Miserable rude LBS owner.

[Andy in Sig]

I think that some people open shops (in any area of trade) thinking that it will be an easy ticket to relative wealth. I've only ever had a Saturday job in a shop when I was a lad but it was pretty clear that during opening hours you have to be totally dedicated to meeting the customers' needs and there really is no other consideration.

 

[Paulus]

Would you suddenly decide to open, or take over a bike shop if you didn't have some sort of interest in bikes? I realise that dealing with the public will be a challenge at times, but they will only come into a bike shop if they have a problem with a bike or want to buy something or maybe need a bit of advice.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

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.

one of my lbs says he pretty much keeps the shop going on the repairs on halfords bikes that folk bring in.

 

[Arch]

Would you suddenly decide to open, or take over a bike shop if you didn't have some sort of interest in bikes? I realise that dealing with the public will be a challenge at times, but they will only come into a bike shop if they have a problem with a bike or want to buy something or maybe need a bit of advice.

Ah, but an interest in bikes and an interest in people (and hence solving their problems) don't go hand in hand. I'm sure we've all met the old chap (or not so old chap (or girl, I suppose) so obsessed with gear ratios and frame tubes that they can't interact with real actual humans.

There's a big difference between being an expert in something, and being able to channel that expertise in a way that helps others.

 

[byegad]

I sympathise with an LBS not wanting to loan out tools. I got badly stung many years ago when I let a 'friend' an expensive precision tool. The returned item had obvious damage and was effectively useless. His excuse was pathetic and nonsense and nearly ended our friendship AND cost me a lot of money.
Since then I don't allow anyone to use my tools. As I only rely on my tools to save me money and not to earn my living as an LBS does I think it is a sensible attitude on their part to not let people use them.

 

[Arch]

I sympathise with an LBS not wanting to loan out tools. I got badly stung many years ago when I let a 'friend' an expensive precision tool. The returned item had obvious damage and was effectively useless. His excuse was pathetic and nonsense and nearly ended our friendship AND cost me a lot of money.
Since then I don't allow anyone to use my tools. As I only rely on my tools to save me money and not to earn my living as an LBS does I think it is a sensible attitude on their part to not let people use them.

Depends on the tool, I'd have thought. A decent spanner isn't going to come to much harm, or even a pump. A set of vernier calipers, of something precision, like you say, that would be risky.

A canny bike shop would keep a spare set of middling quality tools handy behind the counter for lending out, I'd have thought. Just the most common spanners and allens, a pump, and and FBH* With a good people person salesman on hand, a request to borrow a pump or spanner could well lead to a sale, even if it's just a tube, or an energy bar or something. And a simple "Do you know what the problem is?" question as the tool is handed over might bag a service job...

Obviously, you'd get wise to people who came in too often like that and were taking the micky.

F***ing Big Hammer. For those really precise jobs....

 

[swee'pea99]

Ah, but an interest in bikes and an interest in people (and hence solving their problems) don't go hand in hand. I'm sure we've all met the old chap (or not so old chap (or girl, I suppose) so obsessed with gear ratios and frame tubes that they can't interact with real actual humans.

There's a big difference between being an expert in something, and being able to channel that expertise in a way that helps others.

There's a lot of truth in that. But I think there's also another factor at work - LBSs are the kinds of business that people open 'to turn their enthusiasm into a business'. (No-one opens a stationers because they're mad keen about A4 paper and Pritt Sticks.) Then they find that the business side of it inevitably dominates, and before long, it's tainting the pleasure they once derived from their enthusiasm. Which makes them bitter and twisted. It's a bit like making the mistake of thinking that because you love to cook, you ought to be a chef. Chefs aren't cooks; they're kitchen-managers. And people who love cycling aren't necessarily good at running shops - whether bike shops or any other. Too many people learn the difference too late - by which time, they're trapped.

 

[Arch]

Yes, spot on...

I am quite keen on stationary though....

 

[pubrunner]

I took some of my bikes to be fixed to a well known cycling business in Shrewsbury. The owner of the shop was a very friendly guy and he wrote down the details of all that I wanted done; on my one bike, I asked for a new compact chainset to be fitted.

