Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rene Lawell on October 18, 2011 at 6:42am

Well you are not far off. We make it a point at our store "Village CycleSport" Arlington Heights, Barrington, and Elk grove Village,  to greet everyone as they come in.

Sometimes we miss a few who come in our back door.but foe the most part, we try to say hello to everyone. I am so sorry you had that experience. Most people come into a bike store

in a glaze, because the only person who knows where things are at is the sales and service.

They should have greeted you and asked what you needed.

 

Rene

Our Gang Bicycle Club

 

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Permalink Reply by S.Presley☠ on October 18, 2011 at 6:49am

I have had some good experiences with smaller shops...as far as personal attention.

I don't mind saying that "Rapid Transit" has been really cool. I bought a water bottle cage...and while talking about a problem I had with my shifter, he just threw it up on the bike stand. He did a  30 second adjustment(free) that saved me tons. Another shop had told me I need a new shifter.

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Permalink Reply by Melanie K on October 18, 2011 at 6:52am

Thanks Renee- and it wasn't your store, so I don't want anyone to think that since the name is similar- and it is nice to see someone from the industry responding.  It sounds like your store is doing the right thing and I am sure you are fostering loyal customers because of it.  I'll have to check out your shop when we travel that way to visit the in-laws in the suburbs.

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Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on October 18, 2011 at 8:23am

I'm not above naming names. 

Rapid Transit on North Ave = One good experience where a guy helped me out when I was hit on my front tire, and he straightened it a bit for free).  But if you like to stand around and wait 5 mins for a simple "Can I help you?" Bless you.  I realize they're a neighborhood store more or less, but their prices are pretty steep, too.  I'll buy a tube here if I'm in a pinch but otherwise I avoid them.

Performance Bikes on Halsted = more of the same pretty much.  Customer service is friendly enough and seems to seek out people and ask if they need help, but I still encounter some surly employee's that give one word answers, stare blankly at me, and act annoyed when I ask a simple question.  Also, had a pretty bad experience recently with their manager.  Brought in a print-out of a lower price on an item and he refused to honor it, and the reason he gave was simply not true.  I found this out after I biked several miles back home and looked on the internet to double check (their internet was out, conveniently), and sure enough he was lying to me.  Biked back and he reluctantly honored it when I told him what I had found, saying "Wow, that's a pretty good price" in a really sarcastic tone.  Like I was trying to scam him or something...  He tried to play it off like he had gotten the price match policy wrong, but he just didn't want to honor the low price.  To top it off, he never once said he was sorry. 

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on October 18, 2011 at 8:41am

I hope this doesn't devolve into a mud slinging thread.

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Permalink Reply by Melanie K on October 18, 2011 at 8:57am

I think it already has. 

Kelvin Mulcky said:

I hope this doesn't devolve into a mud slinging thread.

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Permalink Reply by Billy Poore on October 18, 2011 at 10:24am

I feel if a bike shop is selling bikes, parts/service/maintenance should be at least of equal priority.  Regardless of their sale priority, you should, at the very least be treated with the same respect as any other customer.  It's a shame they lost you as a potential customer.  In these tough economic times, elitism is not a smart option for a business!  Hopefully your next LBS visit will be an extra pleasant one! 

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Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on October 18, 2011 at 11:12am

If what I typed is considered mud slinging I'd be happy to take the post down if it's offending people.  But like the OP said, I typed it to get it off my mind.  I don't post negative Yelp reviews, or actively seek out avenues to spew my vitriol on the web, but when I saw this new thread started with many of the same sentiments that were on my mind after having dealt with bike shops, I took the chance to get it off my chest since I've never spoken a word about it to anyone else.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on October 18, 2011 at 1:53pm

I actually work at Rapid Transit, a shop I choose to work at because of it's high level of customer service, so I feel the need to say a couple of things here.

 

1. I have no excuse for you not being greeted when you came in, I try to make sure I greet people if they are not by somebody else but sometime we miss a person.  In the summer we often have more customers than employees in the store at times so it can be hard to catch everyone; outside of that there really is no excuse so I apologize. 

 

2. While I will admit that you can find stuff cheaper other places than you can at Rapid Transit I want to point out that you complain about the pricing shortly after you mention you got a wheel worked on for free...  Maybe one of the reasons things can cost a little more here are because we tend to go the extra mile for customers.  It is not unusual for us to do small adjustments for nothing and we back everything we do or sell, including flats, almost no questions asked for thirty days; aren't things like that worth paying a couple of bucks extra?

