This is going to go well

[SaharaJp99]

So, I got my Givi trunk in on Friday and installed it and woke up Saturday morning to try and find a lock smith that was open to get the lock cylinder re-keyed to the ignition key. Finally found one, said they opened at 9am on their website, so I waited till 9 and gave them a call.

He answers the phone and I say "good, you guys are open, if I bring in a lock cylinder would you have time to re-key it today?

shop owner: "what is it off of?"

me: "a motorcycle trunk"

shop owner: "oh, well, that probably won't be possible, motorcycle trunk keys are very different..." blah blah blah, I stopped listening.

me: "well sir, this has been done many many times with this particular lock cylinder, if I bring it in do you think you could just take a look at it and see what you think and if its possible?"

shop owner: "yeah, you can bring it in but no promises, it probably won't be possible"

me: "ok, thank you, see you in a little bit."

This drives me crazy, and I see it all the time, with all types of businesses. The lack of customer service in today's world is ridiculous. If you don't want to perform the service for people then why the hell did you open the business for the service in the first place? That phone conversation went so well I was so excited to go give this guy my business.

So anyways, I suit up, throw a phillips screwdriver in the Givi and ride into town. Pull into this guys parking lot, pull the lock cylinder out of the Givi and go inside.

Attitude is about the same as it was on the phone.

me: "hello, I'm the one that called this morning about getting this lock cylinder re-keyed. I'd like this key(ignition key) to open this lock. Can you take a look and see if it's possible?" - hand both keys and the cylinder to him

shop owner: "you see this key isn't even the right type for the lock, it's loose... blah blah blah blah"

me: "yes sir I am aware that the fit is not that tight, but this particular modification has been completed many many times and I know it's possible and I don't really care if the key is a little loose in the cylinder as long as it operates, can you just pop it open and see if you have the wafers to make it work?"

shop owner: "ok, well I guess I'll pop it open and take a look"

me: "thank you"

He goes in the back room and starts tearing it apart, but left the door open. Then the bitching begins. He is bitching to his son that this mod is b/s and not the right way to do things and blah blah blah blah. If you are going to talk sheot about your customers, might want to make sure the door is closed!

Anyways, after about 10 minutes of bitching and boxes being moved around and whinning that this can't be done and not the "right way" to do this and blah blah blah he comes back out and says he doesn't have the right wafers and he looked thru every box he has and he doesn't have a way to do it.

I thank him for his efforts and have him cut me two spare keys for the feej and get the hell out of there. Amazing places like this stay in business.

[/rant]

On a positive note, while I was putting the lock cylinder back in the Givi one of my co-workers that rides a beemer calls and asks if I want to ride with him down to Arvada to go to the MotoGear Outlet store. ABSOLUTELY! So I ride the 1/2 hour to meet him at the office and we head down and follow Suicide Jill's death/illegal turn instructions to get there. Find the helmet I've been prolonging to buy on closeout in my size and color for $75! SCORE, WHAT A DEAL! And in contrast to my business transactions of the morning, the ownwers of the MotoGear Outlet are OUTSTANDING! They even took the time to look up road conditions in the mountains for us online and we decided to take the long way home up US 6 and rode Peak to Peak up to Estes Park, then the back way thru Glen Haven down to Loveland for some BBQ and back home! What a GREAT 300 mile day! For anyone wondering the road conditions on Peak to Peak are surprisingly good. Little sandy in spots but not too bad if you pay attention. The Glen Haven road and US 34 are the cleanest I've ever seen them, it was amazing, was definitely doing a little tire scrubbing on those roads!

Bad start to the day ended up being one of the best days ever!

 

[Crash Cash]

Yup. Been there about 20x times, got the closet full of t-shirts. Now I just say with a smile "OK fine, buck-wheat. I'll go spend my money elsewhere." I would not have given him the money to cut the keys.

I've gotten that attitude when I'm looking for a fitting to make a brake filler or other homemade tool, in Ace, or Home Depot, or some mom&pop store. Or when I go to some place like NAPA or AutoZone for something totally generic like a piece of fuel line. I'll say "4ft of 3/8" fuel line, please" - "What car is it for?" - "Oh it's for my motorcycle" - "Well, we don't have anything for motorcycles, sorry!" - and the ************* spool of fuel line is hanging on the wall right behind him.

Then there's the people that are simply incompetent, like when I go to the network section of Best Buy and ask "What can you tell me about this firewall?" - "Oh, we don't have any of those" - "Well, there's one right there, actually"

The salesman at my local bike shop (Orlando Yamaha-Kawasaki) couldn't tell me anything about the FJR on his floor, so I bought my bike in Tennessee.

