Bob Ray said:I'm curious to read people's opinions on a recent experience I had
with
Quoted message said:a local bike shop (Now Sports on Lexington in St. Paul, MN).
I bought an '04 Jamis Quest there last week for my wife. The sales
person and I agreed on a price ($1150). We both agreed that the price
Quoted message said:included swapping out the cassette for an Ultegra 12-27 at no charge.
I
Quoted message said:paid for the bike and we wanted to leave it there so they could
complete
Quoted message said:the change but he insisted that we take it with us so she could ride
until the cassette arrived.Two days later, I get a phone message telling me that he checked with
Quoted message said:the owner and would have to charge me $30 for the new cassette. I
called
Quoted message said:the owner (assuming that he would stand behind the original deal) and
Quoted message said:was told that they intended to charge me the $30. He said the sales
guy
Quoted message said:had made a mistake and that, apparently, I was expected to pay for
his
Quoted message said:mistake.
I could have returned the bike but, in the interim, my wife had
become
Quoted message said:attached to it and no other shops in town had a replacement. I paid
the
Quoted message said:$30, got the new cassette, and was generally treated as a bad sport
for
Quoted message said:even complaining about it.
I should mention that buying the bike was extremely unpleasant there
even before the dispute (kind of like buying a new car from a bad
dealer).They had the bike (last year's model) marked at $1399. As far as I
can
Quoted message said:tell, this is $100 over the MSRP. Then, I couldn't get a price out of
Quoted message said:them for the bike ("how much were you planning on spending?"😉. I
consider that a reasonable question if a customer hasn't selected a
bike
Quoted message said:but not as a reply to "how much do you want for this one?"
I've had great experiences at other bike shops around town (Erik's,
Trailhead, County Cycles) but my wife really wanted the Quest and
they
Quoted message said:were the only shop that had last year's model in her size. I was
surpised that they were not willing to stand behind a concluded deal
and
Quoted message said:were willing to toss customer satisfaction out the window for $30 on
a
Quoted message said:bike that expensive.
What do you think?
Bob
Sheldon Brown's Harris Cyclery website lists their price for a CS913
Ultegra 9 spd 12-27 cassette as $79.95 with a note that:
"Due to unexpectedly high demand, Shimano is currently unable to supply
Ultegra 12-27 cassettes, so there is an industry-wide shortage. We have
found only one distributor who still has any availabile, and the reason
they do is that they have unusually high pricing.
As a result, we have had to temporarily raise the price of the Ultegra
12-27 cassette and on our custom cassettes that are based on it
(Century Special and Cyclotouriste) by $20.00.
When a new shipment arrives at the normal distribution channels, we
would anticipate dropping the price back to the normal range, but if
you need one now I'm afraid you'll have to pay the higher price, as we
do."
The LBS owner apparently agreed to just cancel the entire deal and let
you simply return the bike. When you declined to do that I think you
reopened the negotiations. I have to wonder though if they were trying
to rip you off, why did they either discount the cassette and not
charge you for labor or give you the cassette for free and then charge
a not unreasonable amount for labor?
Regards,
Bob Hunt