An endemic problem of ego tripping bike store staff?

[bishbashbogoff]

Now I haven't had a personal experience with one so far that I can recall, perhaps famous last words, plenty of similar fair with other companies over time though, but I was just about to pony up and buy the Carradice bag from spa when I did a quick search on trustpilot as I usually do and saw a swathe of awful reviews about the customer services. Then saw some lengthy thread on another forum echoing the same.

Well I did have a minor encounter with winstanley bikes recently where I sent a customer services query and it took them 3 weeks or so to respond and when I replied back they didn't bother replying again. Looking at their trustpilot reviews after the fact showed a consistent pattern on that front. The lack of reply from them made me see they could not care less and looking further showed my suspicions were not unfounded and made me not want to give them my patronage in future.

I did have a little reservation about using sjs because of a curt unhelpful reply some weeks ago but now looking at their trustpilot scores they seem to have a great track record. They weren't actively rude just not helpful to my question and seemed a bit indifferent and blunt. So despite that, weighing up the greater evidence base, it seems I will go with these as the lesser evil as it is better to go on statistical data than my interpretation of the email which was not anything particular.

Is it that because people are coming to them wanting stuff from them every day that they get God Complexes similar to how you would notice with nightclub promoters - well I guess most of you old timers do not know about that? where they get some many people coming to them they think they can treat people as they like and they will still keep coming back.

I have noticed this arrogant air in the last few years as well with people in the electronics community online.

Seems some fields are prone to their population falling into this trap.

There are some bike shops like tredz though which I get the impression of more laid back 'surfer dude' types compared to the cold and aloof 'comic book store' guy character of the aforementioned.

 

[boydj]

Get over yourself.

 

[Drago]

Now I haven't had a personal experience with one so far that I can recall,

Oh. This'll be a short thread then. A thread moaning about something you haven't experienced.

 

[biggs682]

SJS and winstanley have both been good for me

 

[presta]

Just before I went on tour one year I noticed that my gear levers were about the mileage they usually fail at, so I decided to take some spares, and ordered them from Spa.

When they didn't arrive, I rang them, and they claimed they had no record of the order, and asked for the details again.

As it was now too late, I didn't bother, but when I got home from holiday the order they'd claimed no knowledge of was left on the doorstep....

 

[oxoman]

Never had a problem with either tbh. Only issue I've ever had was with bikeinn. Now they were arrogant.

 

[steveindenmark]

Wow...He Joined the group on Sunday and now wants to whinge about something he has never exprienced, but he has read about on the internet.

I just love the ignore button on this site. It makes the experience so much more pleasant.

 

[vickster]

How bizarre.
I've had two bikes from Spa built to my spec, most recently with a group set, bartape, saddle supplied by me. No complaints, both times I've gone up for test rides and they've given great help swapping saddles and stems etc for several hours.

For the second purchase, I dithered around for about 6 months and yet they were quite happy to honour their original price when I finally did order and pay!

Granted I was spending several grand each time rather than buying a bag but what customer service issues are likely with a simple online order ?!!!

Now I think about it, there was a defect with the seat collar on bike #1 and as a result the Ti seatpost slipped and got scratched. They replaced both without a quibble once returned for inspection so no CS issues whatsoever, these things happen

 

[ianrauk]

My partner bought a bike from Winstanley bikes and the service she got from them was nothing more then exemplary.
I buy a lot of gear from both Spa and SJS and have never had a problem when I have had to speak to someone. In fact Spa are probably one of THE most helpful shops/suppliers that I deal with. I get all my hand built wheels from them and if there has been a problem or a delay Spa have been on point and sorted it very quickly.

 

[Binky]

If you think bike shops can be bad, try a few high end car places. Pre kids I had a couple of nice Porche cars so I went to a dealer in London with a view to part exing the Boxster S I had. The attitude of one of the sales managers was appalling, I wanted a 911 in grey but his attitude was "these are our cars, take it or leave it, there's blue one there buy that". I give him my opinion of his sh*tty tone and told him I'd take my money elsewhere which I did.

Regarding bike shops, I use Merlin(online) and they are always excellent. I've never had an issue with tredz either, online or in shop.

 

[Tom B]

Im always minded to remember that people are a lot more motivated to moan and complain and leave a negative review than they are to compliment so always bear that in mind when reading reviews. When I was in retail I think it was 7 times more likely to leave a negative than a positive.

I have to say I always find SJS to answer a query with the minimum amount of words to the point of almost being brusque. But answer they do usually correctly, and in fairness I'm usually nothing about some £1.27 spare part and reading my query or answering the phone probably costs more than they make on the part.


We had a thread a few months ago about LBSs having similar issues

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

I generally find most examples of bad service I encounter tend to occur in the hospitality industry, which is slightly ironic.

I can generally put up with incompetence but I have to admit I am at an age now where if I come across someone being genuinely rude then I will have a quiet word with them about it.

 

[mickle]

When i left cycle retail to retrain as a plumber i had come to the conclusion that a good proportion of the cycling population are ass hats. It didn't take me long to realise that the general population has a higher percentage of asshats. Cyclists are, imho, a generally nicer bunch of people. Nevertheless, its very easy to become jaded. Very few people within the cycle industry are making great money, and especially not at the customer facing end. Cycle retail, like a lot of specialist fields, relies heavily on enthusiasts, people who do the work because they love bikes - not for the money. So, having to deal with ass hats asking stupid questions on a daily basis in return for sh!t wages. Its surely not difficult to work out why, in occasion, you're not getting the sort of Five Star red carpet ass licking that you've come to expect from your stays at the Dubai Hilton et al.

 

[vickster]

More like the service at the Bangkok Hilton 😄

Despite their rep, I've even had friendly service at Halfords when I've had occasion to use them

 

[Electric_Andy]

I don't think it's limited to bike shop staff. Lots of shops employ people to work the till and manage stock. The customer service is often lacking. Also I've heard some shop workers say that lots of people just view the stock and then go online to buy cheaper, so it's a waste of their time to offer assistance. I value customer service so much that if I don't get good service, I go elsewhere out of principle. I will not fight to get their attention when I want to hand over my money