A bicycle technician's woes

[fish3k1]

Thought I'd post a couple of sucky stories up here - most of the suck in my job actually comes from places other than the customer, so no doubt I'll be posting in Moaning about Management eventually too, but this is one that sticks in my head...

Metal Shouldn't Rust

I'm working away, tinkering on a bike for a customer, when I get paged - someone is bringing a bike back in for a return. Not an unusual occurrence, happens fairly often. Obviously, like in any retail work, we won't accept it back without having it checked first (in this case, it has to be a qualified bike technician - curse my manager for convincing me to take that training course! :P )

Anyway, one quick glance at the bike, and it's in an obviously bad state - it's rusted to hell, obviously as a result of being left in the rain (you can tell by the patina) and fairly dirty, so I figure it's fairly old. It's obviously not the customer's bike, I figure it must be his son/daughter/monkey's. So I ask the customer what the problem is.

SC: It's rusted.

Yeah. That's what he said.

Me: That bike has been left in the rain.
SC: Well of course it has, you can't expect a child to take proper care of something like this.
Me: Actually, I rather think you can... There are maintenance instructions included with the bike, this hasn't been properly maintained.
SC: It's faulty.
Me: Rusting is not a fault, (this bike has no paint by the way, it's open metal,) if you leave a bike in the rain, it is going to rust. We can't accept a bike back in this condition. If you're son had followed the maintenance instructions this would not have happened.
SC: I don't care, a child's bike should last longer than that.
Me: MAINTENANCE. INSTRUCTIONS. I'm sorry, but metal rusts. And the bike is the responsibility of the customer, not us.

The he utters the words I love to hear...

SC: I want to speak to a manager!

GOOD. It gets your bats**t stupid ass off my case and I can get on with my job.

Guess what the manager and supervisor BOTH told him?

Next story coming when I'm not about to eat

[Trayol]

Wow, I felt his failure from here.

[Andara Bledin]

Yegods!

You know what, even if you "can't expect a kid" to take care of their stuff (and why not? you can bet your ass I took good care of my own bike when I was a kidlet), what about being a parent and taking care of it? How long had it been out in the rain to have rusted up like that?

^-.-^

[karma_gypsy]

Wow ... the kid got a brand new bike from a bike shop and neither him nor his *parents* could take care of it?? Wow ...


Second hand/garage sale bikes have done me well and still, were never left out in the rain. In fact, I've never even owned a brand new, store bought bike ...

[edible_hat]

I've never even owned a brand new, store bought bike ...

Me too. The closest I came was when a family friend bought a new bike from a catalog, only to find it was too big for her. So my parents bought it for about an 80% discount.

[Polenicus]

SC: Well of course it has, you can't expect a child to take proper care of something like this.

Errr... wuhuh? Since when?!

I remember when I was a kid, I owned a grand total of FOUR bikes. You know why? I didn't NEED any more!

The first one was a small 2 wheeler that I rode until I was too big.

The second was a BMX that I basically rode from 8 until I was 13. The decals peeled, the paint faded, and I had the occasional tire replacement due to puncture, but my parents were sure to teach me to take care of it. And I did the normal kid things like flopping it on the lawn, wiping out, etc. But every night it went in the garage. When it developed spots of rust, I took the touch up paint from my Dad's car, because it was meant for rust (I actually READ the package) and touched them up.

My second bike was a mountain bike, which were pretty new at the time, and much bigger. However, I made the mistake of leaving it outside one night, and it was stolen.

So y'know what? I went BACK to my BMX, and stayed with that. I had lost the other bike, and therefore had to prove I was responsible enough for a new one. Also, my parents were not made of money, and made that clear.

Later on, they got me another Mountain Bike, and this one I kept for a good many years.

And I took care of all of them. So either this child is much stupider than I was, his/her parents are gits. Possibly both.

[Boochan]

Exactly.
All my childhood bikes (mine followed a similar pattern, 4 to 8, 9 to 14 and 15 onwards) didn't rust, and still worked great when we have them away to other relative's children.

Guess those parents don't understand what responsibility means. Guess they'd feel the same way if they gave the child a pet for a present?

[powerboy]

I took great care of my bikes. All would happen would be punctures, chain coming off, and the pedals. But my bike is still good.

[Aethian]

I had to pay for my bikes...so that meant working for them, saving for them, and then eventually looking other all the options and prooving to Mom I made a well informed descision.