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

[Running Mommy]

******WARNING THIS IS A LONG RANT! MAKE A SANDWHICH, GRAB SOME SNACKS. CONSIDER READING THIS POST LIKE READING WAR AND PEACE**********


Sometimes I wish I had a web cam in the shop so you ladies (and mr silver) could see the things an LBS go through on a daily basis. I'm sure we aren't special, and it's prolly the same with all shops. Certainly it may explain why sometime when you walk into your lbs the folks behind the counter may seem a bit beaten down.
This is how my day started yesterday.
I roll into the shop at 9:45 am and realize that running hubby has the keys to the shop, as I had to give mine to the fire dept dude the other day. RH is on his way back from a shop ride 60 miles away. I make an SOS call to my friend michelle who works with us. She has a key, but since she knows I get in early enough, she usually rolls in right at 10.
Of course there are people waiting for us at the door. (yes this is a good problem, but why on the one day that you are running late. Any other day and no one would be there).
Michelle rolls in right near ten. I explain to the folks that I just need to open the register and un-cable the bikes. (extra security measure we do every night). They are nice and understanding. Michelle and I are running loopy, and then running hubby pulls up. I hate being harried like that, so maybe I was still in a bit of a fluff. But we got everything and everyone taken care of and were settling in.
And then Mr. caveman walks in the door wheeling a new steed, fresh off the wal mart sales floor. I step forward to greet him and see what we can assist him with. (you will see soon why I refer to him as a caveman. And NO this is not standard practice with our customers. We love our customers! 99.9% of the time)
Caveman: Yeah I called earlier. I need to get this tuned up.
Me: Ok. well looks like she is brand new?
CM: Yes. I just bought it at wal mart but it doesnt shift right and I want to make sure that it's put together right.
Me: (impressed that even if he bought it at wallys he at least wants to make sure it's safe) Ok. No problem. We will go through the shifting, the brakes, make sure the stem is tight, as well as the bottom bracket/cranks (gesturing with my hands all of the things we will do) And we will also true the wheels, as it's rare that a new bike comes out of the box with wheels that are true.

*** this is when I notice the wheels... Some nimnut at schwinn decided that it would look "cool" to make a 26" wheel with an aero road wheel type dish to it. And of course it's a shraeder wheel, but it needs long stem tubes. This is something that I have yet to be able to find through any of my distributors.***

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.

*** At this point our service manager is listening in and suggests that he had heard that you could get valve extenders from autozone. He's not sure if they are the right diameter, but he had heard that somewhere. ***

caveman: Ok, then answer this question for me. Can you just change the tubes. Why don't you put some of those slime tubes in...

me: (thinking ok, maybe he didn't understand me??) Well that is the problem sir. We cannot get tubes with an extended valve stem. (thinking HOW can I explain myself better). So we can't do it. See that road bike right there (gesture to a tri bike with an aerowheel) that bike requires long stem tubes, and they make them for those type of bikes. But those are a different valve, and they are a different size. They just don't seem to make them for your size wheel. But what we can do since your tubes are new is to add slime to them.

*** according to michelle, by the look on his face somewhere in my attempt to get CM to understand me he just tuned out and gave me this "stupid girl you don't know what your talking about" look. ****
CM: (with a scoul on his face). NO. I asked you to answer my QUESTION. And you are not answering my QUESTION. (yes he sounded annoyed and almost had a mocking tone).

This is when our service manager (a man btw) steps in because he likely senses my head is ready to explode...

mgr: Sir what Denise is trying to tell you is that we cannot change your tubes because they do not make replacement tubes with the long valve- or at least none of our ten distributors have them. So we can add slime to these tubes, and you could go to autozone and look into the schraeder valve extenders, but we don't have tubes for this type wheel.
He then reaches back and grabs a tube to show the guy how only a nub would be poking through the rim and we wouldn't be able to air it up.

CM: (in a nice calm "man to man" tone) Oh, ok. Well thanks for answering my question (shoots me a look). Ok, so I will go look for those extenders. In the meantime just put a new slime tube in anyway.

mgr: But I won't be able to pump up the tires, and we need to be able to test ride your bike to make sure the shifting is right.

CM: Ok. Well you said you can add slime to these so just do that.

Mr caveman then turns to the manager and thanks HIM for his help, give's michelle his info and waltzes out without so much as a glance in my direction.

My manager looks at me with a sly grin, wanting to laugh but knowing I write his paycheck. I look at him and Michelle and proclaim "THAT is the prime example of a man who thinks women don't know what the hell they are talking about. And most certainly wouldn't take mechanical advice from a woman".
He shrugged and replied "Yeah, I told him the same thing you did. I was even careful to explain it EXACTLY as you did. Because you explained it just fine, and it made perfect sense. But I wanted to see if he either really was not understanding us, or was just a caveman who thinks women are clueless".

Why is it that men of a certain age (I'm trying not to generalize here, but this has happened to me more than once) have such backward thinking?
I will be the first one to admit that I really don't know all that much about the workings in the shop. But you can't be in the business and not pick up at least SOME knowledge! I once had a guy ask me for a chain and when I asked him what speed the bike was he told me "it doesn't matter, a chain is a chain"...
I had the same thing with a rear derailluer once. The guy yelled at me to JUST give him one! It didn't matter what kind it was. When I rang it up I explained our return policy. He came back the next day with it in pieces and tried to tell running hubby that I sold it to him and didn't know what I was talking about. I of course had explained it to everyone in the shop in case it came back. He said "No she didn't sir. I was in the back. I heard the whole thing. You insisted that this would work and it didn't matter. I'm sorry but this is broken now, and I'm not going to take it back".

