On Thu, 2009-01-22 at 09:29 -0800, jinxed wrote: > John, > > I wouldn't sweat it. The information you received is an unfortunate > side of the bike industry. Many of the bike shops (employees) out > there seem to operate on the belief that if it's not in the Quality > Bicycle Products catalog it doesn't exist. And when QBP decides not to > carry something, their online ordering windows show the item as > discontinued. > > I've been working in shops on and off for the better part of 15 years > and it never seems to change. Many times employees are only shown one > option for ordering and therefore never venture outside of that, or > just don't even know they can. Sometimes the shop owner won't allow > ordering outside of places like Quality and J&B because they have > established credit lines and or terms. Problem is SO many times the > items wanted are out of stock, back-ordered, or discontinued. So > instead of picking up the phone and calling Velocity, or finding > another distributer, you get the "sorry dude, discontinued". Our shop > is extremely married to the Quality/JB ordering and only like to place > orders when there is enough to qualify for shipping discounts. So > regardless if I need a part today, I might have to wait 2 weeks. > Consequently I do a lot of shopping outside our store. > > It is a real let down to see some of the attitude that exists in some > shops. I grind my teeth when I see one of our employees blow off > something and not dig deeper. I will do my best to scour all of our > sources and figure out a way to make it work for the customer and the > shop. Yea, sometimes to place a special order for one item will come > with a surcharge, but as long as the customer is aware and agrees, > then make it happen! One of the things I love about bicycles is the > innovation of it all. Even if I am not into their aspect of cycling > (ie recumbents), I am still eager to figure out a way to do, get, > build, modify whatever they want. It's a bike!! > > I have a rule of thumb to gauge a shop by. Will they mix Campy and > Shimano if asked? Or do they believe that will cause the fabric of > time and space to fold in on itself? If the latter, I don't expect too > much. > > Anyway, that was a long winded reply. I had my dander up about this > exact same thing with our shop not looking past their noses when a > customer asked about 650b tires. "Sorry dude" ugh.... >
Don't feel so bad -- I went into my LBS a couple of years ago asking about a Phil bottom bracket. Young dude behind the counter gets all sincere looking and tells me "they don't make them any more, company is out of business." I checked on their web site and discovered that not only is Phil not out of business, this LBS is listed as being a stocking dealer! I sent an email to the company and they assured me they'd take care of reminding the LBS that they're still around. Last time I went in there, they seemed QUITE aware of Phil Wood products! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
