The Things Customers Do

[natbat 0]

The quality of the skate sharpening has nothing to do with the age of the sharpener or what his hourly wage is. The quality of the skate sharpening has everything to do with being taught correctly, paying attention to detail, caring about your work as it is a reflection of the shop, and not having to be worried about being rushed through the sharpening by someone who has never done it.

As much as I agree with you, minimum wage tells an employee, "I would pay you less if I could". I am sure there is some good guys getting minimum wage, but in my experience they could care less and show it. If you are a owner of a business, you want a good employee. He isn't going to last long if he cant afford to raise a family or pay his bills.

[AIREAYE 248]

Another quick tidbit about discounts:

I had a family come in with the kid's APX stick, which had just a small chip in the hosel. Very very common, as it's purely cosmetic right? The dad vented a bit to me about it however haha that he paid $300 for a stick only to have a little chip come off it. I told him that nothing was invulnerable and that it was quite common...amusing to see his reaction though

So they wanted to go for a new stick and luckily, we had the previous cycle's Vapor sticks (X:20 - X:60) all on sale for 20% off the sticker price. After going through Rapidshot, he finally decided on the X:60. The dad then asked me if we could do any better on the price and I politely told him that the X:60 was ALREADY on clearance for $250 and he was getting ANOTHER 20% off of that! It was all good in the end though, but I thought it was pretty amusing

[jsykes 35]

I had a figure customer special order some fairly high end boots for his daughter. They were a youth size 12 and several hundred bucks, something we rarely sell in that small of a size. Though ownership, we allow for special orders without being pre-paid in order to have excellent customer service and encourage people to stay local instead of going online. For the most part we have very little issue with this.

The boots arrive at the end of October, they come try them on, things are great, they want a special blade different than one we have in stock. I find out within a day that I cant get it, the US distributor is sold out. He says he'll get them online, I have no problem with this since I cant get them.

Well, he takes his time getting them, he comes in and tries the skates on here and there, is waiting and waiting to get blades, etc. Meanwhile, the boots sit here for over a month, not paid. He finally comes in to pick them up, has his daughter try them on and she says they're tight. He says he doesnt want them and leaves me with boots I will likely never sell.

I told him, fine, but if he wants to continue to shop here, from now on everything will be pre-paid and no refunds.

[kenneth 5]

I had a figure customer special order some fairly high end boots for his daughter. They were a youth size 12 and several hundred bucks, something we rarely sell in that small of a size. Though ownership, we allow for special orders without being pre-paid in order to have excellent customer service and encourage people to stay local instead of going online. For the most part we have very little issue with this.

The boots arrive at the end of October, they come try them on, things are great, they want a special blade different than one we have in stock. I find out within a day that I cant get it, the US distributor is sold out. He says he'll get them online, I have no problem with this since I cant get them.

Well, he takes his time getting them, he comes in and tries the skates on here and there, is waiting and waiting to get blades, etc. Meanwhile, the boots sit here for over a month, not paid. He finally comes in to pick them up, has his daughter try them on and she says they're tight. He says he doesnt want them and leaves me with boots I will likely never sell.

I told him, fine, but if he wants to continue to shop here, from now on everything will be pre-paid and no refunds.

ouch u need to get a deposit next time at least to cover some of that. But does seems like u guys are good people, i'd buy from whatever place that would treat me this well.

Another quick tidbit about discounts:

I had a family come in with the kid's APX stick, which had just a small chip in the hosel. Very very common, as it's purely cosmetic right? The dad vented a bit to me about it however haha that he paid $300 for a stick only to have a little chip come off it. I told him that nothing was invulnerable and that it was quite common...amusing to see his reaction though

So they wanted to go for a new stick and luckily, we had the previous cycle's Vapor sticks (X:20 - X:60) all on sale for 20% off the sticker price. After going through Rapidshot, he finally decided on the X:60. The dad then asked me if we could do any better on the price and I politely told him that the X:60 was ALREADY on clearance for $250 and he was getting ANOTHER 20% off of that! It was all good in the end though, but I thought it was pretty amusing

so they bought a new stick just b/c the apx has a chip in it?? rich people problems lol

Edited December 6, 2011 by kenneth

[natbat 0]

ouch u need to get a deposit next time at least to cover some of that. But does seems like u guys are good people a

so they bought a new stick just b/c the apx has a chip in it?? rich people problems lol

LMAO

[Joshison 1]

250 is clearance for an x60? I'd ask for a discount too.

