The Chainlink

Today I went into a certain high-volume bike shop on Wells to buy a replacement chain for my winter bike. I do that pretty much every 2 years and go for a SRAM 850. Previous times I paid in the upper teens.

The clerk hands me the chain, which has a price tag of $25 on it. I mention that I think that is much higher than I used to pay. He says "let me check" and looks at his computer for a while. He comes back and says "The MSRP is $18. You can have it for that". I pay $18 and leave with a new chain.

Question: is it normal that bike shops price their items 39 percent over MSRP? I have no problem paying MSRP for parts, but this sounded like they were trying to overcharge me. By a lot.

Have you ever experienced something similar?

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I once had a somewhat similar situation. I purchased a pair of Pearl Izumi cycling gloves, fairly high end ones, from a bike shop within spitting distance of Chicago and Milwaukee. After I bought them, I looked online and noticed the bike shop charged me more than MSRP for the gloves (more than 10% above MSRP). I wasn't too pleased, but figured I'm helping a local shop, and I'm getting something for my money in return. Extra service, right?

A couple of weeks later, those gloves started falling apart, and I contacted Pearl Izumi, who told me to take them back to the shop I purchased them from, which I did. The shop wouldn't help me, telling me to contact Pearl Izumi.

I haven't been back to that shop since.

That's a double failure.   Pearl Izumi also dropped the ball.   In fact, I would argue that they are the bigger ball dropper in that it was clearly not a question of mis-installation by the Bike Shop.  It may well be that Pearl is also lousy in dealing with its vendors and the LBS was going to take all of the hit.  Frankly, I would have been a lot more aggressive with Pearl Izumi unless the LBS had expressly recommended these gloves as being particularly durable.

 

Will said:

I once had a somewhat similar situation. I purchased a pair of Pearl Izumi cycling gloves, fairly high end ones, from a bike shop within spitting distance of Chicago and Milwaukee. After I bought them, I looked online and noticed the bike shop charged me more than MSRP for the gloves (more than 10% above MSRP). I wasn't too pleased, but figured I'm helping a local shop, and I'm getting something for my money in return. Extra service, right?

A couple of weeks later, those gloves started falling apart, and I contacted Pearl Izumi, who told me to take them back to the shop I purchased them from, which I did. The shop wouldn't help me, telling me to contact Pearl Izumi.

I haven't been back to that shop since.

It's common for manufacturers to perform warranties through the dealer, rather than interface directly with consumers, so I wasn't surprised. After being denied any sort of help through the bike shop, I should have gone back to PI and discussed the situation with them, and given them a chance to make the situation right, but I didn't. It was just a pair of gloves.

Whether vendors have problems dealing with PI warranty claims is not my problem. They are free to stop selling PI if that's the case. And yes, the bike shop SPECIFICALLY recommended and ordered these gloves for me. I didn't just drop in the shop one day and pick them up.

Crazy David 84 Furlongs said:

That's a double failure.   Pearl Izumi also dropped the ball.   In fact, I would argue that they are the bigger ball dropper in that it was clearly not a question of mis-installation by the Bike Shop.  It may well be that Pearl is also lousy in dealing with its vendors and the LBS was going to take all of the hit.  Frankly, I would have been a lot more aggressive with Pearl Izumi unless the LBS had expressly recommended these gloves as being particularly durable.

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