New bike purchase....expectations from LBS?

[kombos]

Curious about your experiences and what you expect from a LBS when you purchase a new bike.

I've only bought two new bikes from LBSs in the last couple of decades. A few years back I bought an $1100 Giant hardtail that was delivered to my house (mobile bike shop did not have a public store front). Upon delivery, the guy set my seat post height, fork air based on my weight, and had me sit on the bike to adjust the handlebar controls. After having me ride it up and down my street to check all was good, he bid me good day and left.

This week I picked up my Levo Comp. Had phoned the shop across town saying I wanted to purchase and agreed I would pick up next day. I arrived, they rolled the bike out (which looked fine) and I paid with my credit card. The guy asked if I knew how to turn on the bike (I said yes) and then asked if I needed help loading (I said I could do, no problem). He handed me the charger, opened the door, and wished me a good day.

Is this what you typically find? Granted, I took the bike home and did all my own seat/suspension/controls setup to my initial liking. Do shops assume if you buy a "high-end" bike that you've got that all covered yourself?

 

[Pdoz]

I've found it varies across times of year plus between shops.

Five bikes from 1 lbs, each time it was difficult getting out the door as he fiddled / fine tuned / discussed features etc. Then every time I dropped in he'd be asking when I was bringing the bike back for the " free" tune up.

Except this xmas time ! I bought my wife a high end urban bike , pre ordered and arranged pick up at a particular day. He was flat out but told his wife it'd been checked....I don't think so!!! Luckily I checked the bike myself before she rode it - lesson learnt.

My bad, xmas is a busy time of year and a stupid time to expect good service.

I've also found purchasing from shops based on advertised discount prices gets poor service. I recently bought my daughter a scott genius ( non ebike) , couldn't find one locally so bought from the city. I expect the dealer knew we'd never be back which might explain the crappy service that ensured we'd never be back.....

 

[Rusty]

I expect a lot more than that.
For any eMTB I expect the shop to do basic set-up ... or at least ask if you would like them to. Any particular foibles of your model I expect to be pointed out, as well as basic info such as not shifting under load. Things like explaining the groupset - advising that steel sprockets are used as alloy ones tear up too quick with an ebike. How to charge correctly as well as how to charge and store if not using for an extended period.

I had all of that, both from my Scott dealer and my Speshy dealer - even though both know that I have had dozens of different bikes. To me it is basic customer service and courtesy. Far too many just want to push you out the door once they have your money in the till - and this is not only bike shops.

 

[Jamy]

I purchased the 2020 SL hardtail begining of November. My LBS was next to useless (J.E James). they had no idea when the bikes would be in stock even though the bike was released in September. I tried to pre-order one and was told by my LBS that they had been in touch with Cube and that they had sold out!!
At this point i turned to the internet and purchased online from Wheelbase. got the bike 3 days later.

 

[GrahamPaul]

I ordered both our clockwork bikes from the LBS here in our village. The owner measured us up, set saddles, suspension pressures, handlebars etc., for both me and the missus, before we left the shop and has been a joy to deal with for odd bits of maintenance (and advice) for things I can't do myself. I destroyed the suspension pivot bearings on my fully twice during the guarantee period and the claims were dealt with between the shop and the manufacturer while I was lent a replacement bike.

I wanted either Cube or Focus EMTBs, which our LBS doesn't sell (only Lapierre and Olympia - both out of my price range), so used an LBS in the next town. The shop is huge, but the staff have been very helpful. My wife's Thron2 arrived about 6 weeks ago. They did the same thing, setting saddle heights, pressures etc. and did a run through all the controls. A couple of days later we took it back for the 100km first service (done without appointment). The only amusing bit there was having to translate the German service manual into Spanish so the mechanic could run through the tick boxes.

That's the kind of thing I would expect from my LBS because of the premium I am paying over an online purchase. I was really torn over whether to buy the new bikes online but it was that level of service (and the expected levels of motor failure I read about on here) which tipped me to buying through the LBS.

That said, both Cube and Focus seem to be very poor at supplying bikes to their dealers outside Germany. I feel very sorry for the LBS when I have seen him open his web browser to look at the latest delivery update only to find that it has entirely disappeared.