Tales from the LBS.... When the day starts like this you KNOW your in trouble..

[msincredible]

Sometimes you need the patience of a saint to work in customer service!

[kenyonchris]

Yeah. Welcome to my world. I deal with Cavemen ALL THE TIME. Sometimes, for a bit of fun, they are drunk! And on a really good day (literally), I get to sit out in the hot sun with my knees on the back of some idiot's head and wait for the ambulance to get there to sedate this guy, because he is amped up on Meth and thinks that the bush people are coming to get him....while he whines at ME that the wrist, that I admittedly have in a wristlock, hurts. "Stop fighting sir, and I will ease up. You see how this works? But when you try to tackle me, you wind up here."

I cannot STAND people (men or women) who treat others who are there to serve them (as the bike shop people or the cops in the city) like peons. While a lot of times it is CAVEMEN that look at me like I am stupid, it is the WOMEN who can be stubbornly, stubbornly, obnoxiously pigheaded. I pulled a woman over for not wearing her seatbelt (she pulled it on as I passed her, I was right at her window and saw her do it)...I turned around, tucked in behind her, and when the light turned green lit her up. She insisted that because she had it on NOW, she was not in the wrong....and she paid my taxes, and she wished I would go find some real criminals, and she had never had a ticket before, and....AND she gave me the same high headed holier than thou manner that I can't stand. I not only wrote her for the seatbelt, I wrote her for not signaling her left hand turn, and, in a moment of pure glee, for not changing her address on her license within 30 days.
I am not really a ticket writer. Everyone thinks that is what we do, or have to do, or whatever. I guess some cities are like that. We have 2 or 3 traffic only officers that work the highway but that is different. I have LOTS of discretion, and I cut almost everyone a break if they are polite, responsive, accountable, and safe. She made a big show of the "I'll see you in court!" thing... which is fine...she will lose. Everything was recorded. I NEVER miss court.

You are different to some extent...I understand that just handing his Wal-Mart bike back to him and telling him to take a long walk off a short pier is not good for business, and you have to try to be tolerant of those who are ignorant, want something for nothing, and are rude to boot.

At least I get to arrest em.

[bmccasland]

KenyonChris - your stories remind me of when I worked for Parks, and our LE Rangers said one of the best parts was that eviction WAS an option. That and the customer (park visitor) wasn't always right.


RM - Not that this will help you much, but back when we were going stir crazy while being evacuated from New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina, we decided that we needed bicycles. I insisted to my friends that since there was a good bike shop in the local town, we needed to skip the Wally World "specials" and go see what the LBS had in stock. We made them happy - three people that wanted three cruisers, nothing really special, but we wanted good bikes.

So I have a nice Breezer. And when my brand new bike got scratched in the truck ride back to N.O. and my LBS that would have carried Joe Breezer's bikes was still under water - I called the number on the web page, and got Joe! They sent me a little bottle of touch up paint to perfectly match my bike's paint job. I wouldn't have gotten this kind of service from WW.

Hang in there. Maybe caveman dunderhead will have an accident out there in the desert and the vultures will find him first. Or maybe he should take up rock climbing?

[SadieKate]

me: Hmm. I see that this bike has wheels that will require an extended valve stem (I gesture towards the valve stem and point out the wheel dish) . I want to warn you that when you eventually need to change the tubes on this bike you most likely won't be able to find tubes for it. I don't know why Schwinn did this, and I see it all the time. It's very frustrating but I have tried to find tubes to fit these bikes with the extended valves but they just don't seem to exist. Or at least I can't find them.

Pause . . . .

me: But we can sell you some rim adapters so you can use a Presta stem with your Schraeder wheels.

http://wheelsmfg.com/content/view/513/38/

[witeowl]

...our LE Rangers said one of the best parts was that eviction WAS an option.

And this is reason #1 why public schools appear to perform poorly when compared to private and charter schools.

Wow, where did that threadjack come from?

Sorry, carry on.

[shootingstar]

Pause . . . .

me: But we can sell you some rim adapters so you can use a Presta stem with your Schraeder wheels.

http://wheelsmfg.com/content/view/513/38/

Even for Caveman this might be too much info. He may not admit knowing what is diff. between Presta & Schraeder stems. Cavemen sometimes need to be SHOWN, in action with concrete physical examples. They are ACTION oriented.

