Local Bike Shop - How to loose a sale

pedlad

Unbelievable customer experience today - quite seriously looking at spending £1500 - £2000 on a full sus bike and went today for the demo I'd arranged today at the LBS with the nice front of shop guy. He'd primed me before about the demo fee (refundable on purchase) which I think is pretty standard.

Went to collect bike and was asked to sign a form which included being charged workshop rates for cleaning if required on top of the demo fee. As there's been plenty of rain I was probably looking at 45 min worth of cleaning so a total of £50 + to test a bike for an hour or so which I think is taking the pee. No negotiation was to be had with the owner. I walked out and will purchase elsewhere.

Everyone seems to agree that you need to test ride a bike to get a good fit (for body and riding undertaken) and I also want to support local businesses, both of which should lead me to the lbs. But if that is not reciprocated by a small amount of customer focus and the "speculate to accumulate" attitude which all businesses should have then I won't be a customer again.

keirtristan

Evans didn;t ask for anything to test ride mine. They asked for a fully refundable £50 to get the bike in but I would get that back regardless of whether I purchased.

Also taken a few bikes out for a spin at Leisure Lakes in Breaston and they didn;t ask for anything, I even asked if I need to leave anything and they were just happy for me to take it round the block.

Would never pay a penny to test ride a bike.

ride_whenever

and how would you feel if you were handed a filthy bike to test ride?

A 1.5-2k bike with a slightly gritty drivetrain and all bashed up? As it is the bike shop will have to carry out maintanence on the bike to keep it running sweet, replacing parts as they wear out etc. Not to mention making the workshop filthy which looks unprofessional, and potentially causing damage to other bikes.

At my lbs they refuse to work on excessively dirty bikes, at the mechanics discresion (sp), a filthy drivetrain is acceptable, but caked with mud isn't generally. I'm sure if the money really matters to you then they would let you clean there before returning it, then the labour would only be £10 or so.

It also depends on the test ride, if it is just a car-park pootle then you shouldn't need to pay anything, but if you're going for a proper blast then paying isn't the end of the world.

pedlad

ride_whenever - totally agree with you about bike shops not having to deal with dirty customer bikes in their workshop, but this is their bike, in stock as a tool to sell what after all is a big monetry purchase.....in a recession! They should have the ability/space to quickly and efficiently clean their demo fleet - it's part of the sales process. Can you imagine a car dealer saying they were going to charge you for cleaning the car after letting a potential customer test drive.

The wear and tear element was covered in the agreed £35 test ride fee

The point is that almost everyone agrees buying through an lbs with a proper (non car park) test ride, advice and subsequent backup is best compared to internet buying. I would be willing to pay a premium for that on the bike cost BUT I am the customer and shouldn't feel exploited as I research my purchase.

RealMan

Heres a tip:

Dont turn up to test a bike when its raining.

clanton

keirtristan wrote:

Evans didn;t ask for anything to test ride mine. They asked for a fully refundable £50 to get the bike in but I would get that back regardless of whether I purchased.

Also taken a few bikes out for a spin at Leisure Lakes in Breaston and they didn;t ask for anything, I even asked if I need to leave anything and they were just happy for me to take it round the block.

Would never pay a penny to test ride a bike.

With regards to the Evans ride - I'm guerssing this was just around the car park? We tried to test ride a Spesh for my other half and had to pay a £50 deposit to ride around for 2 minutes on tar! Virtually pointless test ride and far more hassle than its worth.

mea00csf

I can understand the need to charge if your taking a bike out on a "proper" test ride, rather than a pootle round a carpark, someone has to clean it! However, £50 is excessive, look at how much it costs to hire a bike, top of my head i think it's about £20 a day and that will include for cleaning, maintenance AND depreciation.

Personally, what i would consider reasonable would be to first offer a free pootle up the street and back (leaving a credit card behind the till for security, not for charging). If i thought the bike could be "the one" i'd happily pay around £20 for a proper test ride refundable against purchase assuming i didn't ask them to clean it afterwards.

pedlad

so are they quite literally "fair weather" bike retailers then!

scotto

you got to think though if they have people walking in and out all day and messing up their bikes, they have to put something like this in place so that it gets rid of the timewasters.

I bet if you had bought a bike of them they would not have charged you anything at all, which is fair enough.

It's not like they lied to you, like all 3 of my LBS did.

keirtristan

clanton wrote:

keirtristan wrote:

Evans didn;t ask for anything to test ride mine. They asked for a fully refundable £50 to get the bike in but I would get that back regardless of whether I purchased.

