Just had the "why don't you do that for free?" line

nealglover – Member
I just disagree with you.

You made it personal and had a wee go – so a bit more than disagreeing.

When did I say I was upset? I’m just pointing out the facts, sorry if you don’t like that.

I don’t like bellends using a person’s depression to score cheap Internet warrior points.

If you think that’s ok. Then you are as much of a job as you sometimes seem.

I just asked him a question, like he claims he did me. We’d both posted on a depression thread and I found I had goes at folk on here when I wasn’t doing well.

Get upset about that if you like.

I’m not upset about it.

I just think you’ve made yourself look like a complete arsehole.

maybe I was wrong, behaving like that often enough, you probably have earned a few “haters”

(Which was possibly your intention)

I still love you Al.You big non scottish,Stimpy loving,grumpy bundle of joy you.

bruneep – Member

Where is this takeaway?
Posted 1 hour ago #

behave yourself – they’ll be queueing at the door once they know it was Al serving them

Posted 1 hour ago # Report-Post

If someone walked into my restaurant expectng to have their headset adjusted for free I’d show them the door.

New from Edinburgh Bike Co-op, free online slagging with every purchase!

9 times out of 10 if it’ll be knackered and impossible to adjust properly. so 30 seconds becomes 20mins of stripping, greasing and faffing all for free.

Doesn’t have to be like that. Spend the 30 seconds attempting to adjust it. If it’s knackered then you inform the customer when he collects it (or phone prior to that) that it’s a goner and to fix/replace will cost X amount. Up to him then if he wants it done or not. No free work necessary on your part and the kind of basic customer service that most punters appreciate.

Euro + several. Nobody mentioned repairing the headset. Adjusting it as well as possible takes a couple of minutes at most and I f it’s borked you just tell the customer that it’s borked. They can like it or lump it.

[quoteEuro + several. Nobody mentioned repairing the headset. Adjusting it as well as possible takes a couple of minutes at most and I f it’s borked you just tell the customer that it’s borked. They can like it or lump it[/quote]

This. Why not just adjust it and offer some advice? (Free advice, that is)

I find him an irritating little cock!
Seemed a reasonable question as to what’s behind him always having a pop on my threads.

Least I know why you criticise me on the rare occasions I comment on your threads.

I don’t like bellends using a person’s depression to score cheap Internet warrior points.
If you think that’s ok. Then you are as much of a job as you sometimes seem.

Cheers for your support but to be fair I don’t think he was. I’m not even sure what thread he’s referring to I’ve only been recently open about my depression as I find its helped my colleagues and patients become open. It’s possible I’ve mentioned here in the past but I’ve really no idea.

Water off a duck’s back.

So did we get the name of the takeaway?

Woot woot. The angry Police are here. Who am I here to question Sirs?

I think it’s called.

Al’s Coffee and Bicycle Repair Emporium.

Doing unpaid work, especially on bollocks like threaded headsets can often blow up in your face. Lets say the op tries to quickly adjust it as a favour to the customer. A week later, it shits itself, so the customer (lets call him Stevie) is in the shop having a screaming match with the manager saying the op caused the damage. The OP is off that day so can’t defend himself or explain that he just looked at it.

He’s gonna go on Facebook, he’s gonna go on twitter blah blah blah, so before you know it the manager’s making the work shop drop all current jobs, so this asshole will leave the shop, he’s out time, and parts, and he wants to know why the op was doing free work on Stevie’s bike.

Or a month later his headset shits itself while he’s commuting, he gets distracted, falls and he breaks his arm. Stevie’s solicitor is on the phone to the OP’s manager….who is asking the op what he did to the customer’s bike and why he didn’t charge.

Or the OP inspects the headset but can’t tell without investigating further…so he phones Stevie but can’t get through. So he decides to go the extra mile and just quickly take it apart, but lo and behold the bearing cage falls apart and he’s got a handful of rusty scrap, and perhaps doesn’t have any spare bearings. So now they need ordered in and it’ll take a week. He phones Stevie, Stevie goes ballistic. He only wanted it looked at, not expensive labour and parts. He doesn’t want to pay. So now the OP’s c*** of a manager needs to get involved…..you can see where I’m going.

The customers who demand the most / expect stuff done for free are often the ones who have the least loyalty or will be the first to kick off, either in the shop or via the internet. I’ve seen it time and time again. It’s doesn’t matter what the job is, in the customers eyes it’s “just a simple job”.

“My hub is making a noise, will you take a quick look a it?” Hub probably ****ed

“My brakes are rubbing will you take a quick look at it?” Brakes probably need bled.

“My frame is making a clunking sound” Your Lapierre is broken.

Who slagged the customer off? Not me, I just presented his and my views. He was adamant he was right so why would he be bothered about it being discussed?

Euro + several. Nobody mentioned repairing the headset. Adjusting it as well as possible takes a couple of minutes at most and I f it’s borked you just tell the customer that it’s borked. They can like it or lump it.