Sadly, the owner didn't do the work on the bikes; when I went to collect the bikes (having been told they were ready), I found that most of the jobs hadn't been done. They hadn't even fitted a new chainset - which with labour, would have cost me in the region of £100. Didn't they need the money ? If I'm willing to pay good money for a job to be done, shouln't they do them ?

Unlike the owner, I found the shop manager and some of the mechanics to be surly and unfriendly. I have a 531 framed bike, which in its day was more than respectable; but they were not at all happy to work on it. The attitude was "Not really worth fixing", I found the same with another bike shop in Deeside.

I took the bike to The Bike Factory in Chester and the service was absolutely first rate; I went in half expecting poor service, but they were very enthusiastic about my bike "Don't see many like that nowadays" etc., and the bill was very reasonable.

Am I alone in being the owner of a steel-framed bike who isn't practically minded ?

 

[phil_hg_uk]

It's weird isn't it here in harrogate there are 3 types of bike shops:

1 - If it's more than a couple of years old and not worth at least a few hundred and not bought from them they are not interested.

2 - Great for touring stuff and very helpful but wouldn't take my cheap mountain bike there.

3 - Will tackle any job very reasonable prices and I always take my mountain bike there and have recomended loads of people to them and they are all very pleased but no good for more expensive and specialist stuff.

 

[thomas]

Cycle shop back home is great. When I got my airzound the owner's son who is a little older than me, another assistant and I spent about half an hour trying to scare people as they walked past the shop. ...and then pretending we hadn't heard anything when people looked in.

Once on the way to work I had a bolt in my cleets come loose so my shoe got stuck in. Walked down the the LBS and it was shut, so walked up the high street to the other which is a bike hut thing. For all the complaints about halfords and this chain, the guy was brilliant and we had a good laugh about it. It fixed it all for me and I've since bought some lights in there and things. The other LBS near work I've visited and they were nice too, just a little pricey and didn't have exactly what I wanted.

In Norwich had the same problems with my cleet. Didn't know where any bike shops were so I cycled around aimlessly asking people. Found one, went there. The guy begrudgingly helped get my shoe out. Then claimed I couldn't out the bolt in, blah blah...gave me some allen keys and just walked off for me to do it. The allen key wouldn't fit and he was so unfriendly I just left.

Carried on cycling around and ask some other people. Found a really nice local bike shop who've helped me out a few times so have bought stuff there since.

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

If they want my money they've got to be nice first. No point being friendly to people who spend money, got to be friendly to get people to spend money. Having worked retail, I know the way to make a day more enjoyable is to talk and be friendly to customers...if that means talking about the product, helping them out...or boasting about holiday plans . Some people just want to get on with it by themselves, others like a conversation.

 

[HelenD123]

My LBS sells lots of high end racing kit but was more than happy to overhaul my 20 year old 3-speed Dawes shopper-type bike and has serviced my Giant hybrid which I didn't buy from them. It's all money for them at the end of the day.

 

[Globalti]

I agree with not lending tools, at least. I remember lending a bike tool to a neighbour then some hours later going to retrieve it and finding it abandoned on the pavement outside his house. I vowed then never to lend a tool again.

 

[dav1d]

I got punctures in both my tyres when living in Eccles (the innertubes were heavily patched). I took the easy route and paid at the local bike shop on Liverpool Road (which is still there over a decade later) for two new innertubes to be fitted. I was shocked at the price £20 (this was over a decade ago) - I thought it would be cheaper and foolishly didn't ask the price.

Shortly afterwards, I got another puncture, and wanting to buy new innertubes, I got the puncture repair kit out, and took the wheel off, only to find the old innertube inside patched up! Suspicious, I checked the back wheel too: that also had the old innertube in! We were good customers at that shop, but never went back after that. And I have never paid someone to put new innertubes again! Okay, I shouldn't have been lazy, but still!

 

[Globalti]

Sounds like any car service at a franchise dealer!

Last time my car went in I had changed the wiper blades about 2 weeks before. At tea time the dealer rang me: stupid Bury accent: "Mr Raider? It's the garrige 'ere. Yer wiper blades are smearin' and they need changin'."

Me: "Well that's funny, I changed them myself only two weeks ago!"

She: "Oh."