Greg180

Every reasonable business man will work with you. I "work" with my local LBS by telling him what I am looking to do and providing him the opportunity to provide me with competitive pricing. If we get into a situation where he can't meet the competitions price then I make the decision to save the money or pony up a reasonable markup to preserve the relationship. My local LBS has on more than one occasion met me more than half way on pricing and cost. I want someone who will stand behind their work in case something is not right.

The original OP walking in unannounced and saying here are the parts now you be responsible for getting them right and accepting liability for conversion was unreasonable...His portrayal of the LBS owner may also have been overly dramatic.

heliumb

If I can install it myself, I buy online. If I don't have the know-how or tools, I buy from the shop.
Most shop guys around here are pricks & won't even look you in the eyes unless you are buying the latest carbon fiber whatever for your annual charity ride, so I refuse to buy so much as a spare tube from them.
I do appreciate & respect the guys at the one local shop I go to & I know that a lot more is included in the price than the item alone. I also get knowledge, community & all that good ****. That's worth something to me. Oh, & don't forget instant gratification.

FERAL

Money is money regardless. Sorry but I was in retail for a while and various firms did a study and all came to the same AVERAGE conclusion when it comes to customer service. A person who has a good expereince somewhere tells on average 6 people. A person who has a bad experience somewhere tells an average of 10 people. Why would you shoot yourself in the foot. Sorry but the LBS guy F*****"D himself and will everytime with that attitude. I'm more apt to go back to a place where I'm treated with respect.

I Like Peeing

It seems that everyone posting so far has good points in favor of both sides, which leads me to think that it just all depends how you act, where you go, and what the situation is. I've gone into a bike shop once, because I was looking for the perfect handlebar since mine are uncomfortable. I had no intention of buying handlebars from the shop, I just wanted to see the differences in shapes of a bunch of different brands and make a decision later. In my situation, I'm not sure how much sense it would make for me to buy each handlebar basing my decision on the picture, then not liking it and sending it back... or maybe that's how it should work? Anyhow, I felt like a real jerk for going into the shop just to look at handlebar shapes and then leave and buy some later off Ebay through the Ben's Bikes juggernaut. My solution is to just to not go in any bike shops anymore, once was enough, I felt guilty, and I'm lucky enough to have a co-op that I spend a lot of time at so I learned how to build a bike on my own and help others build theirs.

I Like Peeing

Confusing! (with the looking at the picture of handlebar and sending it back section of my previous post, I was talking about making online purchases or handlebars)

hurricane99

which shops in nyc?

OrgFarmCY

Word. That's how my relationship was with my old shop.

The first time I went back to Providence after moving to NY, I took a trip to my LBS and bugged a few of the kids who worked there for about an hour. They knew I wasn't going to order the frame or wheelset we were talking about at their shop, but I did pick up a new Brooks on the way out the door. Everyone was happy.

--Aaron

theritor

yeah bruce is strange, ive delt with him before and it was probably on one of his better days, though he turned down someones flat repair (somewhat venomously) at the same time.
there is that co-op thats listed in your link you could check out, it was updated today so im assuming its still in operation. i thinki i might know of some people there too, not banking on it though.
and as far as shop employees being snobby to internet buying customers, the attitude you get will change from place to place. we've taken in people at my shop (not going to name, self promotion is lame) with internet parts and dont hastle them, of course we've also gave them the fair warning about incompatibility or quility of said part and check the product theyre bringing to us before we take in the repair.
as for bruce turning you down because the bike youre using is "incompatable" is him being an out-and-out out bike snob "if your going to ride fixed gear, you better only be using it on the track...if it has a hanger it ought to have gears"
you should, once you manage to get the bike fixed up, bring it back to him and ask him to fix your flat.

vinnydelnegro

xpenny...isn't this the second really bad experience you've had at a bike shop? somebody please tell this guy where a decent shop is and xpenny, you should go out of your way to go there.

xpenny

I already lose my faith and start thinking about DIY.

evanyc

1. bike works
2. trackstar
3. nycvelo
4. habitat

i make more purchases from trackstar but use bike works for wrenching.

operator

That 10 people is more like 2000 going by the thread views.