So basically I buy from NewEgg, Amazon, and other internet only places. Fortunately, one good thing about the economy going downhill so badly is that people realize again that customers and customer service gets their paycheck paid. The ones that don't, have gone out of business.

 

[frito1]

I've gotten that attitude when I'm looking for a fitting to make a brake filler or other homemade tool, in Ace, or Home Depot, or some mom&pop store. Or when I go to some place like NAPA or AutoZone for something totally generic like a piece of fuel line. I'll say "4ft of 3/8" fuel line, please" - "What car is it for?" - "Oh it's for my motorcycle" - "Well, we don't have anything for motorcycles, sorry!" - and the ************* spool of fuel line is hanging on the wall right behind him.

One of my favorites. The mentality works in walmart, but if you don't know beans about automotive stuff, work somewhere else. I guess it's not really the clerks fault, but that of the merchandisers putting unqualified personnel in the job. The days of real parts guys, the ones that knew their store, the industry and how things work is damn near over.

 

[airboss]

When I call a shop and get that attitude, I just hang up and call the next number, unfortunately I seem to be dialing a lot more numbers lately. :blink:

 

[Bungie]

Last Sept for our big trip around the Continent, Robs bike blew the rear brake line. Called local '5' Star Yamaha dealer. You might as well ask for the Grail. "We can order it, but we'd require a security deposit and we wouldn't be able to get to it for at least a 2 days and my *** itches" Right. Plan B.

This is a mining town, and as such we have a huge selection of companies only to help to sell all manner of expensive high end parts to the mining companies. Right. I'm not a mining company. "Can you make up a braided steel line for a rear brake if we bring in the old line?"

"No. Liability issue, nobody will touch it"

"What if it was a fuel line?"

"Liability issue"

WTF are they in business to do. No difference between a hydraulic line on a scoop tram and one on a bike!

Call my preferred Yamaha dealer 75km away in the middle of farm country with a population of 1000.

"Bring it in, we'll get you on the road"

A short ride later, RL Equipment in Verner (shameless plug!) has on the road well before noon. Guess who gets all my business now.

 

[SaharaJp99]

Yeah, they were the only locksmith shop that I could find open except for emergency lockouts.

I know what you mean about parts stores. I was looking for a normal 30amp relay a couple weeks ago and the guy at Napa could only look it up by application. So I asked him to get the book out that has the pictures of them all and he didn't even know where the book was. Had to ask the manager where the book was. So I'm thumbing threw that encyclopedia for about 5 minutes then the manager comes over and asks what I'm looking for. I said, just your normal 30amp relay. He's like, oh, do you want the wiring harness connectory thingy(techinical term) and one with or without the mounting hole? PERFECT! I tell him yes, the harness would be nice so I don't have to make one and yes on the mounting hole, he walks in back and comes back with it in 15 seconds. No computer, books or nothing. That's my new parts guy right there!

 

[wfooshee]

Never use that locksmith for anything ever again. Not just because he's a **** (although that's reason enough) but because the lock is so damn easy to rekey you could probably do it yourself just by shifting some of the existing wafers around, and removing one or two that don't fit around your key.

 

[Crash Cash]

Last Sept for our big trip around the Continent, Robs bike blew the rear brake line. Called local '5' Star Yamaha dealer. You might as well ask for the Grail. "We can order it, but we'd require a security deposit and we wouldn't be able to get to it for at least a 2 days and my *** itches" Right. Plan B.

Ohhh yeahhh... I forgot about that one! Back when I had a Honda Hawk 650GT, I bought winter gear and a helmet from Orlando Honda up on Edgewater. About $600 when that meant something, and it really meant it to me, because I was a poor student.

So a couple days later, my bike falls over and breaks the clutch lever. I call up and it's an $8 part and they'll order it for me. Then I get a call back that the manager wants the part paid for, and won't accept a credit card over the phone. WTF? I mention I bought $600 worth of stuff 2 days ago. "Well, that's what the manager says." I say "this'll mean two trips in rough traffic with a broken clutch lever, no thanks." and hang up.

Fortunately I found another Honda shop that actually had the lever in stock. Guess who went out of business a couple years later?

 

[RaYzerman19]

I was always taught to be curteous and apologetic... well, OK, a friend of mine uses this line all the time..

" I am very sorry I inconvenienced you with my business. It won't happen again."