 

I think it's interesting that people often complain about customer service but in the very same sentence divulge that they base their buying decisions on cost.  It's as if it never occurs to them that quality of service while purchasing a commodity is not worth paying a premium for.  It makes me nuts, and I am not picking out people from this thread, to see people complain that service is degrading everywhere we go but continue to shy away from superior service due to cost.  I mean I could get my hair cut for 5 bucks and look fine but I go to a great barber and pay 15 partially because of the quality but mostly because the experience is that much better.

 

 

Brendan said:

I'm not above naming names. 

Rapid Transit on North Ave = One good experience where a guy helped me out when I was hit on my front tire, and he straightened it a bit for free).  But if you like to stand around and wait 5 mins for a simple "Can I help you?" Bless you.  I realize they're a neighborhood store more or less, but their prices are pretty steep, too.  I'll buy a tube here if I'm in a pinch but otherwise I avoid them.

 

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Permalink Reply by Gary Gilbert on October 18, 2011 at 2:22pm

Customer service is mostly non-existent in many industries.
One of the best, in the cycling world, is Topeak. I had a need to replace a piece on a Topeak pump. I sent an email via their website asking how I could get a replacement part. I had a phone call from a real person who was able to tell me the part number, price, and took my credit card number. I had the part in 2 days. The impressive part was that the phone call came within 10 minutes of asking the question. The next impressive part of the response was receiving the part via USPS in less than 2 days.!

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Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on October 18, 2011 at 4:01pm

Appreciate the comments.  I could have been more clear in my initial response, and I'm sorry for the confusion.  While the employee at RT straightened my wheel a bit (took him maybe 5 mins and the shop was nearly empty), I did throw him 5 bucks.  It was all I had, and honestly, all I could afford.  I'm still riding on that same slightly bent wheel.   

And I don't want to turn this into a tit for tat thing, but I would never fault a store for not being perfectly speedy in getting to me, especially when they're extra busy.  I can differentiate between when people are busy and when they are just floating around and purposefully ignoring me.  Nobody deserves that.  None of the times I had in mind when I wrote that occurred when your store was very busy at all, and a few times in particular it was almost empty.

I'm not one of those people that needs to be treated like a king when I enter a store, but when I'm ignored and made to feel unwelcome, it's just confounding because I'm at your store (not RT in particular, just in general) and willing to hand over my money to you, but I'm made to feel like you could take it or leave it.  I really hate that feeling.   

And to add to Gary's post, there have been lots of times I've been pretty blown away by great customer service.  REI has nearly always been awesome, as well as Zappos, Blackburn, Sierra Trading Post, and the guys with a little stand on lake shore drive by the tennis courts, to name a few. 

 

notoriousDUG said:

I actually work at Rapid Transit, a shop I choose to work at because of it's high level of customer service, so I feel the need to say a couple of things here.

 

1. I have no excuse for you not being greeted when you came in, I try to make sure I greet people if they are not by somebody else but sometime we miss a person.  In the summer we often have more customers than employees in the store at times so it can be hard to catch everyone; outside of that there really is no excuse so I apologize. 

 

2. While I will admit that you can find stuff cheaper other places than you can at Rapid Transit I want to point out that you complain about the pricing shortly after you mention you got a wheel worked on for free...  Maybe one of the reasons things can cost a little more here are because we tend to go the extra mile for customers.  It is not unusual for us to do small adjustments for nothing and we back everything we do or sell, including flats, almost no questions asked for thirty days; aren't things like that worth paying a couple of bucks extra?

 

I think it's interesting that people often complain about customer service but in the very same sentence divulge that they base their buying decisions on cost.  It's as if it never occurs to them that quality of service while purchasing a commodity is not worth paying a premium for.  It makes me nuts, and I am not picking out people from this thread, to see people complain that service is degrading everywhere we go but continue to shy away from superior service due to cost.  I mean I could get my hair cut for 5 bucks and look fine but I go to a great barber and pay 15 partially because of the quality but mostly because the experience is that much better.

 

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on October 18, 2011 at 4:07pm

I'm really surprised to hear that you got ignored when the store is empty, that is not the norm there.

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