It pays to do your homework!

[snowroo]

I went into a bike store in Toronto. They specialize in bike fits, sell road bikes, looks more upmarket bikes.

Had my butt measured for a new saddle. $179, what I thought was a lot of money, but I figured that's two physiotherapy appointments and this will help stop some problems I'm having.

I look up the store's online to look at reviews for the seat. The saddle online is $60 less! For same saddle at the same store. It seems like they have mislabelled the box.

The store was great, refunded the difference. They tried to tell me it was the "old" 2009 price and this was the new 2010 price. A 50% increase in one year???? The guy tells me that the markup in the store is more than the markup for their online store.

I'll say.

Anyway, I was impressed with the knowledge and service of the store. The people were great, patient and did fix the problem quickly. It goes to show you that it really pays to do your research.

[Owlie]

Wow!
I had a similar experience with Performance when I bought my helmet. It was $65 online, $80 in the store for the same thing. I told them, they looked it up and gave me the online price.