Edited December 6, 2011 by Joshison

[AIREAYE 248]

ouch u need to get a deposit next time at least to cover some of that. But does seems like u guys are good people, i'd buy from whatever place that would treat me this well.

so they bought a new stick just b/c the apx has a chip in it?? rich people problems lol

Haha, I believe so. I don't remember if I told them that the X:60s weren't the most durable, but they were looking for stuff on sale and luckily for us...

250 is clearance for an x60? I'd ask for a discount too.

It's in Canadian dollars

[Joshison 1]

Oh ok that makes sense lol.

Edited December 6, 2011 by Joshison

[Vulcan7905 88]

This is the best answer. The customer pays the bills. If you go out of your way to show them you are proficient in skate sharpening you will have a customer for life.

Yup, best answer. Rink I was getting mine done has lost a customer and now somebody else has gotten a customer for life.

[jsykes 35]

ouch u need to get a deposit next time at least to cover some of that. But does seems like u guys are good people, i'd buy from whatever place that would treat me this well.

We try. Its usually not an issue and occasionally when it is, its usually not something I cant just put on the shelf and sell to someone else eventually. The owners are ok with the occasional hiccup in order to make it easy and tempting for people to just place orders with us if we dont have it in stock rather than going down the street to another shop.

Its all about the customer service and we've found that, while we sometimes get taken advantage of, most of the time, the business more than makes up for it by drawing in customers from all over the area to get taken care of properly.

It just sucks when it happens and its more a commentary on a customer that thinks nothing of ordering something special, then waiting long enough for his child to grow out of it before wanting to take it, then figuring its ok to just leave the dealer hanging.

Oh well. I got plenty that will replace him.

[wrangler 157]

Oh well. I got plenty that will replace him.

You're lucky.

[jsykes 35]

I guess we are. We have a very good customer base of good and loyal customers that we have grown over the last few years (not all my doing) through being very attentive to customer service and sometimes taking a small hit here or there with the bigger picture in mind.

So not that I do not want to make that previous customer happy, but the good and lucky thing is we do have all those loyal customers as well that more than make up for the unfortunate one here or there.

[kenneth 5]

I guess we are. We have a very good customer base of good and loyal customers that we have grown over the last few years (not all my doing) through being very attentive to customer service and sometimes taking a small hit here or there with the bigger picture in mind.

So not that I do not want to make that previous customer happy, but the good and lucky thing is we do have all those loyal customers as well that more than make up for the unfortunate one here or there.

very nice you would be the type of shop i would like to work for, customer service first than quick sale and bottom line, because a happy customer is a returning customer.

I remember back in school i worked for futureshop (like Bestbuy) and numbers were never has high as the top dogs but i also had the lowest return ratio since i always sold what the customer needed. I've actually had one come to me an apologize they had to return the item b/c it ended up being more than he need and what he described he wanted in the first go around.

but i'm sure I am getting off topic with my ramble :)

Edited December 7, 2011 by kenneth

[AIREAYE 248]

Do you guys work on commission? That could be the reason why the others sold items that are MORE than what the customer needs; there's more incentive to.

[kenneth 5]

Do you guys work on commission? That could be the reason why the others sold items that are MORE than what the customer needs; there's more incentive to.

yep but if items are returned in 2 weeks their comission gets clawed back, and risk of losing customer

[HockeySavants 5]

Here's some new gold for you guys:

"Do you offer a warranty on the palms?"

"Can you call Easton and ask if they will make me a pro stock curve?"

"Yo Yo Yo I heard you can spray some shit on yo palms to make them last longer, you sell dat dawg?" (actual words used)

And here's the customer of the year:

Guy comes in with his son, son has stick in his hand and gloves. Public session skating was going on and around 200-300 people on the ice.

It was Saturday night and they had the black light on and disco music, not to mention a very busy lobby with people buying snacks, etc. Just your typical family oriented weekend.

He walks up and asks the following:

"My son needs to practise for his tournament this week, how much is it to vacate the ice and have him skate for you know....2 hours or so?"