Also taken a few bikes out for a spin at Leisure Lakes in Breaston and they didn;t ask for anything, I even asked if I need to leave anything and they were just happy for me to take it round the block.

Would never pay a penny to test ride a bike.

With regards to the Evans ride - I'm guerssing this was just around the car park? We tried to test ride a Spesh for my other half and had to pay a £50 deposit to ride around for 2 minutes on tar! Virtually pointless test ride and far more hassle than its worth.

Wasn't quite a car park ride but wasn't a trip up to Sherwood Pines. They said I could have the bike for about an hour or so which in the centre of Nottingham means you will struggle to get too close to any off rode terrain. I also didn't have time for the full hour but made sure I found a few hills etc to ride up and down.

I agree that if you're going to take it for a full hardcore test ride then they can justify a small charge but I would expect really that you pay a deposit which is refundable if the bike comes back pretty clean and undamaged.

The rides Leisure Lakes were also round the block but again to be honest I could have gone a little further.

Both were on dry days.

Again though I would not pay for a test ride (unless I was going to take it for longer and get a real feel for it), every business has to accept an element of cost in pre-sales and to me this is classed as pre-sales.

ride_whenever

Pedlad, i think that it would be lovely that every shop that has a demo fleet has bike cleaning space.

But the shop where I work/shop simply doesn't have the space for that, nor even acess to an external tap. We'd have to hand clean them with a rag and bike cleaner. Although it isn't a huge issue for us as we're mostly town and touring bikes.

Does anyone know how the demo days work? That's be an interesting comparison.

RealMan

Yes, suppliers supply bikes to bike shop. Bike shop organises the day and runs it. People turn up, make bikes muddy. Bike shop then cleans them. Somewhere along the line the bike shop makes more sales.

KnightofCydonia

keirtristan wrote:

The rides Leisure Lakes were also round the block but again to be honest I could have gone a little further.
.

That's what I got. At the time, that branch weren't having the commencal in so I paid 10% down to get that in, but it came off my final purchase. Did that neat block circuit and whilst not up or downhill much, it's good to just check the brakes, riding position and how the forks felt. Did 2 laps on each bike changing gears, lockout etc and it was perfect. However had it got dirty, I'd have happily cleaned it down for them before I left. Overall though I find that branch very professional, the guys from the first time I went in browsing were happy to chat, give advice and respect that I knew a little bit if not a lot. I'll happily use them time & time again esp now i'm in the vip club, although at 20ish miles away it's not ideal, but the train station at long eaton is only about a mile off so it's easy to do that & ride the rest. Today I did drop into a more local one but just for some lube which I wanted to use today which I now have and let it penetrate for a day or so before I ride it again. Sadly as nice guys, they just don't have the range of stock of brands etc that LL do.

kitenski

Why couldn't you clean the bike after the demo ride? That's what I did when I took a demo bike.

Cheers,

Greg

GHill

Would you get the cleaning fee back if you bought the bike? £50 doesn't seem completely outrageous (bit steep for an hour) but they should just factor cleaning costs into the quoted demo price and not try to add it on later.

stevieboy

Which LBS was this?

Seems a bit silly really

fletch8928

I went shopping for a new bike a few weeks ago and had various offers made to me for a test ride,
2nd nearest lbs offered 10% refundable on purchase test ride £2800 Intense, i declined (wasnt going to spend anywhere near that).
Evens wouldnt let bikes out of shop, Scott Spark 50, lapierre ?? Cannondale Rize 5. Edinburgh Cycles were going to let me take a Rush 4 out(i had my 4yr old with me) and even get a large one to see if that felt better for nothing.
Shouldnt complain about the above due to not buying a bike from any of them. Was surprised by Edinburgh though.

Demo days do sound like the right way to do it

Dazzza

Had a rather strange experience with a local bike shop, not my actual lbs though.

Went in the shop mentioning i fancied an anthem x3, gave the x1 a ride with no problems but the whole time i was made to feel like i was wasting their time, anyway i decided i loved the bike and put a deposit down.

Anyway two weeks later i turn up with the cash in hand, paid for it and put it in the car, the whole time the guy couldn't shake my hand enough, im guessing he gets a lot of dreamers taking his bike out for rides only to end up with no sales.

Does make you wonder though, i could have easily ridden off with that x1, what's there to stop me it must be quite worrying for them to lend a high end bike to a stranger, id be panicking and riding along with them just to make sure.

supersonic

Some people do indeed abuse the system as a quick free way to hire a bike for a day. I would expect to pay 25 quid for a full days testing.. But nothing for a quick car park test!

