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My son went in on Saturday with his GF and said said to the chap who came over that she'd like to get into mountain-biking. Now she was wearing heels and is a slim attractive blond and after telling the seller shed like to look at mountain-bike he looked at her and laughed. He then proceeded to ask her of she's ridden a bike before. She said 'no, but I've done spin classes' this seemed to amuse him even more and laughed at her again. He then turned his attention to my son and tried to sell him a DH bike even though the assistant knew my son already had one. He ignored the girl-friend until they left the shop which was when he laughed at her again and said "cycling's a lot different from spin-classes."
Disgusting sexist un-professional behaviour.
Rant over.
Nothing to worry about.
She won't be his girlfriend much longer if he won't put some oik in his place about inappropriate behaviour towards her.
I can only pass useful comment once you have posted photos of the slim attractive blond wearing high heels (only high heels)
Any pics of the G/F ? I have a spare she can borrow 🙂
Pics of girlfriend please. 😉
Have you posted this rant on Google reviews?
Justified complaint.
Reasonable spelling and grammar.
No swearing.
Your ranting skills need work.
What does your son think of you fancying his mrs?
oooh, was it Peter Poddy ???? that's where he works I believe 🙂
I'd be making some calls to the weekday store manager, because that is a great way to repel a potential customer rather quickly!
oooh, was it Peter Poddy ???? that’s where he works I believe
The greatest bike mechanic known to man? surely not....*
*Please, let it be his shop! 🙂
What kind of idiot turns up to choose a bike wearing high heels? Are you even going to sit on it or have a spin around the car park before buying?
Rubber Buccaneer - it was a case of "oh, shall we go in and see what bikes they've got" whilst doing something else entirely.
Heels seems a pretty weird choice of attire for going to look at bikes. Doesn't excuse being a **** though.
@ RB & njee sounds like the sales person could of been someone with the same attitude as you both.
I think your sons GF should definitely complain, and then 'accidentally' take her new Specialized into the Giant store for it's free 6 weeks service. "Oh no, I didn't buy the bike from here did I, you were the ****s..."
Justified rant - looks like you had time to call down and compose yourself.
In an unrelated rant - I contacted Giant to find out what the kit number was for my 2004 NRS composite - sorry it's too old for our records.... FFS
I once saw a slim blond woman in high heels riding a VFR750 in Monaco. True story.
In an unrelated rant – I contacted Giant to find out what the kit number was for my 2004 NRS composite – sorry it’s too old for our records…. FFS
Are you fit, blond and wearing heels? If so it might explain their attitude to you.
I once saw a slim blond woman in high heels riding a VFR750 in Monaco. True story.
Pics or didn't happen.
Are you fit, blond and wearing heels? If so it might explain their attitude to you.
Far from it, 54 balding male, it was via the Giant website so Marcus wasn't to know.
@ RB & njee sounds like the sales person could of been someone with the same attitude as you both
Hell no, if I were in the business of selling bikes I'd have wanted to sell her the most suitable bike. Heels just struck me as a really bad choice for bike buying attire.
Why have you aimed the ‘big rant’ at the Giant store in general, and not just the pillock working in it.
Staff training is one thing, but you can’t expect the store to know in advance what every member of staff is going to say.
Why not bring it to the attention of the management, rather than bad mouthing the entire shop on the internet because of one kid?
Kid?
Probably. I thought the tone of the OP was assumptions and generalisations so I’d make one too.
Why have you aimed the ‘big rant’ at the Giant store in general, and not just the pillock working in it.
Staff training is one thing, but you can’t expect the store to know in advance what every member of staff is going to say.
It's a perfect example of how one sexist dick in your staffroom can lead to your whole store getting slated.
Make sure the girl in question sends them lots of pictures of her riding the bike she didn't buy from them.
That's the amuse-bouche dealt with. When's the "big rant" being delivered?
Probably. I thought the tone of the OP was assumptions and generalisations so I’d make one too.
I didn't see any assumptions or generalisations in the op. Just a factual account of the 'service' offered to a potential customer.
