Originally Posted by
Machka
A lot of bicycle shops just don't bother keeping up with the times. They hope customers walking past will stop in and buy something ... and if someone does, the staff treats that person with "attitude" and gives the customer bad service so that he/she doesn't want to come back. It is quite evident that a lot of bicycle shops don't send their staff to customer service training. So it is a much more pleasant experience dealing with the internet. And a lot of these shops don't have an internet presence to attract customers further afield than the immediate neighbourhood.
Im sure this does happen in many places. I just walked into "The Bicycle Doctor" shop on York, in Highland Park, Ca, AFTER they were closed(hours said open til 6pm, it was 7), the guy @ the shop waved me in, as I was outside browsing. He stopped what he was doing, and talked to me about a bike. Nice guy, and said" you should call when the owner is here on Mon, he will help you better than I can". Was very very nice, and definitely earned at least another visit from me.
When i owned my Bianchi, the guy @ the store i bought iut from, could not have been nicer to me, and that was over 20+ yrs ago. ONLY 1 person was kind of jerky, but they got rid of him I think. Everyone else was great, knowledgeable, nice, and knew exactly what I needed, or was talking about. Im sure thats few and far between now, but they do still exist. I cant tell you what to do with your cash, as im an admitted Ebayer myself, but, maybe give them another try(walking into a LBS) sometime? Maybe they might be different towards you.