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Date: 22 Aug 2007 10:00:20
From: Mike Jacoubowsky
Subject: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer" story)
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Just rediscovered this amusing "customer" story from our website a few years
ago. Ah, the joys of retail! : >)
09/01/02- SORRY, BUT THAT'S NOT A WARRANTY ISSUE. It's questionable that I
should bring this up, since a very good rule of business is not to diss
customers. But this one was beyond belief. I'm helping somebody on the
sales floor and one of our employees tells me there's a warranty issue I
need to take a look at. OK, fine, couple minutes and I'll be there. What I
saw and heard amazed me. This guy has (no, had) a perfectly-good 1993 TREK
8000 mountain bike that he'd cut a section of a chainstay out of. And he
was claiming it to be a warranty situation. Why? Says that the frame just
broke as he was riding along, and since he was worried that somebody else
might try to ride it, he naturally sawed out part of the tube.
OK. I've heard just about everything in 31 years of bicycle retail, why
not? But you look at the frame closely, and you look at the cut-out section
of tube, and there is no evidence whatsoever of anything other than hacksaw
cuts on the tube. At this point, you also need to understand that I take
mutilation of a perfectly-good bicycle frame very personally. To me, it's
like taking a crayola to the Mona Lisa. The customer insists that the only
reason I'm not going to take care of it is because I'm going to eat the
labor, since, of course, TREK will take care of the frame. Well guess what?
Nobody is going to get something that's obviously a result of abuse past us.
Every other decent customer loses in a situation like that, because you
raise the costs for everyone in order to take care of illicit claims.
I'm still upset about this. Normally, I live by the idea that the more sure
you are about something, the more likely it is that you're wrong. So you
have to try and figure out how you've totally blown it, how it actually was
a legit claim and you did a terrible injustice to the customer. Right. I
thought that for a minute, but, just as the customer was leaving the store,
I realized what had really happened. Somebody had either lost a key for a
lock or was trying to steal the bike, and sawed through the tube to free it
from its shackles. And then had the audacity to claim the frame was
defective. If the customer returns, calling the police may be the
appropriate response.
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
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Date: 24 Aug 2007 07:12:33
From: AustinMN
Subject: Re: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer" story)
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On Aug 23, 7:41 pm, "Leo Lichtman"
> I haven't checked, but do any of the tool rental places rent chains? That
> would be the best plan of all. You return the chains and get your deposit
> (not the rental fee) back, used or unused.
Knowing my luck, I would forget whether I had the chains or had
returned them...then when I really neede them, knowing they were in
the back, I'd discovered that, no, I had returned them last spring. 8-
<
Austin
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Date: 23 Aug 2007 01:05:56
From: landotter
Subject: Re: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer" story)
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On Aug 22, 5:27 pm, "Jim Flom" <jim.flomREM...@telus.net > wrote:
> "Mike Jacoubowsky" <mik...@ix.netcom.com> wrote...
>
> > At this point, you also need to understand that I take mutilation of a
> > perfectly-good bicycle frame very personally. To me, it's like taking a
> > crayola to the Mona Lisa.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5begHSoQ1s
The band's got chops, but what a terribly boring song.
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Date: 22 Aug 2007 18:28:38
From: DougC
Subject: Re: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer"
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Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
> Just rediscovered this amusing "customer" story from our website a few years
> ago. Ah, the joys of retail! :>)
>
> ....This guy has (no, had) a perfectly-good 1993 TREK
> 8000 mountain bike that he'd cut a section of a chainstay out of. And he
> was claiming it to be a warranty situation. Why? Says that the frame just
> broke as he was riding along, and since he was worried that somebody else
> might try to ride it, he naturally sawed out part of the tube.
> .....
>
>
I had a college instructor a few years back who was a regional honcho
for one of the big department store chains. He said that people would
come in during the early springtime and buy bikes for their kids. Then
late in the fall, the parents would bring the bikes back in saying they
didn't want them. The store's policy was "refund if not satisfied", and
so the store would give them the refunds--for bikes that had obviously
been well-used for ~8 months. A number of the same people did this year
after year.
I'll never do that well in business--some people just need to be told to
fuck off.
