Had an awesome experience at the bike shop on Saturday. I'll set the scene: It's late into my shift, about 3pm, and we are getting our normal late day rush. All associates were busy as I saw an older couple enter the shop and head straight to the component section. They looked normal enough as I headed over top greet them with a polite "Can I help you find anything?" Simple enough, right? I do this every Saturday with no problem. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:
Angry Customer: "Yeah, I'm looking for a "seat stem"(use your best grumpy, angry, old man voice)
Me: "A seat post?"
Angry Customer: "Yes"
Me: "Do you know what size you need?"
AC: (Now extremely angry) "If you tell me that .2 of a millimeter is going to make a difference, I'm outta here. I've been to two other shops today told me that."
Me: "Well actually..."
AC: "That's bullshit, just show me what you got."
Me: Sir, there are several sizes, 27.2, 26.6, 30.9, and so on, I doubt you would be able to eyeball the size. Do you have the old post?"
AC: (Wicked angry at this point) "If I had the old post, do you think I would be in here?"
Me: " Sorry, thought maybe just the clamp was broken."
AC: " Don't you have a book back there that tells you what size fits Huffy's"
Me: " Sorry but no. If you can bring the bike in---"
I stopped talking at this point as Super Angry Customer had turned his back to me and was storming out the door. This was unacceptable behavior in my opinion. Why would you come to a dedicated bike shop and completly not listen to what the staff had to say? I have worked another retail job that required knowledge of the product for sale and I was never treated this way. Apparently, talking to my coworkers, this is common practice in the bike industry. All was good though, AC probably continued to have a miserable day and I got to have a few good laughs re-telling the story.
Always interesting conversation and interactions at the bike shop.
Training news: Knee feels great, no pain at all. Going to go for a 3 mile run tomorrow morning, my first in about 3 weeks.
