bruce19

A woman I know was looking for a replacement SRAM 10 sp mechanical shifter. She is a member of our club and someone I've know for at least 10 yrs. We've always been on good terms. She knows I have extra "stuff" lying around so she called and asked if I knew where she could find the shifters. As it turns out, I had exactly what she needed. SRAM Ribal 10 sp. with less than 1,000 miles on them.

When I bought my GURU I swapped them out for SRAM Red. Actually, a friend and former LBS owner had done the swap for me. They have been sitting in a box on the shelf for about 4 yrs. So this woman came over with her new boyfriend to buy the shifters. FWIW they are both around 50 yrs old. He took the shifters out of the box to examine them. They bought them for $100 and went off.

I should mention that this woman is recently divorced, has no money and is trying to rebuild her life. I had previously given her a wheel set with Vittoria tires and tubes. As I said, she has no money and I was trying to help. About 4 days later I get a text. She says her BF tried to fit the shifters and discovered that the one she needed doesn't work. I was more than a little surprised but thought maybe there was an internal issue so I gave her the $100 back and took the box of shifters. I never even looked at them.

I took them straight to my LBS and asked them to check them out. I have a very good relationship with the shop. The owner opened the box and said, "Well there's your problem. The lever is snapped off." WTF? So I called my friend who had done the swap and he said they were perfect and he had wondered why I even wanted to swap them. So, I texted her and gave her the run down. I'll skip all the discussion but I made it clear that IMO the lever was snapped during a failed attempt to install it.

At this point I should mention that the LBS has said that if someone didn't know what they were doing they could easily mount them only to find them inoperable. Then they could have used excessive pressure thinking they had to shift it harder and snap it. Let me also mention that when I first texted her I think she realized the BF screwed up. She offered to give me the $100 back. I declined. As I said she has no money. Her full time job is as a midwife. I've pretty much settled on moving on but with her out of my life. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or observations about this.