[Kornphlake]

I think this is more common than most big (Cali) bike companies realize.....many LBS's, especialliy in rural areas, know absolutely nothing about newer gear and its just a waste of time to take it to them.....

The big (Cali) bike companies are as clueless as the rural shops, there are a few exceptions, one or two shops have one or two guys who actually know bikes inside and out, they aren't necessarily the biggest shops either. The majority are just boneheads, you'd think they could at least pick up an issue of Mountain Bike Action and have some comment that is based upon something more than a lie they made up themself.

I blame companies like SRAM, Specialized, Trek, etc. for useless sales reps that don't give their dealers any kind of training, they expect shop employees to sell bikes they know nothing about and make repairs without giving them any repair manuals or specialized tools. I've never been to Interbike, but I have been to trade shows for different industries and there are always classes and seminars given by manufacturers and distributors, all I've ever heard about Interbike suggests that it's the equivalent of a home and garden show with bikes, you can pick up some business cards and some swag but you're not going to learn much about the bikes you're selling.

 

[bizutch]

If I had my dream job, I'd open up a motocross and DH shop all in one. That way the mechanics could actually WORK on suspension.

Oh wait..no, they couldn't. Because no two forks have a single part or so much as design in common besides a 4 or 5mm allen head bolt.

 

[gemini2k]

The big (Cali) bike companies are as clueless as the rural shops, there are a few exceptions, one or two shops have one or two guys who actually know bikes inside and out, they aren't necessarily the biggest shops either. The majority are just boneheads, you'd think they could at least pick up an issue of Mountain Bike Action and have some comment that is based upon something more than a lie they made up themself.

I blame companies like SRAM, Specialized, Trek, etc. for useless sales reps that don't give their dealers any kind of training, they expect shop employees to sell bikes they know nothing about and make repairs without giving them any repair manuals or specialized tools. I've never been to Interbike, but I have been to trade shows for different industries and there are always classes and seminars given by manufacturers and distributors, all I've ever heard about Interbike suggests that it's the equivalent of a home and garden show with bikes, you can pick up some business cards and some swag but you're not going to learn much about the bikes you're selling.

Wurd. I remeber when I worked in a shop, and we'd try to call the mfg about a small issue or part or just some question about a frame that could be answered in 30 seconds by some tech, or a simple manual that they obviously have in hosue but won't give us dealers, and instead give us the ring around, don't give us any good info, and tell us to ship the product to them. It's ridiculous.

 

[James]

HAHAHAHAHaAA

hey hows your dubstar colection going?


you guys have to work on your forks..........?? buy a fox rc...................

Haven't gotten anything in a while, but then, there hasn't been any.
Word on the street is that they've reunited, and are back in the studio doing some new stuff, so that is pretty exciting...

 

[James]

The big (Cali) bike companies are as clueless as the rural shops, there are a few exceptions, one or two shops have one or two guys who actually know bikes inside and out, they aren't necessarily the biggest shops either. The majority are just boneheads, you'd think they could at least pick up an issue of Mountain Bike Action and have some comment that is based upon something more than a lie they made up themself.

I blame companies like SRAM, Specialized, Trek, etc. for useless sales reps that don't give their dealers any kind of training, they expect shop employees to sell bikes they know nothing about and make repairs without giving them any repair manuals or specialized tools. I've never been to Interbike, but I have been to trade shows for different industries and there are always classes and seminars given by manufacturers and distributors, all I've ever heard about Interbike suggests that it's the equivalent of a home and garden show with bikes, you can pick up some business cards and some swag but you're not going to learn much about the bikes you're selling.

There are definitely two sides to this, it's not as if the companies are just shipping bikes to shops willy-nilly, without any training. Yes, they should, and do, hold clinics for shops, but it's usually only one guy for a given area, it could be huge territories like in the Midwest, or just the LA area. Most clinics are held after-hours, as you can't very well shut the store down during the day. But the shop employees have to also actively go out and learn about these products too, they can't just sit back and wait for the manufacturers to tell them everything. If they do that they're not doing their job properly too.

And some companies, like SRAM (I believe), and some various smaller companies, don't have reps out there. They may have some independent reps, but for the most part their sales are either to the bike companies for OEM, or places like QBP, etc, for aftermarket to the shops. QBP doesn't have any outside reps either.

