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Bad Bike Shop Manners??



 
 
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  #11  
Old January 21st 06, 07:46 AM posted to rec.bicycles.marketplace
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Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??


LOL -- and of course they needed you to tell them that!



Frank wrote:
IGNORE THE TROLL


Ads
  #12  
Old January 21st 06, 08:17 AM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.marketplace,nyc.bicycles,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??


NYC XYZ wrote -

Tell me, is there some bike shop etiquette I didn't observe? Is there
some kind of secret bike shop salute or handshake I should have
employed? Did I bother them somehow by smiling?

I think the all time difficult LBS guy is depicted in the Canadian movie
"Two Seconds".

The shop proprietlor, an ex road racer with considerable attitude, confronts
Miss Downhill Racer with equal but opposite attitude. Breathtaking rudeness
from him, but there is a reason ...

Whilst demolishing a bottle of scotch after hours in the shop, each argues
how their particular discpline gave true meaning to the concept of suffering
on a bicycle.

Friendship and mutual respect follow - liked that bit of the movie.

best, Andrew


  #13  
Old January 21st 06, 08:21 AM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.marketplace,nyc.bicycles,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??

In article .com,
"NYC XYZ" writes:

Now I ask you all; does that sound crazy or what?


These dealers you've been dealing with are all recumbent people?


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca
  #14  
Old January 21st 06, 09:24 AM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.marketplace,nyc.bicycles,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??

Now I ask you all; does that sound crazy or what?

These dealers you've been dealing with are all recumbent people?


I was thinking that myself. Peter Stull is definitely into recumbents, as
well as the other shop he mentioned (with recumbent in their name). The
place he got the Trek 1000 sounded pretty normal; there really aren't such
things as "floor models" in bike shops... because you can't properly build a
bike on the spot, you need to have your inventory built up ahead of time.
And the guy "stealing" valve caps? A common inside-joke at shops is the way
customers believe there's some big black market for valve caps, and the
reason we leave them off (which happens accidentally more often than it
should) is so we can score big bucks selling them.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


"Tom Keats" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
"NYC XYZ" writes:

Now I ask you all; does that sound crazy or what?


These dealers you've been dealing with are all recumbent people?


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca



  #15  
Old January 21st 06, 01:11 PM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.marketplace,nyc.bicycles,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??

On 20 Jan 2006 18:28:20 -0800, "NYC XYZ"
wrote:


Whatever happened to the friendly neighborhood bike dealer?

Actually, I've never known one myself, but somehow I get the feeling
that these guys are at least supposed to care where you spend your
money.


If you've never met a friendly person working in a bike shop you must
have one hell of a personality.
  #16  
Old January 21st 06, 03:17 PM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.marketplace,nyc.bicycles,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??

NYC XYZ wrote:
Whatever happened to the friendly neighborhood bike dealer?

If you could see yourself as these folks see you, then you'd understand
that they are all there, but you won't find them without a serious
change in attitude.

I like the valve cap story - very illustrative.
  #17  
Old January 21st 06, 03:28 PM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.marketplace,nyc.bicycles,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??


NYC XYZ wrote:
Whatever happened to the friendly neighborhood bike dealer?

Actually, I've never known one myself, but somehow I get the feeling
that these guys are at least supposed to care where you spend your
money.

I contacted Peter Stull, "The Bicycleman," and though I found him
friendly at first, after a long ten or thirteen-minute telephone
conversation he hangs up on me 'cause a customer suddenly walked in the
door. He never answered 90% of my questions -- very basic ones like
"how much does it cost?" -- though it was an interesting enough
conversation otherwise where he told me about his bike races, his
customer from Australia, the guy who works for him that specializes in
recumbents....

Before he excused himself with the near-equivalent of French Leave, I
asked him whether I might wrap things up via e-mail. I could almost
see him shrug casually -- "sure," he said.

Three weeks now and no response.

So I get in touch with another dealer, Northeast Recumbents. E-mailed,
phoned, left messages...nothing. Finally got through to him last
weekend, set up a look-see tomorrow. But there's rain in the forecast,
and now this dealer is incommunicado.

WTF?!

Are my expectations out of order?

The LBS on the next block from me where I got my Trek 1000c, the Bike
Stop in Astoria, was another crazy place. The owner himself insisted
on selling me the display model. It was in good condition, far as I
can tell (though by the time I'd noticed some marks and scratches, a
week had gone by and I couldn't be totally sure they weren't caused by
me somehow), but apparently all bike shops insist you pay "new" prices
for "good as new" bikes.

