless there is a ready-made trail centre in the back of the shop, the most 'testing' that could be done is riding it around the car park, or more likely just sitting on it. More likely is the idea that perhaps they just wanted to see which models Giant offered in the right price range, and get some advice on which would be the most suitable.
Sorry. RNdom unnecessary abuse. I'd edit but can't find out how. Must not act like I'm at the office. 🙁
We have the GF of a club member join the club after he encouraged her into cycling about 1 year ago. I've not seen her wear heels personally, but she fits the OP's GF description otherwise.
She's now in Cat 3, hunting for Cat 2 points. Some pretty sexist attitudes in here as well as the Giant store, don't judge a book by its cover, and lets help cyclists be cyclists, please.
Missed opportunity to sell her a pair of MTB shoes to use when demoing all the bikes. Your son needs to work on his man skills though, should have put the shop worker in his place instead of complaining about it after the fact.
The thing is, this isn't that uncommon. Mrs Lunge ended up buying her latest bike from Decathlon after pretty much every bike shop treated her like a second class citizen and talked to me and not her. This despite it being her that instigated the conversation, her that was buying and paying for the bike and her that had researched before the trip. at the time, I put this down to the fact that I look like a cyclist (skinny guy, wearing shorts with scared and shaved legs) where as she looks and dresses somewhat more "normal". With hindsight, it may be they're just sexist, ignorant scumbags.
Herself has had it from people in bike shops, even when for example she was collecting a £1800 CX frameset from a shop, the "floor person" who'd been asked by herself if she could collect the frame would only speak to me. So I just said "she's the one buying it, it'd probably be a good idea to speak to her and not me". and then wandered off.
Had it in other places too - I think that many bike shop staff just can't comprehend that the little woman might have her own opinions and needs and that whilst the decision might have been discussed beforehand by us, it is usually a good idea to speak to the person who asks, and not their companion. Especially when they've phoned up and had a good chat with someone in the shop about whether they have something specific in, or if they could order it to be built up.
Her most recent bike was a bespoke frame build by Rob Quirk - all of the conversations were between him and her, I was asked my opinion on things and offered that when appropriate.
Have never encountered sexism in a bike shop, always been on my own too. Not a gorgeous blonde with a figure to die for either!
lucky7500 I didn’t see any assumptions or generalisations in the op. Just a factual account of the ‘service’ offered to a potential customer.
I thought there were lots:
1. That the girl is actually attractive to the person in the shop
2. That he used that as a basis for giving her terrible service (or her sex, but then why mention the attractive bit)
3. That the sons account of the story to his dad was accurate
I personally find it next to impossible to believe that a bloke in a shop laughed in a girls face when she wanted to buy a bike, and ended the conversation by laughing again before saying “cycling’s a lot different from spin-classes.” without the boyfriend feeling like he should say something to somebody there and then (or more accurately, the girl asking to speak to a manager herself, because you know, girls are actually capable of speaking up for themselves).
Regardless, if it's true, my point really was why not tell the manager so he could do something about it, whether it be disciplinary or training, rather than go home and write about it on the internet and sully the name of a shop without finding out first if the manager/owner thought it was acceptable behaviour by the staff or the culture of the business.
It seems these days like some people prefer to be offended so they can write about it on the internet, rather than give a business a chance to do something about it. I just find that odd.