[Closed] LBS Rip OFF

Thankfully I have just had a tip-off from one of our regular customers. I hadnt realised we had made the forum-sadly for the wrong reason.

I wont hide. I'm Adrian Johnson and own About Bikes, Evesham.

I am saddened that I wasnt approached by Mr Sheldon Attwood before he chose to "rant" about my shop and the services we provide.

We have historically supplied Sheldon and his fellow Ashton MTB riders a 15% loyalty discount. Sadly this is rarely taken up, they use CRC regularly and I understand this-we will never compete with them, so be it, but, nontheless, I always felt we had a good relationship.

I have always strived to give AMTB a fair service, as I do with all of my customers.

We do offer a free service LABOUR ONLY deal when customers purchase bikes at RRP £500 and above(this excludes any cyclescheme deals). Sheldons wife took a CX bike on C/Scheme about 2 yrs ago.

called in last week (I have just learned) and asked Jon, our newby tech, to replace her cables. He quoted her £18 for inners and outers and said that if she returned with her POP she would get the labour free of charge. This is common practice here and I feel, totally acceptable. Jon doesnt know .

(Jon completed his Cytec and NVQ training a while back)

questioned the price and Jon offered to just replace the inners at £3 each.

She made a phone call and said "my husband can do it cheaper"...she left the shop..thats the last we have heard.

To say I'm a little disappointed is an understatement. The said CX bike was crashed about a year ago. I, personally, spent an hour or so checking the bike over and producing a proper insurance quote. I chased this up about a month after and was told by Sheldon, its on going. We didnt levy a fee for this and were obviously used just to get a quote from.
Now, it seems, Sheldon has fitted some new sti's (assumably sourced from STW or CRC but certainly not from us)and expects us to fit the cables for him free of charge.

As for our work and costs having to be defended by him, this is the first I have heard....if it is so why does he always come in with a smiley face and chat and never mention anything??

RE the Hope pawl issue. Yes, it seems we did mis-assemble the hub-although I can only go with what I was told (no reason to question it). I spoke with the customer (Paul) and apologised. I wasnt at the shop at the time and mistakes happen. We have, since, done extra work and favours to make amends. Paul has never suggested he has been unhappy with us. Infact he posted a very supportive post on our "The Best Of" page a while ago.

The vast majority of people/customers who know me/the shop/our service will tell anyone that we are fair, honest and trustworthy. What a shame I find myself here trying to defend myself.

Ade

Does the OP work for the Daily Mail? He'd make a great journo for them.

Ade

You have my sympathies for putting up with this day in day out, worked in a local shop in Wolverhampton when I left school and it was a good way of learning about people management shall we say!!

If there are people who are fed up with our service I would like to hear from them.....I know we arent perfect but we all make mistakes.

Ah....I remember spending half an hour drilling some bolts out for Mr Attwood (haha...free of charge)at past closing time one evening just so he could go riding the next morning.........I wont go on.

Nice one a b.

at home yesterday when I fitted her new STI

You fitted her up with an STI and then moan when she spends £18 because you could do some simple bike maintennce properly
You ought to consider yourself lucky its not costing you more than that in the divorce courts!!
I'd get down the GUM clinic if I was you 😉

Think the op owes about bikes a bit of an apology here 😉

Both sides of the story? A reasonable explanation? That doesn't leave much room for us to speculate? How are we going to get another few pages out of this thread now?

He quoted her £18 for inners and outers and said that if she returned with her POP she would get the labour free of charge.

Arrrr.......... that's the catch

You need to bring you're dad with you or no free labour

well done ade! customers in wrong expectation shocker! its not easy is it....good job all us bikeshop owners earn 100's of thousands per annum otherwise this kinda thing would really bite... 😉

i liked your reply,just from that you seem very fair/level headed(id like to think lke most bike shop owners)

Bravo aboutbikes.
It takes some balls as a business (transparently aswell) to go on here and refute accusations-you're in a no win situation and are likely to cop it more for calling out a customer ,by god they hate it when you point out THEIR short comings.
The vast majority of so called bad service is caused by the chasm between customer expectations and retail reality.Emotion vs logic....and logic rarely wins!

Frustrating isn't it Ade! No matter how hard you try to give good service, someone will always have a go at you.

Well done for coming on here and stating your case so clearly.

Cripes this is definitely on for my '"Busted" of the week' thread.

Where's the OP now?

Hah class reply from the shop and they have my sympathies, not overly sure about the use of the customers names though but perhaps that's common knowledge.

RANT = EPIC FAIL

Good on ya Adrian for putting the record straight.
+1 with cynic-al on the "Busted" thread of the week.

I'd not use a shop that couldn't get a simple job like fitting pawls springs right.

I'd also not be best pleased about then posting my full name and my Mrs's full name on here either.

If your in business and employing staff, mistakes happen, it's how you deal with those mistakes that matters,
about bikes dealt with it and held their hands up which is fair enough IMO

fairly easy to see the op's name in his profile....

As an About Bikes customer I was surprised to read this as I've used them for a few years now and have always had a good experience from Ade and the guys.

