A tale of two bike shops

He had me until he made it personal.

As negative as my experiences were there are others who have posted their positive experiences (Rob, Dell, Dean) and I respect each of them in that they stand by the shop. But I respect them even more because they left their opinions of me as a person out of it.

I sincerely hope that the final outcome of this is positive for the shop

 

friends don't let friends troll. J/k know Auk and others are supportors of the shop (as i am) just trying to bring some levity to post.

think what sometimes is forgotten by customers and the business alike is that one bad experience and/or one bad individual can quickly overturn a bunch of great experiences. unfortunately what this sometime means is I know who i like dealing with at certain shops including the above and wait or comeback until they have some free time to discuss what i need fixed or want to purchase.

 

Just trying to tell the experience factually but also make it an interesting read.

It is ironic, however, that the shop and I seem to be in the same situation of not being able to please everyone.....

 

WINSTON- Not trying to get off topic. I just want to say it was an "HONOR" to be Thanked by you in my last post.

Dave Weagle.... Ska Todd... Winston...... The Holy Trinity of Iron Horse!!!! God Bless You!

Iron Horse for life!!! :bang:

*... The previous message was a public service announcement brought to you by the good people at STR. We will now send you back to your regularly scheduled discussion......

 

as noteworthy Winston is to the SoCal mtb community u r still missing the real IH OG or should i say the LG as in Lou Gehrig. you get that and you can consider yourself the "luckiest man on the face of the earth, earth, earth". :lol::lol: Yankees on a roll babay!

 

Thanks! I see "one" person reads my posts!

 

alright, it's getting deep in here with all the hugs and kisses.

Let me get things going the right way.

"boats" vs "auk" lol

In this corner we have SAR Boats. Weighing in at an unknow poundage and was OW3Ned buy fully. But he did return and complete it one handed.

In the other corner we have Eric aka "Auk" .
He weighs in at a buck twenty five. He rides the steeps on something far from cheep.

This could be a 6 page thread bout but we know the mods will call it in under 5.




Just kidding you fockers. lol

 

Wait.:-k

Earlier you stated that "i've stared death in the face and never flinched."

Now, you're saying a guy who "gets personal" on the internet does make you flinch? 8-[

So, Auk's comment was more imposing than facing death? Wow. He's pretty imposing for someone that small.


As I read your lengthy and dramatic 3rd person retelling of the saga, the first thing that came to mind was.... why all the used parts? re-using a rim?(what?)

I've had at least 10 wheelsets built at the shop in question and duely received my free post-sale re-true. One time I had a 2 month old rim rebuilt on a new hub and I was told that there would be no warranty/re-true on that used rim. Were you not told likewise?

Anecdotal clarifying questions: If I pulled a fuel pump out of a parts yard vehicle, then paid you to install it...if the fuel pump failed soon after, how many billable labor hours would you spend making it work?Would you do it for free indefinately? Should you?

 

What the Auk

hope doesn't come to this and have never seen either guy throw down but if it must be, my ducks are on Chris (size over quickness?)

Besides it was only a flesh wound :lol:

 

Not the same. I see where you're going with it, but you can't see the internals of a fuel pump so it is clearly a buyer beware situation. If the issue was with the hub exploding then that would be his problem.

I can't think of a car part that needs tweaking like a bike wheel. Maybe the distributor? Timing belt? I guess maybe re-upholstering the front seat might be an automotive equivalent. If the stitches stretched the first time you sat in the seat, it would seem (seam...LOL) reasonable to have the craftsman take 5 minutes to tighten the threads.

The warranty shouldn't go on indefinitely, but you should be able to take a couple laps of the Fullerton Loop before the wheel starts to wobble.

 

No. I just found it offensive and annoying that someone who doesn't know me, and to my knowledge has never met me,is passing public judgement as to my charachter and motivations.

I was over budget on the build. Why throw out usable parts?

No. I wasn't told likewise beforehand, otherwise I wouldn't have an issue with this.

Not the same. A better analogy would be: If I had just replaced the valves, rockers, tappets and lifters on an existing engine, those valves would have to seat into the head. Once they did, they would require adjustment, which is factored into the original service and is covered.

As stated, it isn't like I tore up the rims and expected them to cover it. It was simply adjusting the spoke tension since the spokes and nipples had seated.

I never asked or expected the shop to cover any damage to the rim, I wouldn't even expect that from the rims that I bought from them, since that is my responsibility.

As stated, if the rims were bad, why didn't they tell me? If the rims were bad, why are they straight now thanks to Tim at Switchback?

The only thing that I expected from the shop was to stand behind their work. I never asked or expected for warranty work. I just expected them to complete the wheel build. Just like new valves seating into an old head, the spokes and nipples have to seat in the existing rim and hub. It doesn't matter whether the rim is new or old, the spoke tension has to be re-adjusted every time. The valve adjustment would be covered, as it is what happens every time you do that job. But the shop didn't cover the rest of the wheel build.

Besides, as stated, I didn't even take the wheels off-road. I just went for a 10mi easy road ride.

 

Because re-using wheels is not like re-using a stem. Most shops feel pretty sketchy about this since there is almost no way to know their current integrity.

That's a bummer. In all my 6 years of experience there, I can't imagine that the service manager wouldn't have offered to at least take out the hops for you. Did that not happen?

What if the rims in question sucked? What if they were ghetto rims to begin with and were built poorly by a machine. Then, were ridden hard and stripped. Building a solid wheeel a second time is almost out of the question.

