A Cycling & bikes forum. CycleBanter.com

Go Back   Home » CycleBanter.com forum » rec.bicycles » General
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Advice to Bike shop owners



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old August 9th 08, 04:51 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Pat[_12_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 46
Default Advice to Bike shop owners

Yesterday, I went into a bike shop with problems mounting a new tube and
tire on my rear wheel. The salesman treated me like a normal person without
talking down to me, but when he took me back to the shop area, the mechanic
changed tack and started talking down to me with questions such as "do you
know how to find a leak? You should fill a tub with water...." After I had
already told him (and shown him) that this was a new tube, which, mounted on
my wheel at 7 p.m. managed to be totally flat by the next morning. I
brought in the wheel so that they could see there was nothing wrong with it
which might be causing the tube to flat. And, since this is a Kysrium wheel,
I would have thought they would have assumed I knew something about tires
and tubes! But no. His next idea was to lecture me about the changes in
barometric pressure which could cause the tube to lose psi. In my living
room? Overnight? Totally flat because of "changes in barometric pressure"?

Trying to hold my temper, I answered that I thought there was something
wrong with the valve. He said, "Do you know the difference between a Presta
and a Schraeder Valve?" Well, dammit, a Schraeder valve tube won't fit on a
700c Kysrium wheel, now will it? Finally, the shop manager or owner came up
and said, "Put on a new tube, charge it to "shop use" and give an extra tube
for free."

And that was the end of that, except that the mechanic was clueless about
putting the tire's decal in line with the valve stem. I would have thought
they all knew about that. I told him I wanted the decal lined up with the
stem and he said "Why would you want that?" So, I explained about how that
made it easier to locate the area of the tire which might have a problem
after the tube had been removed and examined.

Anyway, I wanted to ask you shop owners to tell your workers to treat people
as if they were normal adults, not children, when they first come in to the
store. If you find out the customer is clueless after the initial
conversation, you can easily shift gears to a more dumbed-down explanation.
BUT, if you treat the customer like a dummy from the get-go, you most likely
will have an irritated customer who won't come back.

Rant over.

Pat in TX


Ads
  #2  
Old August 9th 08, 05:15 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Peter Cole[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,572
Default Advice to Bike shop owners

Pat wrote:
Yesterday, I went into a bike shop with problems mounting a new tube and
tire on my rear wheel. The salesman treated me like a normal person without
talking down to me, but when he took me back to the shop area, the mechanic
changed tack and started talking down to me with questions such as "do you
know how to find a leak? You should fill a tub with water...." After I had
already told him (and shown him) that this was a new tube, which, mounted on
my wheel at 7 p.m. managed to be totally flat by the next morning. I
brought in the wheel so that they could see there was nothing wrong with it
which might be causing the tube to flat.


Wouldn't it have just been easier to find the leak and just go in and
tell them it's a bad tube?

And, since this is a Kysrium wheel,
I would have thought they would have assumed I knew something about tires
and tubes!


Too easy, sorry.

  #3  
Old August 9th 08, 05:56 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Tom Sherman[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 9,890
Default Advice to Bike shop owners

Peter Cole wrote:
Pat wrote:
Yesterday, I went into a bike shop with problems mounting a new tube
and tire on my rear wheel. The salesman treated me like a normal
person without talking down to me, but when he took me back to the
shop area, the mechanic changed tack and started talking down to me
with questions such as "do you know how to find a leak? You should
fill a tub with water...." After I had already told him (and shown
him) that this was a new tube, which, mounted on my wheel at 7 p.m.
managed to be totally flat by the next morning. I brought in the
wheel so that they could see there was nothing wrong with it which
might be causing the tube to flat.


Wouldn't it have just been easier to find the leak and just go in and
tell them it's a bad tube?

And, since this is a Kysrium wheel, I would have thought they would
have assumed I knew something about tires and tubes!


Well, knowing how to pronounce "Kysrium" would be an achievement.

Too easy, sorry.


Does not owning Kysrium wheels show an awareness of European Heritage &
Mystique®?

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
“Mary had a little lamb / And when she saw it sicken /
She shipped it off to Packingtown / And now it’s labeled chicken.”
  #4  
Old August 9th 08, 06:56 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Pat[_12_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 46
Default Advice to Bike shop owners



Wouldn't it have just been easier to find the leak and just go in and tell
them it's a bad tube?