That’s not the way it works though is it? Fiddling with something you weren’t asked to results in either a complaint when it’s found to be fecked and needs ££’s to put right or a claim that it worked fine before and the shop must have done it followed by asking for free work to put it right.

How many times have we seen chancers come on here screaming warranty or I was charged this for that and I didn’t even ask for it etc… Leave well alone. It’s less grief in the long run.

Oh, and any chance we can cut the school playground insults out? It really is a bit silly. :-/

At the moment,I hate “new potato” chips from the chippy

Oh, and any chance we can cut the school playground insults out? It really is a bit silly. :-/

/sticks tongue out.

Oi! Your a modulater, behave yersen. 😀

Doing unpaid work, especially on bollocks like threaded headsets can often blow up in your face

and he’d been quoted it for free so I didn’t charge

Probably best that you don’t offer to do something for free then get upset that the customer wanted to ‘cash in’ on his free service.. that had been offered for free.
or am I missing something?

I love Al’s Saturday “I hate my customers” threads 😆

Careful dirks I asked that question then a whole shit storm kicked off.

I love Al’s Saturday “I hate my customers” threads

Hopefully it becomes a regular feature, culminating in him losing his shit and going balls out Michael Douglas.

This sums up my attitude toward working for free

http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p2.html

Noooooo! Now the graphic designers are awake.

OP you could lend me that carbon frame? 😉

Used to get the same customer crap in the motor trade, just one of the reasons I left it.
Couple of examples; started at a new garage, serviced a guys Escort van. The tappets were noises so needed adjusting. Found a broken adjuster, the van had been previously serviced by the foremans fav mech(we were on a bonus scheme). I replace it, no more noisy tappets? Customer takes van away, returns next day, speaks to foreman. Over they come, foreman has “that look” on his face, hands on hips and says customer says there’s something different about his van. “What have you done” asks he? After a bit of chat I explain, produce offending item,customer goes away happy unlike foreman!! Customer asks for me to service car from then on 😆

After a few more episodes like this another, better job came along.

As for lbs experience I’ve had good and bad but the bad has always been resolved without any shouting and I still use them. When I bike into town I drop my bike in rather than leaving it locked anywhere ie use the shop as a bike park 😆 On one occasion I asked them to hunt out some sus bushes(Kona)and I’d collect on my return. The workshop was quiet so they fitted them foc. This is a shop our family has used since it opened over 50yrs ago. They used to sell motor bikes and graduated from selling Reliant 3 wheelers, Lotus, early Fiats to being and award winning Honda dealer.
The bike shop is now leased from the original owners/families

Do you like any customers, or have you thought about selling up and buying a hermitage?

Is it just me or is Cynical Al feeling a bit unloved at the moment. It’s like the whole world is ganging up on him. The Cafe incident along with most other threads he gets involved in have turned into handbags at dawn. He seems to like a bit of mod baiting too.
Chill out dude and we might be able to arrange a group hug for you.

I often get people (patients/insurance companies etc) seem a bit miffed when I tell them there’s a fee for ‘non contract/non NHS’ tasks..
Insurance reports, notes for work, signatures etc…

Premises, staff, heating, and lighting all cost money!!

DrP

if I went to a bike shop and they said they’d do something for free, and then asked for money after the fact I’d pay up and never go back.

On the other side of the coin, we took a bike to a shopthis weekend to have a brake bled, they said £25 with new pads and bled, came back they had pumped up a tyre and re greased the pedals as well as the work (we would have thanked and offered a bit more if it wasn’t till about 10mins later we noticed). £25 swapped hands. we’ll be back in there if we need to be.

He’d been quoted it for free (a colleague’s error) and so he wasn’t charged.

But he though it was ridiculous to charge whether he’d been quoted it free or not. – the point behind this thread.

Premises, staff, heating, and lighting all cost money!!

DrP
IIRC you are very well recompensed by the NHS for this. All of the fixed costs of your work would still exist irrespective of the “private” [ or fee paying if you prefer] work you charge for

TBH charging for things like signatures and pressing print on the computer [ then signing] are rather excessive , bear little relation to the actual costs involved. I bet almost none of yoru patients are better off than you

This is neither a personal dig at you nor the profession as you deserve to be well rewarded for what you do but some charges are piss takes that are then paid by the poor to the rich.

I quite like Ed bikes..I remember once the mechanic loaned me his bleed kit as he didn’t have time do it for me, told me what to do, loned me the kit etc. That said I spend a small fortune i there..

Which one are you Al…I’m always trying to guess when I go in.

Jesus how’s it the customers fault your colleague is a muppet and told him it would be free. Think you need words with your colleagues not the customer.

As an aside I recently found out you work for EBC which is a company I wouldn’t trust with a bargepole, as a company you can’t even be arsed to check the indexing on a new bikes before sending them out 😥

I think you need to step away from internet before you get in mega trouble.