This afternoon I received some very crappy customer service at one bike shop. Then 30 minutes later, I received excellent customer service at a different bike shop.
I brought my daughter’s bike into bike shop A to have them fix the chain. The minute I walked in, I knew something wasn’t right (besides them not having any customers in the store) three guys behind the counter doing nothing; one came out to greet me.
“Hi, can I help you?”
“Yeah, I need to have this chain put on my daughter’s bike along with the wheel.”
The guy looked at the bike, then looked at the wheel I was holding in my hand. Now mind you, I’m not the most mechanically inclined person. I had fixed the flat on the back tire and needed to dissemble the chain and gears in the back. After trying for over 30 minutes to put it back on, I failed. Oh well, can’t win ’em all, right?
Let me take it to a bike shop! What a great idea.
I drove 20 minutes to the shop. As I followed the guy to the back, I saw a few workers in the repair section…doing NOTHING! One guy was sitting up on a desk, two were looking down reading something, two were eating food and another came out to greet me.
“Hi, I was wondering if you can help me with this, I can’t seem to get it on.”
The guy, sporting a long gray beard looked at it, then looked at me. “It’ll cost ya $12 and we can have it ready on the 26th. (By the way, today is the 20th!)
“No thanks pal.” I said to him as I turned and began my journey out of the store.
I noticed a female worker from the place walking behind me on my way out, “That’s not good when it’s in pieces.” she said to me.
“Yeah, no shit sister!” I said to myself. “And a lot of help you people were.” (Wonder if the owner knows he has employees sitting on their asses doing absolutely nothing?)
Outside in the parking lot I was thinking out loud, “screw it, I’m going to take it home and try it again.”
That’s when my wife suggested I take it to Dick’s. Long story short, we took it to Dick’s Sporting Goods store across town where they have people on site to do bike repairs and a bike tech Travis, fixed it in 5 minutes!
To top it off, they didn’t even charge me!
Should I go back to bike shop A and complain to the owner on Monday or let it go? Mind you, my wife and I went in there last year and purchased two bikes at one time.
What’s the deal with the lack of customer service? Is it a lost art?
To conclude, the name of bike shop A is Denny’s Central Park Bicycles and is located in Okemos, Michigan and I will never patronize their store again. It’s funny because we were actually thinking of buying a new bike for Taylor…
-Steve
Hoops135@hotmail.com
corrado said:
your from bklyn ‘ u should of fix the chain yourself lol or took a ride to Union st n get it done wright
hoopscoach said:
I know man, I know! Actually 12th street was our bike shop! But serious, I’m not too good with bikes, but hey, no worries!
corrado said:
oops HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL
Brooklin said:
You should have taken your bike to Danny Raymond’s bicycle shop located back in the day where Crokes Candy Store used to be located on Windsor Pl. I took my bike there onceand Danny was there fixing a bike using a hammer. Needless to say I took my bike and was outta there! lol!
TONYF16ST said:
Steve if you really want to screw them over send a letter to the big name companys they rep and tell them how you were treated. Or to the Mfg of the 2 bikes you bought from them and what good are they if you can’t get service.
You’ll see how fast they respond
Sometime you need to hit them where it hurts the most,the pockets.