|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#141
|
|||
|
|||
Bad Bike Shop Manners??
Jeff Grippe wrote: I didn't think of it as haggling on the price. It was simply that I knew the price of the new bike and the one he had was "well used". There were a few dings, missing paint (small chips), etc. Also it was my first trike and if I could spend a bit less that would appealed to me. Since I knew the price of the new TT 3.5 (at that time), I couldn't see paying $100 less for a very well used older model. But on the other hand, this guy setup almost a dozen different trikes and let me take them on a mile long test ride that he had mapped out. You really can't beat that kind of service. Jeff Okay, "haggling" probably has too many negative connotations, but I recognize that one has to pay for great service, for the shop being there in the first place to provide the service, etc., etc., etc. Of course that's all up to the proprietor to work out, and I'm not saying it's my concern as such; no, I'm just saying that I "recognize" that and so I guess it just doesn't "occur" to me to even try to get a "better" price. I don't believe I'd get more than, what, 3% off, and what's 3% when all things are considered? I know that sounds "defeatist" of me as a consumer, but I just like rewarding intangibles as tangibly as I can. Perhaps even "rewarding" is the wrong word, as if they were just prostitutes of some sort. But much as these guys **** me off, I think that LBSes in general should be supported, and this is my way of putting my money where my mouth is. |
Ads |
#142
|
|||
|
|||
Bad Bike Shop Manners??
Jon Meinecke wrote: In the end, you have choices. Less so, perhaps for purchasing a non-commodity item like a recumbent bike. Vote with your money. Indeed. But these are also established places which have been around for a long time (though NorthEast Recumbents is folding for good soon, and I've received private e-mail which concurs with my experience of Johannes there as being aloof and not particularly solicitous enough of a sale), and so I just had to vent and more importantly ask if there was something I was missing. And now I'm wondering...maybe they were turned off by the fact that I told them I was spending all that money?? Maybe, ironically enough, I think I'm doing them a favor by letting them know that I'm a sure sale, whereas they might be taking it like I'm trying to tell them to be on their best behavior since, lookit, I've got cash, whoopee...?? People are so ****ing touchy...sheesh! Bike shops, their owners, their clientele, have a 'personality', a certain feel, a quirkiness, probably more so than other, small to medium retail operations. I try to make allowances. Overall, the LBS is a vanishing "breed",-- like the local hardware store or family-run grocery. An LBS with knowledge of recumbents is the exception. We have none of such locally. Few small-to-medium markets do. Much as even I lament the "box-store phenomenon" -- giant blocks of Walmarts, Home Depots, and Borders -- I have to say that they practically never give you grief. Sure it's hard finding someone who speaks English -- it's a miracle to find staff at all if you have a quesiton -- but the price is the price, the policy is the policy, thank you very much. Experiences like mine make me think I could do with less "personality," if you know what I mean! As for treatment of phone calls, I tend to agree that someone waiting in the store should take precedence over someone on the phone. Taking a number to call someone back seems like the polite and efficient thing to do. If a seller doesn't get back to you, well, indeed they don't want your business or are less than competent. Sometimes it's like the Book of Job, I guess...there simply is no answer. I still find it hard to really think badly of these folks that **** me off, so perhaps it's simply just one of those things. Maybe my e-mail messages got lost in mountains of SPAM. Maybe their puppy really did just die. Etc. I went into a LBS to purchase three standard chains to replace my recumbent chain. I had questions about the relative merit of various models. The shop owner didn't have three chains of the same type in stock and couldn't offer any advice why one chain might be better, though more expensive, than another. He treated me rather abruptly and effectively indicated he didn't want my business if I didn't just want to buy something then and there. Oh yeah, I've had the treatment too -- "you want that or not?" What makes it all the more puzzling is that the store's empty! I rode from that LBS to the other LBS, where the owner grabbed a chain wear measurement tool and told me I might as well continue with the chain I had for another few thousand miles since it had worn to the point that when I replaced the chain I would need to replace the rear cassette. We had a good discussion, including speculating whether the (then new) hollow pin chains advertised as lighter weight than solid pin models would remain lighter weight for very long in the presence of road grime. %^) Now see, that's actually the sort of discussion over the phone that The Bicycleman had with me. So I was like, cool! I mean, I didn't ask all that, but here was someone obviously interested in my well-being as a fellow cyclist! But then I just got dropped for the walk-in without about three-fourths of my concerns answered (since his answers to the few I managed to ask were so in-depth), and my two e-mail messages were never responded to. I went away, not purchasing a chain that day. But guess where I shop *first* locally for bike supplies since then. Jon Meinecke Thanks again for commiserating. I think for my part, I probably do expect too much sometimes. Sure they're cyclists, but they're businessmen first, and they're just in business-mode. Who knows anymore. Even when I give 'em money I can barely get a response (you out there, Johannes??). |
#143
|
|||
|
|||
Bad Bike Shop Manners??
