A Mr. Garcia from Carolina Trace called me the other day to schedule tune-ups for two bikes. He wanted to know the price and I told him "Rather than setting a fee for categorized services, I prefer seeing the bikes first and then give you a quote. I asked if he was from in town?" Mr. Garcia said "No, I live in Carolina Trace."
I gave Mr. Garcia some options for closer bike shops in his area but he said, "I have already been to these shops and I was not happy with the services and the prices for that matter." I thought, wow he must be desperate (or very demanding) to come all the way here. So we set a time for Mr. Garcia to drop off the bikes. Well when I met Mr. and Mrs. Garcia they seemed like very nice people so my concern of them being overly demanding was not an issue. When I looked at the bikes they seemed to be in very good repair. Just a bit dusty and one bike had a flat tire. I asked if they would like to hang around a bit or go into town to shop, because I felt this was a fairly quick turn around for the bikes. Long story short... I had the bikes finished under an hour. One bike needed a new tube and the front and rear derailleurs adjusted as well as the front brake adjusted. The second bike needed the tubes stems reset to straight and the front brake adjusted and a couple spokes tightened. I had this accomplished before a Law & Order episode was over. Mrs. Garcia called and I said the bikes were ready. When they came to pick up the bikes I gave them the total of $25 and they seemed very pleased. By all means I could have advertised $90 for tune ups by why? If it takes very little time shops would under sell and over deliver, right? We can only hope so. For me to advertise $200 for a pro bike fit and $300 for an elite bike fit somewhat falls into this tune-up paradigm. Or does it? Not often do I charge the entire bill. Only if the client and/or the bike need a great deal of time... such as three to four hours or more. Then I charge the entire bill, since I will most likely have a follow up session or two as well. I rarely encourage clients to have the elite fit with the Retul system because it is rarely necessary. Only if I see huge asymmetries and I need to refer the client to a medical practitioner, PT, etc. will I then use the Retul for very detailed data for baseline and follow ups to determine their progress. I know a lot of bike shops use these bike fitting gadgets and in my opinion they are rarely used correctly. But then again if the client is happy the shops must be doing something right. Right? It would be interesting to hear some people's experiences. If a bike fit costs $300 is it the same for everyone? Someone that takes up to three hours compared to someone that is about an hour. I could not look someone straight in the eyes and say "That will be $300." If a client came in and all they needed was a minor change to the bike:)
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AuthorOver thirty years experience of making mistakes should count for something:) Archives
December 2015
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