Miserable rude LBS owner.

[swee'pea99]

(Slightly OT, but...) I used to have a fry up at the same cafe pretty much every day. Been going there for well over a year, when one day my tomatoes were both burnt and stone cold, so when I settled up, I said I'd rather not pay for the tomatoes. 'Why not?' she asks, with this rather surly look. 'Because they were burnt and stone cold'. Sez I. To which I can't help feeling the correct answer to a guy who's been putting £25 a week through your till for 18 months is 'I'm sorry about that. Have the lunch on us. See you tomorrow.' Instead of which I get a filthy look and she grudgingly knocks off - and I notice - not the 60p the tomatoes are listed at, but 50p. Needless to say, I've never been back. She's probably about three grand down by now.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

i can understand it at somewhere that the shop knows the person and they're a regular customer - my LBS don't let me borrow tools anymore for insurance reasons (fair enough) but will do the quick job for me most times.

Same here. I see it as a partnership .. I try to put as much business as I can their way and they in turn help me out sometimes. Well, a lot actually. It works well, but I guess it's a relationship you have to build up.

 

[DJ]

Same here. I see it as a partnership .. I try to put as much business as I can their way and they in turn help me out sometimes. Well, a lot actually. It works well, but I guess it's a relationship you have to build up.

Thats what I think too, you have to build the relationship if you just breeze in and expect the guys to jump at your command then it will get you no where.

I now have a good relationship with my LBS I have even started trying to source parts for him that he find its hard for him to get, as he doesn't use the internet.

 

[jay clock]

So be nice to your LBS guy, spend lots of your hard earned and he will be nice back!!!

I think the ball is in the LBS court....

 

[Paulus]

My LBS's are both pretty good. The main one I use , The Cycle Store in Friern Barnet is really good and the boss is always pretty cheerful. His shop is always busy and he has a waiting list of normally a week to get bikes into the workshop for repairs/servicing. Although, if you turn up with an emergency situation he or the mechanic will see to the problem there and then.

 

[Dave5N]

I very rarely use them. I do all my maintenance myself and I buy what I need on the internet.

 

[yello]

I very rarely use them. I do all my maintenance myself and I buy what I need on the internet.

Same here... which is probably part of the problem. My LBS isn't at all local and is poorly stocked. They're 45km away and would have to order in pretty much anything I needed anyway. I have a Decathlon around 50km away and that does me for consumables etc but, sad to say, major bits are mail order from UK or Germany.

 

[peanut]

Give him another chance, praps he was having a bad day. We all have them.

you'd have to be having a very bad day to insult a customer like that. If he is the owner he deserves to be bust if he insults people like that ,.What an ignorant fosser

 

[Globalti]

I have about a dozen LBSs within 30 minutes driving, including Ribble, Harry Hall and Merlin Cycles. The nearest to my work is Mike Cookson Cycles, which Mike has just sold to an employee. I plan to buy some pedals there even though they will cost me £15 more than online, because I want to show support and who knows what advice or favours I might need in the future. I shall of course gently point this fact out when I buy the pedals and will accept any discount he might offer!

The LBS owner I mentioned at the start of this post has always been miserable and rude. I really don't understand how he has survived as long as he has; can only assume it's on selling cheap kids' bikes to people in the nearby council estates.

 

[peanut]

gadget show are testing some sub 1000 pound road bikes

oops

 

[summerdays]

My LBS has a father and son running it ... with the son doing more of the work nowadays. But the other day I heard the father refuse to work on a bike shaped object telling the owner it was a waste of space. I think the son would have been more diplomatic.

It is definitely useful building up that relationship with the LBS, paying the bit extra on some things in comparison to the internet. I have had times when they have fixed my bike in an emergency over their lunchtime when they shut. I'm sure they would lend me a pump if I needed to.

 

[zimzum42]

I guess that for me, when I live in London, Condor is an LBS, even though they are quite a large outfit...

Still doesn't stop the staff there being a miserable bunch of knobs who still manage to both dismiss you and sell you the wrong stuff....

 

[Andy in Sig]

there's a bike shop near me who generally won't service/ work on bikes that they didn't originally supply, i don't understand either but hey,

I was talking to a German LBS owner who says he loves people buying trash bikes from supermarkets as they tend to:

a. Bring them to him for repair when the inevitable breaks happen.

b. They often go on to buy a much better bike from him as a result of visits to his shop.

 

[yello]

They often go on to buy a much better bike from him as a result of visits to his shop.

An astute business man.

 

[Paulus]

I was talking to a German LBS owner who says he loves people buying trash bikes from supermarkets as they tend to:

a. Bring them to him for repair when the inevitable breaks happen.

b. They often go on to buy a much better bike from him as a result of visits to his shop.

Is it that some LBS owners can'/won't see the potential for extra trade when it comes through the door? The LBS I described earlier has been around for decades in one guise or another and they thrive by doing the small jobs as well as the big ones, thereby the customers keep coming back.