In my nearest local town, Dereham, there's a LBS - Paul's Cycles. I try to avoid going in there as
every time I have, I have encountered a less than helpful attitude to any requests for information
on bikes and indeed, an attitude of being totally ignored on a couple of occasions. On the other
hand, there's Specialised Cycles in Norwich, who is owned by Steve, who is absolutely *fantastic*
when it comes to any queries at all, is extremely helpful, knowledgeable, fair in his dealings etc.,
etc.. everytime I've crossed the threshold of his shop.
To get more to the point....
Vernon & I are thinking about getting Nathan a *basic* tourer/audax/winter hack type bike so he
doesn't get his race bike messed up over the winter. He has a mountain bike, but he loathes using it
and says he is highly uncomfortable on
it. He's a roadie ;-) We really don't want to - can't afford to - spend a lot of money on another
bike - even though one can't spend too much money on bikes, bike bits, or have too many bikes,
etc., etc., etc... ;-) So we have been looking around, checking out ads in the comic, looking on
the net, etc., etc. We've decided that poss something like a Dawes Horizon level spec/cost would
do the trick. It doesn't have to be a Dawes, but that sort of bike is possibly the solution to
requirements.
So anyway - there's mucho looking around at what's on offer, new/second-hand, to see what's out
there and costing it etc..
This morning I rang Specialised in Norwich - busy, but answerphone on. Left message for Steve to
call. A few minutes later he rang back, "What can I do for you, Helen?" So we chatted and he offered
suggestions on specs/costs and what he can do within certain price ranges and suggested Vernon
and/or I call in to discuss in detail and have a look at what he's got in stock and can put
together. All as it should be in a professional, helpful manner.
Now, as mentioned, we are looking around. So for this morning's constitutional ride, I cycled into
Dereham and called into Paul's Cycles on the off-chance there might be something there - he has had
Dawes stuff in there in the past. So I pulled up on my steed, parked it up, locked it & went into
the shop. I'm wearing a bright yellow cycle jersey, & bright yellow helmet and I'm not small. But
obviously this is a Klingon cloak of invisibility even here and not just out on the road, as I was
ignored as happened before in this shop.
There were a few non-mountain bikes there, as I had remembered so I thought I'd ask for some advice.
Shop guy walks past me, wheeling a bike, and I said, "Excuse me please, may I pick your brain about
some of these bikes." His response was, "I can only do one thing at a time and I'm busy." and he
wandered off. Now if he'd said, "I'll be with you in a minute" or, "I'll just put this bike away and
be with you as soon as I can." sort of thing, I'd have waited quite happily. But when he said, "I
can only do one thing at a time and I'm busy." I left the shop. Will I *ever* go back there - no.
This sort of has happened too often in this shop and he's now lost any chance of me buying anything
from that business *ever*.
The contrast in reaction to potential customer query between Paul's Cycles and Specialised this
morning was amazing. Specialised Cycles got it absolutely spot on and Paul's Cycles got it
completely wrong - again.
Cheers, helen s
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This is sent from a redundant email Mail sent to it is dumped My correct one can be gleaned from
h*$el***$$n*$d$ot$**s**i$$m*$m$**on**$s$@*$$a**$*ol*$*.*$$c$om*$ by getting rid of the
overdependence on money and fame
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