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Poor customer service in Irish store shocker
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16-08-2010 5:47pm#1Hi guys, I just wanted to know what you think of this.
Last Friday I was down in Waterford (my home county) and bought a Strada Wireless computer for my new ladies Trek 7.5 fx in a LBS there.
I paid €64.95 for it. Over the weekend I was on their online shop looking to buy a helmet, a front light, a waterproof jacket and maybe one of two other bits and bobs and noticed that the price for the Strada was €58.50 (with free shipping if you spend over €50) if I had bought it on their site.
Now obviously I would have bought it on their website and saved myself the 6.50 odd if I'd known there would be a difference in the price so of course I'm at fault to the extent of not having checked their website first.
Last time I checked (which was a good while ago in fairness) they didn't have an online shop and didn't realise that had changed.
Anyway I phoned the shop today to see what they had to say about the price difference-I'll be honest hoping for at least a refund in the difference- and was told they don't sell much online and there's increased overheads with running a bricks and morter shop and they do try and stay competitive with other online shops like Wiggle and Cyclesuperstore (when I brought up the fact that I could have got it cheaper on Wiggle).
I checked Wiggle and found it's €2 cheaper there than on the Irish site and I genuinely wouldn't have minded paying a few euro more to support an Irish business (with the recession and higher overheads that the U.K. and all that) but now I feel like why the hell should I give them any more business when I'm feeling like I've been a bit ripped off by them??
The guy on the phone offered nothing to me even when I said I had intended to buy more from his shop, he just kept repeating the same thing of higher overheads, special online prices bla bla, and told me
"that's a bit strong now!" when I said I feel a bit ripped off!
I don't think he even apologised (that's the first thing he should have done-I worked in the service industry directly in a hotel in Sweden and we were always told the first thing you do is apologise to a guest if you f&ck up)
Not clever business sense. He's bitten of his nose to spite his face because now for the sake of sucking it up and refunding the difference or discounting a future purchase to the tune of 6.50 (both of which I would have offered to do in his position) he's lost future business from me-(and I believe in spending a bit more to get a quality product, I don't just go for the cheapest option) to the tune of probably a few hundred euro.
Now I shop quite a bit online and I understand that an online store has lower running costs that a b&m store but if they have both and they're already paying the costs of a b&m shop why not either charge the same price in both as they must still be making a profit at the lower price or at least make it clear to the customer that there's a price difference if you purchase a product from them online (I checked the site and there's nothing about a price difference only a mention of some special offers that don't include the Strada) if they want to encourage online business.
There's a lack of transparency there at the least and it's a bit deceptive at the most.
Aside from the fact I think €65 is I think overcharging for the Strada, doesn't it seem a bit disingenuous, to put it politely, to have such a discrepancy in pricing with no info. either on their site or in the shop in Waterford to say that you'll be paying more in the shop?
I could understand even a couple of euro in the difference and would have been ok if it was all transparent and explained but 6.50?
What do you think? Am I being naive in hoping for the shop to "do the right thing" or do you think I'm over-reacting and that's just how business is done sometimes?
Shouldn't Irish businesses be trying to attract and keep customers happy in the times we live in?? Or maybe they have so much business (with the cycle to work scheme and all) they can afford turn away business or piss off customers?
I don't get it. Apart from anything else what he did made no business sense to me.
And from my experience and chatting to a friend of mine about this who also buys most things for his guitar repair business abroad online because he feels ripped off here, sadly the way I was treated by an Irish business is not uncommon.
I'd put money on it going on good customer experience in the past of shopping online and buying supplies for a little craft business I have, that if I'd bought it from Wiggle (which I have already and would recommend) or any of the European or American sites they would have had the decency and good business sense to straight away say
'ok what can I do to help you, how can we fix this?' and at the very least refunded the difference.
I'm a reasonable person and don't go looking for something for nothing but if this is the way it's going to be I'll stick to the few Irish shops I know won't rip me off or buy online from the U.K. or wherever I can get it cheapest and to hell with supporting local for the sake of it. :mad:
/rant
Eh sorry 'bout tl;dr, didn't mean to write a letter
Oh and I'll name the shop if anyone wants to know and it's ok with the mods.? It's not like there are loads of LBS down there anyway so you'll maybe guess where I'm talking about anyway.0
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6.50 isn't that much. As the guy outlined it would be more expensive to run a shop. In future you should check the website. The shop did nothing wrong and have nothing to apologise for.
You speak of the Irish retail experience, but you come across as yet another overly-entitled Irish consumer with a minor problem and sensationalist, sarcastic thread title. Why dont you just return to the shop and ask for a refund/exchange and explain your reasoning.
