I am not one to habitually write negative-mediocre reviews. However, my experience with Joe's Bike…read moreShop was unfortunately less than satisfactory. I was a former Mt. Washington Bike shop patron in the 1980s and early 1990s before I moved to Oakland-Berkeley, CA.
I like to give everyone 50% of the benefit of some doubt, and an honest lap. However, if you have outlier on the curve bicycles that don't fit under the current day technologies familiarity bell curve, I don't recommend this shop.
POSITIVES. Let me first say my aim is not to sour my positive experience had. I appreciate Jens' and Mike's customer service skills. They both listened to me, were respectful, courteous, and did not oversell their knowledge about my unique bicycles, keeping kept expectations reasonable and reassured me they would be transparent about any work that would be needed. I will say, Mike did a good job on the tune up.
DING #1. Unfortunately, they did not check in when making a repair without soliciting my feedback, first. Replaced my derailleur with a ~$20 one, but I did not approve this switch out. I appreciate that safety is paramount with this shop, and I had an engaging discussion with Mike on this. He was apologetic for not checking in with me, and this was certainly appreciated.
What this shop did not understand is my dated, 2006, trusty steed, urban assault/sherpa Specialized Tricross was INTENTIONALLY sans a third chain ring--whereby, it requires someone who is deft at dispensing 1.5 toggles of the old skool index shifters. Clearly they perceived this 'feature' as a safety flaw. Back in 2005/2006, this model came with the option to be sans the third chain ring. And, these shifters which are obsolete now. The set I have were the last ones could locate on this spaceship, and were recently installed last year. And yeah, the original index shifters lasted 16 years!
(MAJOR) DING #2. Corey on the other hand has a MAJOR 'tude problem and is the reason I will NOT be returning to this establishment. Intransigent, omnipotent, disrespectful, unyielding, curt, utterly and COMPLETELY rude are the operatives that come to mind about him. His interpersonal skills have A LOT to be desired. Understatement. Clear the dude Corey is sans knowing how to dispense, 'I'm sorry. I made a mistake.' He needs to stand correct. Bounce on this cat if you know what's good for you. Ask for Mike or Jens.
Aside: For a frame of reference, I can assert my agency on Corey's lack of customer service acumen. I spent a good number of years in the food service industry as a teenager, and while working my way through my BSc. Claim to Fame: I was the Assistant Manager of the highest yielding Haagen Däzs store in the country in Baltimore Harborplace during the summer of 1987.
Intransigent Corey went out of his way to make a judgement call about my derailleur--claiming it was not the correct derailleur or installed correctly; quite likely it got nix a bit during the trip across the country. What this myopic dude failed to understand about my Tricross is it is intentionally configured this way due to only two chain rings configuration--mind you, by one of the most renown, competent, bicycle mechanics in this country, John Kos Koslosky at Castro Valley Cyclery in Castro Valley, CA. A cat who has been my bicycle mechanic for over 20 years, and who:
- Since 1982, has been a road and mountain bicycle racer who even, at one time in his career, trained at the US Olympic training center in Colorado.
- Is US National Team Mechanic certified.
- Is a premier wheel builder (built more than 6000 wheels since 1984), including wheels for UCI world champions.
- From 2001-2009 was the Australian National Mountain Bike DH/4X Team Technical Director and Head Mechanic.
DING #3. I also had to enquire at least three times to be afforded a copy of an invoice for my annals. Not even cool I had to solicit this record of my repairs and cost of labor; this was a FIRST.
Thankfully, I found another shop that has EXEMPLARY customer service skills, and wasn't even squeamish about servicing my one of a kind Dutch Batavus with experimental Sturmery-Archer hubs and drum brakes. They even reassured me they have access to Sturmey-Archer parts that may not be of everyone else's familiar. Yes, I had Joe's Bike Shop issue my Batavus a look over a week ago. The dialogue I had with Joe's Bick Shop did not include swirls of confidence for me.
