M
Mike Jacoubowsky
Guest
Just rediscovered this amusing "customer" story from our website a few years
ago. Ah, the joys of retail! :>)
09/01/02- SORRY, BUT THAT'S NOT A WARRANTY ISSUE. It's questionable that I
should bring this up, since a very good rule of business is not to diss
customers. But this one was beyond belief. I'm helping somebody on the
sales floor and one of our employees tells me there's a warranty issue I
need to take a look at. OK, fine, couple minutes and I'll be there. What I
saw and heard amazed me. This guy has (no, had) a perfectly-good 1993 TREK
8000 mountain bike that he'd cut a section of a chainstay out of. And he
was claiming it to be a warranty situation. Why? Says that the frame just
broke as he was riding along, and since he was worried that somebody else
might try to ride it, he naturally sawed out part of the tube.
OK. I've heard just about everything in 31 years of bicycle retail, why
not? But you look at the frame closely, and you look at the cut-out section
of tube, and there is no evidence whatsoever of anything other than hacksaw
cuts on the tube. At this point, you also need to understand that I take
mutilation of a perfectly-good bicycle frame very personally. To me, it's
like taking a crayola to the Mona Lisa. The customer insists that the only
reason I'm not going to take care of it is because I'm going to eat the
labor, since, of course, TREK will take care of the frame. Well guess what?
Nobody is going to get something that's obviously a result of abuse past us.
Every other decent customer loses in a situation like that, because you
raise the costs for everyone in order to take care of illicit claims.
I'm still upset about this. Normally, I live by the idea that the more sure
you are about something, the more likely it is that you're wrong. So you
have to try and figure out how you've totally blown it, how it actually was
a legit claim and you did a terrible injustice to the customer. Right. I
thought that for a minute, but, just as the customer was leaving the store,
I realized what had really happened. Somebody had either lost a key for a
lock or was trying to steal the bike, and sawed through the tube to free it
from its shackles. And then had the audacity to claim the frame was
defective. If the customer returns, calling the police may be the
appropriate response.
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
ago. Ah, the joys of retail! :>)
09/01/02- SORRY, BUT THAT'S NOT A WARRANTY ISSUE. It's questionable that I
should bring this up, since a very good rule of business is not to diss
customers. But this one was beyond belief. I'm helping somebody on the
sales floor and one of our employees tells me there's a warranty issue I
need to take a look at. OK, fine, couple minutes and I'll be there. What I
saw and heard amazed me. This guy has (no, had) a perfectly-good 1993 TREK
8000 mountain bike that he'd cut a section of a chainstay out of. And he
was claiming it to be a warranty situation. Why? Says that the frame just
broke as he was riding along, and since he was worried that somebody else
might try to ride it, he naturally sawed out part of the tube.
OK. I've heard just about everything in 31 years of bicycle retail, why
not? But you look at the frame closely, and you look at the cut-out section
of tube, and there is no evidence whatsoever of anything other than hacksaw
cuts on the tube. At this point, you also need to understand that I take
mutilation of a perfectly-good bicycle frame very personally. To me, it's
like taking a crayola to the Mona Lisa. The customer insists that the only
reason I'm not going to take care of it is because I'm going to eat the
labor, since, of course, TREK will take care of the frame. Well guess what?
Nobody is going to get something that's obviously a result of abuse past us.
Every other decent customer loses in a situation like that, because you
raise the costs for everyone in order to take care of illicit claims.
I'm still upset about this. Normally, I live by the idea that the more sure
you are about something, the more likely it is that you're wrong. So you
have to try and figure out how you've totally blown it, how it actually was
a legit claim and you did a terrible injustice to the customer. Right. I
thought that for a minute, but, just as the customer was leaving the store,
I realized what had really happened. Somebody had either lost a key for a
lock or was trying to steal the bike, and sawed through the tube to free it
from its shackles. And then had the audacity to claim the frame was
defective. If the customer returns, calling the police may be the
appropriate response.
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