I know 6.50 isn't much but what's the difference going to be if I bought a several hundred euro jacket for example? It was also the non helpful shrugging of the shoulder attitude I got from the guy on the phone that pissed me off.
I acknowledged I should have checked the site first, yes.
Overly-entitled? I don't feel I am. If I demanded my money back from the shop without first explaining my grievances or looking for freebies or something then maybe, but I'm not.
I'm also about the least confrontational person you could meet and I don't actually make a habit of making "angry from Tunbridge Wells" type rants but I thought I made my point clearly (if not concisely) and I like to think I'm a fair minded individual but I'm just sick of the general level of shoddy and overpriced customer service in this country.
I'm on a few U.S. online forums like Ravelry.com (nearly 700,000 members) where customer complaints about LYS (local yarn stores
) are sometimes brought up and I can tell you there's no way in hell the Americans or even the Europeans on that site would be happy with what I believe was the below par customer service I got in Waterford, or indeed get from many businesses here.
It's the stupid Irish thing of not complaining that contributes to poor service and makes us all pay more than we should for goods and services in this country.
Have we gotten so used to rip-off Ireland that we don't even realise when we're being ripped off anymore?
Oh and I've already opened the goods and I'm not going to either pay for either the Strada to be posted back to them (which no doubt they wouldn't cover) or have to pay €20 on the bus just to go back down to Waterford to get a refund unless it turns out to be defective.
As for my "sensationalist sarcastic headline" come on, we're not exactly talking about front page headlines in the Daily Wail are we? It's just a thread in an online forum. It was meant as a wry tongue in cheek line.0 -
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My god, I'm sorry but that's an awful chuck of text. I lost interest after about half a paragraph.
Sorry about that, really. I just wanted to cover everything. Brevity is often not my strong point.
I enjoy debating a lot in a certain online site and have gotten into the habit of explaining myself and backing up arguments as best I can lest I be crucified by those more eloquent and erudite than myself 0 -
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+1.
+1 again and hopefully if OP does ask for a refund / exchange, the nice people in the shop will explain why they have no legal obligation to provide either a refund or an exchange.
I've explained why I'm not looking for a refund, but I made the point in my OP that it was about more than a legal obligation.+1.
I'm not sure who OP trained with in Sweden, but with it a bit of luck we won't see any more of it as it only seems to produce disaffected shoppers.
Radisson Hotels FYI but what's with all the sarcasm??
If all people here (with one or two notable exceptions so far) can do is write snide sarcastic comments back at me then I rather wish I'd never come here and I'll think twice before I do again+1.
BTW before anyone jumps down my throat, OP asked for feed-back, my comments above are feed-back.
Thank's for the genuine points you made but your remark about Sweden is hardly "feedback" is it?0 -
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I'll have you know that the 'Jeweller' is a highly respected consumer champion, regularly dispensing valuable advise on all aspects of retail selling and services. I'm sure he wouldn't mind hearing your complaint against this shop.
I'm not sure they did anything legally wrong so I don't think it'd be worth my while. Maybe I'll look into what exactly is allowed as per asking prices and if disparity between online and bricks and mortar shops is allowed here.My view is that you should have checked Strada prices elsewhere. I got one for about e55 in a shop though I knew the boss. Do check before you buy next time and consider ebay-UK in particular for recently new but barely used. Be nice and they will ship to Ireland at not much extra cost.
I usually do check, as I've stated. I've been buying from Ebay UK for years so yeah I know what's what there.
Thank's anyway
€55 is a decent price. What I should've done is gone to Wiggle and got it for 56 with free shipping. I'll know better next time. 0 -
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trishasaffron wrote: »OP I'm not sure from your responses that you are genuinely looking for feedback as opposed to reinforcement.....however from my perspective the shop's approach seems perfectly reasonable. Shops do have higher overheads and yet we like to shop there for all kinds of reasons and we know (or shoudl know) that frequently the price is higher. Your reaction seems OTT to me.
I was genuinely looking for feedback, yes and thank's to the people who have done so.
what I didn't need was all the crappy sarcasm (I don't mean you)
My reaction was OTT. M'kaay... but I didn't scream or shout at the guy, I didn't demand anything. I simply told him I was displeased with his service and told people here how I felt and yes, asked for feedback, if that's OTT then fine, we obviously have different interpretations of the words.
The overheads argument has been done.0 -
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OP:
In my experience, with a few notable exceptions, Irish bike shops have particularly piss poor customer service.
From plenty of people I've talked to, and some of what I've seen myself, people have much worse experiences than you did. But your experience still stands in stark contrast to the really excellent customer service I've seen in several bike shops in places like California.
Other posters here don't seem to get that its important when running a business to try and make your customers happy.
