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Still bemuses me in this day and age of frugality and lack of spending.
Called an LBS (70 miles from me) to order a frame on Weds. Spent 10 mins chatting with the shop-girlie, however at the end i had a few questions left over about fitting a BB and headset. Otherwise i'd have bought it there and then.
So the conclusion was "He'll call you tomorrow"
Yet, i'm still sitting here waiting without a call.
Not the first time i've had this sort of thing, sometimes with cars, sometimes with motorbikes....
But i am truely bemused... i'm sitting here with £1000 waiting to spend it... and they don't ring me back.
If he has the correct phone number and just not calling you back, i'd take your business elsewhere.
If you spend that sort of money on a frame, i'd be looking to get headset / bb fitted for free.
My lbs Cycleworld in Arbroath, Scotland are getting my green Cotic Solaris in mid July and headset / bb facing and fitting are included - top man Chris 🙂
Maybe they don't open until 10:00am? Plus 'tomorrow' isn't over yet..
unless you're doctor who chunks, tomorrow was Thursday.
I was being sarcastic...
oh.....
What frame are you getting?
Alan, i didn't wanna post that as there seems to be only 2 companies on the WWW in UK i can find that sell it and don't want to bad-mouth the LBS. It's more a post about 'society' rather than this particular LBS as such.
9:30am on a Sunday? Give it till lunchtime there are probably getting sorted.
I never return work calls till way after the 3rd/4th cup of tea
Nobody [i]ever[/i] phones you back when they say they will. Utility companies, estate agents, shops, anyone. I don't know why people still bother to say it; it must do far more harm to a business's reputation than asking people to phone back later would do.
Sunday? Did i sleep through saturday?
Tomorrow never comes
Customer service is very very important to all businesses and I help out where I work doing orders from customers both retail and trade but there are times when customers stretch your patience beyond belief too so basically shit happens and just try deal with it. I'd ring them again and politely say what's the crack and what your waiting for and I'm sure it'll be sorted. It's obvious you want to get on with things and this is your main focus and priority but maybe the shop has lots of priorities and things to do and sometimes things just slip by. Hope you get sorted anyway.
i just had to google the day!
i know i have had a week off BUT i thought it was saturday
Money talks...or walks...
Go spend it somewhere else..
Call them back later.
It's very easy for messages to get lost, and bike shops can be messy busy places.
had the same from JE James in Sheffield, its 3 weeks now! I could tell from the moment the phone was answered that the guy didn't want to speak to me.
phoned the specialized concept store in birmingham instead who talked me through what I needed, ordered it, received it and posted it to me within 24 hours.
I work in retail and always call people back when I say I will. Inevitably someone will take a message for me during a busy period in the shop and then it gets misplaced, or a number gets taken down incorrectly.
For all you know they are really frustrated and concerned that they are losing a sale because of a misplaced message.
It's annoying but mistakes can happen.
Still waiting for bike shop in Aberdeen to tell me my bike I ordered in 1993 has come in. Mibbe I should call them
always been a bug bear of mine....i always try and call people back as i know how much it frustrates me when they dont call backits a basic service indicator.but that said alot of the points above are true..ive got staff who mistake nos/paper goes missing...or you just get folk in front of you all day...thats why emails are good.
has anyone ever been called back buy crc or wiggle? 🙄
thanks allan....looking forward to cing it!
bruneep...mite be time to look for someat new!
Don't get me going on the "call back" issue or I'll kick off about On One again!!!
Very easy for messages to get lost, or the man in question to be have things crop up or maybe he's not in today and the girl made a mistake? Just call them back. Easy.
Call the Police.
Call the Police.
I think it's too late, Al. This particular horse has already bolted.
This is basic customer service and I just don't buy the 'we're really busy/lost the note' nonsense. Instigate a serious policy - all messages written down and stuck in a tray; review the tray; have a tick box for 'wants a call back'; be honest about when the call back is likely to be. Yes you'll screw up now and again but there is no excuse for regarding screw ups as acceptable. Where I live I have two similar bike shops not so far away. I have stopped using one because they were embarrassingly poor -at many things, but specifically call backs. The other is good, not perfect, but reliably good. Like someone else said, money talks - spend elsewhere.
if i was keen on buying someat that id been covetting a while and was interested in it...id keep calling to get it and not be hung up on wether they called me or not....but im maybe just very tolerant... 😆
I've had the very same with a nursery company, been promising to deliver a missing part of the furniture for 9 weeks.