Their service is good and their pricing is fair, which is all I expect from a bike shop. They are far from a LBS for me as it's a 50 mile round trip (sadly). However, after experiencing some very poor and possibly "rip off" service from my most local bike shop, my money has been going to About Bikes ever since.

Re the freehub pawls, pity the shop didn't put them in tollah's bike, only getting drive when pedalling backwards would have been really unique, turn the saddle round and hey presto, a front wheel drive bike. 😀

Sheldons name is in regular circulation on the forum - and he regularly links to it on his flikr site so I doubt he's too bothered by that.

His partners name is another matter though.

fairly easy to see the op's name in his profile....

But not Mrs Tollah's name...

I don't see

Mrs's full name

🙄 🙄

I've had a few customers like that, demanding punctures fixed for free months after the sale.....

I think this thread illustrates why passing on a conversation you weren't present for leaves you open to being contradicted subsequently by someone who was actually there and is thus best avoided.

Splitting hairs there crisped. 🙄

Seems to me that they deserve each other. Full marks for defending your shop's rep but a little too personal for my liking (though I can appreciate the frustration). Have to say though that 15% discount is generous, I'd happily reduce internet shopping if I had that!

Sounds like Mr Attwood has just shat where he sleeps in one respect. Would like to be a fly on the wall the next time an Ashton MBC member calls in, if/when Ade removes the 15% loyalty discount to Ashton club members, which TBH it sounds like he would be justified in doing.

op and stu huge fail, both come across very badly, best leave it eh?

Splitting hairs there crisped.

Doesn't the OP have lots of super-expensive/niche kit?

& therefore...has £ to spend on bikes and shouldn't be a noob at this sort of thing?

I've only said that [b]I'd[/b] not use them and not be happy with my Mrs name being put up on here.

I've not slagged anyone off. Just stated my opinion.

Why's that so wrong.

Crisped.

I assumed nothing.

Sounds like Mr Attwood has just shat where he sleeps in one respect.

Why's that so wrong.

Sometimes it's just more dignified to keep it zipped.

singlespeedstu - Member

I've only said that I'd not use them and not be happy with my Mrs name being put up on here.

He has got a point!!

I think the OP was being unreasonable in his rant, and that £18 to fit cables is perfectly acceptable....

About Bikes reply was very detailed and factual, but he shouldn't have stated his or her name IMO

Wow this has got a little out if hand today hadn't it?

Just to put a couple of things straight.
I was never going to mention the shops name in anyway shape or form as ive personally always been looked after. I was just really peeved about my good ladies visit yesterday and was letting off steam as I'm sure this was a one off. And in hindsight was a stupid thing to do.

Yes the bike was crashed, what that has to do with anything us beyond me. The insurance (ctc) never came to anything anyway. The shifter failed a few months back and I was given a new one by a friend to keep her going over the next few months, her cables needed doing anyway despite the sit change. And just to defend her she did ask for Inners only thus getting a quote for £18 stung a little.
As far as the other comments about defending the shop these are true but I've always been looked after that's why I've defended it.

Ade I'm sorry and I guess I should have spoken with you first, even though you ride a girls bike 😉

I love the smell of back peddling in the morning. 😉
Disclaimer. I borrowed that quote.

Tollah, even though you weren't going to name the shop a lot of people on here know who you are and where you shop, through you being a member of a club, so it was fairly easy for them to guess which shop you meant.

I think what abe was getting at with his remark to the bike being crashed was that he gave you an hour's workshop time for free assessing your bike and never heard anything back from it. Ok, maybe you didn't get an insurance pay-out but a thank you of some sort or even just an update may have been appreciated.

Also if abe has helped you out so much on many occasions, 15% savings here and there, keeping the workshop open at night so you can go riding, do you really begrudge him £18 quid to fit a set of cables when it would cost you £8 or so anyway?

Poloding along so you knew which shop I was on about then? That's strange as I use around 10 shops in this area so not to name the shop or to confirm anything was keeping their name safe in my opinion. The owner decided to name and shame his self.
Giving an hours workshop time for free was appreciated and if the ctc were successful in their claim another £750 would have been spent in the shop, we both lost out there. I have no idea what you're talking about keeping the workshop open at night? I think....... ah stuff it what's it got to do with you anyway.

I've since spoken with Ade and things are what they are.
Thread closed.

This is quite a boring theme on here, people complaining about the cost of goods and services when they really have no appreciation of what it costs to supply said good or service. £18 quid to supply and fit cables sounds ok to me, I mean a fully kitted out workshop with mechanic has to cost at least £30 an hour all in (rent, services, tools and wages) so if it was 8 quid for cables and an a tenner for maybe 20 mins or more of work it sounds bang on. If you don't like it go somwhere else or learn to do your own maintainance.

Oops! 🙄

A thread is for life, not just for Tuesday. Except my last one 😉

Thread closed.

Ha ha! You wish!

Oh no; this is some of the best quality pwnage I've seen on here in ages! Deserves to run to a good few hundred posts at least, I'd say!! 😀

An simple apology would be suitably appropriate, I think...