Brick Lane Bikes - How Lame Really?

Mmmm... Pastry o'clock?

This thread is in dire need of some baked goods...

what is all this shit about having to walk into shops with the right attitude!

You reap what you sow, dude.

It's nice to be nice.

I agree with Teenslain in that i am always respectful to any shop worker, because lets face it retail is a shit job - however if you want to get ahead in retail you have to realise that the customer is always right, no matter how big a cunt he or she may seem - i expect to be treated like a human being in a shop no matter how stupid my question - a good bike shop will help a noob by explaining how things work, not thinking WAC and giving them the cold shoulder.

You've kinda answered your own question, there.

The customer isn't always right, as your brakeless/noob anecdote attests.

There is, however, a right way and a wrong way of telling them this.

Sometimes the most satisfied customer is the one who's been told they're wrong but has left the store better off than when they went in.

FWIW, I get great service in all the bike shops I frequent (i wouldn't frequent them else), and some of these are often cited as giving poor service.

It's nice to be nice.
.

Yeah.

hi vinylvillain

must be said i ignored / didn't see the brakeless and clipless bit that is a risky journey on the first fixed trip
although my first trip on the c'dale was to brick lane bikes top pick up a brake !! i was clipped in

but then again is your mate someone who would pick up their brand new bike and be told he should walk it home ? hundreds of us would ignore the advise iof the most knowledgeable types to do it our own way !!

Yeah to be fair i told him to hold off buying a bike until i was with him, but he went in there and got seduced, soon whipped out the credit card, and was off on his way.

I guess what annoys me is that BLB has got by on what they stock, rather than being a great shop for most of its life - it could be a great shop if they dropped the attitude.

there are two ways to skin a cat
( LondonFGSS does not condone the skinning of cats and no cats were harmed in the making of this post )

Quick question - what nationality are most of the people who work in BLB? Just wondering 'cos I was in there the other day and everyone but everyone was speaking to each other in a different language..

Service has always been passable, but no more, for me in there.. I went in to TDV yesterday, however, and asked some very noobish questions about chainlines and bottom brackets and keith was extremely friendly and helpful.. i can imagine that if i had asked the same Qs in BLB i would have been made to feel like a reet nobber

israeli and polish dutch

mostly black

que tynan

You reap what you sow, dude.

It's nice to be nice.

You've kinda answered your own question, there.

The customer isn't always right, as your brakeless/noob anecdote attests.

There is, however, a right way and a wrong way of telling them this.

Sometimes the most satisfied customer is the one who's been told they're wrong but has left the store better off than when they went in.

I don't disagree with you, but the harsh reality of retail is that you have to deal with this - i used to work in the skate shop at the Playstaion skatepark when it first opened, and worked in the shop the owners had before that too - about half are customers were rich kids and their parents from the area, and TBH behaved like right cunts - however they bought in some much money, that we had to be nice to them, whereas it would have been easier to give them the cold shoulder - and by being nice to them they kept coming back, told all their mates to come see us to get little jonny his skateboard, and we made a lot of money.

The problem with my mate is that he had been told by them he would be fine without a brake - not that he insisted that he wanted to ride without one

Lizards are baby aligators

fact.

racist fact.

but fact nonetheless.

I went in to TDV yesterday, however, and asked some very noobish questions about chainlines and bottom brackets and keith was extremely friendly and helpful.. i can imagine that if i had asked the same Qs in BLB i would have been made to feel like a reet nobber

You musta caught Keith on a good day then, he'll normally bite yer ankles off if you ask a stupid question... I've got the scars to prove it*...

** Unless Jos has him chained to the workstand, in which case he won't be able to reach your ankles*

(jokes)

que tynan

Try again... ;]

Mmmm... Pastry o'clock?

This thread is in dire need of some baked goods...

Not appropriate Jo!