 

holy Cr@p. all these automotive analogies. I don't know sh!t about car mechanics and totally confused. how about an analogy in relation to, oh i don't know maybe something my pea brain can handle like beer drinking, eating chicken wings/fish tacos, etc,

 

Not sure about how ghetto the wheels were but I'm positive Chris wasn't riding them hard - he pretty much has one usable arm #-o

 

Let's Just RIDE......

Hey guy's and gal's, this has turned into a pretty big post.

I think SAR's first post was fairly written, he didn't really slam our shop to badly, (no I don't work there, but it's like a second home to me\\/) and he gave prop's to SB for a good experience there.

He just seemed to have a bad experience, and shared it with the folks here.
As Chicky would say, "no blood, no harm, no foul".

Auk posted his opinoin, and got a little personal, but I'm sure SAR has delt with worse, and as Chicky would say, "no blood, no harm, no foul".

SAR, I've never met you, but you seem like a stand up guy. My son and I will be at the Fully ride tomorrow, please come introduce yourself. I'm the simi-old guy riding the John Deere Stinky.:wave:

Auk's a friend of mine, and a very caring person, and just stating his feelings. I can't knock him for that.

The guys at The Path (yes I'm using the name) are a great crew (like family to me), and are growing at a crazy rapid pace. I've been around since the begining, and sometimes it's hard for me to believe how much it's grown.

Mistakes happen, that's life, what are you gonna do?

I'm sure The Path will miss having you as a customer, but on the other hand, SwitchBack will welcome you with open arms.

We are lucky to have shops like these, The Path, Adrenaline, and SwitchBack in our area.:beer:\\/

Now, let's go ride, so we can buy MORE parts!!:bang:

PS,

Winston, you missed a pretty good "Crash" Maxwell incident. I have to have MY front wheel re-tensioned, and trued.#-o

 

Well said Crash.

 

I doubt it was a machine build because it was WTB Speedisk Trail Rims on a Ringle rear and a Dimension front hub.

The wheels were true when I took them in with no flat spots.

The service manager offered nothing.

 

Greatest Expectations

Hi,

Tani from The Path here.

Sar, I will say it here for all to read: Our policy is to not offer any follow up or waranty service on wheels that are built on used rims. I have repeated this time and again, and heard every one of our service writers say it with great regularity. If you were never informed of this, then I do apologize for the miscommunication. I would take you at your word for it and try to make things good between us. Our prime motiving policy is to try to keep our custmers happy.

Our wheel building process is thorough and specific. If anyone is interested, I would be happy to PM a coppy of our wheel building process. It is at least a one hour job per wheel for an experienced tech, and we charge $32 (because that is the going rate). If the work were done by plumbers, a wheel build would cost around $80 per wheel. Most of our wheel builders (myself included) could build a wheel in about 1/2 hour. Most of you would not be able to tell the difference between the 1/2 hour job and the 1 hour job. Even an experienced wheel builder would have to use a tensionmeter, and dissasemble the wheel to inspect the spoke prep application, check that the spoke lines have been corrected and more. You would all be able to tell the difference in terms of long term durability and trueness. We follow the full process every time. We do it out of pride with a used or a new rim.

All of our wheel builds on new rims (even if the hubs are used) have always come with a free retension. Just for the record far from all of them need it. Many do and many don't.

Sar, I am sorry you had a bad experience at my shop. To be honest I would probably have given you a free trueing had you brought the wheels in and I ended up helping you. This is definetely not a call I would make without the wheel in my hands for inspection, and I think it is funny how many folks on this thread think they can assess a wheel over an internet thread and know what a shop owes to whom. I don't know where your $39 dollar number came from, but we charge $10 per wheel for minor trueing as per our written labor prices, and it sounds like you didn't need more than that

There is nothing but respect between Switchback and The Path. I count Sherry and Tim as freinds and allies. We regularly send each other business. I openly discuss the fact that they are a wonderfull bike shop, one of the best I have been in, and I have been in as many bike shops as possible out of prefessional interest. I hope that they are able to meet your expectations, and I hope that having you as a customer works out better for them than it did for us.

Sar, I know that I offered to help you more than once while you were at the shop, and you said that you were taken care of every time. I appreciate that you didn't openly slam us or use our name, but did you really think that this made any difference in terms of giving us a bad name? I knew what shop you were talking about instantly, and I think that there were very few readers on this board who didn't.

I work long and hard to bring the best that I can. I built The Path from nothing on blood sweat and tears. It has been my life obsession and labor of love for almost nine years. It is also how I feed my family. If you think my very good freind auk's post felt personall, you should put yourself in my place and read yours.

I appreciate that you were just sharing an experience. I believe this is definetely your right. I appreciate that there are ways that I have been able to learn from this thread, especially from one member who has given me very usefull construtive critisism via pms that were spawned from this thread.

 

Many people around the country don't even have one decent shop within hundreds of miles. We're blessed with many great shops right down the street. I feel so spoiled. :lol:

 

Thanks Tani and Chris

Thanks Tani and Chris(Sars). Tani, the fact that you responded to this thread shows you care about your customers. Like Max and Lee have stated, we are lucky to have the many bike shops we have.

I live in South OC (Mission Viejo) and have 8 shops within a 10 mile radius near my area, but I often take the extra drive to your shop. I'm always well taken care off and that's why I always come back. No shop carries everything or every product, but each recommends one another if they themselves don't carry it.

We are very fortunate to have shops like yours, Switchback, Adrenaline, The Bike Co. and even some of the more "corporate" bike shops(too many to name).

Thanks Chris, this was a very informative thread and as always, when communication between 2 parties breakdown, it often doesn't end favorable for anyone. Thanks to all for taking the time to voice your opinions. Gene