Why have you aimed the ‘big rant’ at the Giant store in general, and not just the pillock working in it.
Because 'the pillock' is a representative of Giant. Encountering that type of ingrained behaviour in a professional setting from someone representing the brand might suggest that Giant condone the behaviour.
The training and store culture can't be all that healthy if any member of staff treats any customer that way, regardless of their gender, age etc.
I'm sure a regular spin class attender would probably whop quite a few of us on the uphills, anyhow.
Out of interest, and as incidental as it seems, what is the girlfriends opinion of what happened?
@ RB & njee sounds like the sales person could of been someone with the same attitude as you both.
Dafuq? Like RB I just genuinely think that's a weird choice. I presume if she doesn't ride she's not the most confident person on a bike, so turning up to try bikes in heels just seems a bit strange. Like I say, totally unrelated to the dick serving her, and perhaps they were just there to talk about bikes rather than try anything. I just find it weird that the conversation presumably went "shall we go and look at a bike for you?", "great idea, I'll get my Jimmy Choos on".
Would you go for a ride in heels?
heels would make it difficult to "test" a bike
I just find it weird that the conversation presumably went “shall we go and look at a bike for you?”, “great idea, I’ll get my Jimmy Choos on”.
I'd guess it was more a case of having spoken about buying a bike recently they were walking past the shop and decided to pop in. Seems perfectly logical to me. Either way, that kind of service really bad indeed.
I've walked into a bike shop wearing suit and tie and carrying a laptop bag. Not great for test riding bikes either. But i wasn't there to test ride a bike after all, I was passing and went in to ask about the range and see what I needed to do to have a test ride at another time.
I didn't get treated like a dick. Wonder why.....
Ridiculous behaviour! Especially from a bike store that has big signs outside mentioning their "Womens specific section" in the store....
Because you don't have one?
I’d guess it was more a case of having spoken about buying a bike recently they were walking past the shop and decided to pop in. Seems perfectly logical to me.
And unless there is a ready-made trail centre in the back of the shop, the most 'testing' that could be done is riding it around the car park, or more likely just sitting on it. More likely is the idea that perhaps they just wanted to see which models Giant offered in the right price range, and get some advice on which would be the most suitable.
Sorry. RNdom unnecessary abuse. I'd edit but can't find out how. Must not act like I'm at the office. 🙁
We have the GF of a club member join the club after he encouraged her into cycling about 1 year ago. I've not seen her wear heels personally, but she fits the OP's GF description otherwise.
She's now in Cat 3, hunting for Cat 2 points. Some pretty sexist attitudes in here as well as the Giant store, don't judge a book by its cover, and lets help cyclists be cyclists, please.
Missed opportunity to sell her a pair of MTB shoes to use when demoing all the bikes. Your son needs to work on his man skills though, should have put the shop worker in his place instead of complaining about it after the fact.
The thing is, this isn't that uncommon. Mrs Lunge ended up buying her latest bike from Decathlon after pretty much every bike shop treated her like a second class citizen and talked to me and not her. This despite it being her that instigated the conversation, her that was buying and paying for the bike and her that had researched before the trip. at the time, I put this down to the fact that I look like a cyclist (skinny guy, wearing shorts with scared and shaved legs) where as she looks and dresses somewhat more "normal". With hindsight, it may be they're just sexist, ignorant scumbags.
Herself has had it from people in bike shops, even when for example she was collecting a £1800 CX frameset from a shop, the "floor person" who'd been asked by herself if she could collect the frame would only speak to me. So I just said "she's the one buying it, it'd probably be a good idea to speak to her and not me". and then wandered off.
Had it in other places too - I think that many bike shop staff just can't comprehend that the little woman might have her own opinions and needs and that whilst the decision might have been discussed beforehand by us, it is usually a good idea to speak to the person who asks, and not their companion. Especially when they've phoned up and had a good chat with someone in the shop about whether they have something specific in, or if they could order it to be built up.
Her most recent bike was a bespoke frame build by Rob Quirk - all of the conversations were between him and her, I was asked my opinion on things and offered that when appropriate.