Always take ID and a credit card though.

keirtristan

Actually, forgot to say that Evans took my debit card, charged 1p to it and kept my card. I was testing a Genesis Core 20 so wasn't worth as much as many of their bikes.

Leisure Lakes I guess could see my car clearly parked outside though and that is worth more than the bike I took out.

It's a hard one I guess, they have to protect their bikes from thieves and time wasters, still they should treat everyone as a potential sale.

pedlad

A Few hours later and I've calmed down (a bit!)

I'm tempted to, but not going to name and shame as the first guy was good and seemed like he wanted to help.....but I've heard other locals bemoan the attitide of the owner...reputations spread.

I did think of taking it home to clean but the logistics of fitting that in with a long lunch test ride didn't work ......I hadn't been aware of the cleaning issue until I came to collect. When I asked if the cleaning element is refunded if I subsequently purchased then I was told no!

I think in agreement with most posters somewhere around £25 - £35 (The higher in htis instance) for a proper offroad test period is fair to cover wear & tear - along with a credit card swipe for security.

I also agree that there may be some time wasters out there, but as with the provision of test bikes isn't qualifying the prospect part of the sales process???

It's not going to be a 100% foolproof for them but having a long and involved conversation with the customer about their needs/budget etc as I'd done on wednesday should give them a clue about how serious someone is.

GHill

pedlad wrote:

When I asked if the cleaning element is refunded if I subsequently purchased then I was told no!

In which case, they can stick it!

deffler

I hate it when people wait until the last minute to throw in a extra charge or something.
Yesterday my other half took her car for its mot, when she got there, bloke says he doesnt do the mot there, he takes it to another garage who does the mot then he goes & collects it. For this he charges £40 for the mot & £20 labour costs. WTF.
Mrs asks him why he didnt mention this on the phone & he says cause he assumes she already knows this & people are happy to pay for the convenience. WTF.
She takes it to the next garage down the road who done it for £20

lm_trek

Last time i demoed a bike the LBS words of wisdom where "ride it like you stole it" was half tempted to strip it down and just return the frame!

But nope i paid nothing to borrow the bike for 2 days, and just left proof of address and signed to say i would return said bike, if not they threatened to send the heavies round!

The Spiderman

Recently took an Orange 5 out for a couple of hours,at Grafham cycling.Was the first person to ride it,totally fresh out of the box,brought it back quite muddy,but they wanted to know how I`d got on and what I thought of it..Cost £15 which Ithought was fair.

nferrar

Yeah a demo fee around £30 (refundable on purchase) is fine, covers brake pads etc and deters people just having a laugh. But a cleaning fee is taking the piss (especially non-refundable), I'd have walked away to.

alex_uk

pedlad wrote:

... to sell what after all is a big monetry purchase.....in a recession!

It might cost a lot, but there is very little profit margin in a bike. Consequently, it won't take long before a bike sale becomes a loss leader for a shop.

Accessories are where the profit lies, but even the best of these only produce a 100% mark up ... which might sound extravagent but this is where the bread and butter of paying wages and rates comes from.

You could of course point out that getting a big ticket sale is going to then pave the way to sell a whole load of accessories and workshop time over the next 18 - 24 months ... and I would agree with that, but just wanted to demonstrate another perspective.

gbrnole

supersonic wrote:

Some people do indeed abuse the system as a quick free way to hire a bike for a day. I would expect to pay 25 quid for a full days testing.. But nothing for a quick car park test!

Always take ID and a credit card though.

£25 !! Last time i was up at Afan having snapped my frame, i enquired to the penhydd side bike shop who wanted £40 a day to hire a £1k full suss kona. Needless to say i didnt bother...

MilitantGraham

fletch8928 wrote:

...10% refundable on purchase test ride £2800 Intense...

Hang on a minute.
So you hand over a £280 deposit to test ride a bike, then if you decide it's not quite what you want and you're going to buy a different one, you've lost your £280. :shock:

Give the guys in the shop a break though. How many test rides can a bike stand before it becomes second hand ?
Demo days sound like a better idea. Lots of riders try out several bikes, then order the one they like from their LBS. Eventually, the manufacturer sells off the demo fleet.

serpant

Evans just took my card and held it until i brought the bike back

Rau

keirtristan wrote:

Evans didn;t ask for anything to test ride mine. They asked for a fully refundable £50 to get the bike in but I would get that back regardless of whether I purchased.

I've been looking at buying a new MTB recently (will be picking it up today infact), but one of the factors which completely put me off Evans was the fact that thier shop stock in Milton Keynes was pretty limited, and they told me that the £50 fee was only refundable if I bought the bike that I ordered into the shop to test.