I think that if I am going to bitch about poor service, I need to praise good service when I get it.
After going all around town looking for a single crank for my Courtney frame, I swung by Outback to see what’s up with the Bianchi’s. I talked to the guys, and then started talking to Nate about the conversion I am trying to make with the Courtney. He asked to see it, and when I showed it to him he said he had some used cranks that would fit my octalink BB. We decided to go with a shimano 105, stripped of the unnecessary chainrings. He even went online to look up whether things would work with the old Bianchi cog, fiddled with my chain length, and gave me what I thought was a deal. I had talked to people all over town about the conversion, and Nate was the guy who solved it on the spot (Donald would have too, by the way, but he did not have anything on stock at the time). The cranks are awesome, and are brand new because they were removed because the person wanted carbon.
I got a call from Peter today to discuss the Bianchi issue, and he said that since they had dropped the ball he had asked for an overnight shipment of crank and BB that would fit the Bianchi.
The long and the short is that Nate was awesome yesterday, and they are trying to do the right thing about the delay on the Bianchi’s crank. That counts for something in my book.
I think they read the other
I think they read the other thread.
Yes they have, or at least
Yes they have, or at least thats what I've heard.
For the record, after a rocky start, they were very cool about my Chrome 3/4 length msg pants and fixed them in 24 hrs flat. I'm a happy camper.
Yay Outback
Today I had a bunch of time to kill this afternoon and I chose to spend it at outback, schmoozing and looking at all the pretty bike-type things. The staff was helpful but not annoying. They answered all my questions without attitude. And they said I was welcome to hang around as long as I liked. And I didn't even buy anything. But they were so nice this afternoon, I think I'll have to make my next LBS purchase from them.
well...
everyone in there has always been at least cordial to me with the exception of the kilt guy. he's rude to me, yelled at me when I took "too long" on a test ride (about 10 minutes) and said that i was obviously a cheap person when we were talking about my old bike which needed some work and then said that i should just go ahead and buy one of his 800$ bikes, I'm glad not everyone has this experience there. I'd rather go to APB personally.
More Kudos
It seems we all have a love/hate relationship with Outback so I want to add +1 to the love category.
I went in yesterday still in pursuit of some MTB clipless shoes. I spent a few minutes with Jordan and he really helped me find what I was looking for and explained what cleats would work with what shoes and helped me try on a few pairs. Long story short, I felt like he really wanted to help me out and he was good at answering all my questions. I now have a nice new pair of Specialized Sport MTB shoes!
with any shop, they are
with any shop, they are people to, and they have good days and bad days,
some days i have gone in there and been made to feel like i was made to feel like the most important person on earth. and some days I m been ignored and walked past by the floor persons.
I cant really tell one person from the other, the female tech is fairly nicde if you catch her when she isnt busy.
old thread!
This is a really old thread so its worth mentioning that time, like the smell of a fart, can really change the mood of a room. Outback has evolved and in the past year or more have really gone out of their way to serve the urban cycling community, including sponsoring Atwood's toys-for-tots race 2 years in a row. In fact, we are talking this very moment about getting sponsorship for FM:Race Team from them!
There are tons of Bike shops
in London, but I try to wait until I go to Atlanta so that I can get my stuff at Outback because their service has been great.
This is my little mantra: the only way that LBSs can survive the internet onslaught is by excelling in service. Outback has been hitting it right.