Have never encountered sexism in a bike shop, always been on my own too. Not a gorgeous blonde with a figure to die for either!
lucky7500 I didn’t see any assumptions or generalisations in the op. Just a factual account of the ‘service’ offered to a potential customer.
I thought there were lots:
1. That the girl is actually attractive to the person in the shop
2. That he used that as a basis for giving her terrible service (or her sex, but then why mention the attractive bit)
3. That the sons account of the story to his dad was accurate
I personally find it next to impossible to believe that a bloke in a shop laughed in a girls face when she wanted to buy a bike, and ended the conversation by laughing again before saying “cycling’s a lot different from spin-classes.” without the boyfriend feeling like he should say something to somebody there and then (or more accurately, the girl asking to speak to a manager herself, because you know, girls are actually capable of speaking up for themselves).
Regardless, if it's true, my point really was why not tell the manager so he could do something about it, whether it be disciplinary or training, rather than go home and write about it on the internet and sully the name of a shop without finding out first if the manager/owner thought it was acceptable behaviour by the staff or the culture of the business.
It seems these days like some people prefer to be offended so they can write about it on the internet, rather than give a business a chance to do something about it. I just find that odd.
Have never encountered sexism in a bike shop, always been on my own too. Not a gorgeous blonde with a figure to die for either!
Oh I've seen / heard all manner of sexist behaviour in bike shops and not always from the staff either. Female customer in with her male partner / friend who insists on doing all the talking and won't let the poor woman have a word in edgeways.
Male staff addressing all their comments, advice, info etc to the male companion rather than the woman actually buying the bike/kit/clothing.
Patronising talking down - from staff to female customers, from male customers to female staff (including one brilliant story around a male customer asking for info on a mechanical issue from a female mechanic and refusing to believe that she could possibly be a mechanic!) and even occasionally from male customers in the shop who felt that they had the right to butt in on conversations and do the classic mansplaining thing to female customers.
Oh and male staff hitting on female customers, male customers hitting on female staff and/or customers. Almost invariably never welcomed in any way.
Some of the above is from working in shops, some is from simply being in them as a customer and seeing / hearing what was going on around me and some is stories from various friends working in bike shops.
A couple of years ago I went into a motorbike shop with my partner, she needed a new helmet. Walked in and of course the guy assumed I was there to do the buying and had dragged a poor unwilling partner along. Quite the opposite! However, once he knew it was that way round, he was fantastic. Could not have been more helpful, offered to order stuff in, all sorts of advice, allowed her to sit on one of the bikes to get a feel for the visibility as both rider and pillion. Managed not to be patronising and not to flirt with her! If only all staff were that good.
– I think that many bike shop staff just can’t comprehend that the little woman might have her own opinions and needs
They probably just read the what bike for the little lady threads that pop up here
In contrast, BW cycles in Bristol were great with my wife. They spoke to her, not me, did a set up on the jig, and changed the saddle and stem so it would fit properly.
Is / was that the JEJames store?
Have never encountered sexism in a bike shop, always been on my own too. Not a gorgeous blonde with a figure to die for either!
Female cyclist explains how she’s never experienced sexism in a bike shop before.
Oh I’ve seen / heard all manner of sexist behaviour in bike shops and not always from the staff either. Female customer in with her male partner / friend who insists on doing all the talking and won’t let the poor woman have a word in edgeways.
Male staff addressing all their comments, advice, info etc to the male companion rather than the woman actually buying the bike/kit/clothing.
Patronising talking down – from staff to female customers, from male customers to female staff (including one brilliant story around a male customer asking for info on a mechanical issue from a female mechanic and refusing to believe that she could possibly be a mechanic!) and even occasionally from male customers in the shop who felt that they had the right to butt in on conversations and do the[i][u] [b]classic mansplaining [/b][/u][/i]thing to female customers.Oh and male staff hitting on female customers, male customers hitting on female staff and/or customers. Almost invariably never welcomed in any way.
Some of the above is from working in shops, some is from simply being in them as a customer and seeing / hearing what was going on around me and some is stories from various friends working in bike shops.