Guy was dead serious, and his son was using a stick about a foot over his head

[IPv6Freely 2093]

He walks up and asks the following:

"My son needs to practise for his tournament this week, how much is it to vacate the ice and have him skate for you know....2 hours or so?"

Guy was dead serious, and his son was using a stick about a foot over his head

He may have been stupid rich. I would have said with a completely straight face: "well, you'd have to refund the 300 people on the ice, plus a couple bucks for the inconvenience, plus you'd have to compensate for the business we'd lose in the next couple hours, so lets say... ten thousand dollars?"

But that's just the troll in me.

[Stryker 37]

He may have been stupid rich. I would have said with a completely straight face: "well, you'd have to refund the 300 people on the ice, plus a couple bucks for the inconvenience, plus you'd have to compensate for the business we'd lose in the next couple hours, so lets say... ten thousand dollars?"

But that's just the troll in me.

lol. Around here (not sure what its like where everybody else is) it costs like 80 bucks an hour to rent the ice during the middle of the week day. And its never booked anyways, so totally affordable IMHO

[IPv6Freely 2093]

I'd do that in a heartbeat (once in a while) if that was an option at my rink. There is literally ZERO unused icetime at that place. The only time nobody is on the ice is when the zamboni is on it. 99% of it is figure skating or public sessions. Kids hockey is weeknights and adult hockey is weekends. The rest is figure skating. And they claim they can't fit in a sticktime...

[L.F.O.D. 0]

Same here. And thats with a two rink building.

[rachael7 1]

Ok, I've followed this thread for a while and I don't remember seeing this one yet, and now that I actually own a pro shop, I finally get to put in one of my own :-)

So last night, guy drops his skates for sharpening before the high school game (his game is after) and leaves to watch the HS game. Nice guy, agrees if any HS players need work, they have priority, friendly patter and whatnot. So I do up the blades, and as I'm giving them the final look-over before putting them back on the counter, I notice a missing rivet. Yeah, I shoulda looked first, but I didn't. Anyway, closer look shows 5 out of 8 on the front post of one holder are either busted or missing, including all 4 on the inside, another one busted on the rear post of that skate and two more busted on the front post of the other skate.

Fortunately, HS game was a double-header (tourney of some kind) and he popped in between games to pick up his skates. He's pulling out the wallet and I say "Hold on a second - before you pay and run, we gotta talk." He says, with a chummy laugh, "Oh, about the rivets, yeah I know about that." And the money is still coming out of the wallet to pay me for the sharpen.

I try to tell him the skates are seriously messed up and must be fixed before being used. Told him it would be $8 ($1 a rivet, probably too cheap, but it's what the shops around here seem to charge). He's hemming and hawing about it, telling me he's getting new skates and he only needs to get one or two more games out of these. I said "Sir, you're not going to get one or two more STOPS out of that skate, let alone games." He laughed and said yeah, it'll probably bust. And I said "Yes, and it will take your ankle along with it."

So finally he agrees to let me replace the rivets, but he starts telling me which ones, only do this one, ok that one too, etc, etc. I finally had enough and said "Look man, at a buck a rivet, I don't make any money on this kind of work - I'm only trying to keep you from breaking your leg and missing the rest of your season. I'll do whatever you want with them." With that, after confirming again that I can have them done before his game, he finally turns me loose to make my hot dog and chips money for the night. Whoohoo.

It nearly took me longer to convince the guy to do the job than it did to actually do it. And it's not like he was hurting for the lousy 8 bucks either, just a moron. Anyway, happy ending, other than a bitch of a rivet job (fucking plastic piece of crap skates, brand not to be mentioned), just ridiculous that with me standing there showing him that I could nearly rip the holder off by hand, he was actually going to go out and play a game on them. Idiot.

[jsykes 35]

lol. Around here (not sure what its like where everybody else is) it costs like 80 bucks an hour to rent the ice during the middle of the week day. And its never booked anyways, so totally affordable IMHO

Holy crap!! Where are you that ice is that cheap and available? Our rink is over $300/hr and except for a couple hours a couple times a week on each of two rinks, its nearly booked solid.