Why? So one can redirect their inate embarrassment, manifesting as anger/belligerence to something that requires him to pay attention and NOT look at the woman who is dispensing advice to his face...who clearly knows what she is talking about/is expert but words are not penetrating Cave man.

But do remember not all cave men fall into particular generation.

Thx, for some of these stories, Runningmommy, kenyonchris..

I deflected some (not always) cavemen's anger by not yammering away about research, but showing them the coveted book/magazine article, giving them something or demonstrating on the database itself. (I always wondered how in the hell people remember some of those complicated database features if they weren't making notes while watching. Guess they sneaked off and wasted another 1-2 hrs. of work time to recall their memory of what they learned from me.)
____________________________________________________________

It will be interesting when the next generation after boomers...age and how they cope on knowledge, learning and listening to instructions/expertise from people 2-3 decades younger than themselves.

[Running Mommy]

Michelle got this one...

M: Good morning sir. How may we help you?

Customer: I need a pole and a seat...

M: A pole? for???

Customer: my beach cruiser.

M: Ohhhh. do you mean a seatpost? Ok, what size do you need? There are a bunch of different sizes, and you really have to know the exact size.

Customer: oh. hmm. I didn't even think about that. I will have to come back

M: Ok. If you can bring the old post in, or the bike we can use the calipers to measure it. They vary by mm's, so it's important we get the right size.

Customer: .... ok. I'll be back. Thanks for your help.

He was a nice guy actually. But when he said "I need a pole" I thought to myself "oh no here we go"....

Oh and Irulan- that was some funny stuff.

[SadieKate]

Even for Caveman this might be too much info. He may not admit knowing what is diff. between Presta & Schraeder stems. Cavemen sometimes need to be SHOWN, in action with concrete physical examples. They are ACTION oriented.

Sooo? I wasn't commenting on any caveman psychology; I was just providing some bike parts info that would have shortened up the conversation immediately.

[Tri Girl]

Wow- what a day! I'm sorry it happened, but on the selfish side- I laughed A LOT while reading your stories. Good thing I took a nap beforehand so I was rested and ready. Thanks for sharing. You made my day. I'll be extra nice next time I'm in the shop.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I have always found it best when dealing with either children or cave men (or cave women), to just tell them initial answers in terms of the simplest statement possible. Such as "Those won't fit on there."....."We are not having ice cream now."....."I need to know the size first."...."This one is better for you."....etc.
I'm not saying you did this in this instance, but Caveman's impatience reminds me of when I see mothers do this with their kids- The kid asks if they can go to Johnny's house after school. The mother says "I don't know if that's a good idea since your sister has a dentist appointment at 5 and Daddy is driving the car with the extra seat today and I need to pick up my friend on the way, so not everyone will fit in my red car. Maybe we can ask Johnny's mother if you can go there tomorrow instead." Meanwhile, by the time she said "I don't know if that's a good idea....", the kid had already sized up the answer as "No." and ran off to another room .

If you start by giving them a clear detailed explanation, many children and cavemen types' eyes quickly glaze over and they look for someone who can give them a simpler answer.
People who are capable of grasping the finer points or terminology will ask you to elaborate on the details of why or how, after your initial simple answer.
Perhaps a little of this came into play with CaveMan?
You might have lost him already at bottom bracket, truing the wheels, and extended valve stems. Just an additional thought, might not apply here.

[Triskeliongirl]

I think you got some good suggestions. Perhaps it is best if you choose one of the following:

1. Refuse to work on wally world bikes.
2. Stock unusual parts/solutions that wally world bikes frequently require.

I can see either choice, but if you choose to work on them the suggestions to be prepared, and keep it simple, are good ones. Just cuz *we* all like to talk about bike stuff with a lot of detail doesn't mean all your customers do.

As for whether to have these folks as customers, only you can decide that. But, from a business perspective I can give an example of where my hairdresser needed a new bike, and since I cycle he asked me to recommend a shop. The shop I recommended doesn't work on wally world bikes, which his bike at the time was, and he didn't want to do business with them because they were rude to him when he attempted to get his bike serviced. So, he and his partner both bought nice new bikes from the LBS that does work on wally world bikes, especially when they politely explained to him how much it would cost to service his old bike vs buying a new better one, and why the new ones were better, etc.

