I've learned that the bike somebody at The Motley Fool recommended is not available in town - it looks as if I would have to go either to Vancouver or Victoria to buy it. I spoke to the Grumpy Old Man that runs the bike shop here - the one that carries the Miele Toscana L1 bike I liked - and he just made Grumpy Old Man Sounds. I told him that someone had recommended I upgrade to a bike like a Trek 7100 with the - I don't know - the whatever-it-was on the rear end - and he said "THAT WOULD MEAN GOING TO AN $800 BIKE"......and then....."WHO ARE THEY? THEY'RE CYCLISTS. THEY HAVEN'T BEEN SELLING BIKES FOR THIRTY-FOUR YEARS!"
What to do? What to do? I really would rather not get into a relationship with this man. His idea of customer relations is to growl and pound on his customers until they agree with him. On the other hand, I know that I'll have problems with my bike. It's a bike, after all. Disagreeable as he is, he's here in town, and he seems to know his stuff, and unlike most of the other bike salesmen around here, he's over twelve. I can walk from my house to his shop in half an hour, if necessary. If I buy the Trek bike or something like it, I'll have to drive 1 1/2 or 2 hours by car to get the service. Furthermore, I e-mailed Fort St. Cycles to ask about price and availability. They sent me an e-mail saying they could get the bike I'm interested in by next week, and they don't like to give out prices over the internet or phone, because they want to woo customers with their excellent service package. Again, the service is a couple of hours from here, by car, and I don't like being asked to drive all the way to Victoria without even knowing the price of the bike - and a service call wouldn't cost that much more than a drive to Victoria, what with gas prices going through the ceiling.
I've made up my mind, haven't I? It's me and Grumpy, joined at the hip, for as long as my bike lasts. Shudder. Maybe I'll make him some cookies or something, to soften him up.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Sandra,
There has to be another way to get the bike you want - isn't there?
Charlie
Well, I live on an island. That sometimes complicates matters. I could indeed go to Victoria (on the island, but far away) to buy the bike. It's just that I don't want to buy a pig in a poke. I want to go to the shop, look at the bike, try it out, check out the dealer wrt dependability, knowledge etc., and then buy the bike. It occurred to me somewhere along the line that if something did go wrong with my bike, and I drove all the way to Victoria to have it fixed, even under warranty, and they had to order parts - I'd have to leave the bike there, drive home, then drive to Victoria again to pick up the bike.
It's as if I wanted a Toyota, but there were no Toyota dealers here. I couldn't ask a Ford dealer to bring in a Toyota for me - I'd have to go to wherever the nearest Toyota dealer was. I might be better off to learn to love Fords.
I should add that for some reason, this is mountain bike country. You can buy millions of kinds of mountain bikes here, but finding a good hybrid is a bit of a chore - and Grumpy's prices are a lot better than the competition's. I did see somebody riding a Trek in town yesterday, but I was in a car, going the wrong way to catch his attention. By the time I got turned around and headed back, he had disappeared.
Post a Comment