Customer Service

We deal with a lot of different people and repair many different types of bikes at the shop where I work. Rarely do we turn someone away, although many repairs are not worth the time it takes to complete them. For instance, we change those silly electric scooter tubes, but now we charge $20 to do it, because they are extremely time consuming to do. I stopped working on the electronic portions of these things last year, when I found myself soldering the circuit board on one, only to find out that the speed controller was also shot and a replacement couldn’t be sourced. I couldn’t complete the repair and we couldn’t charge them. Several hours of work down the drain. My time is the shops' money. So I try to make sure that every repair that we take in is reasonably assured of not being a losing proposition for the shop.
Some repairs are simply just not worth the mental stress accompanying them. An old lady came in about a month ago with a 3 wheel pedal cart (adult sized) that had a flat front tire. We repaired the tire the same day for her and she came and picked it up. She returned to the shop (before opening hours) 2 days later complaining that the front was flat again. She gave me a story about how she had “barely ridden it” and I caved. After I got all the bikes outside so that I had a place to work on it, I replaced the tube and reinstalled the wheel at no charge for her, even though I pulled a large cinder that there was no way we missed the first time out of the tire. After I wheeled the cart outside, she complained that it “didn’t shift right” and pretty much demanded that I fix it on the spot. What I did had nothing to do with the shifting, but I obliged her, and adjusted the 3- speed hub hastily in the parking lot, (also at no charge) since the cart is very difficult to get in and out of the shop and I needed to get rid of her so I could assist all the other customers now waiting for me to help them.
So last week, when she again showed up (before opening hours again) and complained that the cart wouldn’t pedal forward, she wanted me to look at it while she waited. I explained to her that it would be impossible for me to look at it right now, but if she wanted to bring it back or drop it off, I would be happy to look at it for her. She muttered something in an angry tone about how she couldn’t ride it so she would just leave it. I had repairs all day, and looked at it for her at the end of the day, when I realized that it needed a part that had fallen off to make it work. I called her the next day to tell her I would need to order the part and that it would be a few days to get said part. She was very short with me and said something like “well I guess that’s all you can do” before the call was ended. I surmised that she wanted me to complete the repair, which I did as soon as we received the part.
Fast forward to yesterday. I had just gotten the bikes outside and already helped a few customers when she showed up again. She started telling me that the cart didn’t shift and she was trying to ride it on the road and was going to get hit by a car because I didn’t fix it. I calmly explained to her that I didn’t work on the shifting, because that was not her complaint. Her complaint was that the cart wouldn’t move, and I repaired the problem. I proceeded to tell her that the shifter was now broken and would need replacement. I could tell she was getting angry, and I tried to remain calm while explaining to her that I was once again covered up with repairs for the day and I wouldn’t be able to complete the repair until tomorrow. That was when she lost it. She started yelling at me about how we had just kept the cart for a week (actually 4 days) and now it didn’t work and we shouldn’t have returned it to her if it didn’t work (it did when we returned it to her). Soon, she was demanding to see the manager (ME) and then the owner. I explained to her that Matt was attending to family responsibilities and could not be reached, but I would have him contact her. She was irate about this also, and eventually she said she was going to take the cart to another shop. I told her that was fine, and that’s when it happened: this 5 foot nothing old lady loudly told me to “fuck off”. I had heard enough and told her that I would not tolerate that kind of language, especially after I had gone out of my way to help her in the past. Then I told her to take her business elsewhere: we did not need customers like her in our shop. I have dealt with POCs before and usually when it gets this bad, there’s no turning it around. I was actually pretty happy with the result and how I had conducted myself. But it wasn’t over yet. She came back and told me she’d apologized for her language and asked if I would still work on the cart for her. I felt uneasy about agreeing to do any work now, but I was tired of dealing with her and I agreed. After which she promptly returned to her old ways and asked me if I “talked to my mother that way”. I was dumbfounded and didn’t know what to say. I just walked away and she eventually left. She obviously thought that I had spoken to her in a way I shouldn’t have, which is not what happened. She was just a crazy old lady, but she really gave me a rough start to the day. It’s one thing to be unable to understand the repairs that were made, but when you’re stupid and angry, you can come to the bike shop and ruin my day. So next time she comes in (if ever) will I be inclined to give her a high level of customer service? Not likely. It’s just not worth it anymore.