Small matter that, sure enough -- but then the headset wasn't quite
right. Turned out to be defective. But Gus, the owner, tried to
convince me that its being loose was nothing to worry about! And
indeed, I could ride the bike fine...but it just didn't feel right that
I had a moving part where things are tight on other bikes.

Or another LBS, in Manhattan, the Pedal Pushers...Evan over there is a
nutcase. He's very charming and talkative like Peter Stull, but he's
got a weird switch which somehow gets flipped and he'll go schizo on
you with his passive-agressive act. One day I came in for a flat fix.
While he was ringing up the sale, I noticed that my tire cap was gone
and asked him where it was. He told me he put it outside the shop --
??? I asked him what he meant. He nodded incredulously at me and
repeated that he left my tire cap outside. Not only was it a bizzare
enough thing if true, but doubly strange was the fact that it wasn't
true, he never touched my bike until I brought it in. So I asked him
how could that be...he responded that, duh, how? I used my hands, you
know, hands, and unscrewed it and gently placed it on the sidewalk. So
I'm just really mystified at what's going on -- him swiping my card and
all all this time -- and I ask him why would he do that.

He goes, well, where do you put your TV in your place? I'm like, what?
Where do you put your TV, he repeated. I asked him why. He said that
just as I have my reasons for placing things in my apartment, so he has
his reasons for organizing his shop the way he does (actually, it's
owned by a sour old fart, Roger, who's absent half the time -- another
neurotic cat).

Now I ask you all; does that sound crazy or what?

What's even more bizzare is that there was a line of customers behind
me, every one non-plussed by the brief conversation.

Tell me, is there some bike shop etiquette I didn't observe? Is there
some kind of secret bike shop salute or handshake I should have
employed? Did I bother them somehow by smiling?


No. It does seem that most bike shops are filled with either dolts or
surly putzes that are there to prove something...some sort of a power
trip about the 'knowledgeable vs the not' or something.
Even in Boulder we hear stories about some shops, and why they'll never
go in 'there' again. I think great bike shops or stores, kinda by
definition, don't do well in 'talking', I think sometimes from pressure
to sell, sell, sell.





Honestly, I don't get it. Now I'll have to contact the fella over in
State College, PA, for the Velotechnik SMGTe. I am not awarding ~$3K
(maybe even more, if I don't contain my newfound lust of Rohloff
gearboxes and other exotica) to folks who don't care enough for it to
return a goddamned phone call or e-mail!


  #18  
Old January 21st 06, 03:33 PM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.marketplace,nyc.bicycles,rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??


Rich wrote:
NYC XYZ wrote:

Whatever happened to the friendly neighborhood bike dealer?


Maybe he went out of business talking to people that weren't buying stuff.


I contacted Peter Stull, "The Bicycleman," and though I found him
friendly at first, after a long ten or thirteen-minute telephone
conversation he hangs up on me 'cause a customer suddenly walked in the
door.


How much of his time did you expect? He's in business, and his first
priority should be the people that made the effort to get to his store.
He sounds friendly enough to me.


The converstion in a retail place should in ALL cases be ended by the
'customer', not the employee. A bike shop is supposed to be the expert,
the person that listens and then, perhaps, sells. Sometimes it IS a
chat room, and that's how you grow your biz. If a person is comfy just
talking, then he will be comfy later giving you money. Pretty simple.
NOTHING is so important in a toy store, that the employee shuts a
person down, in order to talk to another, even if they have a $20 bill
stuck in their nose, waiting to buy. The surly attitude displayed by
some in this thread is WHY many bike shops go under. They commit
suicide, they don't go outta biz.


So I get in touch with another dealer, Northeast Recumbents. E-mailed,
phoned, left messages...nothing. Finally got through to him last
weekend, set up a look-see tomorrow. But there's rain in the forecast,
and now this dealer is incommunicado.

WTF?!


They're running a business, not a chat room.

Are my expectations out of order?


I think so.

Rich


  #19  
Old January 21st 06, 04:18 PM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.marketplace,nyc.bicycles,rec.bicycles.misc
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Posts: n/a
Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??


NYC XYZ wrote:
...
War of 1812...Mexican-American War...Spanish-American War...Phillipine
Insurrection...Boxer Rebellion...The Great War...The Big
One...Korea...Vietnam...Dominican Republic...Grenada...Gulf I and
II....


