State of the industry: a running thread

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I now repair vehicle electrics for a living at a large workshop in Northampton

There are severe supply issues with main dealers charging sky high prices just for diagnostics let alone actual work and appointment availability

Customers are having a hard time understanding that it could be four figures to get their 5 year old vehicle running or a part has failed and is no longer available from the manufacturer. It can be £1800 just for a headlamp.

This equates to some very stressed people coming through the door.

I have to reign in any personal opinion when yet another scrapyard escapee clanks in with 200k on the clock, the customer expecting me to shit miracles and have it fixed that afternoon or vce versa with something new and expensive that has failed and the owner can't afford the main dealer prices

All because people are skint and overspent trying to maintain the appearance of a lifestyle they can no longer afford

Now if those same people are in tesco, aldi or your local bike shop, they are gonna be the same angry frustrated folk that have seen these cheap online prices and simply don't understand the economics of "if I fit this, it will fail' when presented with a knockoff internet part

The reputation of that workshop is now solely on my shoulders, the hourly rate had to have been increased to cover costs yet I am busier and busier. Local garages and franchises send work over. Now, is that because I am good? Or is it, and far more likely, that they don't have a decent electrician anymore? I can't say but one comment is that, at my workshop, customers felt like they were being treated like a human being .which says something about the staff.

Given that soshul meedya is everything, business owners have to work at near perfect levels of customer service no matter what. And this can lead to very over stressed staff with little right to reply when things go wrong and it's not their fault

So, you multiply this into all the small businesses and sole traders out there, you can see why the world is nucking futs

*oh and add the weird current trend of entitlement! Jesus! The amount of customers who act like this, what possesses them to behave that way??
 
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Guinessisgoodforyou said:
Jo pointed this out the other day, poor bugger. Hope he takes them to the cleaners.
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I thought I read something about this that compensation payment has been approved, and its just going through the paperwork. Might be mistaken though.

But what is interesting is Giants initial reaction blaming him for what is basically swopping the stem and bars.
Such a swop is 2 bolts on the stem, 4 for the bar clamp, neither of which can affect the steerer/crown junction. Perhaps if it were over-tensioned on the cap bolt, but then that would just push the crown race harder into the headset bearing, which would make it difficult to turn or steer.

This attempt to shirk any responsibility was at some point knocked down, possibly by an expert witness like a qualified bike mechanic, but for whatever reason they dropped that as a possible reason and agreed tot he claim.

This is of course after Giant reacted to many claims put in on a model of their Ebike range that developed cracking at the base of the up tube at the BB, saying that any mechanical work carried out b7y the owner and not a qualified mechanic deemed the warranty null and void. Though they seemingly recanted on their own ruling because people were arguing that simply changing a wheel, or brake rotor or such constitutes regular basic maintenance and wouldnt need or require a fully trained and qualified mechanic, and probably some shops, like halfords for example, dont train their staff to cytech standards.
So that initially looked like where warranty is concerned, user mechanics was ok. Perhaps making major changes like sticking on a fork with more travel would null it. But simple changes or maintenance or swopping wheels, tyres, chains new brakes shouldnt.

Until that is this case, and they try to immediately get out of any liabilities by claiming simply changing the stem/bar made such a huge effect it damaged the steerer/crown junction - which is total pish. Hence possibly the reason they dropped that as a probable cause.
 
dyna-ti said:
This is of course after Giant reacted to many claims put in on a model of their Ebike range that developed cracking at the base of the up tube at the BB, saying that any mechanical work carried out b7y the owner and not a qualified mechanic deemed the warranty null and void. Though they seemingly recanted on their own ruling because people were arguing that simply changing a wheel, or brake rotor or such constitutes regular basic maintenance and wouldnt need or require a fully trained and qualified mechanic, and probably some shops, like halfords for example, dont train their staff to cytech standards.
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There is a bike retailer not a million miles from me who once told a customer that changing an inner tube after a puncture invalidated the warranty. He is well known for being an a***hole; the retailer not the customer.
 
On entitlement, I guess it stems from not having experienced hardship in their formative years, and therefore finding that life doesn't just magically go their way is difficult. But also possibly because of role models eg on social media and other advertising, if they have this - so should I and it should be easy.

I'm also going to say that something does not compute when bike shop owners, online retailers/distributors and manufacturers apparently can't make a decent living from cycling - and the pricing still seems sky high to the average customer (eg £70 tyres). Someone, somewhere in the chain is making serious coin (likely the bankers funding it all).

Everything LGF says is exactly why I'll probably never own a car. They seem to create a kind of existential dependence in those that have them - I can't imagine spending so much of my lifeforce on something that gives so little in return and creates so much financial stress.
 
@greencat if everything was sold at retail, and i could charge labour appropriately on all workshop work then i'd probably earn a basic to average living.

@Sir Neil d'Menture the thing about the inner tube might be right, i don't agree but i have a relevant example. a couple of years ago a customer came in with a Giant e bike, it had a 2x10 gearset, the rings were dead, i looked to the usual suppliers, realised i could only get them from Giant, i don't have an account with them as i'm not a Giant dealer, they told me they wouldn't supply them to me and if i fitted them i would void the customers warranty! i asked why, they said that i was not a trained by Giant mechanic, i pointed out i was more qualified than their own concept store in southampton (i know those staff), it was a simple case of of them using that crap as a way of potentially avoiding warranty claims on their product, i asked literally about inner tube fitting, saying if i fit an inner tube to the bike does it void warranty, he said yes!! i asked if the customer fitted the inner tube, he said no!! what sense does that make??! i suggested that their attitude probably wouldn't be held up under litigation if someone took them to court for a warranty claim they refused because i'd fitted some chainrings! in the end i got the rings from the Giant store in southampton and fitted them. i told the customer, he didn't care.
 
@Sir Neil d'Menture yes, crazy isn't it, their logic is that their bikes should only be worked on by Giant dealers, which i sort of get as it means their brand is sold through one dealer network and then ideally it drives the maintenance back to the dealer network, which means that dealer network should be able to rely on on going income on that brand. but that's not how the world works, sometimes people have a favourite mechanic but they happen to like a brand that isn't by the shop that mechanic works in so they buy the bike they want then get it service by their preferred mechanic, it shouldn't void warranty at all, Giant would say they are trying to protect their brand and their dealer network but frankly it's just BS
 
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