CB HI

Grease does break down over time, even when just sitting in the can.

zonatandem

Young newbie tech at bike shop asked if I'd ever ridden the El Tour de Tucson.
Me: Yes.
He: I'm riding it and I'm gonna win it!
Me: You've ridden it before?
He: Yeah, last year.
Me: Did you win last year?
He: No.
Me: This is only my 28th year riding it and the best I've done is 26th place in the first year.
Good luck on your ride, but you will NOT win . . . if lucky you may place in the first 1,000!
He: No, I'm gonna win it!
Misplaced self-confidence of youth!

reducedfatoreo

True story: after a century plus ride from NYC to Philly my friend took a picture of his poor man's tattoos. The next week he went to Brooklyn and made one of 'em permanent. $60 got him five-and-a-half teeth!

Digital_Cowboy

Friends of mine that I ride with had a similar encounter at a LBS. They went in to buy new chain and had this conversation:

Customer: "I need a new chain for my bike."
Store Clerk: "What makes you think you need a new chain?"
Customer: "I've had the bike for 10 years."
Store Clerk: "What makes you think you need a new chain?"
Customer: "I've put 3,000+ miles on the bike."
Store Clerk: "What makes you think you need a new chain?"
Customer: "Because 'John*' measured the chain and told me it needed replacing."
Store Clerk: "Do you have the bike with you?"

Shouldn't it be enough that a customer comes in looking to buy a new chain or other part? Is it really their place to ask the customer why they want/think that they need a new chain or what have you?

*'John' being someone who spends a fair amount of time at the LBS.

LVRider

When it came to an old set of cantilever brakes, "I wouldn't pass this one on inspection if it were a car"

Six-Shooter

That's akin to my one bad LBS experience: I was asking if they stocked a particular piece of cold-weather cycling clothing. Instead of offering the correct answer

"Yes, it's right over here. Did you have any questions I can help you with?"

--or--

"No, but I'd be happy to special order it for you."

He says something like, "You don't need that. It doesn't get that cold here." I guess he didn't want the store to make money. If I were the store manager/owner and heard that, I would have taken him aside and tore him a new one--fired him if it were a repeat offense.

himespau 

Maybe he thought he was being helpful and trying to save you money and buy doing so win a repeat customer. A dismissive attitude doesn't help in that regard, though.

commo_soulja

Either he was indeed an artard and geniune about his comment or was being facetious or a smart ass.

Digital_Cowboy

Yeah, you could have been planning on going somewhere where it does get cold enough that you'd need it, or in the case of my friends they could have been buying it for someone else.

The irony is that before they'd gone in to buy a new chain I had also gone in to buy a new chain for my bike as well. I'd approached a different person and asked for a 9-speed chain for my Seek and had no such questions asked of me. He just went to where they were stored got one and handed it to me.

Six-Shooter

I take your point, but that's not what his tone implied since the very idea seemed to amuse him. His statement wasn't offered in a polite way like "I know from experience that particular product is so warm you may find it uncomfortable and be unhappy with it. Here's an additional option to consider..." Plus, for all he knew, I might have been buying it to go cycling in Alaska. Either way, it's foolish to be dismissive of a customer's desires or to impose your own values on them. I wasn't asking for advice or opinions but was essentially asking to spend my money there. No sale.

Six-Shooter

I'm guessing the interrogator your friends encountered was too busy basking in the egotistical warmth of his vast bicycle knowledge to remember that his job is to sell stuff

Digital_Cowboy

Could be, but I would hope not. As usually he/they're pretty good at filling a customer's requests.

BL4zD

Details as in oxygen that costs money is toxin free whereas "free" oxygen that one breathes is laden with toxins? Or what kinds of details are we talking about here...

johnr783

Checking my email, I saw an ad that triggered a memory and I had to share. A few years ago, must have been 24 or 25 or so, but I generally look quite a bit younger, I went into an LBS looking for a headlight.

I was doing a lot of evening commuting so I wanted something rechargeable. I looked at the Mi-Newt and heard something. Not hearing it fully, as I had headphones on, I turned off my ipod and asked what the employee had said. Turns out he said, "Thats $200." or however much it costs. Dont remember anymore.

I ended up not buying the product for two reasons. 1. I wanted something with an integrated rechargeable battery, not external, as the MiNewt had. 2. The employee assumed that because of my age, I would not have the money to buy the product. Never mind the fact that I had just cashed an $1800 check. Also I dont mind spending money if it will save in the long run, as rechargeable lights would, considering the amount of night riding I do.

steve0257

When I got back into riding a couple of years ago I was making the rounds of the bike shops and what was said got two of them right of my list.

At one, when I explained what I was looking for and said I wanted rear baskets on the bike the salesclerk told me that I did not want baskets and they would be a mistake.

At another one the clerk asked what kind of riding I was planning to do and then instead of saying bike "x" here sounds like it will meet what you want said that bike "x" was the bike I wanted and didn't want me to look at other bikes.

Digital_Cowboy

Yeah, don't ya just love it when people prejudge others? A few years back when I was at a concert in Downtown St. Pete known as First Friday. A guy came over to me and told me that his buddy had thought that I was "homeless." The guy who came over to me pointed out several things on my bike to his buddy to educate him as to why I wasn't homeless, i.e. Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals, the bike itself a Specialized Hardrock, the pannier rack, the pannier bags, the kit that I was wearing.

