Dealer parts rant...

[adlowe]

Originally Posted by DarkSpirit750

Lastly I would add that we can agree to disagree as we will never see eye to eye on this one.

We'll never see eye-to-eye on anything if I have any say in the matter. As soon as you posted

Originally Posted by DarkSpirit750

A good customer in need with a great attitude will get everything they want out of the transaction and often a discount they never even asked for. A a-hole gets his price raised and I make up for the discount the pleasant customer got.

it told me exactly how you like to run your business. With ethics like that, I'll steer clear of you. Any benefit from the kissed-your-a__ discount will surely be outweighed by the odds that I'll ask a question the wrong way and get ripped off. No, I'll stick with the honest folks I deal with when placing orders online.

[DarkSpirit750]

Originally Posted by adlowe

We'll never see eye-to-eye on anything if I have any say in the matter. As soon as you posted

it told me exactly how you like to run your business. With ethics like that, I'll steer clear of you. Any benefit from the kissed-your-a__ discount will surely be outweighed by the odds that I'll ask a question the wrong way and get ripped off. No, I'll stick with the honest folks I deal with when placing orders online.

You're the one taking it to the extreme dude, not me. But to each their own. I'm sure you'll have many more frustrating customer service transactions in your future.

[gat803]

Originally Posted by DarkSpirit750

You're the one taking it to the extreme dude, not me. But to each their own. I'm sure you'll have many more frustrating customer service transactions in your future.

As much as I try not to agree with Art (adlowe) this time I'm with him. You're coming across as though you think you're a holy counterman and that all of us lowly parts seekers should kiss your azz or we'll pay for the transgression.

Not going to happen.

Perhaps if you're so unhappy in your current postion that you have to take your frustrations out on customers you might consider truck driving school. Fewer people to deal with face to face that way.

[adlowe]

Originally Posted by gat803

As much as I try not to agree with Art (adlowe) this time I'm with him.

Now you got me worried.

[DarkSpirit750]

Originally Posted by gat803

As much as I try not to agree with Art (adlowe) this time I'm with him. You're coming across as though you think you're a holy counterman and that all of us lowly parts seekers should kiss your azz or we'll pay for the transgression.

Not going to happen.

Perhaps if you're so unhappy in your current postion that you have to take your frustrations out on customers you might consider truck driving school. Fewer people to deal with face to face that way.

Two people going extreme. Never said holy-simply said be a decent human being when dealing with another. The phrase "You'll attract more flies with honey..." holds true.

I don't take my frustrations out on my customers. I simply charge an ******* tax. It happens in many forms in many service industries.

I wish you and adlowe nothing but the best in all future customer service transactions.

[kacealraid]

Sounds like people are getting way too personal. DarkSpirit is just pointing out that there are big jerks that come into store looking for parts. I've had several guys bring infinite switches into my store and say they need one. I grab it and look at it and it has no identifying marks on it I can use. I bring it to the guy and ask for a model number for his machine. "The part number is on the part," he says. I was new at the time, so I shrug and walk to my mentor at the time and point it out to him. He looks at the switch from all sides, hands it back and says "No, there isn't. We need a model number." I walk back to him and tell him the same thing I was just told. "Don't give me that crap, the number's on the switch, I get them all the time." Well, alright. I just don't know what I'm doing and neither does the guy teaching me. I walk to my manager and show her, "There's no number on the part, he needs to get us a model number." I tell him this and he flips out, saying obscenities and "you guys can't (*@#ing read?!" statements. He leaves and acts as if we were suppose to know what switch that was by divine intervention.

Some people are difficult. And there's a LOT similar to the situation I just listed. You'd have to work in parts to understand it honestly. I worked in the food business before working in parts, it's a different world. People start getting personal with that little piece of plastic, and they think yelling will make parts magically appear... >_>

[MikeB]

I don't take my frustrations out on my customers. I simply charge an ******* tax. It happens in many forms in many service industries

If I had an employee that I found to be overcharging a customer because they didn't like the guy's attitude that person would not be my employee for long.

No wonder small businesses are going under. A parts guy with a Napoleon complex sounds like a recipe for loss of customers.

[squidchief]

Originally Posted by MikeB

If I had an employee that I found to be overcharging a customer because they didn't like the guy's attitude that person would not be my employee for long.

No wonder small businesses are going under. A parts guy with a Napoleon complex sounds like a recipe for loss of customers.

"Overcharging" is wrong, but Mike, how many times have you seen some jerk customer berate a counter guy, then act surprised when he didn’t get stellar service? I have a pretty decent independent bike shop in my local area. I was there the other day and some guy was all red faced and upset because they had sold him the wrong chain. He knew this because he "counted the links and knew it wouldn't fit". He fussed and acted all superior and tried to berate the shop owner. The owner politely took the chain back, refunded the man his money and walked away. Turned out, the chain WAS correct. The guy came back a couple of hours later to buy the chain again but the owner politely apologized and said the chain was out of stock and it would take at least three weeks to order a new one. The returned chain was still sitting on the shelf in plain sight.
Sure, economic times are a bit tough, but there is still no reason to act like a jerk to some employee. Going into a business expecting to have your butt kissed just because you have a credit card should have some kind of adverse reaction. If someone feels the need to go into a parts house somewhere so they can feel superior as compared to some 18 year old kid behind a counter then I hope they walk out empty handed and have to use the internet to buy what they need. They can post on a website while they’re at it somewhere declaring to the whole world how smart they are as verified by how screwed up some parts counter guy is!
my .02 anyway.

[adlowe]

Originally Posted by MikeB

A parts guy with a Napoleon complex sounds like a recipe for loss of customers.

It's not the recipe. It's the cookbook. The sign out front should read "Caveat Emptor"

Originally Posted by squidchief

have a pretty decent independent bike shop in my local area. I was there the other day and some guy was all red faced and upset...

The owner has the right to make that call. But being only a "pretty decent" shop, maybe he should have considered that reaching out with a little human kindness could have turned things around. Just saying something like "Gee, seems like you're having a bad day." maybe could have defused the irascible guy and gotten him a loyal customer for life. But instead he just convinced this guy that the shop is run by an arrogant a__hole; he will tell everyone he knows about it. Hopefully the guy doesn't have any real clout in the town and is just a blowhard.

OTOH, maybe the irate customer is truly the worst that mankind has to offer and the world would be a better place without him. No sense wasting energy trying to build a relationship with someone who is unfit to communicate with other humans. The shop owner should have pulled out his gun and blown the guy away. Justified homicide, no doubt.

[MikeB]

Overcharging" is wrong, but Mike, how many times have you seen some jerk customer berate a counter guy, then act surprised when he didn’t get stellar service?

Actually the only time I've seen someone really, really rude to an employee was in a motel lobby when some a**hole was cursing out a young black desk clerk for some perceived slight. I grabbed the guy by the collar and explained that I was offended by his language (although I was actually offended by his treatment of the kid).

So I'm not excusing rudeness at all. But I spent a number of years as a professional flak-catcher so I know that it can and should be shrugged off.

And anyway, nothing pisses off an aggressive person more than when they see that you are completely, calmly and smilingly unaffected by their aggression.

And Adlowe, you put up a sign around here that says "caveat emptor" and customers will start complaining about those damn liberal bilingual signage regulations: "Why in hell can't they learn 'Murrican?"