I have a very close friend that has that exact and deplorable shopping style. In his mind, retail establishments that choose to employ experts are offering free expertise. He happily accepts that free expertise in the form of advice and answers to however many questions they are willing to answer. After he is done collecting all the free information he can, only then does he begin looking for the best price. If the best price is back at the place with the expert employees, fine. If it's a mailorder or webstore with no employees outside of shipping, so be it. When I learned that about him, I honestly wanted to punch him squarely in the face.
On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 10:18:35 AM UTC-7, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: > > Believe it or not, there are a lot of flakes who are into bikes in the > world. My fave was a guy who called several times to talk to me for a > combined maybe 2+ hours about a Bleriot. I somehow let the word "Quickbeam" > out of my mouth, and that got him to asking questions about that model. His > questions carried the implication that he was going to buy a Bleriot from > me. Anyway, after all that, maybe 2 weeks later, he called to thank me for > my patience in answering his hundreds of neurotic questions, but informed > me delightedly that he'd purchased it cheaper from one of the internet bike > shops who was selling the Bleriot just over cost back in those days. Not to > worry, he vowed to buy fenders from me. The conversation was ended, um, > hastily. If it had happened in person rather than on the phone, I think I > would have run him out the door with some forceful language and perhaps a > kick in the pants. After that, I considered instituting a consulting fee, > creditable toward whatever bike purchase may result, when I sensed the > conversation was dragging on with no purchase in sight. But it seems bad > form to ask for money just for talking to a customer...unless you're a > lawyer or medical type. > > On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 12:06:35 PM UTC-5, Kris wrote: >> >> I've had 4 people who seemed genuinely interested; >> >> 1. read the RBW sizing bits, learned it wouldn't fit and let me know >> right away >> 2. couldn't come up with the funds and politely backed out >> 3. partner was attacked by a pit bull (!!) and had to back out for $$ and >> obvious reasons >> >> all of the above are perfectly reasonable >> >> 4. agreed to pay set price, all set to end eBay auction, was "away from >> computer" and would pay in a few hours.....THEN NOTHING...vanished into >> thin air!! I even spent an hour boxing the bike! Now I'll have to rebuild >> it to sell local....UGH!!! >> >> You could write back and say...."ya know I actually think the bike is >> ugly and 650b sucks" and I wouldn't care, but just write the stinking >> email!! I don't know how people act like this....w/ gmail, Google+, FB, >> etc it's pretty easy to find them. >> >> //end my rant >> >> >> >> On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 12:15:58 PM UTC-4, Patrick Moore wrote: >> >>> Yanking this thread violently in my own direction: RANT: about people >>> who, when they see a FS post, immediately scream, "OH! I wannit! I >>> wannit!!!" And then, after you patient answer questions and send >>> photos, disappear into the neant. >>> >>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/r1f3thqV8UcJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