As opposed to, you know, lying to them, pissing them off, going to war with them, or telling them they can't use your bicycle pump, or treating them like dirt because you don't think they are a elite cyclist, or sufficiently trendy, or lying to them about the normal price of a high end frame, or whatever.
So there's a Local Bike Shop Fail being described in the OP. Its not a fail because the bike shop broke the law, or ripped anyone off. Its a fail because they made the OP unhappy enough about it to tell other people, when they could probably have made more sales, and profit by just engaging with the OP constructively, explaining the situation, and offering a deal or discount on future purchases, etc.
A lot of local bike shops are feeling the pinch from online deals. Mostly, I am delighted for them, because I believe this pinch is primarily because they are bad at what they do. People will, in the long run, be happy to pay a little more for good customer service. They will not be happy to pay a lot more for worse customer service. The sooner the internet forces local bike shops to figure this out, the better.
On the OPs specific issue: People here are saying 'its more expensive to run a physical bike shop' and that explains the price difference. Perhaps. However, the free postage (4/5euro?) somewhat eats into that. Further, they probably dont have much online economy of scale (the OP said they didn't sell much online) so the online business probably is dealt with from the same location - so really its probably cheaper to sell the item in person.
No, the reason for the price difference is probably that its easier to compare prices online. Online customers are thus harder to charge much extra above the marginal cost, where as people that just walk into the shop are more likely to need it in a hurry, and be less well informed.
So, basically, shops often charge in person customers more because they can get away with it.
I don't think the shop had anything to apologise for. But, given the circumstances, I'd like to think if I was the shop I'd definitely try and do a deal, and make the customer happy.
+1
Excellent points and thank you for engaging me without resorting to puerile sarcasm.
The thought did cross my mind-what if I'd been an elite lycraced up (male) cyclist, would I have then gotten better service?
Most bicycle shops are pretty intimidating places for a lot of women to go in this country and I've been ignored and made to feel that my business is generally unwelcome in many of the LBS' I've been in in.
I get the feeling that unless I'm going to be a (preferably male) cycling enthusiast yaddering on about the weight of my expensive carbon fibre road bike and talk about cleats and what team jersey I wear then I'm not a "serious" cyclist and therefore not worthy of attention, I'm just one of those silly females who are clueless about cycling and wouldn't know what a cassette or a derailleur was if it bit me in the ass.
It's backward, patronising and condesending and the main reason I don't go into many bike shops here.
They're also often dark and dingy places that do not look or feel welcoming to most females.
Again somewhere like 2wheels have the right idea and the business savvy to know that females are a growing part of the market (look at the increasing number of sit up and beg bikes with lovely baskets on the front ridden by women in Dublin now for ex.) by having lots of attractive Dutch bikes outside the shop and a nice airy bright and clean shop inside.
That shop is catering for us too and listens to what ALL customers want and you're not treated as the silly wommin when you shop there.
BTW I have no connection with them, just a satisfied customer
Maybe someday we'll get to a stage where utility cycling and female cyclists will be as respected by bike mechanics and shop owners as the lycra crowd are now, as they are in other European countries like Denmark Netherlands and Germany and California as you suggest (and I have no problem with cyclists in lycra BTW, each to their own and all that, it's just not my thing).0 -
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Greentopia wrote: »I was genuinely looking for feedback, yes and thank's to the people who have done so.
what I didn't need was all the crappy sarcasm (I don't mean you)
My reaction was OTT. M'kaay... but I didn't scream or shout at the guy, I didn't demand anything. I simply told him I was displeased with his service and told people here how I felt and yes, asked for feedback, if that's OTT then fine, we obviously have different interpretations of the words.
The overheads argument has been done.
Simply told him you were displeased?? Did you tell him you were going to trash him on Boards.ie? Or maybe that old bastion of consumer rights - "Talk to Joe"?0 -
Fine but I'm puzzled as to where your long sarcastic OP came from in the first place as other posters have pointed out.Greentopia wrote: »I've explained why I'm not looking for a refund, but I made the point in my OP that it was about more than a legal obligation...
The sarcasm started in your OP and IME people tend to get posts in line with the general tenor of their OP, so I think you need to be able to take it as well as dish it out, so to speak. And of course by posting on a public forum you always run the risk of having any kind of weirdo with an account (such as me :eek:)responding to your heartfelt plea for empathy with some dismissive auld sarcastic guff. But hey, it's only the interweb, it's not like it's real life.Greentopia wrote: »... Radisson Hotels FYI but what's with all the sarcasm??
If all people here (with one or two notable exceptions so far) can do is write snide sarcastic comments back at me then I rather wish I'd never come here and I'll think twice before I do again ...
