Customer service - two perspectives.

NickintheLakes

First - direct sales manufacturer from Germany. I ask: "There are some things I might wish to change on one of your bikes that are not listed in the configurator. Is this ok?" Immediate answer was that this is not a problem. Happy to do so.

Second. UK bike builder. Fixed spec' bike at around £1k on offer. I ask: "Can I upgrade the brakes from Apex to Rival? More than happy to pay the difference." Answer was a straight no!

So, a UK builder turns away around £1500 of business (I was going to buy the bike plus sundries) - how is that sensible in this day and age? No wonder we are in a mess with this sort of attitude.

ShutUpLegs

NickintheLakes wrote:

Second. UK bike builder. Fixed spec' bike at around £1k on offer. I ask: "Can I upgrade the brakes from Apex to Rival?

Apex brakes on a £1k bike!? No wonder we are in a mess

Calpol

Customer service in this country is so hit and miss. I went into my nearest LBS on Saturday. Its a bit of shed but as the nearest Bianchi stockist I thought I would have a look. Walked in and there were 4 people in the shop. One bloke (prob the owner) behind the counter serving someone. Another old boy who was removing a bike from a turbo trainer and saying goodbye to a customer he obviously knew. I had a mosey around, showing an interest in the Bianchi range - mostly Via Nirone 7 in celeste. No acknowledgement or eye contact from the tech/assistant. Another customer came in - older bloke - he started a casual conversation with the tech guy but the bloke was still fiddling with the turbo trainer. By this time maybe 3-4 minutes had passed with me eyeing up the bikes, casually lifting them up to gauge the weight. Still no acknowledgement. I ended up walking out.

Maybe I was being too shy but this place ain't the sort of place you just happen across. I drove 15 miles to get there and there isn't really any other reason to be there (not a town centre location). I don't know why else they might have thought I was in the shop. so there you go - £1200 burning a whole in my pocket but nobody that bothered. Oh well

Percy Vera

Calpol wrote:

Customer service in this country is so hit and miss. I went into my nearest LBS on Saturday. Its a bit of shed but as the nearest Bianchi stockist I thought I would have a look. Walked in and there were 4 people in the shop. One bloke (prob the owner) behind the counter serving someone. Another old boy who was removing a bike from a turbo trainer and saying goodbye to a customer he obviously knew. I had a mosey around, showing an interest in the Bianchi range - mostly Via Nirone 7 in celeste. No acknowledgement or eye contact from the tech/assistant. Another customer came in - older bloke - he started a casual conversation with the tech guy but the bloke was still fiddling with the turbo trainer. By this time maybe 3-4 minutes had passed with me eyeing up the bikes, casually lifting them up to gauge the weight. Still no acknowledgement. I ended up walking out.

Maybe I was being too shy but this place ain't the sort of place you just happen across. I drove 15 miles to get there and there isn't really any other reason to be there (not a town centre location). I don't know why else they might have thought I was in the shop. so there you go - £1200 burning a whole in my pocket but nobody that bothered. Oh well

Maybe you should have tried, "Hello, can you help me"

I prefer to be left alone while walking round a shop, and I'll ask for help if I need it.

Bozman

You get customer service problems with large on-line retailers, bike shop chains and your small LBS but it's only the LBS that'll take the hit, you're just a number with the other two retailers so they generally don't give a toss.
Look at the crap that Wiggle get on here but how many of us have never had a problem, for every negative review there are probably a thousand positive ones, it's not until you get a problem that their true colours appear.

