Trek Bicycle Superstore
By JoeBruin88. Filed in Cycling and Rants |Tags: bike, Cycling, Rants, Trek
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m writing to comment about the poor customer service I have experienced a few times in my visits to Trek Bicycle Superstore in Vista, California. The latest occurrence was yesterday, April 23rd, specifically with one of your employees, Andy, who was working at the main counter (I visited the store two times during the time period of 4:30 – 5:30 PM).
I visited the store yesterday to purchase a Niterider headlight. At first, I was interested in a helmet-mounted model, but became disinterested in the model because the price was too prohibitive. As Andy was helping me explore headlights, he was fiddling with something that he was working on. Multitasking is fine with me, but his body language and verbal communication told me that he was too busy to help me. I wanted to ask more questions about the other kinds of lights, which I did ask. However, because of his “too busy” attitude, I felt this non-verbal pressure to hurry up and leave him alone so he could get back to what he was doing.
I had finally decided that I wanted the Niterider MiNewt headlight, and asked Andy if it could be installed if I brought my bicycle in. I asked him what the latest time was that someone could help me with the installation. Andy said 4:30 PM, even though he knew it was already 4:45 PM. I had some other questions, but he brushed me aside saying, “Go get your bike, and then we can talk about it.” I then asked if there was a quicker way to get back to San Marcos where I live without having to get on the 78 freeway, which was traffic-congested at the time. He replied, “Not really. Good luck.” I thought he was extremely rude.
So I found an alternate route back home, and made it back to the store with my bike. I decided to purchase the headlight system, and try to install it myself, even though I had the bike with me. I still brought my bike into the store when I made the headlight purchase to see if it could be installed for me anyways. The time was about 5:20 PM. Andy said there was no time to install the headlight, and that it would cost $25 to install. And yet there was another person sitting in a chair behind him doing nothing.
It’s hard to believe that such an “easy” installation (according to Andy) would take so long since it was only 5:20 PM and the store closes at 7:00 PM. Furthermore, if employees can afford to be sitting around doing nothing, it’s even more difficult to believe that there was not enough time remaining to install the headlight system.
Ultimately, I went to Sport Chalet in San Marcos where they installed the system for free.
I can’t say that I won’t visit Trek again to throw a few dollars here and there for supplies and accessories. But as far as major purchases of bikes and such, I will never spend that kind of money there. I don’t care how many Tour de France winners ride Trek bicycles. That alone does not make the poor customer service a non-issue that can be ignored. I find many of the employees there to be rude, condescending, and arrogant. The Trek web site slogan is “Improve your life. Ride a bike!” It calls people to get into cycling. As a novice and new bike rider, I have to say that the slogan and the attitude of Trek employees do not match. I’ve spoken to a few other cyclists in the area. When they have visited your store, all have experienced this attitude to which I’m referring.
I’ll be sure to spread the word to all my family, associates, and friends. Don’t buy Trek. You’ll be treated poorly when you go into their store.