Local Bike Shop - How to loose a sale

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Comments

  • gaz047
    gaz047 Posts: 601
    reckon demo days are the way forward if possible, but if you can't get to one and try a lbs demo rig then any money given should be deducted from any bike bought in that shop not just the one your testing.
    ideally though you shouldn't have to pay for a demo, just leave driving licence, bank card etc with the shop whilst you ride, like you would for a car test drive.
    i do however believe if you test one then clean it before you take it back if its s£itted up
    if it ain't rainin.....it ain't trainin
    Stick your 'rules' up your a%se
  • Mrs Toast
    Mrs Toast Posts: 636
    When I was looking into getting a Stumpjumper, our local Specialized dealer didn't have any small ones in. To get one in, he wanted me to pay a 10% NON-REFUNDABLE deposit. Needless to say £189 is a fair wodge of cash to hand over for a bike you've never even sat on. It was too much of a risk.

    Went to the Specialized Concept Store. They wanted a £60 deposit, which was refundable if I didn't fit on the bike. They got the bike in, I went on the turbo-trainer thing and rode it around the carpark, and it fitted. I bought the bike. So, the LBS lost a £1899 purchase due to them demanding a hefty non-refundable deposit.

    I've heard of various places charging £30 - £50 for demoing bikes (deductable if you make a purchase), but normally you get the bike for the weekend for that.
    The Mountain Biking Missadventures of Missus Toast

    The Professor

    Cletus
  • MilitantGraham
    MilitantGraham Posts: 220
    Look at it from the bike shop owners point of view again though.
    I don't know what the profit margin is on a bike, let's have a guess at 25%,
    So he buys your £1899 bike in for close to £1500.
    You test ride it and don't like it.
    He's now stuck with the bike. What's the chance of someone else coming in the shop wanting that exact model and size before he has to discount it because next years model is out ?

    This whole system of test riding bikes seems a bit flawed and I don't think blaming it all on the shopkeepers is the answer.
    I am a mountain biking god.
    Unfortunately, my bike's an atheist.
  • Loun88
    Loun88 Posts: 29
    Rau 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.

    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.

    Thats a lie, the £50 is refundable even if you don't want the bike.
  • Rau
    Rau Posts: 22
    Loun88 wrote:
    Thats a lie, the £50 is refundable even if you don't want the bike.

    Sorry but that's not what they told me in the shop. They explicitly said that if I want to order one into the shop, they'll take £50 which is deducted from the full cost when I buy the bike.
    sig3.png
  • RealMan
    RealMan Posts: 2,166
    They explicitly said that if I want to order one into the shop, they'll take £50 which is deducted from the full cost when I buy the bike.

    But refunded if you dont buy it, unless youre talking about a deposit - then obviously, its not.
  • keirtristan
    keirtristan Posts: 296
    Rau wrote:
    Loun88 wrote:
    Thats a lie, the £50 is refundable even if you don't want the bike.

    Sorry but that's not what they told me in the shop. They explicitly said that if I want to order one into the shop, they'll take £50 which is deducted from the full cost when I buy the bike.

    I guess with Evans it will be a bit hit and miss depending on who you speak to/what store you go to.

    I would never pay money to test ride, imagine you want to test 4-5 bikes, that could start adding up and when your budget is low that eats into every valuable pound.

    As I've said before bike shops should accept this as presales. We put a lot of work in sometimes to make a sale and often it comes to nothing but the company still foots the bill.
  • Dirtydog11
    Dirtydog11 Posts: 1,621
    How come this kind of bulls*** doesn't apply when you test drive a car?

    The cleaning bit............The lazy b*****ds. They probably employ some sixteen year old kid for £6.00 an hour and they want to charge you £50.00.


    Personally I'd tell them to take a hike!
    Kinesis Maxlight XC

    Orange 5 AM Custom
  • .blitz
    .blitz Posts: 6,197
    pedlad wrote:
    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.
    I would've done exactly the same thing. You walk in with £2k to drop on a bike and they want you to pay for cleaning the demo bike? B*llox to that.
    Dirtydog11 wrote:
    How come this kind of bulls*** doesn't apply when you test drive a car? The cleaning bit............The lazy b*****ds. They probably employ some sixteen year old kid for £6.00 an hour and they want to charge you £50.00.
    +1

    One of our lbs sells its ex-demo bikes in pretty much the same way as the car people sell their demonstrators. I mean, how much damage can you do to a bike in a few hours? On second thoughts, don't answer that :twisted:

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