Do bike shops want to sell bikes?

rockmonkeysc

I have emailed five shops about bikes I am interested in buying last week, only one bothered to reply (Muddybum Bikes). It's simple questions about sizing, availability etc and for reasonably expensive bikes.
Surely it has to be worth taking ten minutes to reply to an email when there could be a £2500 - £3000 sale?

weeksy59

HAve the same sort of thing all over the place.

Motorbikes... phone them, wait for call-back... nothing. Had 5 in one day not call me... i did... i bought the bike.

We had a joiner round to build wardrobes, a large thing in the garden and work in the kitchen.... "i'll do you a quote ASAP"... that was 3 weeks ago now...

Ridiculous.

bushu

i actually goto halfords for the service, rather them than the masonic LBS
usual online retailers crc, merlin, wiggle & co have given me great confidence in online shopping
but yet to buy a bike online, usually avoid any importing due to being too impatient tbh

last big thing i imported was a sofa set and that was a looooooong wait, obviously bit bigger than a bike so different kettle o'fish

Anonymous

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Do bike shops want to sell bikes?

No, they don't. They're actually more commonly a front for illegal goldfish breeding programs. They breed the goldfish to award to small children at local fairs at ball-throwing games.
This early introduction to gambling on a chance leads kids to a wildly destructive future or gambling, alchohol, drugs, and hair product addictions. Which is RIGHT where those pesky "bike shops" want them.

There are some rare, very good bike shops, but those have nothing illegal going on.

paul20v

^^^^
sounds like the shops i deal with

TheNorthernTrain

I've found that e-mails no longer have any effect. If you want an answer for something ring... I hate it - can't stand talking on the phone but that said, it's quick, you get a response and you can often tell from the person you're speaking to whether they are actually interested in selling you something.

The Northern Monkey

phone them.

Briggo

The Northern Monkey wrote:

phone them.

You could but they offer a service of being email-able, why offer that service if they're not going to either read or bother replying.

I personally think it says a lot about a company that offers something but doesn't follow it up.

tom_howard

Ive experienced both ends of the spectrum , from a shop that tries to sell you a bike when you've popped in for an innertube, ('Have you seen what we've just had in sir? Go on have a sit on it...') to a shop that would rather you had taken up a different hobby entirely...

Ryan Jones

I don't like being sold something, after all I didn't walk into a bike shop and begin looking at the new orange 5 because I was interested in buying a leg of lamb and a scotch egg. A good shop as far as I'm concerned should leave you be and be able to offer good advice and suggestions if asked.

diy

I don't mind good quality sales ability and I like it even more when they wriggle when I haggle with them.

A good sales person knows exactly what to tell you and when to shut up.

pugaltitude

diy wrote:

haggle

That word is illegal in my showroom as is "discount, promotion and the customer is always right"

bushu

as above and most blokes when we shop its A-to-B, job done or no sale
start throwing bundle deals at me and I'll graze elsewhere, a simple low price an I'm at the till

to me a good sales person gets me through the checkout without having to endure someone's brat that needs a back hand..

seeing the prices of cycle specific clothing even online, i may have to brave a sports store in leeds for some extra base layers with the creeping autumn, now that's a traumatising retail experience

MountainMonster

bushu wrote:

as above and most blokes when we shop its A-to-B, job done or no sale
start throwing bundle deals at me and I'll graze elsewhere, a simple low price an I'm at the till

to me a good sales person gets me through the checkout without having to endure someone's brat that needs a back hand..

seeing the prices of cycle specific clothing even online, i may have to brave a sports store in leeds for some extra base layers with the creeping autumn, now that's a traumatising retail experience

Normally a friendly "no thanks, i'm just looking right now. If I need some help, i'll give a holler" does the trick on sorting that out.

stubs

No body in retail seems to give a crap these days. You would think with the recession shops would be falling over themselves to sell, the attitude seems to be gives us the money or fuck off we dont care either way.

Anonymous

Most of the chain bike shops sell cheap bikes to families buying for their kids and those out to get a cheap bling bike to ride to the shops once and then stick in the shed for the next 10 years, together with a pile of accessories you don't need and a helmet that doesn't fit right (especially on kids). They sell loads of these. That's what they understand.

A £2k+ bike scares them and they're not really trained to sell them. They stock them just in case as it obviously makes them some money but the assumption is the buyer knows what they want or is more likely just checking it out and will buy it elsewhere cheaper or online. Unless you're prepared to buy extras, which is where they can cope.

Much the same with the PC World, Comet and Currys of this world. Want a top of the range high performance computer? Forget it. Want a crap budget computer that they make a bigger mark up on, can get away with spouting crap all knowledge of computers and can flog you a useless warranty? Sure, they're all over you.

DVD players - they know little about the difference between them, but they sure as hell are good at directing you to the £80 HDMI cable you clearly need to get a "better" picture despite the £5 one from Amazon delivering exactly the same picture.

Thewaylander

This isn't jsut bike shops,

ti's all over, people are just lazy ignorant little twerps on the whole these days, The bike shop owner surely wants you to buy a bike. the bike shop staff on the other hand just want there min wage and to go home after i quiet day abusing the net

Chalky76

my lbs is shocking when it comes to customer service but there is no choice other than driving a fair way.

