LBS owners= snobs?

Crocs: shoes designed for people with poor bladder control.

^ Ben, I wouldn’t know about that. 🙄

The Crocs wearing LBS owner does drive a Jaguar, though. Its normally parked right in front of the shop, in fact! (Mainly because he’s currently trying to sell it. Its probably 30 years old and he was willing to trade it for my fatbike, but I have no interest in a Jag! 😀 )

He is a really good detail oriented mechanic, and is a really skilled mtb rider as well. No doubt, he could outride me while wearing his Crocs! He’s quite down to earth, and I drive twice as far to get to his shop rather than another. I recommend him to everyone.

What is wrong with me stating an actual fact of my knowledge and experience ? The customer I thought needed to know this as without doubt I do know my stuff

I think it goes without saying that a sale is a sale and is what is needed to keep us ticking over not just my shops but everything else

Well what the customer may have seen , is how you come over on this thread. A bit of an arrogant twonk. If you strayed that with me, I’d probably leave empty handed as well.
Now you’ll be in a rage, but I’m not the one who strayed a thread about all this!

Incidently, wrecker +1, excellent shop, swears like a trooper but fixes bikes like a genius. Rides bloody well as well. Love his facebook status updates as well, his poor mechanics!

I think it goes without saying that a sale is a sale and is what is needed to keep us ticking over not just my shops but everything else

Well you need to learn some sales skills then.

Because if people feel the need to complain to your face and then walk out, it sounds like you are crap at it.

Different trade but similar example. I walked into one of my customers accounts the other day to fix something. I asked him if he had checked such and such. He looked me straight in the eye and said “I’ve been in this trade 25yrs, I know what I’m doing”. We walked down to his cellar and lo and behold he was an idiot. Experience doesn’t count for everything.

What is wrong with me stating an actual fact of my knowledge and experience ? The customer I thought needed to know this as without doubt I do know my stuff

If you need to tell people how brilliant you are, maybe you’re not all that brilliant.

I’ve known lots of people who have been in the bike industry for decades, and that’s no indicator of anything. Anyone in Glasgow remember Bob Finnie? He would have no truck with those modern indexed gears 😉

When I had a shop, we specialised in being anti snob. There is nothing worse than going into a specialist retailer of any type and being treated like you are stupid by the people there.

Bike shops need to remember they are still perceived as a bit odd or elitist by the vast majority of the Halfords buying public. Until shop attitudes change those customers are not going to visit, or visit once and never again

There is no place for snobbery and I think most of my ex customers would agree I ran a pretty relaxed and welcoming environment

I never wore crocs.

I live in Edinburgh and am lucky enough to have several LBS’s (should that apostrophe be there?). Of all the folk I’ve met who work in them some are brilliant, most are okay and a small number are tossers. Which is pretty much the same ratio as the human race in general. No surprise really when you come to think of it.

I’ve certainly never seen anything I’d call snobbery though. Plenty of guys (and a few, but not enough) girls who are very enthusiastic about cycling and who therefore don’t always have the slickest sales technique, but that’s not a problem to me. In fact that’s one of the things I love about them. Sometimes they try and sell me daftly expensive kit and sometimes they tell me I’d be better going to the LBS down the road because they have exactly what it is I’m looking for.

They’re certainly not all saints, but as someone who generally hates shopping, going to my LBS is one of the few retail experiences I enjoy.

Bought two pairs of Foxes and had them fitted at our LBS in Brighton 4 years ago. 2 weeks later, my wife took hers in for a look (waving the receipt)as they were leaking oil from one of the wipers. She left them there and when she got back they claimed they’d had to “service” them and charged her £40! She explained she just wanted them checked as they’d just been fitted but they told her she’d scratched the stanchions and that had caused the oil to leak. She didn’t know any better so she paid.

When she got home I stripped them down and the stanchions were fine. There was a tiny nick in one of them but it was 5mm below the crown so it wasn’t going anywhere near the wipers. I phoned them up and complained but to no avail.

The whole attitude of many of these places is so short sighted…We’ve spent £1000’s on bikes stuff in the 4 years since and not a single penny of it in that shop, despite it being our nearest.

Did you buy the forks from that shop?

And how were they supposed to ‘check’ the leaking seals without taking them apart? Which would probably require fresh fluid and oil. £40 sounds a good price to me…

I work for a small distributor in the bike industry and see things from the other side. Some shops are great, some I dread talking to. Some love what they do, some I cannot understand why they ever chose to open a shop. Some pay their bills on time, some always go into the 90 column because “you need to email or ring me to get me to pay, I’m just too busy.” This was after emailing him 3 reminders!

I am also a customer at my LBS who know who I work for, we supply them stuff. I ride regularly with them, and get on well with many staff, but my word, some are snobbish twonks who treat me like I know nowt because I’m a lass.

I’m sure some shops we deal with think we’re rubbish sometimes because we get things wrong. It all goes around but we try our best and try to be nice and professional, it’s all you can do really. Shame not everyone sees that.

I work in a bike shop. I am no a salesman, but I love cycling and bikes. If someone wants advice I will give them the best I have or then ask someone with more knowledge of that particular subject. Some customers have done a lot of research and quite frankly I tell them that their knowledge is better than mine. Quite often a customer will ignore a female member of staff to speak to me or another male, when both have these have at least as much or more knowledge than me in a lot of areas.
We often pump up tyres and dig through huge boxes of old tat to try to find the right item for someone. The owner drives a van, bikes fit in the back(including his families)
Yes I like to make a sale, I suppose, but only if its the sale the customer wanted.The most important thing is that every customer walks out of the shop happy – purchase or not. That’s what brings people back, and that’s what gives people the confidence to part with their hardearned. Oh yeah the majority of customers are commuters and families, no room for bike snobbery there.
We are also on the LEJOG route and have “groaters” in all summer long, we do our best to turn them around and get them back on the road, even though at this time of year the workshop is booked 2 weeks in advance.Customer service is what separates a good lbs from bad and also from t’internet.

bikeneil: No, you can pop the wipers and foam rings out in 2 minutes. Needs a new pillow pack at most. The forks were bought new from and fitted by the same shop, 2 weeks prior, probably ridden twice and you really think the customer should pay to have them looked at when they weren’t working properly from new? You sound like you’re easily parted from your money.

bencooper: Yes, as above, bought from and fitted by that shop 2 weeks before.

To redress the balance a little, I will say that I’ve had good service at almost every other LBS in town.

Handsome bicycles in Hastings are not . they took my bike did what needed doing ,put on part supplied by me for no extra charge ,gave me great advice and when i tried to go crazy on bying new bars and stem from them they told me not to as mine were light and good enough ?? Legends those guys.