[Irulan]

I think you got some good suggestions. Perhaps it is best if you choose one of the following:

1. Refuse to work on wally world bikes.
2. Stock unusual parts/solutions that wally world bikes frequently require.

I can see either choice, but if you choose to work on them the suggestions to be prepared, and keep it simple, are good ones. Just cuz *we* all like to talk about bike stuff with a lot of detail doesn't mean all your customers do.

As for whether to have these folks as customers, only you can decide that. But, from a business perspective I can give an example of where my hairdresser needed a new bike, and since I cycle he asked me to recommend a shop. The shop I recommended doesn't work on wally world bikes, which his bike at the time was, and he didn't want to do business with them because they were rude to him when he attempted to get his bike serviced. So, he and his partner both bought nice new bikes from the LBS that does work on wally world bikes, especially when they politely explained to him how much it would cost to service his old bike vs buying a new better one, and why the new ones were better, etc.

As much of a pain as BSO ( bicycle shaped objects, box store bikes) are, I think that refusing to work on them is really shooting oneself in the foot. You just piss off a lot of future, potential customers, and lose the chance to educate them and/or convert them into real customers who will buy real bikes in the future. They may even consider you rude, and bad mouth you in the community.

I run into similar scenarios all the time with my business - I repair outdoor equipment, and box store tents are the bane of my existence. I would LOVE to just tell people "I don't work on cheap pieces of crap" but the real world doesn't work that way. I do the work at a rate that two repairs could have bought a second tent, and never miss the chance to explain the difference between a real tent and a cheap tent.

[Crankin]

I agree with Lisa. Today I went to a bike shop (I don't go to one very often, since DH does all mechanics in our house) to buy gloves. I did not go to the shop where I bought my bike, but to another one that is just as close and my son used to work there. As I was perusing the gloves, I heard a young sales guy showing a man a bike. The man had a paper with what looked like a print out from the web. The sales guy said, "This bike has Tiagra components. You might want to think about that." This got no response from the customer, so the sales guy says, "Tiagra components don't have a good reputation and can break (or something like that). I doubt the customer knew what a component was. Then, not sure what the customer looked at or said, since my back was turned, but i hear the sales guy say, "Oh, you'd have colors just like Astana..." This was met by silence. Sales guy says, "You know, Astana, the team that won the TdF..."
More silence. The customer left.

[TrekJeni]

Sorry Running Mommy - I'll buy you a beer at Interbike, how's that?

Geoff's got a HUGE metal sign up on the outside of the shop that reads something like this: Attention all Department Store Bicycle Owners, we require a 50% deposit on all work.
He was sick and tired of all the walmart stuff accumulating in the warehouse when people refused to pick it up even though they had been given an itemized estimate BEFORE they were allowed to drop it off.

Geoff also deals with CM mentality in the fact that as he is the general manager at age 24, and has been coming to work with his dad (family owned shop) since he was in diapers and wrenching on bikes since he was eight, he has a hard time getting respect from some of the older generation. His dad has to come out and finish the sale....

A few months ago they had a engineer (it seems to always be the engineers here in Cincinnati that are the problem) they thought he could fix everything and because his bike was mis-shifting, took the cassette off and looked at it under a microscope. He determined that the cassette needed to be replaced. All it needed was a barrel adjustment!

LBS's should write a book!

Jeni

[Triskeliongirl]

I think the problem with refusing to work on department store bikes is the customers never get educated. For example, my hairdresser just thought their refusal to service his bike was 'snotty' and 'elitist'. I tried to explain to him that it was not cost ineffecient to repair them, so the shop just didn't want to deal with it, plus there were safety/liability concerns if the bikes failed once they left the shop. But, I still think that if instead of saying no, you explain very clearly to the customer what it would cost to repair, and why it still might not perform as expected, you end up with more new customers than by being rude or posting a sign on the door 'no department store bikes.'

But there is something about the tone of this thread I don't like that does smack of elitism. So what if the customer doesn't know its called a seatpost, or can't understand the technical problem with his wheels? That doesn't make him a caveman. It just makes him a customer who happens to not be as knowledgable about bikes as we all are.

I really don't think the way the OP was treated was about sexism. I think she was just talking to him at a level he couldn't understand, whereas the shop employee, who happened to be a man, was able to explain it to him at a level he could understand. But, I could be wrong, I wasn't there, so its just a thought.