I also pinged e-mails to 4 dealers when buying my Blindside. Only 1 replied and about a month later he'd sold me a frame and a few bits for £1,250+. I can't believe how poor some shops are, as mentioned above they should be falling over themselves to sell stuff, let alone reply to an e-mail!

mattv

There are two proper bike shops in my city, and 2 Halfords stores. One of the bike shops is quite unfriendly. I tried to order a pair of Hope brakes (£300). Not bothered as I can "get them cheaper online". The other bike shop, well I work there;-). I like to think we are better than the shops you have described, but sometime emails get missed as email accounts are often restricted to managers so cant be replied by all staff.

pugaltitude

stubs wrote:

No body in retail seems to give a crap these days.

Its not the case that nobody gives a crap, more like retailers crapping themselves.
Nobody is making any money at the moment in sales as everything is brought down in price to compete with other retailers.
Only way to try to make money is through maintaining, service or repairs eg labour.
I was always told never sell your own labour cheap

bushu

MountainMonster wrote:

Normally a friendly "no thanks, i'm just looking right now. If I need some help, i'll give a holler" does the trick on sorting that out.

As said I'm a bloke I'm no grazing, I'm there for a reason, if i can't find it then I might ask the person who can. Tho i was referring to the 'service' in retail when you buy say haribo they try sell you wallpaper for an extra 10squids and if you buy the shop it'll still take forever *bip* *bip* *bip* *bip*...

andrewyzfr6

I phone places when im looking for a bike as the person should, hopefully know you are genuine and not a time waster.
I sell cars for a living and in the 9 or so years I have had a work email, I have had ONE sale which resulted from an email. The effort I used to put into returning enquiries was in the terms of hours a week, Now if someone phones I'll quiet happily(in most cases) spend a while emailing extra photos etc. Of the enquiry emails I bother to read most of them start along the lines "Ive found one 500 miles away for £1000 less, the bloke guarantees its perfect, and better than yours , can you beat his price?!" etc Well if his is better why wate my time?! Or the old favorite" ive just past my test and mummy and daddy said they'll buy me a car. When can I test drive the M3?"
As stated before im better off selling my labour than emailing people back! When someone turns up to look at the car you soon know if they are genuine and are worth spending my time on.

_jon_

I prefer to avoid bike shops if I can. Parts can normally be purchased cheaper on-line and I try and do all my own maintenance and upgrades.

Every time I have tried to book my bike in for parts to be fitted, they have either been too busy or have had long waiting lists. It is also impossible to get the parts and tools you need, they are more keen to sell pre-assembled bikes and accessories than the parts for them.

The only reasons you would purchase a new bike locally would be so you can try it first and also the convenience of the after-sales support. The problem is most bike shops around here won't let you try before you buy (you can only sit on it stationary).

As for after-sales, the LBS I bought my mountain bike from refused to honour the warranty on the bike as the sticker that was on the bike originally to show I had purchased it from them had washed off (I had mistakenly power-washed it when I first had the bike); they were quite keen to offer to completely strip down and re-grease all bearings on the bike though (even the ones in the sealed bottom bracket!) and charge me a small fortune for it.

</end rant>

mattv

I disagree. In the age of internet shopping, a lot of bikes and accessories are able to be sold mail order. People need to ask questions about these items, and this may be out of opening hours. Email is the obvious choice.

pugaltitude

But wouldnt it be better buying locally, keeping somebody local in a job and then in turn keeping local money in the local economy.
If we all did this we might not have a messed up financial world???

97th choice

Enquired about a bike today, was told he had sold out of this years models and wouldn't be getting any more in, end of conversation, no 'but I have something else similar' (which I know he did.

Crazy, some shop owners could actually learn something from those knobs on 'the apprentice'

Anonymous

pugaltitude wrote:

But wouldnt it be better buying locally, keeping somebody local in a job and then in turn keeping local money in the local economy.
If we all did this we might not have a messed up financial world???

Actually, I think the goal is, to get other countries to spend their money here. Bring money in, instead of just churning it around.
(Don't tell anyone I said this, but Wales is a sucker for just moving money around, which ultimately does no good!)

mattv

Bike shops are in an awkward situation right now, many bikes are sold out but new models not available yet....

97th choice

I think that specs going down and prices going up is biting a few shops on the arse. a lbs near me has just discounted a camber to 999. the exact same bike a tried to buy off them 10 months ago at £1100 but they wouldn't deal at all - I ended up getting a boardman team fs instead.

Andy B

From what I've seen the bikes we stock are getting better specs with minimal price rises, or the same spec with no price increase

Eg 2011 Cube Acid £729, RS Dart 3 forks, SLX/XT 10 speed drivetrain, Hayes brakes & Easton finishing kit

2012 Cube Acid £769 RS Recon TK Silver forks, SLX/XT 10 spd drivetrain, Shimano brakes, Easton finishing kit

2011 Cube Aim £399, 2012 Cube Aim £399, same spec on both bikes, just a different paint job

A lot of manufacturers are living on their name and the brand whores keep buying them even though the spec is poor value for money

In our shop we try our best to answer every email as quickly as possible, the same goes for the phone, but when you have a shop full of customers sometimes you will have to speak to our answerphone & well return your call

With the brands we stock there are very limited stocks of 2011 bikes left, some are completely sold out for the 2011 season and have been for some time, but the new 2012 stock is slowly coming through to us, mostly the models that sold out earliest.

97th choice

I'm talking 2011 vs 2010. Maybe it's a local thing (NI) after all our economy is properly screwed.