You forgot Panama - George H. W. Bush turning on his old CIA "asset"
Manuel Noriega.

--
Tom Sherman - Fox River Valley

  #20  
Old January 21st 06, 04:35 PM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.marketplace,nyc.bicycles,rec.bicycles.misc
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bad Bike Shop Manners??

NYC XYZ wrote:
Whatever happened to the friendly neighborhood bike dealer?

Actually, I've never known one myself, but somehow I get the feeling
that these guys are at least supposed to care where you spend your
money.

I contacted Peter Stull, "The Bicycleman," and though I found him
friendly at first, after a long ten or thirteen-minute telephone
conversation he hangs up on me 'cause a customer suddenly walked in the
door. He never answered 90% of my questions -- very basic ones like
"how much does it cost?" -- though it was an interesting enough
conversation otherwise where he told me about his bike races, his
customer from Australia, the guy who works for him that specializes in
recumbents....

Before he excused himself with the near-equivalent of French Leave, I
asked him whether I might wrap things up via e-mail. I could almost
see him shrug casually -- "sure," he said.

Three weeks now and no response.

So I get in touch with another dealer, Northeast Recumbents. E-mailed,
phoned, left messages...nothing. Finally got through to him last
weekend, set up a look-see tomorrow. But there's rain in the forecast,
and now this dealer is incommunicado.

WTF?!

Are my expectations out of order?

The LBS on the next block from me where I got my Trek 1000c, the Bike
Stop in Astoria, was another crazy place. The owner himself insisted
on selling me the display model. It was in good condition, far as I
can tell (though by the time I'd noticed some marks and scratches, a
week had gone by and I couldn't be totally sure they weren't caused by
me somehow), but apparently all bike shops insist you pay "new" prices
for "good as new" bikes.

Small matter that, sure enough -- but then the headset wasn't quite
right. Turned out to be defective. But Gus, the owner, tried to
convince me that its being loose was nothing to worry about! And
indeed, I could ride the bike fine...but it just didn't feel right that
I had a moving part where things are tight on other bikes.

Or another LBS, in Manhattan, the Pedal Pushers...Evan over there is a
nutcase. He's very charming and talkative like Peter Stull, but he's
got a weird switch which somehow gets flipped and he'll go schizo on
you with his passive-agressive act. One day I came in for a flat fix.
While he was ringing up the sale, I noticed that my tire cap was gone
and asked him where it was. He told me he put it outside the shop --
??? I asked him what he meant. He nodded incredulously at me and
repeated that he left my tire cap outside. Not only was it a bizzare
enough thing if true, but doubly strange was the fact that it wasn't
true, he never touched my bike until I brought it in. So I asked him
how could that be...he responded that, duh, how? I used my hands, you
know, hands, and unscrewed it and gently placed it on the sidewalk. So
I'm just really mystified at what's going on -- him swiping my card and
all all this time -- and I ask him why would he do that.

He goes, well, where do you put your TV in your place? I'm like, what?
Where do you put your TV, he repeated. I asked him why. He said that
just as I have my reasons for placing things in my apartment, so he has
his reasons for organizing his shop the way he does (actually, it's
owned by a sour old fart, Roger, who's absent half the time -- another
neurotic cat).

Now I ask you all; does that sound crazy or what?

What's even more bizzare is that there was a line of customers behind
me, every one non-plussed by the brief conversation.

Tell me, is there some bike shop etiquette I didn't observe? Is there
some kind of secret bike shop salute or handshake I should have
employed? Did I bother them somehow by smiling?

Honestly, I don't get it. Now I'll have to contact the fella over in
State College, PA, for the Velotechnik SMGTe. I am not awarding ~$3K
(maybe even more, if I don't contain my newfound lust of Rohloff
gearboxes and other exotica) to folks who don't care enough for it to
return a goddamned phone call or e-mail!

For anyone who can manage the travel, if required, there is no one like
Kelvin Clark of Angletech in Woodland Park, CO
http://www.angletechcycles.com/index.html
I have purchased 2 bents from him. I have spent many hours--more than
12--at his shop riding and talking, dozens of phone conversations and
dozens of emails. Satisfaction guaranteed. Highest quality. No churning.
Always alternative suggestions for highest end components when
suggested. I could go on and on but 'nuff said.' And I live 400 miles
from him.
 




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