Re: Informed opinions wanted

"Kenny" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I think they were will to toss customer satisfaction out the window
for $1180.

Not so. If they'd stuck by the original deal, they'd have gotten $1150
and had a satisfied customer.

As far as the 12-25 cassette being used. Not only did I try to leave the
bike there, it wasn't ridden after I took it except down the block when
I set up the saddle. Since the bike was an '04, it had certainly been
test ridden a lot further than that before I bought it. It had demo
pedals on it and the tires had some wear on them when I first saw it.

I pointed this all out to the owner, but it made no difference.

Also, there's no dispute about the deal. The owner, the sales guy, and
I, all agree that I was promised a free upgrade to the new cassette and
that I paid for the bike with that understanding. If they had forgotten
to charge me for something I'd agreed to pay for, I'd have coughed up
without any hesitation.

They kept the cassette box and I wouldn't be surprised if they sell the
original 12-25 cassette as new. They'll almost certainly be able to get
enough for it to cover their cost on the new one.

Just a few weeks ago I bought myself a new '03 Bianchi Imola at a
different LBS (Trailhead Sports). They did the same cassette swap for
free and upgraded it to a carbon seat post for $20 and an Ultegra crank
for $60 so I know the deal I made wasn't that unusual.

The deal is done and the bike is now used. The $30 isn't that big a deal
given the price of the bike and how long she'll be riding it. I just
wondered if people agreed with my thoughts on the actions of the bike
shop.

Bob Ray

to reply directly, remove the appliance

The Twin Cities are so infected with LBS, you'll find one glad to take
you as a customer, especially once you tell them this story.

Bob Ray said:

They kept the cassette box and I wouldn't be surprised if they sell the
original 12-25 cassette as new. They'll almost certainly be able to get
enough for it to cover their cost on the new one.

I'm not sure about that. Note that the Ultegra 9 speed 12-27 cassette
was in short supply this winter, and may still be so. Nashbar still
doesn't sell it on its web site, for example, and if you look for a
CS913 on this page

http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/k7.html

you'll find a note about the shortage is still there along with a
$20 uplift in price for this particular cassette. It may hence be that
the $30 charge he's asking for really is about the difference between
what he can sell a 12-25 and a 12-27 cassette for.

When I heard about 10-speed Ultegra last fall, along with rumors about
a 10-speed Dura-Ace triple, I picked the web site showing the best price
for 9-speed 12-27 cassettes (which I have on almost all my bikes) and
bought enough to keep me until I wear out the rest of the drive trains
on those bikes sufficiently to want to think about maybe changing them
for something else. I'm pleased with this since it is one of the very
few instances where I've managed to buy bike parts when the price was
at a local minimum; normally it turns out the other way.

One might also wonder why some new bikes don't just come stock with a
12-27 cassette since this has to be one of the most common changes
people make to their off-the-shelf purchase (at least in places with
significant hills). I keep thinking that the shortage of 9-speed
Ultegra 12-27 cassettes (along with the continued availability of the
significantly more expensive Dura-Ace version) is somehow related to
this, though I'm a fan of conspiracy theories so don't take this too
seriously.

Dennis Ferguson

Dennis Ferguson <[email hidden]> wrote:
:> Bob Ray <[email hidden]> wrote:
:> > They kept the cassette box and I wouldn't be surprised if they
:> > sell the original 12-25 cassette as new. They'll almost certainly
:> > be able to get enough for it to cover their cost on the new one.
:>
:> I'm not sure about that. Note that the Ultegra 9 speed 12-27
:> cassette was in short supply this winter, and may still be so.
:> Nashbar still doesn't sell it on its web site, for example, and if
:> you look for a CS913 on this page
:>
:> http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/k7.html
:>
:> you'll find a note about the shortage is still there along with a
:> $20 uplift in price for this particular cassette. It may hence be
:> that the $30 charge he's asking for really is about the difference
:> between what he can sell a 12-25 and a 12-27 cassette for.

Ah....makes sense.