Most recently I was talking with one of the guys who works for the security company that patrols the apartment complex where I live. He confided in my that the first few times that he saw me coming in that he thought that I was a druggie looking to score. But that I always "disappeared" too quickly before he could catch up to me to see what I was up to. I guess the fact that he pretty much always saw me in full kit, as well as having multiple lights on my bike, or that I was riding an excellent quality bike store bike wasn't enough of a clue. I mean aren't most druggies/junkies riding around on "beater bikes," and trying to "fly under the radar?"

I've been "accused" of being a rolling Christmas tree, a small very low flying plane, a UFO/alien/ET. I mean I have enough lights on my bike that I am visible at least a 1/4 of a mile away. Oh yeah, add to that that I usually have a chem light zipped tied to my front and back wheel. Inconspicuous I am NOT.

Six-Shooter

That seems to be a a sort of common thread in this thread Employees who (might) know bikes but don't know jack about sales and customer service. He shouldn't have been making foolish assumptions about how much you could or would spend. It's amazing that these stores stay in business, with some of their employees interacting so poorly with potential customers.

DX-MAN

I've got nearly 20 years in retail, plus I had "military courtesy" pounded into my head while in uniform; it's almost second nature to at least TRY to fulfill a customer's needs; I will admit, though, that I come up a little short when I encounter:

1. the idiot who asks for my help and advice, and rejects it when it conflicts with their preconceived notions.
2. the other idiot who thinks the only difference between a $50 bike and Lance's bike is the price tag (who here thinks you can true a single-wall stamped steel wheel to less than 1mm from perfection without extraordinary investment of time?).
3. the third idiot whose only answer to normal wear and tear is a new bike for free.

I've kept track of this one, after a week in '03 when I got the same question 2x/day EVERY day; "Does this bike come in any other color?" I have answered that question, literally, 1020 times. The answer (at Wallyworld) is, "No. You have to go to a shop to get a color choice." The really entertaining ones are the people that ask, "Why?"

I'm thinking I could start my own thread for silly customer stories (may have been done, haven't looked, didn't consider before now).

I am APPALLED at the lack of CS I see from not only my co-workers, but employees at other places, where I deal as a customer myself.

Japanamount

Bike Shop Guy: "Looking for something in particular"?

Me: "Yeah, I'm looking for a road bike.. Something that, as much as possible, duplicates the ride of a favorite bike that I once owned."

Bike Shop Guy: "Okay.... What brand was it?"

Me: "Peugeot"

Bike Shop Guy: "Hmmmm... Never heard of it. Was it carbon or aluminum"?

Me: "Uh, it was double-butted chromoly steel, actually.. "

Bike Shop Guy:"High quality bicycles always have carbon or aluminum frames. If you want a low-quality steel bike, Walmart, Target, or similar would be your best bet."

It turned out that craigslist was an even better one. I picked up a brand spankin' new '91 Series 5 Paramount and couldn't be happier...

J.

FieldEffect

I get the feeling some of you guys are making these stories up. There's just no way people could be stupid enough to say some of this stuff.

trevor_ash

I think a lot of people (not necessarily you) assume that if someone works at a bike shop, they know bikes or are at a very minimum interested in bikes. That's not a universal truth. Some people just need a job and learn while on the job. So if a store only sells certain bikes and accessories, that's going to be their entire world. If it's not in that world, it simply doesn't exist. Etc. I think that's why some of these stories sound absurd.

no motor?

In the early 80's when I was just out of college, I was selling expensive tires in a run down section of Chicago when a lady walked in who looked like she might have been homeless. I talked with her for a while about the tires we sold, and told her it would cost about $650 for a set for her car. She showed up a few hours later with a rumpled paper bag full of money (mostly singles and fives) and by the time we got done counting the money from the bag we had enough money to pay for the tires she wanted spread out over most of the front counter. It turned out she worked nights and had been saving the tips she got at work under her bed until she had enough to pay for the tires she really wanted.

mconlonx

<-- LBS mechanic.

I like surprising people with arcane knowledge they don't expect me to know. I like giving people more options than they knew even existed.

StephenH

A while back, I was at a group ride, and rode with a new (and slow) rider that showed up. I think he said he had been one of the managers of a Dick's Sporting Goods store, and so was over the bike department (which, if you're not familiar with them, it's a little more upscale bike department than Walmart, but not anything like a regular bike store, either). Anyway, the criteria for his job was having fitness experience, but not necessarily bike experience, so in that case, the person over the department could conceivably know nothing about bikes.

Something I find from my own experience is that I can get very familiar with what I do, but there are wide areas of bike knowledge that I'm just totally out of touch with. So I read about "tubular tires", but haven't a clue what they look like, and have no idea if my bike shop sells them. I've got over 20,000 miles on my bike with bar-end shifters but have never used brifters, so I'm not sure exactly how they function. And I suppose bike shop guys can have similar issues if they haven't been doing this for 30 years.

Digital_Cowboy

I presume that you have heard the saying "The truth is stranger then fiction," right?