~
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Date: 22 Aug 2007 18:39:26
From: Pat
Subject: Re: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer" story)
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>>
>
> I had a college instructor a few years back who was a regional honcho for
> one of the big department store chains. He said that people would come in
> during the early springtime and buy bikes for their kids. Then late in the
> fall, the parents would bring the bikes back in saying they didn't want
> them. The store's policy was "refund if not satisfied", and so the store
> would give them the refunds--for bikes that had obviously been well-used
> for ~8 months. A number of the same people did this year after year.
I knew a woman who would buy a kids' swim pool in the spring and take it
back to Sears in the Fall for a refund because "it had a hole in it when she
bought it." Once, she bought one of those battery-powered riding toys, let
the kids ride it all summer, and then returned it to Sears, claiming it had
never "worked right." Hell, one time, she let some meat spoil and then froze
it and took it back to the store and told them it had always been frozen and
had spoiled in her freezer!
Some people will try anything!
Pat in TX
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Date: 22 Aug 2007 21:36:57
From: Tom \Johnny Sunset\ Sherman
Subject: Re: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer"
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Pat who? wrote:
>> I had a college instructor a few years back who was a regional honcho for
>> one of the big department store chains. He said that people would come in
>> during the early springtime and buy bikes for their kids. Then late in the
>> fall, the parents would bring the bikes back in saying they didn't want
>> them. The store's policy was "refund if not satisfied", and so the store
>> would give them the refunds--for bikes that had obviously been well-used
>> for ~8 months. A number of the same people did this year after year.
>
>
> I knew a woman who would buy a kids' swim pool in the spring and take it
> back to Sears in the Fall for a refund because "it had a hole in it when she
> bought it." Once, she bought one of those battery-powered riding toys, let
> the kids ride it all summer, and then returned it to Sears, claiming it had
> never "worked right." Hell, one time, she let some meat spoil and then froze
> it and took it back to the store and told them it had always been frozen and
> had spoiled in her freezer!
>
> Some people will try anything!
Wrong word. Replace "anything" with "theft".
--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
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Date: 23 Aug 2007 19:57:02
From: Leo Lichtman
Subject: Re: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer" story)
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Why do you suppose tire chains are generally sold with a "no return"
restriction?
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Date: 23 Aug 2007 16:13:05
From: Mike Jacoubowsky
Subject: Re: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer" story)
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> Why do you suppose tire chains are generally sold with a "no return"
> restriction?
It's a little bit different with tire chains, because they're not worried
about people actually using & returning them, but rather people buying them
because they *might* need them and then, when that doesn't happen, they
return them. It would probably cut into sales of chains pretty big if people
were allowed to do that.
I'm surprised that stores don't offer a "rental" option. You pay up front
for the chains, and if you return them un-used (100% un-used, as in never
removed from the box), you get 75% back.
--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA
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Date: 24 Aug 2007 00:41:37
From: Leo Lichtman
Subject: Re: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer" story)
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"Mike Jacoubowsky" <MikeJ@ChainReaction.com > wrote in message
news:vwozi.5182$i75.4004@newssvr19.news.prodigy.net...
>> Why do you suppose tire chains are generally sold with a "no return"
>> restriction?
>
> It's a little bit different with tire chains, because they're not worried
> about people actually using & returning them, but rather people buying
> them because they *might* need them (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Tire chains are like an insurance policy. You pay for coverage, and, if you
don't need it, you're not entitled to your money back. If a person has a
set of chains in the car, he is getting value from them even if they are not
used.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm surprised that stores don't offer a "rental" option. You pay up front
for the chains, and if you return them un-used (100% un-used, as in never
> removed from the box), you get 75% back.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I haven't checked, but do any of the tool rental places rent chains? That
would be the best plan of all. You return the chains and get your deposit
(not the rental fee) back, used or unused.
>
> --Mike Jacoubowsky
> Chain Reaction Bicycles
> www.ChainReaction.com
> Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA
>
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Date: 22 Aug 2007 22:27:52
From: Jim Flom
Subject: Re: Got in trouble for this once before... (interesting "customer" story)
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"Mike Jacoubowsky" <mikej1@ix.netcom.com > wrote...
>
> At this point, you also need to understand that I take mutilation of a
> perfectly-good bicycle frame very personally. To me, it's like taking a
> crayola to the Mona Lisa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5begHSoQ1s
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