$200 margin isn't $200 profit. Keep in mind bicycles require substantial
time in assembly; not many other items you'd buy require all that work before they can go out the door. Car dealers tell me they can prep a car in 20 minutes, which is 2 hours, 40 minutes less time than it takes for many bikes. But what's the incremental cost of selling that bicycle versus not selling it. It would seem like you'd want to keep these customers from going elsewhere even at the cost of an occasional extra shipping charge. They're likely to be buying all the high-margin accessories and clothing from the shop that they buy the bike from, as well as returning there for service after the warranty. Sure you can't afford to be special ordering every single bike, but once in a while it would seem to be a worthwhile expense, if it's a high end model. On an inexpensive bike, it's not incremental profit, it's incremental loss. That holds true up to about the $400-$500 area for the better shops; there are some that can probably make a profit on a $300 bike, because they put so little time into them. On a higher-end bike yes, we will special-order one in-between larger shipments if need be, because it's less-expensive to do that than to carry so many in stock that there's no possibility of running out in-between major shipments. situational pricing (you charge customers differently depending upon your mood, or that they won't buy something without bargaining, or the business is in a cash flow crisis), but that's generally not a long-term road to success. Everyone involved in the shop, from owner to salesperson to mechanic, loses any real sense of value, in terms of what they're delivering to the customer, because it's different to each one. Welcome to the world of retail. It's pretty rare to find a store of any kind that charges the same price to every customer, with all the sales, rebates, discount clubs, % off coupons, cash discounts, etc., not to mention plain haggling. I'm not sure that this is necessarily bad, as it enables the business to sell both to price-sensitive and non-price sensitive customers, increasing volume. It may be rare, but that's us. We have no club discounts, no team-in training discounts, no %-off coupons, no cash discounts. The product is the same price to everyone, no exceptions. If we cannot establish that we're worth "x" price, the customer will go elsewhere. That's fine; not everybody wants to do business the same way. But it encourages us to be competitive and deliver the best-possible service we can, because we're establishing that *we* believe the product has a certain value, so we have to support that. We do however want to support various events, so besides direct contributions we also offer 5% of a customer's prior-year purchases in the form of a check to whatever charitable ride they're doing. We also do a 10% discount on parts purchased with the bike. My favorite discount was one that the Bicycle Outfitter once had, where they had 15 or 20% off everything in the store, during the hours that the Super Bowl was on. It was the one time to buy stuff that rarely goes on sale, such as Rivendell bicycles. You're probably aware that they changed hands; one of the problems they had was that they trained customers to wait until they had their sales. They had prices that were pretty high the rest of the time, but fewer buyers. That can lead to the need for even more sale events to generate cash, which further discourages people from shopping otherwise... a vicious circle that makes it difficult to stay in business. There are many successful business models out there; I'm not suggesting that what we choose is better than someone else's. It just happens to work for us, probably mostly because we're absolutely consistent. It also works great because the customer who comes in saying his friend bought a bike from us and got X$ off on it and he wants the same deal... well, we know that isn't the case. We end up not wasting nearly as much time chasing customers who are more interested in bargaining than in actually riding a bike. Yes, there are people for whom the thrill of the negotiation is more important than anything else. Me? I lose several years off my life everytime I have to buy a car. --Mike Jacoubowsky Chain Reaction Bicycles www.ChainReaction.com Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA |
#144
|
|||
|
|||
Bad Bike Shop Manners??
"NYC XYZ" wrote in message ups.com... Jon Meinecke wrote: [...] Bike shops, their owners, their clientele, have a 'personality', a certain feel, a quirkiness, probably more so than other, small to medium retail operations. I try to make allowances. Overall, the LBS is a vanishing "breed",-- like the local hardware store or family-run grocery. An LBS with knowledge of recumbents is the exception. We have none of such locally. Few small-to-medium markets do. Much as even I lament the "box-store phenomenon" -- giant blocks of Walmarts, Home Depots, and Borders -- I have to say that they practically never give you grief. Sure it's hard finding someone who speaks English -- it's a miracle to find staff at all if you have a quesiton -- but the price is the price, the policy is the policy, thank you very much. Experiences like mine make me think I could do with less "personality," if you know what I mean! I am with NYC here. I very much like the big box discount stores. After all, it is all about price. Service is almost nonexistent these days and who needs it anyway. Mom and pop type of stores have always been a pain in the ass. Good riddance to them. Give me Wal-Mart any old day of the week and twice on Sundays. Hell, if I were a kid I would get my bike at Wal-Mart and I would be perfectly happy with it. Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota |
#145
|
|||
|
|||
Bad Bike Shop Manners??
Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
Presta valve caps serve no reasonable purpose that I can see. They certainly aren't air-tight. The best they might do is keep the area clean so you don't blow grit into your tube, but I've never seen that cause any trouble. I thought they were there to stop the end of the valve chaffing the tube when it was rolled up. -- Andy Morris AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK Love this: Put an end to Outlook Express's messy quotes http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/ |
#146
|
|||
|
|||
Bad Bike Shop Manners??
Johnny Sunset wrote:
Since I was the only rider on a bicycle with a front fairing and fenders, I only got wet above the shoulders. The rest of the riders were soaked everywhere. And... what next? They all melted? RFM |
#147
|
|||
|
|||
Bad Bike Shop Manners??
Fritz M wrote: Johnny Sunset wrote: Since I was the only rider on a bicycle with a front fairing and fenders, I only got wet above the shoulders. The rest of the riders were soaked everywhere. And... what next? They all melted? Someone implied that recumbents would be worse than uprights to ride in the rain regarding the rider getting wet and dirty. I posted a real world example that indicated the opposite was the case. If there had been lightning, the upright riders would have worked as lightning rods for me. -- Tom Sherman - Fox River Valley |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
The Ugly Bike | [email protected] | General | 4 | October 17th 05 02:43 PM |
my new bike | Marian Rosenberg | General | 5 | October 19th 03 03:00 PM |
FAQ? | Just zis Guy, you know? | UK | 18 | October 1st 03 01:02 PM |
Ordering a Trek 5200 | Jason Spaceman | Techniques | 106 | September 26th 03 10:42 PM |
FAQ | Just zis Guy, you know? | UK | 27 | September 5th 03 10:58 PM |