Interbike is a sales show, it's not product seminar. Sure, some companies give clinics on their new stuff, but it's mostly for the dealers to see the new products and figure out what brands/product mix they're going to be carrying. There are seminars there, but they're mostly dealing with sales techniques, store stuff, some companies do product intro stuff, but it's up to the store owners and employees to attend them.
Also, at many stores it's generally only the owner, manager and buyer who tend to go to the show. It's very expensive for a store owner to pay to send all of his employees, especially if he's out East or something. And if you've never been, how can you disparage what it is about?

 

[DirtyMike]

The big (Cali) bike companies are as clueless as the rural shops, there are a few exceptions, one or two shops have one or two guys who actually know bikes inside and out, they aren't necessarily the biggest shops either. The majority are just boneheads, you'd think they could at least pick up an issue of Mountain Bike Action and have some comment that is based upon something more than a lie they made up themself.

I blame companies like SRAM, Specialized, Trek, etc. for useless sales reps that don't give their dealers any kind of training, they expect shop employees to sell bikes they know nothing about and make repairs without giving them any repair manuals or specialized tools. I've never been to Interbike, but I have been to trade shows for different industries and there are always classes and seminars given by manufacturers and distributors, all I've ever heard about Interbike suggests that it's the equivalent of a home and garden show with bikes, you can pick up some business cards and some swag but you're not going to learn much about the bikes you're selling.

Umm, may want to try that one again, Trek comes to us four times a year sending our guys to classes to know the product, repairs, Etc. Specialized sends us four times as well. Four of our guys Including myself have been to Barnetts Suspension School. Trek and Spec Make sure we get the training and back up we need to get the job done right, as far as Sram though, cant say they really have a huge program, there stuff usually gets trained through the Sp ED and Trek schools, seeing how they want us to know tehre product and how it works, But we get all the tricks, tips, knowledge everything form out two big Distributers, even our partimers. If you like you can check out our website


http://cycleryusa.com/index.cfm

But make no Mistake the big compamies here in Cali most Defenitly take care of training and support

 

[skinny mike]

It's a reasonable point. Too bad reason is always the first thing thrown out the window in these flaming threads.

I'm with ya, Stiks.

word. just because doug is a good guy and sram usually rocks in the cs dept doesn't mean that this problem needs to be broadcasted on the internet. profro, if you wanted something to actually be done, you should have called back and asked to talk to a supervisor to discuss your issue. and maybe then your leaky moco cart could have been fixed easily as well if your call was given to a different cs rep.

 

[profro]

profro, if you wanted something to actually be done, you should have called back and asked to talk to a supervisor to discuss your issue. and maybe then your leaky moco cart could have been fixed easily as well if your call was given to a different cs rep.

I did and while the second guy was a lot nicer, he didn't know what "the" problem was. However he told me what "the" problem would be solved with a new cartridge. Yet he wasn't sure or not whether I had a faulty cartridge that "the" fix addressed.

All that aside, the point of the thread was to ask for someone different if you got Tony. He didn't like racers. We turn him off. lthumbsdown:

 

[TheInedibleHulk]

Last time I got tony I told him I was getting another call and hung up. He's a worthless douche.

 

[Stumpyguy87]

I work in the industry and have dealt with Tony personally, he is not the type of guy that would drop the ball on customer service. He bent over backwards for many of my customers. All he was doing was following procedure. Just because your a racer doesn't mean you should get BETTER service than everyone else. If you knew the fork was leaking before the race why didn't you have it fixed at a Local bike shop sooner. Or why didn't you call SRAM as soon as you knew what was going on to see if you could fix it! Anyways, I am not trying to be a dick about the situation, but coming from experience, if you show Tony respect, he WILL bend over backwards to help you in any way!

 

[LOOnatic]

I work in the industry and have dealt with Tony personally, he is not the type of guy that would drop the ball on customer service. He bent over backwards for many of my customers. All he was doing was following procedure. Just because your a racer doesn't mean you should get BETTER service than everyone else. If you knew the fork was leaking before the race why didn't you have it fixed at a Local bike shop sooner. Or why didn't you call SRAM as soon as you knew what was going on to see if you could fix it! Anyways, I am not trying to be a dick about the situation, but coming from experience, if you show Tony respect, he WILL bend over backwards to help you in any way!

Thanks for the insight Tony

 

[Transcend]

So how is it that multiple people in this relatively small community (when compared the the entire bike biz) have all had the same sort of experience with him (you)?

edit: Crap, loo beat me to it.