While I was at a local LBS last year a man popped in with his bike wearing his full kit, he had a problem with a pedal and asked for some help, the owner informed the man that they didn't have the time( the shop wasn't busy), the man asked if he could borrow a couple of tools to fix the issue because he was miles from home, the owner replied...no, we can't do that for health and safety reasons. A postive image.
I popped into the same shop(Trek dealer) with a headset issue on a six year old Trek i had at the time, i needed a headset for the frame, i didn't have the headset or part number, the response was.... it could be one of many, the only way would be trial and error but you'd have to pay for each headset or we could take a mould of the headtube and go from there, what the? A trip to another LBS, one phone call to Trek and i was given the part number and the headset was ordered.

t4tomo

Calpol wrote:

Customer service in this country is so hit and miss. I went into my nearest LBS on Saturday. Its a bit of shed but as the nearest Bianchi stockist I thought I would have a look. Walked in and there were 4 people in the shop. One bloke (prob the owner) behind the counter serving someone. Another old boy who was removing a bike from a turbo trainer and saying goodbye to a customer he obviously knew. I had a mosey around, showing an interest in the Bianchi range - mostly Via Nirone 7 in celeste. No acknowledgement or eye contact from the tech/assistant. Another customer came in - older bloke - he started a casual conversation with the tech guy but the bloke was still fiddling with the turbo trainer. By this time maybe 3-4 minutes had passed with me eyeing up the bikes, casually lifting them up to gauge the weight. Still no acknowledgement. I ended up walking out.

Maybe I was being too shy but this place ain't the sort of place you just happen across. I drove 15 miles to get there and there isn't really any other reason to be there (not a town centre location). I don't know why else they might have thought I was in the shop. so there you go - £1200 burning a whole in my pocket but nobody that bothered. Oh well

So you drove 15 miles and walked out because you were too shy to say "excuse me"? Not all shop staff dive on you as soon as you walk in, some people like this approach. OK a "can I help you or are you just browsing" or "give me a nod if you need any help" is nice but you do have a tongue in head too. You can't really have go at someone for their customer service when you didn't even speak to them.

To be honest I'm not sure you have the personality to carry off a Bianchi, but they are great bikes if you pluck up the courage to go back.

keef66

Me too. I'd rather be able to browse around a shop without being hassled, but then be able to ask for help / advice if required.

Was the online retailer Ribble perchance? And was it a special edition build?

giant_man

t4tomo wrote:

Calpol wrote:

Customer service in this country is so hit and miss. I went into my nearest LBS on Saturday. Its a bit of shed but as the nearest Bianchi stockist I thought I would have a look. Walked in and there were 4 people in the shop. One bloke (prob the owner) behind the counter serving someone. Another old boy who was removing a bike from a turbo trainer and saying goodbye to a customer he obviously knew. I had a mosey around, showing an interest in the Bianchi range - mostly Via Nirone 7 in celeste. No acknowledgement or eye contact from the tech/assistant. Another customer came in - older bloke - he started a casual conversation with the tech guy but the bloke was still fiddling with the turbo trainer. By this time maybe 3-4 minutes had passed with me eyeing up the bikes, casually lifting them up to gauge the weight. Still no acknowledgement. I ended up walking out.

Maybe I was being too shy but this place ain't the sort of place you just happen across. I drove 15 miles to get there and there isn't really any other reason to be there (not a town centre location). I don't know why else they might have thought I was in the shop. so there you go - £1200 burning a whole in my pocket but nobody that bothered. Oh well

So you drove 15 miles and walked out because you were too shy to say "excuse me"? Not all shop staff dive on you as soon as you walk in, some people like this approach. OK a "can I help you or are you just browsing" or "give me a nod if you need any help" is nice but you do have a tongue in head too. You can't really have go at someone for their customer service when you didn't even speak to them.

To be honest I'm not sure you have the personality to carry off a Bianchi, but they are great bikes if you pluck up the courage to go back.

So please tell us what kind of personality you need to ride a far-eastern-made-with-Italian-name-only-these-days bike then? Ridiculous statement ....

t4tomo

You didn't spot the then?

luv_shimano

keef66 wrote:

Me too. I'd rather be able to browse around a shop without being hassled, but then be able to ask for help / advice if required.
?

Pretty much this, I used to work in retail and we were always told to hang back from customers as the majority (including myself) don't like to be jumped on. Not sure why anyone would be too stubborn to make contact.