The Things LHS Do

[Franky 0]

pby> Damn!!

On the other hand when it comes to that sort of job, it's not easy to find someone who really knows what he is doing.

The best thing though, is when you pay to get your skates fucked up

[HockeySavants 5]

I have the best sharpener in the world, I dropped off 4 pairs of skates to get done and told me that he couldn't get them done today because he had to get 10-15 pairs for game tonight. I was kinda upset because nearest rink to me is almost 2 hours away and was hoping to get a public skate session done, he actually got my skates done and only charged for 2 because of it, and since he had much free time he baked my other skates. Your LHS main guy is like a bartender, you have to treat him right if you want to get the best service.

[Hradsky 1]

After reading these kinds of stories I'm always so scared when I go into Sportchek for a sharpening :P

[Sed27 0]

If people are waiting for their skates and someone walks in and cuts to the front of the line, it will have an impact. No smart business man pisses off customers and their friends understand that. There is a difference between preferential treatment and telling/showing people that they aren't important.

This used to happen all the time at the lhs I used to frequent. Too often after being told a sharpening would take 10-15 minutes, a few rep/ travel players would arrive and jump the que. Forty five minutes later my skates would get finished.

Needless to say I have long since switched shops.

[interpathway 9]

DRM at Rockville Ice Arena defines brutal.

The people behind the counter are all good guys and I enjoy playing at the rink with them, but that shop...

3-5 <20 year olds behind the counter talking while the entire shop needs to be straightened out and set...

Incorrectly priced skates. Went in looking at S15s last year that were marked @299.99 on the display model, found they had my size, and brought them up to be rung up. When the employee (@17 years old) rang up the skates I was asked to pay $450. I brought the S15 display (read, prominent display, large price tag of $299 on it) to prove my point, was told it was incorrectly marked, and asked if I wanted the S15s for $450. I had sat there for an hour sizing myself, pulling stock from the wall, and putting them all back in order. Needless to say I walked out without purchasing and happily found them online for $299. It seems ridiculous to me that DRM continues to run their store under the misguided hands of these kids.

Sharpening skates.... back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, both ways on the grinding wheel. Not sure you need to grind away that much steel to give me fresh edges.

A cross grinder? Never used.

There are more, there will be more, but #endrant for now.

[flaming_june 2]

Sounds like the manager just don't know what he's doing.

[mug25 2]

WOW that is a freaking hack job on that chassis.

My only problem with some of the local stores is their lack of knowledge in the products they are selling. If I were to be working at a LHS I'd definitely know nearly everything there is to know about the products to answer any question a customer has. Mis-informing a customer could lead to injury, discomfort or poor playing.

[DBear 0]

DRM at Rockville Ice Arena defines brutal.

The people behind the counter are all good guys and I enjoy playing at the rink with them, but that shop...

3-5 <20 year olds behind the counter talking while the entire shop needs to be straightened out and set...

Incorrectly priced skates. Went in looking at S15s last year that were marked @299.99 on the display model, found they had my size, and brought them up to be rung up. When the employee (@17 years old) rang up the skates I was asked to pay $450. I brought the S15 display (read, prominent display, large price tag of $299 on it) to prove my point, was told it was incorrectly marked, and asked if I wanted the S15s for $450. I had sat there for an hour sizing myself, pulling stock from the wall, and putting them all back in order. Needless to say I walked out without purchasing and happily found them online for $299. It seems ridiculous to me that DRM continues to run their store under the misguided hands of these kids.

Sharpening skates.... back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, both ways on the grinding wheel. Not sure you need to grind away that much steel to give me fresh edges.

A cross grinder? Never used.

There are more, there will be more, but #endrant for now.

Yeah Drew does a good job there but much after that I'm not sure about. I've gotten my skates sharpened there once. When I got them back my left blade was burned from the middle to the heel. When I showed them to the kid behind the counter he shrugged and asked me if I wanted to sharpen them again. Yeah I don't think so - pass thanks.

[raganblink 82]

grinding back and forth rounds the corners horribly, unless they are amazingly fast at switching, but they arent, so those corners are getting rounded.

also for cross-grinding, its really useless to be honest if you're not profiling or changing hallows.