----------------------
That's the problem---I mounted the tire 4 times and still couldn't find a
leak anywhere. The only clue I had was that it started to lose psi after I
put in more than 100 psi. I did the water test with NO results. Did you not
read what I wrote earlier?


And, since this is a Kysrium wheel, I would have thought they would have
assumed I knew something about tires and tubes!

-------------------
Too easy, sorry.

------------------
Meaning what? This wasn't a Wal-Mart bike wheel I was taking in. There was
no need for them to treat me as if I had never changed a tire or tube in my
life. I knew they might say, "There must be something wrong with the rim."
and that is why I took the wheel in with me.

Pat in TX



  #5  
Old August 9th 08, 08:14 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Will
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 109
Default Advice to Bike shop owners

On Aug 9, 12:56 pm, "Pat" wrote:
And, since this is a Kysrium wheel, I would have thought they would
have assumed I knew something about tires and tubes!


Except those cases where the Kysrium is attached to a Serotta.
  #6  
Old August 9th 08, 09:25 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Leo Lichtman
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 767
Default Advice to Bike shop owners


"Pat" wrote: (clip) I did the water test with NO results. Did you not
read what I wrote earlier?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I have reread your original post a couple of times, and I do not find
anything referring to a water test. How was Pat supposed to know that, even
AFTER reading what you wrote earlier. With that as a clue, I wonder whether
you were contributing to the poor communication as much as the mechanic.
Obviously, the manager was smart enough to grasp what was going on, and
leaned way over backwards to be fair. He obviously wants your future
business, and I hope you give him a chance. I suspect he had a chat with
the mechanic after you left.


  #7  
Old August 9th 08, 11:49 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Pat[_12_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 46
Default Advice to Bike shop owners


I have reread your original post a couple of times, and I do not find
anything referring to a water test. How was Pat supposed to know that,
even AFTER reading what you wrote earlier. With that as a clue, I wonder
whether you were contributing to the poor communication as much as the
mechanic. Obviously, the manager was smart enough to grasp what was going
on, and leaned way over backwards to be fair. He obviously wants your
future business, and I hope you give him a chance. I suspect he had a
chat with the mechanic after you left.


Well, I told the guy I originally encountered when I came into the shop that
I had done the water test--twice. And, the salesman told the mechanic it had
already passed the water test. Sorry for leaving that info out, but the
salesman tried to tell the mechanic who just brushed him off and didn't pay
any attention to his explanations. Then, he turned on me and started over at
the beginning. It was as if he was all knowing and didn't pay any attention
to either of us. There was no leak as of the nature of a puncture.

As for the manager, I suspect he quickly decided it wasn't worth everybody's
time to be standing there going over the original explanation, only to have
the mechanic try to start from the beginning even after the salesman told
him the tube had passed two water tests. I'll go in there again because the
salesman and the manager were acting normal to me and not talking to me as
if I were a child. That's my purpose in writing my rant. Remember the
"Golden Rule" and treat the customer as you would want to be treated
yourself. I think even the salesman was embarassed as the mechanic treated
him like a know-nothing idiot before turning to me and telling me that
garbage about barometric pressure even though I told him that the tire went
flat over night and in my living room. I hope the manager also had a chat
with the salesman as there is obviously something going on between him and
the mechanic.

Pat in TX




  #8  
Old August 10th 08, 02:54 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Roger Zoul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,118
Default Advice to Bike shop owners


"Pat" wrote in message
...

I have reread your original post a couple of times, and I do not find
anything referring to a water test. How was Pat supposed to know that,
even AFTER reading what you wrote earlier. With that as a clue, I wonder
whether you were contributing to the poor communication as much as the
mechanic. Obviously, the manager was smart enough to grasp what was going
on, and leaned way over backwards to be fair. He obviously wants your
future business, and I hope you give him a chance. I suspect he had a
chat with the mechanic after you left.


Well, I told the guy I originally encountered when I came into the shop
that I had done the water test--twice. And, the salesman told the mechanic
it had already passed the water test. Sorry for leaving that info out, but
the salesman tried to tell the mechanic who just brushed him off and
didn't pay any attention to his explanations. Then, he turned on me and
started over at the beginning. It was as if he was all knowing and didn't
pay any attention to either of us. There was no leak as of the nature of a
puncture.