I was in BLB last week, i needed to pick up some track nuts, i wasn't sure which ones so tried to ask at the counter, they had one albanian serving and he had no grasp of engrish. i had to wait 20 mins for him to finish beating a disabled girl with a pair of chrome forks before he would serve me and before i even had chance to look at the nuts he walked off to help Edscoble with his photos.

A further 20 minutes later he finally came back to me with a tirade of abuse, words i wasn't even aware of! eventually his girlfriend came in and served me but she didn't have the first idea.
after trying to fit a pedal onto my front wheel, breaking a spoke in the process, i managed to get my message across, they had hardly any stock in and most was damaged but in the end she sold me these

she said the were NJS and charged me £30 per nut. i then had to spent a further £198 on a tool to tighten them.
i left as soon as i could, disgusted and skint. the nuts didn't even make it to the end of the road before braking! i tried to take them back and they claimed to have never seen me, before trying to attack me with a campag chain whip. i just ran..
when i got home i realised my identiy had been thieved and my card ripped off to the tune of £3590, my mother had lost an arm and my cat got cancer..

but they were busy.

blb - one of the girls there is harsh as fuckm, the old due who works there, the duch guy i think he is, is a miserable grump. Your store is only as successful as the people who staff it, i have even witness staff kinda want to let people use stuff but then be pulled back into line.

i bought a brake cable for the bmx there once and asked to have it cut shorter - 3 pounds, fuck man that is just asking for people to think twice.

yeah evans might be owned by the devil but at least the devils instructions to shop workers is to let people use shit if they need without turning up a nose.

@wiganwill, if you don't like the fact someone started up a new thread on this cause that's what was in their mind, then don't post in it - forum police worse than city police

When I worked for Evans i hated the unwashed public using my tools.

I don't disagree with you, but the harsh reality of retail is that you have to deal with this

Absolutely.

But how you approach the staff of your chosen emporium can make the difference between getting what you pay for, or getting more than what you paid for. Or not paying at all.

I bought a lock-ring from BLB's, and they were very friendly.

I asked for some advice during a different visit, and they were not so friendly.

Not much of a conclusion- but if you know what you want they seem happy to deal with you, whereas if you are asking questions then they may assume you know nothing and are a waste of time- I was wearing a suit the second time I went in, which may not have helped.

They were never out and out rude though, and I like the stock they keep.

@wiganwill, if you don't like the fact someone started up a new thread on this cause that's what was in their mind, then don't post in it - forum police worse than city police

almost as bad as people bellyaching for the past 2 years in thread after thread about how BLB made them cry

HTFU and use the search

Wish I had photoshop at work so I could make a picture of a puff pastry with NJS stamped on it... or a strudel with NJS running through the middle like brighton rock...

{edit] that is my secret code phrase for "can we let this thread die now?"[/edit]

Slam city used to be like this for a while. Then they sorted it out.

Being friendly and polite doesn't cost anything.
Poor customer service can cost you your business.

Oh, lock the door if your closed. And turn the sign. Otherwise you look open.

almost as bad as people bellyaching for the past 2 years in thread after thread about how BLB made them cry

HTFU and use the search

Yeah, or else. ;)

I worked in retail ages ago and there's nothing worse than a bellend coming in and not knowing what the fuck he's talking about or what he wants. Can spot em a mile off and quite honestly, once you've seen one you've seen em all.
'Diddlers' we used to call em, basically ditherers....fuck em. Why should the guy in the shop waste his time on diddlers when there's genuine customers to be served...

Mmmm... Pastry o'clock?

This thread is in dire need of some baked goods...

Oh dude!!! Cinnamon scrolls! They are sooo fucking good.

@GS... one of the funnier things I've read in ages.

Also, this forum is slipping. There was a brief dabble in italian cooking on page 3 and it lasted for a total of 4 posts. You should all be ashamed.

Anyway, just got home from dinner and had Veal Scallopini Alla Romana (it was a vegan version though). Very nice. Doyles is predominantly a seafood restaurant, but the Italian fare was more than acceptable.