| rev:text
| - I had been searching for a bike shop in Urbana for quite some time when I stumbled across Champaign Cycle. I was inspired to go there because of Daniella B.'s review, in which she noted it was nice to have a decent bike shop in Urbana that isn't operated out of someone's garage!
The nitty-gritty:
The agreement when I left my bike was for $100, the mechanic would replace my chain, true both of my tires, and fix a broken spoke. If any additional work needed to be done, I would be contacted.
While I was contacted the next day that another spoke broke when the mechanic was working on my bike, I wasn't given a new estimate. What I was told was that in order to fix this (newly) broken spoke, he needed a very specific tool that hasn't been made in 20 years and if he couldn't find this tool, he would be unable to complete the job. I interpreted his call as a head's up, which I appreciated.
The next day, I received an email that the job was completed. When I went in the total went from $100 to $148. When I asked what happened, the mechanic became defensive and said that he did call me as we agreed upon. I pointed out that he didn't give me a new estimate and because of that, I interpreted the purpose of his call to be a head's up that he was looking for a specific tool and that he might not be able to complete the job after all. At this point, the mechanic became visibly upset. He apologized for the "miscommunication" and offered to bring the price down to $128, but was clearly angry. There were no other customers, just another employee who walked away and the tension in the shop was palpable. He then began to lecture me about "It's kind of like when you go to get your car fixed and the mechanic touches one thing and everything falls apart," which isn't true since a car shop would then give you a new estimate. He then told me how the shop charges $60/hr and he worked on my bike for 2.5 hours and he spent a lot of time on my bike. Despite the fact that the mechanic was in the wrong, I was so uncomfortable that I paid just so I could get out of there.
Later I called the manager, Jerry, over at Champaign Cycle in Champaign, and told him what happened. He told me he was going to speak with the mechanic and get back to me the next day. When he called me back, he asked me to repeat what I told him the previous day. Now, how is a manager going to tell a customer he's going to call them back so that he can compare stories if he doesn't even remember what you said? He then proceeded to tell me that he was sorry, that he is definitely going to work with the mechanic, kept repeating how the mechanic took $20 off, and asking me repeatedly what the initial estimate was. In the end since he didn't even remember my story anyway, he clearly sided with the employee and wasted my time.
Between a mechanic who has anger management issues and a manager who doesn't listen or take down notes and ultimately sides with the employee, I WON'T be back again. In an area where there's an abundance of bikes shops, I suggest looking elsewhere if you want good customer service and professional employees.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)