You're welcome, but I'm not sure why the senior ramblings of some anonymous randomer with a few minutes to spare should be so important to you - life goes on, while I just go on and on and on and on ....Greentopia wrote: »... Thank's for the genuine points you made but your remark about Sweden is hardly "feedback" is it?0 -
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Being Pedantic Spokes are not a Trek dealer so if you were buying a Madone it was not their loss.
Yes I know, I researched who the Trek dealers are before I got my 7.5 a few weeks ago. I was just using the Madone as an example of a very highly priced bike. Insert whatever high priced bike brand they do sell instead so.It would not typically be policy to price differently on the web and in the shop. Such instances would be rare and you can always haggle, especially on larger items. In defence of this particular store I would say that within reason they will get you some great prices.
Glad to hear it; really. I wrote what my experience was but if the guy who spoke to me simply made an error in judgement in dealing with me (which I feel he did) and the price policy is not typical then that's good news for their customers.
Listen I don't enjoy knocking Irish businesses and if they have a lot of satisfied customers who don't have the same problem I had then of course I have no problem in saying maybe it was a once off with me.
It would be unfair and churlish of me not to do so.In fact, the online shop is identical to Cyclesuperstore, same stock, same prices. Basically it seems to be another front for Cyclesuperstores supplier or cyclesuperstore itself. Which is fine, because just like Cyclesuperstore the prices are pretty damn good, especially for groupsets and wheels. It would also explain why the prices would not match.
That's interesting but it's up to Spokes to make sure their prices do match.
New customers can't be expected to know about the Cyclesuperstore tie-in.Not making excuses for anyone here by the way. Even good shops can have a bad day, but since it's name is being dragged through the muck here, I reckon I should put my tuppence worth in and point out that in around 3k worth of business a year on average from me, I have always had superb customer service from this store, so much so that I have been on this forum many times in wonderment at how bad the service allegedlly is in parts of the country when all of the local bike shops here are uniformly excellent.
Again, glad to hear it If you and anyone else here say you've had great service from them I'll gladly give them a second go if they deal with discrepancies in their b&m shop/online shop pricing.
I agree, anyone can have a bad day and personally I do like to be able to support local businesses.It's unfortunate that you didn't have the customer service experience that you wanted, but seriously, going back the next day for 6.50 ? After you had bought it ?
I only went back because I subsequently found the lower price difference online after I bought it. Are you telling me you wouldn't be a little bit peeved if you had paid one price for something in a shop (any shop) only to discover the exact same thing was priced lower on the shop's website Wouldn't you at least want to know why that was?
Sorry I'm not willing to shrug my shoulders and say "ah well, nothing I can do now".
That attitude encourages bad behaviour by businesses because they know then they'll get away with it the next time.
And I made it clear it's not just the 6.50 and that I was hoping to do business with them again before this.Would you do that if your groceries in one Tesco were more expensive than in another ? You need to do your homework up front like the rest of us.
Not the same thing at all, that's not comparing like with like. If you don't see the points I made in my OP then ok, nothing more to be said.
And yes, as I'm saying YET AGAIN... I usually do "do my homework" and shop around.0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 10920
Greentopia reminds me of a customer ahead of me in a store at the weekend.
The neurotic middle-aged lady was demanding a refund on a disgusting used hairbrush (hair everywhere) because one of the bristles was coming loose. She had no receipt, declared the brush was over 6 months old, yet was not budging until she got her 6 euro refund :rolleyes:
Sometimes I feel really sorry for retail staff.. The problem with offering any decent level of customer service is that monsters are created.
https://ormondelanguagetours.com
Walking Tours of Kilkenny in English, French or German.
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The implication was "...rather than moaning about it on the internet" but I thought that might come across as rude, which wasn't what I intended.
Appreciated. I don't just moan on the internet though, I have done something about it, it just wasn't to my satisfaction.Honestly, I don't know what your problem is. The shop wants to charge lower prices on the website, you don't like it, you want a retrospective price match, the shop doesn't want to give it to you.
It seems like a perfectly amicable disgreement. There is no "bad service". Bad service is being ignored, sneered at, or called a paedophile. For instance.
It would have been perhaps amicable if I hadn't bought the damn thing and then found out they were selling the exact same thing online at a lower price.
Look as I've said, lesson learned.Bad service is being ignored, sneered at, or called a paedophile. For instance.
Lol, whut?? Yes, yes and WTF??
Bad service in my book also encompasses unfair business practices.
At this stage I feel I'm just going round in circles and repeating myself and I'm tired so I'm going to leave it there for now.
Thank's for the discussion-especially those who make a genuine effort to debate this. I enjoyed it.0 -
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