As for the manager, I suspect he quickly decided it wasn't worth
everybody's time to be standing there going over the original explanation,
only to have the mechanic try to start from the beginning even after the
salesman told him the tube had passed two water tests. I'll go in there
again because the salesman and the manager were acting normal to me and
not talking to me as if I were a child. That's my purpose in writing my
rant. Remember the "Golden Rule" and treat the customer as you would want
to be treated yourself. I think even the salesman was embarassed as the
mechanic treated him like a know-nothing idiot before turning to me and
telling me that garbage about barometric pressure even though I told him
that the tire went flat over night and in my living room. I hope the
manager also had a chat with the salesman as there is obviously something
going on between him and the mechanic.

Pat in TX


This is why the wrenches should just stay in the back and fix stuff.


  #9  
Old August 10th 08, 02:55 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Mike Jacoubowsky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,972
Default Advice to Bike shop owners

As for the manager, I suspect he quickly decided it wasn't worth
everybody's time to be standing there going over the original explanation,
only to have the mechanic try to start from the beginning even after the
salesman told him the tube had passed two water tests. I'll go in there
again because the salesman and the manager were acting normal to me and
not talking to me as if I were a child. That's my purpose in writing my
rant. Remember the "Golden Rule" and treat the customer as you would want
to be treated yourself. I think even the salesman was embarassed as the
mechanic treated him like a know-nothing idiot before turning to me and
telling me that garbage about barometric pressure even though I told him
that the tire went flat over night and in my living room. I hope the
manager also had a chat with the salesman as there is obviously something
going on between him and the mechanic.


We're all human, at best, and make a lot of mistakes. What separates us is
our ability to recognize those mistakes and own up to them, *or* realize
that it's not a game where you score points for being right and the other
guy loses. The trick is to not make the other person feel like they've lost,
but maybe instead learned something useful.

But you've also got to realize that, as a customer, the fact that you own
all this fancy equipment doesn't mean squat in terms of presumed
intelligence or common sense. It's often an inverse relationship. It would
be, for example, exceedingly dangerous to make assumptions that somebody
with Mavic Ksyrium wheels knows more about the mechanics of a bike than the
person coming in with a $500 hybrid that they commute on. As is said, a fool
and his money is quickly parted. Some people make intelligent decisions
about their purchases, while others simply buy something because it's
expensive and everybody else has it.

Also, when shops look at people to hire, various skills are evaluated
differently for mechanics vs salespeople. It's great to have a mechanic who
communicates easily with customers, but it's not essential (while for a
salesperson, it very much is). In general, we try to keep mechanics
separated from the rest of the world, because they operate more efficiently
when they're not constantly interrupted (and more safely as well, since they
don't have to remember what they were last doing on a bike so you're less
likely to get a bike on the floor with an untightened handlebar).

Finally, everyone can have a bad day once in a while. Sometimes a bit more
often than that. :)

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA


  #10  
Old August 10th 08, 03:04 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 371
Default Advice to Bike shop owners

Pat wrote:

snip
yourself. I think even the salesman was embarassed as the mechanic treated
him like a know-nothing idiot before turning to me and telling me that
garbage about barometric pressure even though I told him that the tire went
flat over night and in my living room. I hope the manager also had a chat
with the salesman as there is obviously something going on between him and
the mechanic.


Just the fact that you keep your bike(s) in your living room
overnight should have been enough to tell him that you're a
true-believing, hard-core bicyclist. g


Bill


__o | The means are the ends in the making.
_`\(,_ |
(_)/ (_) | --Mohandas K. Ghandi

 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Bike and Shop advice [email protected] UK 8 August 7th 06 09:31 PM
Tire pressure and bad bike shop advice. [email protected] General 20 March 14th 06 05:33 PM
Bad advice from bike shop?? Gags Australia 4 November 22nd 05 08:28 AM
Bike shop owners, wheel gurus: truing questions Pat Lamb General 60 August 11th 05 02:13 PM
Bike shop owners, wheel gurus: truing questions Pat Lamb Techniques 59 August 11th 05 07:35 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:03 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 CycleBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.