Quote:
Originally Posted by Clancy
One of the most absurd comments I’ve ever read on this forum. Let’s see if I can paraphrase....
When you walk into a bike shop, bring your wallet and be willing to be taken advantage of.
Let me repeat the entire story as clear as possible.
An 80 year old man walks into a bike shop and asked for one brake cable.
No housing, no other requirements. Just one single brake cable.
The employee who he assumed was either the owner or manager hands him a single (packaged) brake cable and says that’s $29.95 plus tax. No clarifying questions.
The 80 year old looks to be a stereotypical old, disheveled, retired guy. Does not look like anything else...ex-pro, avid cyclist, whatever. He says no thanks and walks out. He could have just as easily been a grandad trying to fix a grandkids bike or simply trying to fix a neighborhood cruiser.
In what world is this not trying to up-sale or take advantage of a customer?
I just retired from a bike shop in San Antonio. This type of transaction happened daily. After asking the customer road or mountain bike, I’d pull a Jagwire cable (cost $1.07 each) and hand it to the customer and charge $3. I’d always give them for free w/o their asking 2-3 crimps to go with the cable.
There’s no more to this story. The manager/owner/employee (whatever his title) either didn’t know what he was doing or trying to pass off a ridiculously priced item that wasn’t any where what the customer needed or wanted.
I always operated with a few simple beliefs.
Work on every bike as if it’s my own.
Listen to what the customer is (or is not) saying.
Ask clarifying questions and fully explain.
Always try to make the customer’s experience as positive as possible.
When working on a bike, to get the bike to its best performance as inexpensive as possible to the customer.
This sounds like a lot but it absolutely isn’t. Using the example of someone coming in for a single cable, all those could be put into practice in a 3-4 minute exchange.
I really don’t see how any of that is difficult or why there’s any debate.
The story of my friend is a story of extremely poor customer service.
And! I gave away valve caps
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I think you forgot about the 9 pages of commentary that intervened between your OP and page 9. No one doubts the absurdity of your friend's story and no doubt that shop will be belly up in short order, but there emerged as well an attitude that all shops should charge what Amazon does even if that is below their cost, as well as charging less for service than is sustainable to the business.
edit: forgot to add--it's also February!