A couple of years ago I went into a motorbike shop with my partner, she needed a new helmet. Walked in and of course the guy assumed I was there to do the buying and had dragged a poor unwilling partner along. Quite the opposite! However, once he knew it was that way round, he was fantastic. Could not have been more helpful, offered to order stuff in, all sorts of advice, allowed her to sit on one of the bikes to get a feel for the visibility as both rider and pillion. Managed not to be patronising and not to flirt with her! If only all staff were that good.
But luckily there is a man around, to explain to her in great detail how wrong she is 😂
Yeh it's pretty shocking if you ask me, I'd expect to be able to walk into a shop for a consultation regardless of what I was wearing, there is nothing to prevent the sales person enquiring her height, style of intended riding and budget so they could recommend a few models.
I've walked into shops before, suited and booted and asked about various parts or clothing.
I've never been met with the response: "I don't think you should be riding enduro in those brouges, mate, lol!"
Your son needs to work on his man skills though, should have put the shop worker in his place instead of complaining about it after the fact
Umm.. maybe the woman can deal with her own customer service issues in the way she wishes, even if that's simply leaving the shop. Perhaps she does not need a man to look after her.
Sexism in action and I am not talking about the shop.
Don't rant on here, rant on Giant's social media platforms.
Would be quite an interesting social experiment if a prominent female cyclist would go round various shops in make up, dress and heels and see what sort of advice they got 😀
Well said Moly!
Some pretty sexist attitudes in here as well as the Giant store
Hogwash kryton57
What did anyone postvthatvwas sexist ?
Your son needs to work on his man skills though, should have put the shop worker in his place instead of complaining about it after the fact
This as quoted by Molgrips
This as quoted by Molgrips
When I read that comment, I actually smiled to myself and thought “nice work”
presuming it was a clever ironic play on the situation.
possibly im now thinking I was a bit too generous 😂
(I realise I have handed whoever posted it the perfect Edinburgh Defence opportunity, but never mind)
Shit rant to be honest. No swearing or unnecessary caps. Points added for one massive paragraph though. Overall 3/10 because I’m feeling generous.
Chivalry not sexism.
Call it sexism or chivalry if you like..
I'd call it a lost sale.
Disgusting sexist un-professional behaviour.
And also completely untrue.
What did anyone postvthatvwas sexist ?
I realise that opinions will vary, and that if I offered mine it would be shot down as having come from a bloke, but surely there's a reasonable argument for there being a 100% hit rate in the first four replies.
but surely there’s a reasonable argument for there being a 100% hit rate in the first four replies.
FFS this place is a joke sometimes. (Often ?) It's a bit of light hearted banter that's it. I don't and i doubt others actually wanted pics of her... Come on.... Get off the outrage bus people... There's bigger things in life.
Bike shop staff in socially awkward and inept around the opposite sex shocker.
FFS this place is a joke sometimes. It’s a bit of light hearted banter that’s it. Get off the outrage bus people…
LOL. Where was I outraged? If anyone's showing signs of outrage surely it's you; you seem a bit angry about other people having a discussion.
Why is it that any time anyone attempts to discuss whether or not something is of questionable taste in some way, you can guarantee that at least one person will be straight in there to label that discussion as "outrage"? Are there really only two modes of conversation for you: banter and outrage?
It must be nice living in such a binary world but I'm not sure it's helping your blood pressure 😉
Sounds a bit like this posted on FB..... except you got some of the details wrong.
There will be a point when you know more than the salesman (I work in IT so get it in Currys). So, when you reach that point its best to say "No thanks" when they ask if you need help.
Hi all!
First and foremost,
I appreciate everybodies input, I have read through pretty much every comment on this thread. I love the mountain bike community <span class="_5mfr _47e3"><span class="_7oe">🤘</span></span>
So me and charlotte walked into the Giant Bikes Concept Store where we were immediately greeted by smart looking polite gentleman. He asked if he could help us to which I replied, we were just there to look at bikes as charlotte is looking into starting mountain biking.