So I got a little assertive on the phone, amazingly the guy who'd been 'dealing' with the problem was on holiday and the guy looking after a department that wasn't his didn't know where the part was as "we don't track orders, once they've been placed with the suppliers"!!!
He said I should keep phoning them to find out where it was, so I said as a paying customer they should be keeping me informed, he disagreed and I said that seems to pretty much sum up your companies ability to deliver any form of service.
It's now aledgely on its way on Monday, somehow I can't see it.
I do wonder what actually drives some shops to actually generate return custom or even any custom in the first place!!
I work in engineering sales and whilst I'm not the brightest most qualified person I give some of the best client support and customer service out of most the other reps I know, wins me the business 🙂 - buys me bikes, simples.
we call customers all the time and regularly the numbers are wrong,mobiles not charged/in signal/no ansa message service...we leave countless messages with machines/people/relatives/staff and no one gets back to us....i have a repair that is 8 months old and we call the guy on the 2 numbers provided twice weekly to pick up his bike but to no avail...3 or 4 contact details doesnt seem to be enough for some folk..it works both ways...also op theyre is a huge amount of "fishing" calls/emails...it does work both ways..
Couldn't agree more cycleworlduk - it does work both ways. Had a guy phone our place and order some goods and he asked for next day delivery. We told him that's fine and he'd receive it the very next day. He then asked what day he would get his goods, so he was politely told the day after today, as in next day. He then asked again asking does it mean he will get his goods "tomorrow" and again with much patience he was told he was getting it the in the morning after the day we were on. But he still didn't understand! So he went on our white board - "Mong of the Month" section.
The amount of times we have to spend on the phone going through orders that people want to order from us by Internet is unreal. Get the usual "I don't know how computers work" or "this pc is slow" so we ask politely do you want us take your order over the phone and they ignore you and want do it on the net, which takes up so much time, time we could use trying sort other issues out.
No world is perfect and some do strive to be as helpful as possible and give as good a service as possible as good service does bring back return custom.
@phiiiiil - re utility companies: water companies have to provide customers with a 2 hour window in which they keep appointments / a fixed time within which they have to respond to customer contacts, if they don't they have to pay compensation under the Guaranteed Standards Scheme.
Sympathy with the OP, nothing more frustrating than poor communication, even if the update is just to say things aren't progressing as quickly as originally thought.
FWIW my LBS always calls me when things I've ordered have come in, they're not all terrible...although a lot are really bad at returning calls.
frustrating more than anything else, like you say, sitting there with money you want to spend and they're not making it easy!
Yes, I see the other side too - I've had this in the shop for over a year:
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7180/6888583979_99995ee84e.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/cycleologist/6888583979/ ]Moulton AM with Alfine 8[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/cycleologist/ ]Ben Cooper[/url], on Flickr
Have tried calling, emailing and Facebooking the owner - no response. Answermachines are just useless - does anyone really listen to their voicemail?
ALso works with cars too.
I am looking to change the car I use for work.
So far
BMW garage 1- no follow up call with the details of the cars he was looking to source
Mercedes garage 1 - again no follow up with specific cars for a deal being discussed
Looks like I will be contacting the guy who usually supplies my cars and giving him some more business (6th car purchase with him)
You would have thought £400 per month for 4 years was business worth having?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cycleologist/6888583979/
If I owned that Munster I wouldn't come forward for it either lol
My best, or should that be worst no call was from a bike shop in York I went to a few years back. Went in on my way home from work and spoke to the owner about him building a bike for me. Basic spec was a Giant carbon one, with dura ace group set. Budget around 2k. He took my details, and said he will call back in a couple of days with a price for me. Waited till the end of the week and no call. Called the shop and owner not in. So staff took my details and said they will get him to call me back. No call ever came. So I took my money elsewhere. Ended up spending over 2.5k on a more unique bike (was at the time).
I was in my mates bike shop today useing his trueing stand and I notice him constantly scribling down something by the till,
On enquireing he informed me that it was his to-do list and notes! Strange as he used to be the most unorganised guy I knew.
I think he got fed up of forgeting things....!
I scratched my crotch earlier.