“well today isn’t over is it”

just experienced stiff’s legendary customer service

ordered bike
told them I wanted it today

went up at lunch time bike (hardtail) still in box

“you can’t have it, it still needs to be built”

“oh its ok i can wait” (i have just driven all the way there)

“oh it’s in a queue”

“thought you said it would be ready today?”

“well today isn’t over is it”

well i can’t fault their logic

same logic as i will pay you on thursday (but not specifying which thursday

oh and whatever you do do NOT ever ask the child on the downstairs counter anything
he is clueless

“how many tyres will the stans sealent do)

” 2″ <then walks off without looking at the bottle

second member of staff then says “oh actually it is 8”

:will relax when i have a brew:

Did they tell you it was ready before you set off? If not, then I don’t think you have anything to complain about.

“you can’t have it, it still needs to be built”

“oh its ok i can wait” (i have just driven all the way there)

“oh it’s in a queue”

That is how I would expect a shop to work. I think you are being unreasonable.

I more than likely am being unreasonable, but I work in an industry where you don’t snap at the customer as they pay your wages.

I agree they shouldn’t have snapped but if I was the mechanic, I would have been a bit miffed if a customer had turned up, without a phonecall, demanding his bike to be built up there an then.

If they are busy, which I assume they are as the bike industry is rammed at the moment, I would be annoyed and be tempted to move your bike to the end of the line.

You assumed it would be rady at lunchtime without checking?

Egg on your face only in that respect.

I think you’re being unfair too but agreed, very poor service to snap at the customer. A simple explanation would have been fine and IME means that even the awkward buggers(!) are generally calmed down.

I prefer to have my bikes in a box and build them up myself (but I understand not all bike shops will allow this).

Equally, if you agree to pick up a bike on a given day, I would hope the LBS would have it ready THAT DAY – ie 9am in the morning and ready to roll…

Don’t agree. I think it’s reasonable for the customer to call and check what time it’ll be ready unless they’ve stated that it’ll be ready at a specific time already.

fair play – OP is slightly ambiguous.

I may be the only one but as a past resident of the Headingley / Burley area I always found Stif (then my LBS) to have perfectly acceptable customer service – including going to bat for me on warranties for kit that I quite openly told them I hadn’t bought from them.
I now live in York, but when I’ve gone back for specific things (like a particular Hope bolt on a Sunday and I want it like now) they’ve had them and they’ve been very straight forward to deal with.
Not the cheapest, but then they do have a massive stock of fairly high end bits and pieces.
Always worth ringing and chatting first when you’re going to collect something like a new bike whoever you’re dealing with. Talk to them, agree a time, make them feel like they are doing you good service and they probably will.
Strange how some people walk through life getting good service and others get repeated bad service from all sorts of people.