Smaug

So I have about 1K burning a hole in my wallet and I figure, what better way to spend it than on a new ride. I drove down to the Supergo in Oceanside CA today to check out the Scattante R650 (full Ultegra for $999). I'm walking around the shop and I'm only seeing a couple of the higher end carbon framed Scattantes. So when the sales dude comes around and asks if I need any help, I tell him I'd like to see an R650.

He says to me, "We don't carry those in stock. You can only order them online."

"Umm... wow, but what if I want to test ride one?"

"Sorry, best I could tell you would be to find a bike with the same geometry and see if it fits you."

I was speechless. FIND ANOTHER BIKE TO FIT THAT ONE? WTF? He didn't even offer to SHOW me another bike with similiar geometry... which of course wouldn't even tell me anything about the feel of the R650.

Then he says, "Yeah, and once we sell the high end Scats, we're not getting those in the store anymore either. We don't like it either, but that was the decision."

I told him I thought that was a silly way to try to sell bikes and he agreed with me...

[/rant]

55/Rad

Sounds to me like they are prepping for the arrival of the '05's or their going to stock their store with product with a higher margin.

55/Rad

peligro

Supergo got bought by Performance, which is making a lot of changes at both the retail and mail order operations. Prices have gone way up...The Supergo store in Santa Monica used to have very low prices, lower than mail order, often. Performance won't deal in grey market products like Supergo used to, so prices have gone way up. Most stuff there is full list now, except when they have one of their "super sales".

Supergo has always had terrible service, but their prices were low so I didn't care. Now, they have bad service AND bad prices. I go to local shops or mailorder now.

BTW, I'd investigate the used market before buying one of those Ultegra scattante bikes. Yes its cheap but there are a bunch of dud components...Once you've upgraded the crap wheels, seat, tires, seatpost, etc. you haven't saved any money. So Cal has boatloads of lightly used high-spec racing bikes floating around for sale. Look around first.

Boomer

I can't agree with you more about the salesguys at Supergo. They are not salesmen at all...they are really just clerks ready to ring you up on the cash regeister. They have a low knowledge base and don't understand what customer service is about. Even though I bought the R650 from them, I won't patronize them any longer.

DieselDan

For around $1K you could go to a real LBS and get a decent entry level bike from just about any pick of brands. You may not get carbon fibre, but you'd get on the road with good service.

Papabingo

Perhaps the Cali stores have bad service, but in AZ the rule doesn't apply. And I don't know where you can buy,
other than at Supergo, a carbon frame & fork bike for less than $2,500. Supergo sells them for $1200 in their
store, so even if you upgrade the seat (which you will do as the one it comes with sucks) you still have a great
bike and have saved a lot. At least my experience says so. As far as service, like I said, AZ store was great.

jslopez

Two bike shops in my immediate area. Helen's and Supergo. While I find Helen's a bit more knowledgable and slightly more friendly, I'm amazed how a potential customer can walk thru the store, stare at a higher road bike for 15 mins and rarely even get a forced, hello for the sales people.

Grante this is not always the case and there are fantastic sales people there as well, but the fact that it's happened more than once just makes you wonder how these guys are trained.

shokhead

Look at where the Helens all are.