Nightmare: An impossible customer? Or is it the LBS's fault?

wow. I'd get my money and run. Even if they right the wrong's this is going to leave a sour taste in your mouth. I like to be fully happy and excited about a new rig... not loaded down with hassle and regret.

I'm not sure what bike shop you're dealing with... but the one I deal with has never treated me like you're being treated. If it were to start down that path, the owner is very receptive to making the customer happy.

 

Me, i'd ask for a complete refund. Buying a new bike is supposed to be fun, generally speaking.

I'd be curious to hear what people who work in local bike shops have to say about this story.

 

Call the manufacturer (and if they're local like you say, maybe take the bike to them for help) - I would have WAY BEFORE NOW, they need to know how their product is being represented.

I would try to get the LBS to take the bike back, with all that you have been through, most likely this bike will never give you that 'lovin feelin' that 3K should.

I saw red flags in your #1. Really hope this works out for you and you get back to the trails to enjoy!

(Personally IMHO, blow your wad on the frame and MUST have components, then upgrade more as you go. 1-2 yrs out you'll have a better bike.)

 

Your ordeal is very well written and clear. The bike shop is with no question giving you the run-around. The bike techs appear to not know what they are doing. I would be so damn mad if they gouged my brand new expensive bike. As such you did not get what you paid for. You were probably nice and patient to them during your visits and conversations with them that they probably said "this will blow over." Businesses know how to gauge their customers' level of upset and go from there. I'd return the bike immediatley and demand a 100% refund. If the owner gives you crap, advice him that you will expose their business, as Abui mentioned above, and this ordeal by going to bike magazines, MTB forums (STR :wave, etc. I agree with the others that want you to mention the bike shop. Who is it?

 

Next time go to The Path.... customer service like no other.

 

Would be nice to know what shop this is so we can all avoid it.

 

You need to point out to them you have yet to name the shop .......but you would if needed......If they are smart they will realize the bad press would cost more than giving you what you paid for.

 

Can't please everyone 100% of the time

Not sure what you were expecting, but that's typically the case with last years closeouts. Just by the length of your post I would suggest lowering your expectations for "scratch and dent" pricing and just see how it feels on the trail. I'd like to side with you, really, but you just want to be heard and understood. What I would suggest is private criticism with the party you feel wronged by in the hops of making it right.:?:

 

I'm gratified by the outpouring of support on here. It's incredible.

I'd like to clarify that it's pretty much impossible for one side of a disagreement, especially while emotionally charged and going through the task of re-documenting every detail of the disagreement, to be capable of presenting the nature of the disagreement in a sufficiently objective manner.

The bike shop doesn't realize I've posted here and can't say anything in its defense right now. Having been in client-facing positions with consulting jobs in the past, I do believe that 9 times out of 10, a situation like this has more to do with miscommunication and misalignment of expectations than it does with less than honorable intentions.

That is why as the situation continues to unfold, I wanted to leave their name out of the mud. That said, for my own personal judgement, it is beginning to feel like there were too many factors pushing this into that 1 time out of 10. Maybe they saw me as a noob who didn't know the difference between one thing and another and either thought they were doing me a favor by giving me what they thought would be better for me, or that they thought I wouldn't notice or care.

They do seem to honestly care about me being satisfied, and they are very nice. Whenever I walk in, they drop everything and attend to me, they chat with me, and help me with all sorts of questions. They don't talk down to me, they treat me with respect. All in all, personality-wise, if nothing else, they are a dream bike shop.

But at the same time, if it were my business, I would have gone way above and beyond incremental patch-fixing. I would have apologized for any damage, inspected the bike thoroughly to document the state to avoid any future disagreements, and offered to either replace the frame, or throw in some free upgraded component. As part of that documentation, I would have itemized with the customer the model years and sources of every single part and made sure we were both in agreement about the part meeting contracted expectations.

Going forward, I would take care to treat the customer's bike with paranoid kid gloves. And all of that would have cost me less than the money I would have spent on vast amounts of labor doing it the long piecemeal way.

I actually never got a final receipt from them, come to think of it.

And the bike. I LOVE the bike. The fork is messed up and that needs to be changed so I can fully enjoy the bike. And the gouges are a major disappointment. I always wanted to be the one to inflict damage on the bike, if anyone. I baby it even though I know it can take the gnarliest trails out there.

But the bike is so stable, and I'm not much of a risk taker as far as exceeding my abilities on the trail. So there's actually a plausible expectation that I might never fall. And if I had to resell the bike for some reason, I would want it to be in as perfect condition as possible.

