Originally Posted by wahoonc

As a former small business owner we would respond to emails in a timely manner. Typically within 24 hours, however is someone was fishing for prices they would get a generic canned response from us.

Having worked in bike shops and still spending time in quite a few, email is a low priority when you have people walking in the front door with cash in hand. Most smaller bike shops I frequent haven't quite made it into the 20th century when it comes to electronic communications. It takes time and money to have a single person to keep up with email and other electronic media. I know we had 2 people that had to keep up with the volume at our store.

I know I wouldn't bother quoting prices in and email to someone that was trying to price match something they found on the internet.

Aaron