[interpathway 9]

grinding back and forth rounds the corners horribly, unless they are amazingly fast at switching, but they arent, so those corners are getting rounded.

also for cross-grinding, its really useless to be honest if you're not profiling or changing hallows.

Yes, but they do offer those services.

Never seen it in use, and seeing how my edges come back from half of these kids.... not letting them mount mine on it anyways.

[Chadd 916]

Cross grinder should be used rarely. Most shops use it way too much.

[pby 0]

Refund of their charges, and boot replacement, maybe replacement of original skate, might be appropriate, depending on how badly they damaged the boots and/or the LS2s.

Good luck. They don't sound very customer service-oriented.

They offered to get me a new pair but bauer doesnt have any of them in stock. Bad luck streak I guess

[zebra_steve 11]

Going back a bunch of years - literally over a lifetime for those that are young enough to play juniors - There was a guy that would put two 6-packs of Molson on top of the dust hood and start grinding..... sip and grind, sip and grind. He used whatever hollow was on the wheel and didn't bother to look what the service card said. We had five shelves about 15 feet long that would be filled with skates needing sharpened every Thursday with a 24 hour turnaround. Initially we would alternate time at the grinder with other tasks that were part of our Thursday night routine... Until we saw him standing there half in the bag ruining skates. We got him removed from our Thursday night crew and he was let go shortly thereafter. I know that I went back after hours a couple times and "fixed" his work before we found out what the deal was. He could do an acceptable - just barely - job when he actually tried.

I also remember about ten years ago seeing a guy at a city owned rink with no training trash a brand new - I mean fresh out of the box - pair of HIGH END goalie skates. One blade had a dip in the middle and the other looked like it had a 4 foot radius! The rink eventually replaced them and put up signs that stated "We only guarantee that you will have two edges. We are not responsible for any damage during the sharpening process. By asking us to sharpen your skates you acknowledge and accept these risks and release us from any and all liability."

I've also heard "they're close enough" (to being level) too many times. These are just a couple of the things that I've personally witnessed that caused me to buy my own machine once I was no longer working anywhere that I had access to one 24\7. I'll carry extra pre-sharpened runners if I'm going on a road trip rather than let anyone grind my blades....

[wrangler 157]

They offered to get me a new pair but bauer doesnt have any of them in stock. Bad luck streak I guess

If they're willing to do that, they ought to be willing to do it with a newer/better model. They might want you to cover the difference in cost, but I'd argue that's their problem. They broke it, they should make it right.

Or if you found a pair online, you could point them to it.

[pby 0]

There isnt anything higher up on the flexlite line and the vapor/supremes dont fit my foot. Will try talking to them tomorrow again. Thanks for the help.

[wrangler 157]

There isnt anything higher up on the flexlite line and the vapor/supremes dont fit my foot. Will try talking to them tomorrow again. Thanks for the help.

Good luck. At least they acknowledged their error, and it sounds like they're willing to work with you.

[fawn111 0]

Was looking for used pants....my LHS has a decent selection of used gear and they have a great reputation for selling used gear.

They moved the used pants to an unreachable shelf... literally, u need a 4 foot step ladder to get to it. So I use the ladder that was sitting right there and rummage around for a size large in anything decent and a minute later a kid comes over and says that he has to look for it because of safety concerns. Totally understand.

I say I need a large and the kid instantly says that there are no larges up there. I very nicely tell the kid that I saw at least a few Larges up there. Kid gives me a grudging look and then climbs the THREE steps on the foot ladder and rummages around for a minute and hands me down a few sets.

I tried them on and didn't like them and wanted to have another look because i knew there was more up there, but at this pint the kid was in the corner watching TV with a couple other employees and I was like eff, that... hockey monkey here I come.

This is reasons why the LHS loses customers daily.

The internet is NOT putting these places out of business, it is the lack of anything remotely resembling customer service that is driving them out of business.

Which is such a shame because I DON'T want to buy things online, but I refuse to spend good money having to deal with employees like that.

[raganblink 82]

Talk to owner. Or a manager

[Lee-Bro 1]

(snip)

I tried them on and didn't like them and wanted to have another look because i knew there was more up there, but at this pint the kid was in the corner watching TV with a couple other employees and I was like eff, that... hockey monkey here I come.

This is reasons why the LHS loses customers daily.