I do also want to point out that they did have the frame on sale in-store by an amount (off MSRP) that was basically equal to the price difference on the package I wanted. The practice still smelled a little off to me, but I suppose their position on that could be debated either way.

There are just some little things that all taken together have raised red flags. If I had to blame someone for their business practices, I would suspect it was the owner who is seeking to protect his bottom line as much as possible and with whom I interacted mostly at the beginning. The shock thing was kinda nuts. I still can't get over that. I'm the fork being a year other than I expected.

Thanks to the guy who pointed out the derailleur date thing. That just goes to show it's hard to be an informed consumer making a new bike purchase, and that selling bikes to a market that is mostly clueless but just as demanding as the experts, can probably be a thankless experience a lot of the time.

I would be very interested to hear from other LBS owners and workers re: are these kinds of 'substitutions' from other bikes typical and accepted practice? Is it typical to sell a brand new bike with parts that might be 2, 3, or 4 years old without thinking it's necessary to let the customer know? How extreme do the changes on a part have to be before it's considered out of date? A customer might care about a logo change for instance even while a part is mechanically the same. Or maybe the springs on a part are made from US steel one year and Chinese steel another. What about raw age? Even unused, parts that sit around still age. Tensions wear out, fatigue sets in, lubricants dry or leech out, or harden.

 

I did read the whole story and WOW! When times are tough and everyone is taking a hit, you would hope maybe expect all businesses to go above and beyond to satisfy their customers-- a happy customer is a returning customer who brings friends in.

You have been way too nice dealing with these idiots. If they decided to use different parts than those you requested and paid for, they should have discussed it with you before proceeding with the changes. $3000 is not small change to throw away.
Bottom line-- YOU SHOULD GET WHAT YOU PAID FOR!!
I suggest:
--you take the bike back and demand they put the parts you paid for on the bike
--if they comply, make sure the bike is spinning smoothly, as all new bikes should, before you leave the shop
--request a new frame due to the gouges
--if they don't comply, ask for a full refund, say thank you and never return to that shop

Good luck buddy. You should post the name of the shop so we can all avoid going there.


--

 

I hate to say this, but this sort of thing happens often.

1) Customer complains about "anonymous" shop on STR
2) Other STR folk come out and support the customer
3) "Anonymous" shop is named!
4) Shop supporters come out and call you crazy. Other STR folk that once supported you start jumping off the bandwagon.

Good luck getting everything straightened out though! :lol:

 

It was no closeout. The frame is current, and all the parts, wherever there are no 2010 updates, would be considered current as well since it's still 2009. The fork I explicitly ordered as 2009.

However, I do appreciate the spirit of your suggestion.

 

should we have a guessing game of which shop it is? :?::lol:

 

This is why I never buy stuff from local bike shops. IMO there are only a handful of shops out there that actually care and know what they're doing. Those are the ones I support. I'd much rather order from a guy a thousand miles away and get what I want, than go down the street and get a bunch of excuses.

 

Calzone is from the OC. He mentions LBS as in local. Let's see.... :-k :-k :-k :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Edit - Never mind.
Calzone's taking the high road and trying to work it out. I don't want to fuel the speculation.

 

Just wanna toss in my experience with a 2009 Magura Thor I bought back in December or so. Manual said 2008, and I called Magura to clarify when I had some other issues with the fork. They said the Thor was only a 2009 fork - couldn't be a 2008. So apparently they were sending out old manuals with 09 products.

I recall there was very little if any info on my specific fork in the manual which puzzled me at the time. But I think the Wotan has been carrying over from year to year, so it may be that they just sent out the 09 Wotans with 08 manuals, and the Wotan was covered in the manual. But you do mention that a feature of the 09 is not on there - so you may be spot on.

Also on the Maxle, if a component is stamped with a date, I would guess that is the date of the last design - possibly built into the die equipment that makes it. Not a date of manufacture.

Lastly I'll add that after using the Thor briefly and using Marta SL brakes for less than a year, I'm really disappointed with Magura quality, technology and customer service. I was on the phone with them more than any other component company in 21 years of riding, and none of my issues were ever adequately addressed.

 

When I say 'local' I include LA, Riverside, and San Diego counties.

Let no one jump to any conclusions and end up unfairly bashing a bike shop.

Also would like to emphasize that the bike shop is still working with me, and we are trying to resolve the matter. What I am trying to gauge is whether I'm out of line in my expectations or not, and what standard LBS practices are.

 

All I'm suggesting is that there is little we as a community can suggest other than working it out with the shop you bought it from. All you can expect from us is 100 different answers regardless of semantics.:?:

 

my thoughts exactly!