LBS issues…. Grrrr….

These probably.

I have had an appalling experience from the Giant Guildford store. Had to go to the sister shop in Knaphill, who were very good. I will never use them and encourage all my mates to avoid as well.

i was thinking about this a bit more actually ….

this thread is very unprofessional.

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I agree. You absolutely nailed it.

I imagine quite a few ‘LBS’s staff have targets or are incentive-driven.

A certain bike chain also prompted me into doing my own mechanics after a couple of comments by them made me question what they were saying- then the penny dropped. I was new to the sport/hobby and I thought ‘I’m being had for sales’.

They aren’t hubs of the community- ALL are businesses there to make money and survive on sales.

ALL are businesses there to make money and survive on sales.

Well yes, but as with everything, rule one should be applied and that is not in reference to any other businesses mentioned in this thread.

Possibly dense question, but what is rule one?

never wear a hat on a Tuesday

Rule one?

I always thought it was “Don’t be a dick”.

Rule 1. don’t be a dick 😉

The hat thing may hold true too 😀

Even fairly recently a bikeshop owner mentioned my rear mech was worn out and needed replacing ideally. Even though it was just cosmetically marked.

Rule one?

I always thought it was “Don’t be a dick”.

Ah. I assume, as I am a bit of a dick, that’s why I didn’t know that.

😆

if its still than 90s XTR then he has a point hora 😉

was asked if it was that “stumpy little **** with the holes in his ears kicking off again”

I see the customer service training went well

Can’t agree about hats. The world would be a far better place if more people wore proper hats. Every day of the week.

FWIW, they quoted me >£250 for work that Nirvana did for £60. Happy to give any LBS one shot, but……

The world would be a far better place if more people wore proper hats. Every day of the week.

+ 1 I like wearing hats as well.
Problem is folk think you are an eccentric character if you wear one these days

The only hat you should ever need.

I like my hat, but small children think I’m Indiana Jones.

ROF Bishopton 322 by Ben Cooper[/url], on Flickr

was that “stumpy little **** with the holes in his ears kicking off again”
LOL, guess you guys have previous ??

Yeah that’s me.
But not that I know of, to be 100% truthful.

Hora, yes, I have targets to meet and I’m bang on track to hit the top one. I do it with honesty and integrity, I know ripping people off won’t get them coming back to me. That matters to me more than a quick buck. I’m now just starting to see the fruits of what I’ve put into my job, returning customers, the odd recommendedation. That sort of thing. If I want to stay where I am and continue hitting my targets, that’s whats gotta happen, right? There’s not a never ending supply of new customers. 🙂

They aren’t hubs of the community- ALL are businesses there to make money and survive on sales.

While the latter part of this is undeniably true, it doesn’t follow that you can’t achieve those aims while being ethical and not trying to rip your customers off.

And the first part can also be true – I don’t see how the two are mutually exclusive.

In fact not ripping people off makes better business sense long-term as this thread shows.

I like my hat, but small children think I’m Indiana Jones.

The perspective seems a little off in that pic, Ben.

Pfft you usually photoshop them….is disapoint

As for this ‘Avid thing’, well, the bikes still sitting in my garage right now, waiting for a BB to arrive from CRC. There’s ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with the brakes. And I’ve worked on enough Avids in my time to know when they’re buggered! The absolute limit of what they needed was a bleed.

Pretty unprofessional post to be honest – ‘aren’t I great, aren’t my competitors duff’. Poor show.

At least it’s just my post that’s unprofessional. Not my work. I can live with that. 🙂

good job its not some kind of professional outfit then.

some stores would have you out of a job for this kind of behaviour 😉

Every time we get a halfords bashing thread on this forum I always think, well OK, lots of them are incompetent but I’ve never actually had a halfords try to steal from me, which has been the case with almost half of the LBSs I’ve ever used. I’d rather have incompetent than dishonest if I’ve got to choose.

But it’s like car garages, there’s loads of great ones out there, you find them and then never let them go. But sadly the dishonest ones can get away with it and will make enough from stealing from the unwary that they won’t mind losing your business.

Junkyard – lazarus
Yes Neil every single person who takes a bike into a shop knows exactly everything about it and how to fix it why else would it be in the shop in the hands of the mechanic?

The same is true of everything else where you ask an expert to do something…you know as much as they do it is just that you cannot be arsed to do it.

I dont always agree with PP on stuff on here but he knows his Bike stuff, has done some handy guides and he talks sense on this issue and shows he is both honest and wise. 2- 0 v you then

POSTED 16 HOURS AGO #

You can actually get basic information from people if you ask and the owner of a bike doesn’t need to be Einstein just to know if it has had certain jobs done to it .

Pfft you usually photoshop them….is disapoint

I just sat and watched that carefully for 30 seconds.

Anyhow, it’s a wide angle lens.

You can actually get basic information from people if you ask and the owner of a bike doesn’t need to be Einstein just to know if it has had certain jobs done to it .

Depends. I had one person bring a recumbent tricycle back to be because he’d spotted one broken M5 bolt on the wishbone. That’s all he noticed, that’s all he thought needed fixing.

What only came out later was that he’d crashed into a lamppost at speed, the impact had forced the kingpin back and hence the wishbone, it had bent the wishbone, popped the anti-roll bar out of it’s fittings, and put a big crack and crease in the head tube on that side. It needed a new frame and some other parts, total repair cost around £1000.

Neil your full quote

Yes but surely people are capable of conversing with the mechanic in the shop . That conversation would normally go something along the lines of ” if I fit a new chainring it may not work with your other transmission components and we won’t know until we test ride it” at which point the customer would normally say ” I’m pretty sure it will be OK the chain was only fitted 3 weeks ago ” At which point the mechanic will say ” OK I’ll just put the new chainring on for you and all should be good “.

I still disagree and I dont get what that reply means in relation to your initial post.

As ben notes and most would agree we tend to take things for repairs where we lack the skill to do it ourselves. IME most customers dont know

PeterPoddy – Member

At least it’s just my post that’s unprofessional. Not my work….

might want to mention to your boss that it’s a bit unprofessional posting offers in big splash that are already expired
Get your bike ready for the harsher autumn weather and SAVE 20% off a Level 1, 2 or 3 service*.

*Servicing Offer valid until 31st October 2014

If you still work at MB that is 😉

Neil your full quote

Yes but surely people are capable of conversing with the mechanic in the shop . That conversation would normally go something along the lines of ” if I fit a new chainring it may not work with your other transmission components and we won’t know until we test ride it” at which point the customer would normally say ” I’m pretty sure it will be OK the chain was only fitted 3 weeks ago ” At which point the mechanic will say ” OK I’ll just put the new chainring on for you and all should be good “.

I still disagree and I dont get what that reply means in relation to your initial post.
As ben notes and most would agree we tend to take things for repairs where we lack the skill to do it ourselves. IME most customers dont know

Must just be my natural charm that gets basic information from customers then 😀
If I went to the dentist with toothache I wouldn’t be able to cure it myself but by me telling him the problem and him looking for and then fixing the problem I would hopefully be cured . Thats roughly how the process usually works in a bikeshop . I know there are customers who will walk into the shop and lie , worst are the parents of kids who have broken something and told their parents they were just pottering along on the flat when their wheel exploded or something similar . We once had a lad came into the shop and complained that while just riding along on his BMX his forks had failed and his parents were pretty hostile . Anyway later that day some of his mates came into the shop and told us to look at the YouTube video of him crashing into a wall at high speed .