The Assistant then takes us to their Liv bike range, after about five minutes of discussion of the bikes the chap asks us what kind of bike we were looking for.
I respond with telling him that would be looking at long travel full suspension, 160mm+/downhill bikes for her. I also tell the guy I currently ride downhill, we will come back to this later.
Also upon hearing that charlotte wants to start DH riding we recieve a chuckle and a couple comments about 'being thrown in at the deep end' etc.
The assistant continues to try and flog us a fairly low range Liv, on sale at £1200.
I would like to add at this point the assistant in question has mentioned he rides road bikes, and tried riding mountain biking once, on 'bronze' and 'silver' trails. And keeps referring to the Liv bikes as 'dual' suspension.I switch off on when a 'roadie' talks about mountain bikes, sorry but stick to what you know.
As the conversation goes on and my disinterest in the Liv range quietly grows, it is somewhere at this time I mention that fitness for charlotte isnt an issue, as she does lots of spin classes, this then recieves a short laugh amd the response of, well mountain biking is alot different to spin classes
As the chap continues to try and sell us the Liv whatever it is, I point out again that we just wanted to look so I could show charlotte the different types of bikes, shapes sizes colours etc.
I ask the assistant if there are any long travel/ downhill bikes.(as all we can see downstairs is roadbikes and livs and im not too impressed)Anyway, the assistant happily takes us upstairs to mountain bike corber of the shop and immediately takes us over to Giant Glory, as requested.
He then goes on to talk about the bike a little bit, before going onto the price of it.
To cut a long story short, the bike was on sale for an extremely good price and the assistant and myself had a lengthy discussion about the bike, I told the assistant that I already had a Scott Gambler downhill bike.
He then invites me to take pictures of the bike, which I do, so I can share the price of the bike, as I know other people interested in DH riding.After telling this guy that I already have a downhill bike, he continues for a good five minutes or so, to sell me this bike! With charlotte, amd the aim of her looking at bikes, seemingly forgotten about.
The assistant asks if we would like anymore help which we politely turn down and tell him we would just like to have a look at the bikes.
He then goes back downstairs and leaves us to pander over their bike range.After a good ten minutes a different shop assistant comes to check on is and asks us if we are okay to which we again reply, just looking.
It is then I pick up on what charlotte's silence and take this for disinterest, I ask if she wants to leave, which we do.
Upon leaving the same, initial assistant who greeted us, prompts us again about the downhill bike but also mentions about their demos/testers they do, which jas already been mention whilst we were upstairs (I just didnt write it in earlier.)Once we have left the shop charlotte then tells me she wasnt disinterested or being rude she was just upset because the shop assistant made her feel silly and stupid by laughing at her spin classes, foegetting about her purpose of being in the shop and trying to sell me bikes, and generally feeling a bit belittled by it all.
I would just like to add that I personally feel that our visit could if been handled better and with a different attitude, however I am also not one to slag off a mans proffesional name.
If it was road bikes we were looking for im sure it would of been a different situation as i feel the particular man in question, selling mountain bikes is not his calling.
Also for those of you saying why did I not confront the guy etc etc. I am not a person confront a stranger when my partners discomfort and hasnt been made apparent, charlotte is an adult, and would of said something to him should she have felt the need, but being a well mannered and reserved person she did not, so I did not.
And for the few of you saying that you can see why this happened because of her attire that day, shame on you, I feel bad for your partners. We were having a day out, what is wrong with a woman of class looking at bikes?
Again, thank you all for your inputs.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">I used to live very close to this Giant store, which lost me as a customer through poor attitude and ignorance toward someone clearly very interested in a bike a couple of years ago when I was weighing up TCX’s vs Crosslights. I bought the Kinesis as no one wanted to sell me a Giant.</span>
Completely agree that staff behaviour like OP’s sons’ GF received should be taken further. If the UK brand manager heard something like that, I imagine the store manager would be in big trouble for allowing it to happen. It’s not still the 70’s and those attitudes are not OK. Staff are representatives of the business, and when the shop is fully badged up as a main dealer, they are representatives of the brand.
So the full story is a bit more balanced (unsurprisingly).
