Originally Posted by Paniolo
Well, I'm in retail and I tend to look at this as in the time the lbs spent in haggling about $8 they could have just untangled the chain and gained a customer for future purchases. Instead they have likely lost a customer for ever. Their labor, overhead etc was not impacted at all by this, but they lost an opportunity to gain a customer ... not to mention the bad word of mouth mxu is spreading locally at his school etc. instead of the good word of mouth if they just fixed it. Sure they didn't owe him anything ... but they missed a no cost opportunity to gain a customer.
That's the worst line of reasoning I've ever read on an internet forum . . . Which is pretty much saying a lot, as I read /.
First of all, according to Mxu it was a very short verbal exchange. "How much does it cost to fix my chain?", "$8", "Do it for $5?", "No". I'm sure the wrenches at that lbs are good, but it would probably take them longer to put the bike up on the stand, than it did to say "No". Doing it for free
may have earned them the loyalty of this person. But seriously, I wouldn't bet on it. He's 16, and probably doesn't have a job, and he came in with a cheaper bike. Perhaps it would have paid off in the long run, when he gets out of school, gets a degree, gets a job, and decides to make his first big purchase . . . in 6 years! As for the word of mouth thing . . . I'm sure he has a lot of friends in HS, but still he's 16. Nobody cares what he thinks, least of all his friends. Besides, they're likely to have a similar reaction:
mxu: "man, that lbs wouldn't come down on the price to fix my chain.
Stupid LBS. I can't trust them for anything.".
friends: "Really, how much were they charging?".
Mxu: "$8.00"
friends: ". . ."
Mxu: "yea I know, it's unreal isn't it?"
friends: "so you've gotten a lot of stuff from them before?"
Mxu: "well, no. I just walked in. They didn't know me from adam. But rest assured, I'm never going
there again."
friends: ". . ."
And this was not a 'no cost' opportunity as it sets a bad prescedent. Even if Mxu did get his repair done for cheaper/free, and he did tell his friends, and they gave a ****, they're going to expect the same thing. If Mxu was a valued customer, they could just write it off as being a benefit that valued customers get.
kid that heard mxu got his bike fixed for free: "I'd like my chain fixed please"
wrench: "that'll be $8.00"
kid: "but, my friend got it done here for free"
wrench: "sometimes we do that for our valued customers or the racers we sponsor"
kid: "he didn't know you guys, it was his first time here"
wrench: "um, i'm sorry, but the charge is $8.00"
kid: "it's because I'm black[or white, or whatever] isn't it? is that why you fixed my friends bike for free, but not mine?
Man, I can't trust you guys for anything!"
I was kidding about the "worst line of reasoning", btw. But it was pretty bad.