The internet is NOT putting these places out of business, it is the lack of anything remotely resembling customer service that is driving them out of business.

Which is such a shame because I DON'T want to buy things online, but I refuse to spend good money having to deal with employees like that.

How do you try on pants online to see if you like them?

[team50 20]

Uh oh.

[twolinepass 0]

How do you try on pants online to see if you like them?

Same way he tries them in store with no service?

[Axxion89 32]

Talk to owner. Or a manager

That is the best course of action but you would be surprised at how many times they just say sorry to you and nothing changes. For some LHS they either hire kids they know who end up being shitty workers or there is no other people available for hire. In the end, the manager or owner should be looking to hire competent employees in the first place and not have to rely on customers to police/report on their work.

How do you try on pants online to see if you like them?

Magic

[troy 12]

That is the best course of action but you would be surprised at how many times they just say sorry to you and nothing changes. For some LHS they either hire kids they know who end up being shitty workers or there is no other people available for hire. In the end, the manager or owner should be looking to hire competent employees in the first place and not have to rely on customers to police/report on their work.

Magic

This is far and away the most prevalent cause of poor service in my area. I won't even get a phone call back regarding an application if I wasn't at one time, or currently, being coached by the LHS owner.

[raganblink 82]

He had service, it was shitty but it was there. Not knowing the circumstances with the situation, but it sounds like you were looking for used pants, saw some, kid made you get down so he could look, was lazy and didn't see any, so then you asked him to look again, he found what he could find or what was close (but atleast brought down multiple pairs) and gave them to you to try them on.

Then you tried them on, and didn't like any. Fair enough, but let me ask you this, did you confront him with his buds to see here you go i didn't like them, could you please see if there are any more up there I can try on? Or see if there were some new ones around the same price you'd like to see?

To be completely honest, if there was some puck on the tube, and the customer I was helping was trying stuff on and I couldn't help them b/c it might be considered "weird" like pants, a jock, or warmups [we typically have people go into bathroom with that stuff, then come back to us to see how they look] I'd hang with buds and talk a bit or something. Granted when you came out I would go talk to you, but maybe he didn't see you, or you didn't talk to him? Other factors too, like how long did you take to decide that you didn't like any of the pants? Was it busy in the shop?

Based on what you have said it sounds to me like you didn't give him a fair chance to help you. But I wasn't there, so can't comment on it. Seriously talk to the manager... you're not going to have one bad experience with a HS kid (in your opinion, depends on some factors but to me it sounds like you might have over-expectations and not give the kid a fair chance) going to ruin your experience with a lhs and get all your shit online? Also you are looking for used breezers - something only ebay, play it again, and your LHS could offer you.

[troy 12]

He had service, it was shitty but it was there. Not knowing the circumstances with the situation, but it sounds like you were looking for used pants, saw some, kid made you get down so he could look, was lazy and didn't see any, so then you asked him to look again, he found what he could find or what was close (but atleast brought down multiple pairs) and gave them to you to try them on.

Then you tried them on, and didn't like any. Fair enough, but let me ask you this, did you confront him with his buds to see here you go i didn't like them, could you please see if there are any more up there I can try on? Or see if there were some new ones around the same price you'd like to see?

To be completely honest, if there was some puck on the tube, and the customer I was helping was trying stuff on and I couldn't help them b/c it might be considered "weird" like pants, a jock, or warmups [we typically have people go into bathroom with that stuff, then come back to us to see how they look] I'd hang with buds and talk a bit or something. Granted when you came out I would go talk to you, but maybe he didn't see you, or you didn't talk to him? Other factors too, like how long did you take to decide that you didn't like any of the pants? Was it busy in the shop?

Based on what you have said it sounds to me like you didn't give him a fair chance to help you. But I wasn't there, so can't comment on it. Seriously talk to the manager... you're not going to have one bad experience with a HS kid (in your opinion, depends on some factors but to me it sounds like you might have over-expectations and not give the kid a fair chance) going to ruin your experience with a lhs and get all your shit online? Also you are looking for used breezers - something only ebay, play it again, and your LHS could offer you.

He gave him a fair chance to help him as soon as he walked in the door. When he asked for large pants, the employee should have searched enough to retrieve all the large pants. And if you can't comment on it, what are all those words up there doing?