Originally Posted by
Dave Cutter
What you see on their on-line store isn't what you should expect to ever see in a store.
And LBS could do the very same thing!!!! I don't know why LBS haven't formed organizations and/or alliances with a strong on-line presence. Maybe something through the
NBDA
Performance Bike which I assume is a national chain has a good on-line presence for purchasing. You can ship to home or the store, shipping to store is free. All returns can go to the store so shipping costs on returns if the bike shorts don't fit. That said the repair department near me is not very good at either repairing or using I'll call it on-line technology. For example they still fill out a piece of paper with what you want done and it's hit and miss if you list more than 1 thing. For example I took my bike for a standard tune up, replace a chain ring and address a creaking in the bottom bracket. I called a day after when promised it would be done and they said yep come on out and get it all done. When I arrived the only thing done on the bike was a new chain ring, no tune up no addressing the bottom bracket. The scribble on the sheet of paper was not very legible so the other items were not done.
Another chain only in my area has an on-line shopping site that is not very good and for parts it's quite over-priced. Their repair department is all digital, you tell them what to do and it gets "entered in the system". You get a text message when your work is done and all the work is done before you get the text and its done well. I would think that in this day and age for a LBS you should have a really good website even if it does not support purchases a single mom & pop type store (no chain) probably cannot support on-line shopping but they should be able to have electronic service records and text notifications etc.