Share The Road . . . Or, Where Not To Shop In Corvallis

Let's talk about customer service.  Here in Corvallis in the old downtown area, four (at least) bicycle shops co-mingle in a small two block stretch.  Peak Sports, Bike N Hike, Corvallis Cyclery, and Cyclotopia all vie for customers' dollars. 

Each store specializes a bit.  Cyclotopia and the Cyclery offer recumbent bikes and accoutrement that seems a bit left of center.  Bike N Hike and Peak Sports are both hybrid shops, offering bicycle gear (and bicycles) as part of "outdoor activities" in general.  Peak Sports has several different store fronts, specializing in outdoors in general, bike stuff, and bike repair.  Bike N Hike is basically just bikes. 

It seems strange that so many stores would crowd the same street, and I wondered if the demand justified the supply.

This is a college town after all, and between the months of September and June the population swells by 26,000 people.  That effectively doubles the population of Corvallis and these stores are all located within easy walking distance of Oregon State University.  During the peak school year, it makes sense that they would have enough dollars to keep the doors open.

And I suspect this is part of the problem.

With so many customers, demand is almost assured.  The money always flows.  This reduces incentive to stress high quality customer service.

Customer service is the single factor which separates two shops with comparable product and price point.  It's literally the difference between buying something at store X or store Y.

This last week, I've been trying to get my bike and myself road ready for the coming fall and winter.  That meant a tune-up on the bike (it was pretty bad) and a jacket that would stand up not only to the rain but also to the copious amounts of sweat biking pumps out.  According to bicycling.com "[a] cyclist can shed two to three pounds an hour while riding hard."  A pound works out to 16 ounces (or two cups) of sweat.  My commute is roughly two and a half hours round trip.  You figure it out.

It's not quite the season to look for waterproof jackets though but Oregon is fickle, and it could rain tomorrow or hold off till November.  I wanted to be prepared.

I did my research, and when I was ready starting shopping around for the best price.  I went to Peak first.

It's a good sized store, seems pretty well stocked.  It certainly had the requisite supply of bikes hanging on the wall.  But walking in is daunting.  First, the five guys standing at the cash register took a long time to acknowledge I'd come into the store.  I wandered into a side room before one of them bothered asking me if I needed any help.  When I laid out my requirements he looked around as if I'd just asked him the dimensions to Noah's Ark. 

"I don't know," he said.

Then he walked away leaving me eyeballing the merchandise.  Finally, I wandered away.  That guy, just then, lost the store at least $200. 

The guys at Bike N Hike were much more helpful, but in that kind of gruff, no-nonsense way you expect from a good mechanic.  They didn't have the jacket I needed either, but they were knowledgeable, and offered me some good advice.  They also did tune ups, something I'd never gotten around to asking about at Peak.  I brought my bike to them and they had it back to me the next day.

But still, I hadn't found my jacket.  A week went by, and I rode into town a few times.  By that point, it was quickly becoming apparent that my butt couldn't handle the pressure.  I needed padded cycling shorts but I didn't want to spend a fortune on them.  Again, I made the rounds.

All other things being equal, I like The Cyclery and Cyclotopia better than Peak and Bike N Hike.  They're smaller stores, and Cyclotopia especially has a kind of artisanal feel.  Their staff are helpful and they have more niche products.  If you're on a recumbent bike, or you need gear that you won't find elsewhere, I'd hit them up first.  But I just needed shorts, and their prices are a bit higher than elsewhere.

Regardless, I wound up going back to Peak against my better judgement.  The situation remained unchanged.  The five guys at the front ignored me for five minutes and when I said I needed shorts they kind of waved me toward the clothing section.  But I must have repeated that I needed a jacket because after another cow-faced "I don't know," a woman came out to ask if I was the customer who'd inquired about the jacket.

Her name is Joy, and she was a Godsend.  Not only did she know her merchandise and help me pick out a jacket that met all my specifications, but when she discovered it wasn't in stock anywhere she called the manufacturer in Portland and had them hunt one down for me.  But I'm one of those shoppers that needs immediate gratification and since I was dropping a couple notes, I wanted it now.  Expedited shipping wasn't too expensive, so I asked her to see if I could get it the next day.  She called to the warehouse and tried to make it happen.

But Joy's shift was ending.  The people at the warehouse had to find the shipment to rush it, so they asked to call back.  Joy turned my order over to one of the guys there (whose name I remember, but I've made an oath not speak ill of anyone on the interwebs) and I left with the expectation that I'd get a call that day saying it was being shipping, and a call the next day saying my jacket had arrived.

I received neither of those calls. 

Dude dropped the ball.  I probably won't shop there again.

The moral of this story is cautionary: Don't shop at Peak in Corvallis.  Or if you must, ask for Joy.