I really hate doing this to a local business, but the customer service I received from one of the owners today was unfortunate and I need to ding the business over my experience.
I had been to the store once before to tune up my son's Mongoose BMX bike when we first acquired it. The service was fine and the young man who helped me was pleasant and professional. The tubes needed to be replaced as well as one as the front brake pad. Today I needed to have the rear tire realigned since he is new to riding a bike and has eaten the pavement a few times. The rear wheel was rubbing against the body of the bike
I took the advice of the same young man who helped me before to do a minor adjustment (not requiring the rear wheel to be removed and adjusted, which I was informed wold save me some money). Later in the day a woman called me to tell me the bike was ready for pick up.
After a couple of hours I went to the store and spoke to the same woman and asked her for the bike. I explained I need to inspect the bike to make sure the work was completed. When I expressed this, the woman's body language shut down and became defensive. When I turned over my son's bike, I notice that the wheel was not aligned and showed her the issue. She told me in an aggressive and condescending tone, "That does not matter!". I explained that I needed the bike repair to be corrected or I will be back in a month. She briskly walked to the back of the store and explained my concern to the repairman. I said, "I am happy to explain the issue, and she exclaimed, "I GOT IT!".
After a few minutes she returned to the front of the store I practically yelled at me, "We made the repair that you requested". I explained that I followed the recommendation of the repairman and if that does not work, I needed other action to remedy the issue. At this point she became practically hostile and started telling me that she rode her bike every day and took care of it properly, and that such an issue is caused when children do not take care of their bike. Short of wanting to be an aggressive parent and put her in her place, I said I appreciate she is a professional bicycle rider, but kids are not necessarily as careful.
At this point the other owner came to the front and said the repair would be done properly. I asked if I should come back and I was told no, it would only be a few minutes. I asked the woman, who failed to give her name, if she was the owner, and she confirmed that she was one of the owners.In the meantime, the woman owner was acting pleasantly with a potential customer looking at a $2,400 road bike.
So here it is, I will never be back. I cannot tolerate being spoken to by an individual in the position of ownership treating customers the way she did. It does not matter if in this instance if I spent $12 or $1,200; you do not know if down the road I will spent a significant amount of money in your store. Due to this, the business failed me.
My advice, either treat all your customer the same way, or do not cater to minor bicycle repairs. For the record, I have a $3,000 mountain bike that needs tuning up, and I have friends that mountain bike as well. You will not be receiving business from my friends or myself in the future based on the way you spoke to me, referred to my son as being irresponsible or just not being a kind human being during such awful times as now read more