Ahh Covid-19 shopping. In my weeks of experience in picking up orders and ordering online, I've found varying experiences, usually good but some bad. In this case it was the latter.
Basically I was feeling stir crazy and decided to order a bike. I didn't want to put it all together myself so I noticed that dick's had a pickup option so that I could have them put together the bike and hand it to me at the front door. Easy enough, right? Or so I thought.
After receiving the order update that my bike was ready for pickup, I called and asked whether or not they could remove a tire if needed for transportation. I have a large sedan, here is how the conversation went:
Associate (A): "what kind of car do you have?"
Me: "A Nissan Sentra"
A: "Yes it should be fine but let me ask my manager"
Manager (M): "Hello ma'am, you said you have a sedan?"
Me: "Yes I do, will that be a problem?"
M: "Not at all and if anything, we can take the wheel off, it's a quick release."
Me: "Okay great I will be there within the hour"
So, I pack myself and my child up and go to the store. This is where the problems started. Firstly, all associates from what I can see, are wearing masks, as is recommended. I pull up and an associate comes out with paperwork which I fill out, then brings the bike out. At this time an older gentleman with another customer walks over, I'm assuming to get the bike in the car. The associate lets me know that this is the manager. The manager gets to my window and asks if he can open the back door.
Me: "You will have to get in on the other side as my child is in a car seat on that side."
Manager: "Oh no we can't put a bike in this car"
Me: "Pardon?"
Manager: "We cannot fit a bike in this car with a child seat"
Me: "I can get out, pop the tire off and it will fit just fine"
Manager: *gets closer to my window, then proceeds to take his mask off to speak to me less than 2 feet away from my window* "We cannot put this bike in your car, can you come back without the child in the car?"
Me: "I spoke with you over the phone and you said that the sedan would be fine"
Manager: "Yes but I didn't know you had a child in the car"
Me: "You didn't ask? What does a car seat have to do with the bike, I can put my passenger seat back and it would fit just fine lengthwise"
Manager: "You will have to come back, I'm sorry"
So they wheel my bike back into the store and at this point, I'm pretty upset, as I had just driven 40 minutes to this store to pick up the bike, and I can't just drop my 5-year-old off at home and hightail it back to the store. I decide to wait until the weekend to pick up the bike.
Saturday rolls around and I show up to the store once again. I meet a different associate (we will call associate #1) and explain the issue to him. He doesn't understand, so he tries to get the manager. He comes back and says the manager is on the phone and asks me to explain what happened again because he doesn't understand why I wasn't given the bike (you and me both, dude) then he goes to retrieve the bike. As he is getting ready to load the bike into my car, another associate (we will call associate #2) runs out and yells "WE CAN'T LOAD THE BIKE, IT COULD CUT THE SEATS AND WE WILL BE LIABLE". Associate #1 stops and I get pissed, so I get out of the car and start grabbing the bike.
Me: "Give me the bike, I will load it myself"
Associate #1: "Uhhh okay, the front wheel has a quick release but I can do that for you"
Me: "Thank you but I can do it myself"
Associate #2: "Are you sure? I don't know that it will fit"
*please see photos for how badly the bike "did not fit"*
Holy sh*t. I've never had such a difficult time purchasing an item! Why the initial opposition to having the bike in my car with a child in it? Let's assume they are worried that if I get into an accident, some portion of the bike will hit my child. Okay, then SAY SO. But even then, on any other random non-Covid day, how are they guaranteed that every person coming in to buy something isn't driving home with a child in their car? That can't be the excuse. Maybe they are actually worried about ruining my seats, okay, cool, I don't give af, so just give me the damn bike that I paid for so that I can load it myself! Why was that not an option in the first place?!
I'm so annoyed that I will probably never shop at this store again as it is run by such an incompetent individual.