Bicycles Etc

This was my first time visiting this shop. I am relatively new to the area from Portland, OR, which has a thriving bike culture. I blew out the front tire on my bike (and had quite the gnarly spill). I stopped in and met Jim, who was incredibly helpful, down-​to-​earth, and just plain awesome. He fixed my tire while we had some nice conversation. He had great tips for riding in Jacksonville, as well as some valuable safety precautions. He even tossed in a reflector for my wheel at no charge. I’ll definitely keep using this place. Glad to have found it!

What kind of recreational service/​product sales closes at 6:00 PM… but the customer service and product knowledge makes up for it

Brought a mountain bike in for service after it had sat in storage for a few years. Wanted a quick turn around (next day) so I called a few shops and this location (chuck) said it would be ready by noon the next day. Perfect I thought. I walk in, «Kenny» talks to me, tells me it won’t be until Monday. I state chuck’s promise, then he says, «oh.if chuck said so then it will be ready». I pick it up the next day, yep it’s ready. Kenny says, «there are some problematic gears, but as the lubrication works in they should be fine». The day after I take it to the trail and 2 gears are unusable. They slip in/​out constantly (and are the main ones I use). Adjusting a dérailleur should be trivial for a bike mechanic. I call back, talk to chuck. He says it’s because the bike sat. Ok, so I get a second opinion. I take the bike to another shop, they take one look at the slack in the dérailleur cable and say, «wow this is stretched out». I told them what Bicycles Etc. said, and they said «yeah that can happen, but not this bad». The other shop tweaked it for about 10 minutes. I took it for a test ride and it was shifting smooth as butter. Did a 2 hr ride yesterday, still perfect. Basically, Bicycles Etc. Took $ 40+ from me, gave me back a bike that had issues (kind of like taking a car in for transmission work, and they charge you full price and 2 gears won’t engage). Chuck said I can take it back in and they’d fix it. Listen, you have to respect the customers time. Get it right the first time. It seems to me, they gave me a deadline, figured if they couldn’t finish it then they’d half-​ass it and have me come back. I’ve probably spent over $ 5k in your store over the years (the majority of that with the bike I took in for service). You’ve lost a customer for life.

My husband and I go to Secret Garden Café for weekend breakfast and brunch quite often… about 2 – 3 times a month. Just about every time we are there, after our meal, we would swing by the bike place next door. Of course, we don’t always walk out with a bike or any purchase; however, the staff there is always friendly. They would ask if we are looking for something in particular. Whenever we show any interest in looking at a particular bike, the sales person would answer all our questions and then offer if we want to take a test drive. However, we never felt any pressure that the sales person is «pushing» to make a sale.
Several weeks back, I finally picked a bike. The entire purchase process was very pleasant. I am not an expert on bike… actually, I am pretty noobish lol. But the sales person answered all my questions and made suggestions from the appropriate size of the bike frame and any accessories I wanted. At the end, he told us it would take him a couple of hours to put in the accessories and the adjustments, so we left the bike and went to catch a movie. Came back two hours later, the bike was all ready for pick up.
I love my bike!