Aeroplane

50% of the thread views are telling the OP to stop whining.

GirlAnachronism

That's where I go too...And in that order!

Anightinthewood

This is just my two cents on the topic. I work at my local and very friendly LBS just so you know where I’m coming from.

To the OP: There is no excuse for someone to treat you like that. I hope that is the last time you walk in to that store. If he really didn’t want to work on your bike which is an option for him he should have explained to you calmly why he did not want to do it. Jerks suck on either side of the counter.

Now about the whole online parts and local LBS thing. I have two stories to share.

1) A guy came in our shop with a frame and parts kit he bought online. I mean he really went all out. The guy even had cable ends and things. He left everything for us to assemble in a couple of boxes. The boxes had all the prices and recites still in them. Looking over what he paid for the parts he had I can say with confidence that we could have saved him a good portion of money. Now I know there are some frames and parts that shops just cant get in which case you have to go online. And I don’t know how it is at other shops but I know my store is willing to work with people on getting them a good deal. I mean all I ask is that he had given us a chance to be completive. He could have come to us and said “listen this is what I have and this is what I need what kind of price can you get me?” But he didn’t do that. And then you also have to consider total cost of the build including labor. If he had bought the build kit from us it would have been a free assembly. That’s a good chunk of cash. Plus he bought the wrong bb for his crank forcing him to waste more money. Anyway point of story number one is come to your LBS and give them a chance to be completive and work with you on a project.

2) A long time customer comes in and says he wants to go full carbon for his next road bike. But he doesn’t think he can afford the full carbon bikes we sell so he wanted to know how much would we charge him to assemble it if he bought it online. We give him a price and politely ask him if he had bought the bike already and what he paid for it. Turns out he hadn’t bought it. So we asked him to hold off for a couple days and see if we can figure something out for him that would put him on one of our bikes for a price he can afford. Turns out one of the lines we sell was having close outs on last years model and we were able to snag a full carbon bike with dura-ace group and mavic wheels at a price that he couldn’t even buy just the parts for. He picked up the bike today and was incredibly grateful. There was no charge for assembly or fitting since he bought the bike from us. So point of story number two is we really do try to help you out anyway we can. And if we couldn’t have gotten him that deal then we would have been more then happy to charge him for an assembly and fitting.

Note: When I say we I mean the store I worked at and plan on working at next summer. I don’t know how other people run their bike shops.

12XU

The above poster sounds pretty spot on in regards to logic and customer service. We always inquire as to where the customer has been looking previously so we can have a barometer of his/her shopping habits. If he or she is a price hawk, we check the everpresent closeout lists and inform him or her that we offer plenty of amenities with a new bike that she would never find in an online purchase and even infrequently at neighboring shops. We really go out of our way to make sure that customers understand it's a large purchase to make and that simply shopping based on cost is not the most prudent decision.

So, a good shop should:
Ask
Listen
Recommend
Look
Give a final decision

Sure, all of us shop employees have our brusque reactions occassionally, but that's usually because a customer comes in with an unwavering demand and doesn't give two s.hits about our warrantee, fit, and return policies...

hankNYC

I'm thinkin' you got yourself a spankin' good idea for a business there. Most of us bike people are 2 things--obsessed and cheap--and your model would serve both characteristics.

jmgorman

+1, Moreover, he runs a very small shop with only a couple of extra wrenches. He has more business than he can keep up with, most of whom are customers who get everything from him because they want to support a local business. C-U sucks because you don't have a lot of options, but this LBS is worth eating a little bit of **** for. Seriously, give it another shot, be straight with the guy and he'll be straight with you. Show him you are serious about cycling and he will go to ridiculous effort to keep your bike rolling.

