MST.ESQ
New Member
I am not posting this to bash - but in an honest attempt to get shop owners to take a look at their service departments. I had two very poor experiences recently with two well established shops. The most recent involved a simple task - replace all cables. Well, yesterday I suited up for a ride and was heading down the driveway when I noticed a very loud metal-on-metal noise. Upon inspection, it was clear that the front shifter cable was never tensioned. There was only one dent on the cable making it clear that it was not a matter of slippage. I attempted to shift into the large ring, but it was nowhere close to being aligned for the shift. It is clear that the front cage was bolted tight, with no attempt to get the right tension. OK, I thought, just missed this one I guess. However, same issue in the back. The cable was clamped down tight but the derailleur was trying it's best to skip cogs. WTF? As I held the cable to adjust - the crimp end simply slid off in my hand. Again, WTF? I paid over $100 alone for this service.
I would love to be able to ignore this as a one-off issue, but when I picked up my road bike at another major shop (again, I know that many employees are on this board) last week for bar tape, I returned home with end plugs that were not lined up correctly and had a double fold in the tape causing the plug to be at an extreme angle. My wife spotted that one logo was upside down and that the black finish tape started at the top on one side, and at the bottom of the other and that one side had several wrinkles where the installer attempted to get back in line. My wife was furious with me that I just spent $200 in service and still had to sit in the basement to align a drivetrain and re-tape my bars. She wanted to know why I did not return to the shop to chew them out.
The upside is that she gave me permission to expand my tool collection to do more work on my own. But more importantly, she went off on a rant about bike shops that must not care enough to retain business. This got me thinking... perhaps there needs to be a renewed effort of shop owners to sit down with service personnel and explain what it means to take that extra second to double check work. I mean seriously, do you think I want my bar end plugs installed upside down with wrinkles in the finishing tape?
FWIW, I truly hope this will prompt shop owners to have a sit down tonight with the service department to discuss the importance of customer service and doing a good job. With the state our economy, I (and especially my wife) were sad to see the lack of effort that was put into the work done on my bikes. In fact, she demanded that I take my trainer bike to a new shop to see if they are more enthusiastic about their work. Did you get that? I risked getting another lecture from my wife if I took my bike back to these two shops. Also, she is in the market for an Ultegra equipped carbon bike - and guess which shops she refuses to shop in? I don't know about you, but it was a sort of a wake-up call to me. I truly love dealing with my local shops vs buying over the internet. But to be honest, I may be going that route to avoid getting dagger eyes every time I ask for $200 to get work done on my bike. It would be easier to hide the internet shopping through paypal and simply do the work myself.
Again, I apologize if this comes across the wrong way, but I love to deal with local shops and I am also frustrated that my wife refuses to buy her bike at one of my two favorite shops.
I would love to be able to ignore this as a one-off issue, but when I picked up my road bike at another major shop (again, I know that many employees are on this board) last week for bar tape, I returned home with end plugs that were not lined up correctly and had a double fold in the tape causing the plug to be at an extreme angle. My wife spotted that one logo was upside down and that the black finish tape started at the top on one side, and at the bottom of the other and that one side had several wrinkles where the installer attempted to get back in line. My wife was furious with me that I just spent $200 in service and still had to sit in the basement to align a drivetrain and re-tape my bars. She wanted to know why I did not return to the shop to chew them out.
The upside is that she gave me permission to expand my tool collection to do more work on my own. But more importantly, she went off on a rant about bike shops that must not care enough to retain business. This got me thinking... perhaps there needs to be a renewed effort of shop owners to sit down with service personnel and explain what it means to take that extra second to double check work. I mean seriously, do you think I want my bar end plugs installed upside down with wrinkles in the finishing tape?
FWIW, I truly hope this will prompt shop owners to have a sit down tonight with the service department to discuss the importance of customer service and doing a good job. With the state our economy, I (and especially my wife) were sad to see the lack of effort that was put into the work done on my bikes. In fact, she demanded that I take my trainer bike to a new shop to see if they are more enthusiastic about their work. Did you get that? I risked getting another lecture from my wife if I took my bike back to these two shops. Also, she is in the market for an Ultegra equipped carbon bike - and guess which shops she refuses to shop in? I don't know about you, but it was a sort of a wake-up call to me. I truly love dealing with my local shops vs buying over the internet. But to be honest, I may be going that route to avoid getting dagger eyes every time I ask for $200 to get work done on my bike. It would be easier to hide the internet shopping through paypal and simply do the work myself.
Again, I apologize if this comes across the wrong way, but I love to deal with local shops and I am also frustrated that my wife refuses to buy her bike at one of my two favorite shops.