[Stryker 37]

Holy crap!! Where are you that ice is that cheap and available? Our rink is over $300/hr and except for a couple hours a couple times a week on each of two rinks, its nearly booked solid.

Pretty much in the middle of nowhere lol. Rates vary depending on who's renting (local or not) and what time it is (prime ice or not)

One thing I don't understand with people occurs when they get in line to use our shooting machine to try sticks out before buying. Some come up with 3 or 4, which i'm kinda okay with, but that's another story. What I don't get is they come with 3 COMPLETELY different sticks. Kickpoint, Grip, Curve, Flex, etc. They have no idea what they want, and rather then letting an

employee (like myself) tell them whats going to be best for how they use it, they'll just grab a bunch off the shelf and want to give them a whirl. /rant, the people working are there for a reason, to help you.

[VakarLajos 5]

Ok, I've followed this thread for a while and I don't remember seeing this one yet, and now that I actually own a pro shop, I finally get to put in one of my own :-)

So last night, guy drops his skates for sharpening before the high school game (his game is after) and leaves to watch the HS game. Nice guy, agrees if any HS players need work, they have priority, friendly patter and whatnot. So I do up the blades, and as I'm giving them the final look-over before putting them back on the counter, I notice a missing rivet. Yeah, I shoulda looked first, but I didn't. Anyway, closer look shows 5 out of 8 on the front post of one holder are either busted or missing, including all 4 on the inside, another one busted on the rear post of that skate and two more busted on the front post of the other skate.

Fortunately, HS game was a double-header (tourney of some kind) and he popped in between games to pick up his skates. He's pulling out the wallet and I say "Hold on a second - before you pay and run, we gotta talk." He says, with a chummy laugh, "Oh, about the rivets, yeah I know about that." And the money is still coming out of the wallet to pay me for the sharpen.

I try to tell him the skates are seriously messed up and must be fixed before being used. Told him it would be $8 ($1 a rivet, probably too cheap, but it's what the shops around here seem to charge). He's hemming and hawing about it, telling me he's getting new skates and he only needs to get one or two more games out of these. I said "Sir, you're not going to get one or two more STOPS out of that skate, let alone games." He laughed and said yeah, it'll probably bust. And I said "Yes, and it will take your ankle along with it."

So finally he agrees to let me replace the rivets, but he starts telling me which ones, only do this one, ok that one too, etc, etc. I finally had enough and said "Look man, at a buck a rivet, I don't make any money on this kind of work - I'm only trying to keep you from breaking your leg and missing the rest of your season. I'll do whatever you want with them." With that, after confirming again that I can have them done before his game, he finally turns me loose to make my hot dog and chips money for the night. Whoohoo.

It nearly took me longer to convince the guy to do the job than it did to actually do it. And it's not like he was hurting for the lousy 8 bucks either, just a moron. Anyway, happy ending, other than a bitch of a rivet job (fucking plastic piece of crap skates, brand not to be mentioned), just ridiculous that with me standing there showing him that I could nearly rip the holder off by hand, he was actually going to go out and play a game on them. Idiot.

Congrats on the shop, Rach!

It's always amazing how some people don't realize how important it is to have your holder connected to your boot. Whoda thunk it, right?! lol Sadder when it's their kid. I've taken a hit to make sure a 10 yr old isn't rupturing a tendon because his parents were too cheap to spend $10 to re-rivet the skate. Sad.

[AIREAYE 248]

Pretty much in the middle of nowhere lol. Rates vary depending on who's renting (local or not) and what time it is (prime ice or not)

One thing I don't understand with people occurs when they get in line to use our shooting machine to try sticks out before buying. Some come up with 3 or 4, which i'm kinda okay with, but that's another story. What I don't get is they come with 3 COMPLETELY different sticks. Kickpoint, Grip, Curve, Flex, etc. They have no idea what they want, and rather then letting an

employee (like myself) tell them whats going to be best for how they use it, they'll just grab a bunch off the shelf and want to give them a whirl. /rant, the people working are there for a reason, to help you.

What's not to get? Maybe they're in between flexes/lengths, maybe they want to try different kickpoints/curves. You can't tell a customer what's best for them, you can only recommend based on some guidelines. IMO the only time I know that people are there to fool around is if there's a bunch of kids all with any combo of top-end stick and all talking excitedly with each other lol