And yes, they all appeared to have come from roughly the same generation.

Anyway, sorry for my rant. Sometimes it's just more than I can take, so I need my TE friends shoulders!

Oh- and my next customer... Two older ladies that didn't know what they wanted, but they didn't want anything I had to offer because it was too fancy with those gears and cords (brake cables) and things. But the coaster brake cruisers were too "big and heavy looking" And when showing them a bike one asked "is this aluminum or metal".....

and after that. A regular that buys more from ebay than from us. He brought in some xtr front D that he thought he "scored" until running hubby explained to him the clamp size was too small, as it was a very old xtr and wouldn't work on his bike. We had one that would work in stock, but he said "no thats ok. I'll go home and see what I can find online. Now what size do I need again?"

and next up... a guy buying a comfort bike who is 6' and really needed the large. But it was black and the medium is red. And he wanted the red one. So he wanted to know what we could do to make it work (now where did I put that frame stretcher?)

And later that day...
A guy who wanted us to price out upgrading his road bike. He wanted prices on ultegra and DA, and "the better sram groups".
We know this one well... So we gave him general prices for the groupsets.
He wanted us to not only price out every componet in the group individually but to also write down the model numbers....
Yeah, so he can go home and find it all online.
We explained to him that the model numbers weren't needed because we would make sure that we ordered the correct ones for him when he decided which gruppo he wanted to go with.

And last but not least...

It's a taco, nooooo it's a wheel off a wal mart bike!

A guy with a wheel so bad it actually really did resemble a taco. He claimed that he just took the bike off a curb ( I was JRA). He didn't understand why we couldn't fix it. It was also a disc wheel with a cassette, so not a cheap replacement. He left in a huff and said "I bet that lawnmower shop down the road can fix it"... (evergreen bike and lawn. Yes, that is our closest competition)

So yeah, there you go. That was my saturday. I really do LOVE what I do! And when I can get someone on a bike I'm tickled beyond belief. Esp the riders new to the sport. I love to see their excitement.
I have so many great customers that I cherish because they are so special to me. I consider so many of them friends.
But sometimes there are just those days.... The days when you want to go home and have a stiff drink. Yesterday was THAT kind of a day!
We ALL have them! Even those of us with our "dream" jobs.


wheww. You MADE it!! Iron reader that you are! You deserve a medal!

[lph]

Hilarious stories! At least they are good for entertaining us

I feel like going to my lbs and being a model customer.

[crazycanuck]

Denise, have you been to www.notalwaysright.com ??? I really do feel sorry for anyone in retail. CUstomers

I promise you I would never treat the folks at our fave shops that way! I may not be the most technically minded when it comes to bike components but I do my best....


Thank you though for giving it your best

[lph]

My own favourite story of BSOs (Bike Shaped Objects aka Walmart bikes), which I've told here before, bear with me ;-), is of our neighbour who came by with a childs bike that "didn't work", and asked if I could possibly take a look. Both wheels were flat, of course, but the humdinger was that the gear cables and housing hadn't been cut to fit, were of course way too long so had been wrapped around the frame, making it impossible to use the gears...

[OakLeaf]

Sorry you had to go through that D. but thanks for keeping your sense of humor.

Here's hoping that was your share of 'em for a while. (Forever is too much to hope for I know. )

[ridebikeme]

Ohhh typical tales from the shop... I've always said that it would be fun to write a book with stories like this. It would be fun to read when I'm older and need a good laugh. At any rate, I try to remind myself that if I wasn't lucky enough to STILL be in business, then I would miss out on all these stories.

If Autozone has the valve extenders that you might need on the wallyworld bikes, then I would have a few in stock. Not only does it appear to the customer that you have everything they need, but also would be helpful in explaining the whole situation. The fewer stops that a customer has to make, the more likely they are to return to your shop, and in the end it puts more $ in the cash register.

[DebW]

Oh- and my next customer... Two older ladies that didn't know what they wanted, but they didn't want anything I had to offer because it was too fancy with those gears and cords (brake cables) and things. But the coaster brake cruisers were too "big and heavy looking" And when showing them a bike one asked "is this aluminum or metal".....

OK, this one reminds me of when I was in high school and working in a bike shop. One of my high school gym teachers came in to buy a bike, and I was showing her some 10-speeds. At one point I told her "all the parts on this bike are metric" and she said "what's metric?"

This spring we had a woman come into the shop with her new race wheels and asked us to true them. The manager noticed that the spokes were way loose and called her to tell her. Apparently she'd bought then off ebay, ie. there's somebody building and selling wheels on ebay who has no idea what correct spoke tension is. Scary...

And every once in awhile we get the customer who, when informed that the price of repairing their Walmart bike will be >$50, says "But I only paid $50 for the bike" Well, if you pay $50 for a bike and want to ride it, plan to spend another $100 in repairs. One woman last year was quite adamant that this Walmart bike was supposed to work perfectly, but of course the wheels weren't true and the brakes weren't adjusted so the wheels wouldn't even turn. Finally the manager told her to take it back to Walmart. Then she admitted she'd bought it last fall and left it sitting in her basement all winter having never been ridden, so she couldn't take it back.

RM, sorry you got slammed by all the worst customers in one day.

[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/

[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.

[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.

[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.