BTW, they don't call him the Bike Nazi for nothing. Just be glad you didn't go in there with a Kmart bike - you've never seen someone so worked up in your life.

jmgorman

Wow, what utter bull****. Besides being nearly incomprehensible, it is entirely wrong. Bruce sells new bikes, he sells old bikes, he sells NOS... he'll sell you whatever he has. If anything, that is his problem, he has plenty of business fixing what he sold, so he doesn't need to waste time fixing stuff that he didn't. This stems from his deep-seated commitment to his customers and the work that he has done. He is not selective about who gets to ride a bike. Because of the range of bikes he has banging around that crowded old shop, he can put most anyone on a bike in their price-range. I feel for the OP, I've seen that kind of reaction to people with POS bikes and it sucks, but it fits his business model. I still say take it back and give the guy another chance, but I understand if you don't (especially in light of the co-op).

toman

This whole issue comes down to nothing more than the proper way to do business. It doesn't matter what parts a person comes in with, whether you will make more money on someone else's job, or any of that crap. You treat the customer with respect, and do whatever you can to get him what he needs, regardless. That way to earn a good reputation, word spreads, people come back, and when they finally have the $$$$ to spend on that complete bike, they'll be willing to pay a little extra at the LBS so that a. the guys there make a living, b. they'll be able to get it wrenched on later, and c. they'll improve the business/customer relationship that much more. New customers just aren't going to start out with a business that charges inflated prices for parts, when they can get them for less soemplace else, and I think that everyone understands that. When bike shops figure out how much of the population they're alienating with poor business practices, elitist attitudes and comparitively exorbinant prices and finally change, I think they'll be amazed at how much more money they make and how much happier their customer base is. Until then, **** the LBS and their attitude, I'll wrench on my own bike, even though my work sucks.

12XU

I had a pretty long response typed out, but it was confusing. It comes down to this: It may be a thrill to find this or that for a low price, but generally the things on heavy discount were purchased by the mail order house in bulk or are discontinued by the manufacturer. Current model year or readily produced items are at comparable prices to brick and mortar retailers. This goes for a lot of online vendors, cycling-related or not.

Landgolier

So what? Last year's stuff was faster then than I am now, I love getting stuff cheap because this year's marketing demands a new widget.

Face it, unless you're buying stuff you don't know how to install yourself, you're getting middle-manned to the tune of about a 60%-80% markup if you're paying retail at a LBS. I'll support my local shop when I need their services, i.e. when I actually need to be able to handle the goods and make comparisons as for a bike or shoes. As a matter of fact, I went to 6 different shops in the last 3 weeks looking for shoes and none had my size in anything like what I wanted, though everybody's favorite shop Performance was the only one that offered to order my size in without me committing to buying them. But I'm just not going to pay LBS markup, deal with chronic understocking (if you stock a shoe, and you don't have it in a given size between 8 and 12, PUT IT ON YOUR DAMNED QBP ORDER OR PUT THE ONES YOU DO HAVE ON CLOSEOUT BECAUSE YOU'RE NO LONGER STOCKING IT), and listen to salesmen coddle idiots with money to spend (which happens at even the best shops, that's how they make money) just to buy parts.

phil s.

I wonder why lbs don't carry stuff like formula hubs (that everybody seems to have on-line). The only economy hub I can find in SF are Evolution. Does Formula only seel to obs?

jamey

the shop i go to the most carries formula hubs.

queerpunk

from this and from what you were telling me after cranksgiving, it sounds like a really well-run shop...

jumping in to this conversation late: seems to me like a well run shop has a plan for how to deal with customers. managers should have strategies and employees should be aware of them. i don't think i've ever spent time in a bike shop that wasn't willing to work hard to give their customers a good deal on something. there are very specific benefits to working with an LBS rather than just buying off of the internet. customers gotta know that, and any LBS has got to know how to offer those benefits.