Cycle Shop

Ming, I got my new wheel today after the whole kerfluffle at Penn Cycle, and something occurred to me after I sent you the email about how it was 12:10 and their doors still weren't open.

I originally had one technician involved in my "fix my wheel" use case. She popped the tube, but noted in her notes that it had been her and I shouldn't be charged. She called me personally and recommended a new wheel because of the extra broken spokes and gave me an eta for the delivery of the wheel and the fix. She wasn't involved in the bits in between but, today she put my tube/tire on the new wheel and came out to personally apologize for the problems and that perhaps they'd been caused by her being out of the store in the day between the recommended wheel and the delivery of the wheel.

Contrast this to the men involved. First was the male technician who told me that the first technician to look at my wheel had been junior and "wrong". This didn't jive with him taking her work and doing it for her, while not reading the details about the tube or about the ordered wheel. He's also the one who charged me for truing and did NOTHING to the wheel other than replace the two spokes.

Or the manager who tried to charge me for a tube despite the note on the receipt until I corrected him and said I'd brought in a perfectly fine tube.

Or the manager for Penn I contacted via email who said they'd replace my wheel for the original cost, but who lectured me in email that they'd told me I should get a new wheel, despite that I'd approved the wheel and they'd gone ahead and changed what they were up to without me.

Or the store manager who was rude and lectured me about labor today when I asked if I should stick around or come back later and who had the doors still shut 15 minutes after store opening.

Three to four men involved. All of them obnoxious; two of them pointing out the new, female technician, was at fault; three of them stating it was my fault in one way or another despite charging me for two services at some point that they either didn't do or had caused, and eventually telling me they hadn't done any work at all (although even that was incorrect, there were two new spokes).

If you discount the customer problems, this might be a case of Dudey Free Zone at work.