 

[bikerjohn]

ooops

 

[profro]

Just because your a racer doesn't mean you should get BETTER service than everyone else.

Never did. I just tried to explain that I don't have a local shop and that I deal through my race team, which happens to be a bike manufacturer and has a SRAM account.

If you knew the fork was leaking before the race why didn't you have it fixed at a Local bike shop sooner.

I rode DH trails Sunday night and I called SRAM Monday morning. I wasn't aware that they had a 24hr number. However, any shop within 100 miles of me would not know what to do with a Boxxer. I've been down this road before. I race for sponsors and they expect that I compete on a frequent and competitive basis. I can't throw away airplane tickets to wait around for a local shop to finish scratching their butts.

Or why didn't you call SRAM as soon as you knew what was going on to see if you could fix it!

Yeah. Trying reading my posts again.

Anyways, I am not trying to be a dick about the situation, but coming from experience, if you show Tony respect, he WILL bend over backwards to help you in any way!

It was clear right away that Tony had no respect to me when I mentioned that I was a racer and had no local shop.

 

[DhDork]

Tony is the guy I talked to about my X0. My buddy called them, and had it warrentied for under $50 when he bent his. When I bent mine, at the parallelogram, he said that it was irreplaceable. But then why is have 4 points with jesus clips holding it together? Just get those pieces, and pull the jesus clip off and walla!! I was pissed to find out that they wouldn't do **** for me when I was given the $250 derailleur for Christmas less than 2 months before I bent it.

 

[Squasher]

I work in the industry and have dealt with Tony personally, he is not the type of guy that would drop the ball on customer service. He bent over backwards for many of my customers. All he was doing was following procedure. Just because your a racer doesn't mean you should get BETTER service than everyone else. If you knew the fork was leaking before the race why didn't you have it fixed at a Local bike shop sooner. Or why didn't you call SRAM as soon as you knew what was going on to see if you could fix it! Anyways, I am not trying to be a dick about the situation, but coming from experience, if you show Tony respect, he WILL bend over backwards to help you in any way!

Have you even read the entire thread you asswipe? And yes, you are an asswipe.
Apparently profro is not the only one complaining about Tony. And coming on here with your first post defending your self, err, I mean Tony, just makes people think that Tony really is an a-hole.
Nice try.

 

[seth505]

Last time I got tony I told him I was getting another call and hung up. He's a worthless douche.

1) I will start by quoting the above message just cuz it made me laugh out loud..

2) This can all be simplified by what JohnP said earlier "its Tonys job to be polite not the caller" THAT SIMPLE

3) There is no reason you should tell someone it is unwarranted to tell the community that A PERSON at a company is not good to deal with (after stating a valid reason, ie: tony doesn't like racers). This is valid and GOOD information for everyone.

4) who cares about black lists, run another fork if they are gonna be douches

5) if you do not like racing/racers and find yourself working for a company who makes parts for racing applications...QUIT, go work at a recumbant bike company or a company that makes commuter fenders and saddlebags.

 

[demo 9]

just to throw this out there whether tony is right or wrong he is wrong, "the customer is always right"

and ya, first post defending urself... not the greatest idea

 

[Zman]

just to throw this out there whether tony is right or wrong he is wrong, "the customer is always right"

See now this doesn't help anyone in anyway. The customer is not always right. I am not defending Tony, as I understand it what he did was completely wrong, but the customer is not always right. Someone shouldn't get a new frames cause they drove it into a garage or crashed it into a ton of rocks or whatever. A company should do what it can do, but there is a point where the customer is just damn well WRONG. And you can do that as a company, the customer is wrong, but still provide great customer service. But the term "the customer is always right" ruins many businesses and is incorrect.

 

[ATOMICFIREBALL]

I just read this whole thread & my head is going to explode now..

 

[-dustin]

interesting timing for this thread. last month, saw that a customer's MC was leaking on a Reba. called SRAM and they sent a new one. didn't ask how old the fork was, whether he was the original owner, whether it was abused. they just sent one. not long after that, guy with a bad RS MC3 comes in. called up SRAM, was told they'd send a new damper unit. same deal, no questions asked by SRAM. 2 days later a new shock arrives. crazy. it's almost too good that they throw these things out like that.

so far, i love dealing with SRAM, and they're without a doubt, the quickest in getting whatever warranties i have taken care of damn fast.

 

[Transcend]

This thread needs to die.