Story goes like this.
A couple weeks ago I was getting ready for a race up at Mt. Snow and the forecast was looking pretty miserable since alot of rain was expected for all of Saturday. For years I've raced without slop/mud tires, but I decided that I would finally give them a go, and I recalled seeing some Michelin Muds and DH16's at the Belmont Wheelworks' store. Their sister store, Ace Wheelworks in Somerville, is on my route back home from work so I swung in that Thursday night and inquired about the tires.
After waiting around a good 10 minutes one of the fashionsita shop lackeys (you know, long hair/beard/tight jeans/etc etc.) asks if I need any help. I tell him what I need and he checked out back and then looked in the computer that their were some of the tires I needed in their inventory. He called up the other store to see if they had the tires I'm looking for and found out that they do and then takes down my information. I explained why I needed the tires and he assured me that they would come in around noontime the next day and he would call me when they arrived.
Well Friday came around and I received no phone call while at work. No biggie, I would just swing by the shop after work. I swung by, and the person I dealt with wasn't there. Instead, what could have been his twin helped me. I explained how I ordered some tires blah blah blah, and this guy proceeded to look around the shop for the tires and asks some of the other employees about the tires. He comes back looking a little dumbfounded and says that, "they must have forgot to send them over in the delivery truck". WTF? I roll my eyes and walk out.
Luckily the Belmont store is only a 30 minute drive to get to, so off I went since they closed in an hour. I got to the store and there was the usual shop talk at the entrance way with 3 employees that didn't even lift their heads up to ask if I needed help. I walked to the service area and one of the older guys asked if I need any help. I explained my situation and he started looking for the tires. He looked at the computer inventory, looked through all the tires on display (they weren't there), looked through the folding tires (ummm yea), and then downstairs. Nothing. He tracked down the person that did deliveries between stores and he knew nothing about the tires. At this point I was starting to get agitated at the entire situation so he called up the store I first went to to figure out what was going on.
I could tell as he was talking to the person over the phone that this wasn't going to end well. After he hung up he told me that there must have been a screw-up in inventory, and they couldn't find the tires they claimed they had. He then told me that they did set aside some other tires for me to look at. He went out to a back room and brought out some Michelin DH32 tires that had a note scribbled on them.
At this point my clams were really steaming, but I remained calm. I told him that the tires were completely different from what I wanted and then explained that I'm just overall disappointed because to sum everything up. I was told they had these tires and the store in Somerville had even called to make sure they had them. I didn't get any phone call after the store learned that they didn't have these tires. Then I had to go to both shops, and in the end, apparently the the first shop (the one in Somerville) knew that they didn't have these tires and had some other tires set aside. Yet they were never sent to them, and they didn't tell me any of this when I went there that Friday evening. All he could really say was that he was sorry.
And no I don't always buy everything online. I had probably spent a couple grand on small parts at those stores over the last 3 years. I guess you only receive LBS perks if you yuck it up with the employees of the store or have a nice pair of ta ta's. There's no incentive for supporting an LBS if you're a well informed consumer that goes in knowing exactly what you want completely circumventing the sales associates. OK stepping off the soap-box.
Well guess what Wheelworks? Now you get a bad review over the interwebz!
A couple weeks ago I was getting ready for a race up at Mt. Snow and the forecast was looking pretty miserable since alot of rain was expected for all of Saturday. For years I've raced without slop/mud tires, but I decided that I would finally give them a go, and I recalled seeing some Michelin Muds and DH16's at the Belmont Wheelworks' store. Their sister store, Ace Wheelworks in Somerville, is on my route back home from work so I swung in that Thursday night and inquired about the tires.
After waiting around a good 10 minutes one of the fashionsita shop lackeys (you know, long hair/beard/tight jeans/etc etc.) asks if I need any help. I tell him what I need and he checked out back and then looked in the computer that their were some of the tires I needed in their inventory. He called up the other store to see if they had the tires I'm looking for and found out that they do and then takes down my information. I explained why I needed the tires and he assured me that they would come in around noontime the next day and he would call me when they arrived.
Well Friday came around and I received no phone call while at work. No biggie, I would just swing by the shop after work. I swung by, and the person I dealt with wasn't there. Instead, what could have been his twin helped me. I explained how I ordered some tires blah blah blah, and this guy proceeded to look around the shop for the tires and asks some of the other employees about the tires. He comes back looking a little dumbfounded and says that, "they must have forgot to send them over in the delivery truck". WTF? I roll my eyes and walk out.
Luckily the Belmont store is only a 30 minute drive to get to, so off I went since they closed in an hour. I got to the store and there was the usual shop talk at the entrance way with 3 employees that didn't even lift their heads up to ask if I needed help. I walked to the service area and one of the older guys asked if I need any help. I explained my situation and he started looking for the tires. He looked at the computer inventory, looked through all the tires on display (they weren't there), looked through the folding tires (ummm yea), and then downstairs. Nothing. He tracked down the person that did deliveries between stores and he knew nothing about the tires. At this point I was starting to get agitated at the entire situation so he called up the store I first went to to figure out what was going on.
I could tell as he was talking to the person over the phone that this wasn't going to end well. After he hung up he told me that there must have been a screw-up in inventory, and they couldn't find the tires they claimed they had. He then told me that they did set aside some other tires for me to look at. He went out to a back room and brought out some Michelin DH32 tires that had a note scribbled on them.
At this point my clams were really steaming, but I remained calm. I told him that the tires were completely different from what I wanted and then explained that I'm just overall disappointed because to sum everything up. I was told they had these tires and the store in Somerville had even called to make sure they had them. I didn't get any phone call after the store learned that they didn't have these tires. Then I had to go to both shops, and in the end, apparently the the first shop (the one in Somerville) knew that they didn't have these tires and had some other tires set aside. Yet they were never sent to them, and they didn't tell me any of this when I went there that Friday evening. All he could really say was that he was sorry.
And no I don't always buy everything online. I had probably spent a couple grand on small parts at those stores over the last 3 years. I guess you only receive LBS perks if you yuck it up with the employees of the store or have a nice pair of ta ta's. There's no incentive for supporting an LBS if you're a well informed consumer that goes in knowing exactly what you want completely circumventing the sales associates. OK stepping off the soap-box.
Well guess what Wheelworks? Now you get a bad review over the interwebz!