Doesn't excuse the assistant being a massive bell end, but that doesn't really bring the sexism thing into it, more 'the assistant thought your son was a better target' and as such the GF was totally overlooked, potentially the same as if he'd gone in with a male friend who wanted to start mountain biking by racing DH, which is quite random! Of course whether it would have been the same if it was a male friend is something totally different.
The first hand account (IMO) makes it harder to start shouting about sexist behaviour, there's nothing inherently sexist in there, just very poor customer relations, possibly driven by the fact she was a she.
charlotte is looking into starting mountain biking.
respond with telling him that would be looking at long travel full suspension, 160mm+/downhill bikes for her.
The assistant continues to try and flog us a fairly low range Liv, on sale at £1200.
Ignoring the possible sexist attitude of the staff member it seems like he was actually trying to steer away a beginner from spending a lot of money on a long travel bike when they really need to find out first if mountain biking is for them. I imagine he may well have laughed and made the deep end comment if the situation were reversed and the person who'd never ridden a mountain bike were male.
The giant store is probably the only Sheffield bike shop I’ve never set foot in. Don’t know why that is.
I can confirm though that they sold my female friend who had only ever done spin classes a bike, so that she could do triathloning. She’s not tall or blonde though, and I don’t know what she had on her feet at the time. She did crash in her first triathlon so maybe the assistant in the op had a point.
To answer the question up above it’s nothing to do with jejames. It’s round the corner from there.
It still sounds more than a little sexist to me, dismissing the woman and trying to sell the man a bike instead. It's more passive than originally described and may not have been deliberate, but still.
Sounds like the shop assistant wasn't great and the boyfriend has decided what Charlotte wants. Not sure how much of a say Charlotte gets.
what is wrong with a woman of class looking at bikes?
Oi oi! All aboard the snobbery outrage bus! 😀
It’s a bit of light hearted banter that’s it.
You, as a bloke, don't get to decide what the impact of your 'light hearted banter' is. That's the Edinburgh defence, and it's been heavily overused surrounding sexism, racism, homophobia and so on for many many years.
You might make a poor taste joke about something like, I dunno, mental illness or something - but if you found out someone in the group had been directly affected by it, you'd go 'oh shit sorry I didn't realise' because you know that they'd feel bad - that making a joke about something that has negatively affected that person isn't cool.
Well, every woman has been negatively affected by sexism. So whilst you might not mean to be sexist, simply repeating the (very tired and unfunny) jokes just reinforces the underlying attitudes. You don't get to tell womankind about sexism, likewise you don't get to tell black people what racism is all about or tell gay people about homophobia.
Now I'm sure you'll point out the irony of me, a bloke, telling you about sexism, but it's because you are also a bloke, and I have spent a lot of time talking to women about these issues, listening, reading and thinking about it. I'm simply relaying what I've learned.
Back to the shop - the issue seems to be that the woman was largely ignored in favour of the bloke - she does not appear to have been taken seriously whereas the man, being a man, was. Still sexist IMO, given the current level of information.
If it’s as the OP says, and she’s never ridden anything but a Spin Bike in a class, then to be honest, whoever told her she should be buying a 160+ DH Bike is the problem.
The sales person sounds like a dick, but I’d struggle to keep a straight face confronted with anyone (male or female) who’s partner had told them that’s what they should be buying as their first ever bike 🙄
Crumbs, "well mannered and reserved person" and "a woman of class". How flippin' patronising is that.
What happened to the posts from the guy who seemed to imply he had some insider knowledge and it was in fact the male customer that was out of order? If there is more to this story then let's get it posted, love threads like these.
Reading the FB tale, it looks like the BF started the conversation with the sales guy and it carried on from there, with the sales guy engaging the BF as he was the one doing all the talking.
He asked if he could help us to which I replied, we were just there to look at bikes as charlotte is looking into starting mountain biking.
The Assistant then takes us to their Liv bike range, after about five minutes of discussion of the bikes the chap asks us what kind of bike we were looking for.
I respond with telling him that would be looking at long travel full suspension,