AHF

If you thought outfitting a child with a helmet was a bit of a pain, try outffitting a sleeping child with a helmet. Thankfully, he woke up after the third helmet we tried on.

If you drop your skates off for a sharpening and tell us you'll pick 'em up tomorrow, PICK 'EM UP TOMORROW! Lady drops her skates off on Saturday, and tells me they'll be back either Sunday or Monday... ...and she comes back two hours later, wondering if they are ready.

"But I'm from out of town" really bugs me.

Bingo. Frustrating as hell, but that's the way she goes. In fact, she was in a couple weeks ago and commented on the fact the the customer service in other stores in town is not very good, so we're doing something right.

Crazy Lady : "Can I get my skates sharpened?" "Sure. It's a little busy though, so there's a bit of a wait. Your skates will be done at 3:30." CL : "Oh. Okay. I come back at 2:30?" "No, 3:30" *slight delay, she's about to leave, but does a 180 and comes back* CL : "Oh. So dey ready at 2:30?" "Listen, I'll try to get to them as fast as I can, but it'll be pretty close to 3:30 before I can do them." CL : "OK" Had she asked for 2:30 on more time, I was going to tell her they'd be done at 7:00. ;) (This is the same nutjob that had the balls to ask if goal pads that were 50% off could be discounted any further.) EDIT: And the same nutjob that has never paid for a sharpening. She's got a free sharpening coupon EVERY SINGLE TIME. We advertise in a local minor hockey magazine every month, and she must collect the friggin things. I think we should add "Sorry, not for you Elaine" in small print on those coupons. :P

"Oh, he's about your size." ;)

To each his own, I guess. When I was younger, I had groin issues from time to time, and it was when I didn't stretch before-hand. <_< All pro sports teams still stretch before a game or practice, so it can't be that bad, can it? These teams have the best of the best as far as fitness personnel is concerned, right? I'll keep strecthing until they all stop. :P

Silly old people... A customer of mine came in this morning, and was saying he was having issues with his skates, so we got talking. Turns out he's got issues with a groin pull, so I suggested we could tweak his sharpening; I'd do 'em at 1/2 instead of 3/8, to which he agreed. As I was sharpening his skates, for the sake of making conversation, I asked him if he was stretching properly before-hand. Expecting the obvious 'yes', he surprised me with this gem: "No. I don't believe in stretching."

Wow. That's brutal. Did the manager step in? Or did they ignore the incident altogether? Either way, I would've been livid... I don't care how slow the store is, employees should never shoot pucks/balls. It's extremely unprofessional, and like you just proved, dangerous as well.

Is looking after your kids really that hard to do? Dad came in to get two pairs of skates sharpened. As I was doing them, his two little rats were running around like crazy, screaming nonsense the whole time, and just being royal pains in the ass. Grabing sticks, trying gloves on their heads, playing with the skate oven, laying out pylons all over the place... ...and dad didn't flinch. Instead, he chose to text on his phone, or just ignore them completely. Grrr.

Thanks for the picture. All this time, I was thinking that the 'V' was a lot more pronounced than that. From what I had envisioned, I assumed that going from an FBV sharpening to a 'regular' sharpening would waste a lot of steel, but that doesn't seem to be the case, after seeing what the FBV looks like...

Got myself a $20 tip today. B) Long story short: mom and son came in with the intention of getting a new helmet...we tried a few helmets, I tried (and tried, and tried) to get a cage/visor combo to fit properly together. I tried many combinations, and after about an hour, we finally got a winner; NBH 8500 with the Oakley cage they already had. (The initial plan was to purchase a new cage/visor combo as well, but the darned FX50 just wouldn't do it no matter what I tried. Curse that damned thing!)

One pet-peeve of mine that I don't think has been brought up yet... Eager customers calling the store to see if the piece of equipment they ordered has arrived. The good ones call on a daily basis too... Sweet christ man. We'll call you when it comes in. Until then, fuck off! :lol:

A lot of LHS workers (of any age...we younger guys can care, too) kinda "get off" on 1) flexing our "random customer memory" and 2) hearing a customer tell us that they're happy with a piece of equipment that we helped them pick-out. I was walking out to our bus after a game a couple weeks ago when I noticed a kid (maybe 11 or 12) and his family who I had fit and sold Mission AGXs to when he came into the shop during a tournament a few weeks before. They were all standing off to the side a bit as my teammates and I loaded our shit on the bus and got ready to go home. I tossed my bag, veered off, shook the father's hand, nodded a "hello" to the mother and asked "So how have those skates been working for you?" The kid yells "They're awesome! No break-in time at all!" I give the kid a high-five and he starts to say something else - but his dad cuts him off: "His skating has actually improved quite a bit - especially after we got them profiled like you said. But right now I'm more impressed with the fact that you remembered us! Jeez, a random family that came across the border for a random tournament on some random weekend and bought a random pair of skates. You must see hundreds of people like us in any given week. Hell, I have to admit, I didn't recognize you until you came over and said something." I just kinda laughed and said something like "Yeah, you probably didn't see me on the ice because I was just moving too fast, but now it's probably the clothes; I wasn't wearing a suit when I was fitting him up." We shot the shit for a little while until the bus was loaded-up and everyone was ready to go. They thanked me for my service and I thanked them for their business and directed them to our Canadian store (which isn't too far from where they were from) in the event that they would ever need any help with the skates or anything else. Had we not won the game, I probably would have been brooding a bit and not said a thing. But the game went relatively well and I was in a good mood, so I decided to chat 'em up a bit. Ultimately, it's a win-win-win: I win because I get my ego stroked a bit, our shop wins because we probably just got a loyal, repeat customer, and the customer wins because he now knows that his business was appreciated by people who care and that he can trust. That's awesome. Thanks for sharing. :) I run into a lot of my customers as well...wether it's at West Edmonton Mall or at Rexall Place, I do see a lot a familiar faces. Most don't recognize me though, as I always wear a hat away from the store. Hehe

That's something I like doing. If I spend a decent amount of time with a customer, I should be able to remember what he/she purchased, so I'll try to bring it up the next time they come in. Obviously you can't do it with every customer, but whatever... Ouch. That's rough. Gotta love the stubborn ones eh?