Tag: Rant

Don’t make empty promises

I’ve recently had an experience with Cycle Lab in Bryanston.

Background

End of last year I noticed that my rear wheel (Rolf Elan) was moving laterally on the hub. Suspecting the bearings, I took it in to Cycle Lab for them to fix it. The mechanic took it apart immediately and noticed that it was just a missing spacer, which they didn’t have in stock. So I left the wheel for them to order the part and get back to me.

My Problem

2 months later, having heard nothing, I went in to enquire, and they knew nothing of my job card, luckily I kept my copy, and luckily I could point out my wheel in the pile of wheels lying in the workshop.

Nothing had been done, so they redid the documentation with more promises to phone me once done.

Fast forward to September. Because I have another set of wheels I haven’t really followed up on this, but at some point I would like my racing wheel back, they’re half the weight of my training set. So I walk in and start asking questions, and eventually have to go point out my wheel in the pile in the workshop again. After a heated discussion between a few people in the workshop the lady comes out and says their supplier have lost the complete insides of the wheel’s hub, and they’ll be happy to replace the wheel for me with a new bontrager one (emphasis hers).  I’m happy with that, and even enquire to the price of the front wheel so that I can buy that to complete the set.

As promised she phones me the Tuesday after, saying she’s still waiting for stock, but will let me know as soon as it arrives.  And then…NOTHING!

So, 2 weeks later I walk in to enquire about the wheel, and now the story has changed…She promptly tells me that she’s still waiting for another customer to return the promised wheel, which he’s borrowing. WTF?

I didn’t lose the insides of that wheel, and it was part of a set.  So what would make me happy is for them to replace it with an equivalent set, I’ll happily hand you the front-wheel I have to go into your collection of loaners.

Another 2 weeks go by with no news, so I walk in again yesterday, and this time I can actually see the loathing on the woman’s face.  So she tells me she’s going to fetch the wheel for me.  And re-appears about 20 minutes with a bottom of the range Shimano wheel, weighing about double what my set of training wheel weigh.  I took the wheel, and walked out, but will never support this shop again, ever.  I vote with my wallet, and tell the world about my experience.

Lesson from this

If you really want to make you customers happy, take notes when you make a promise, and deliver on that, or even over-deliver.  This will ensure that they tell the world about their experience, and that they come back for more.  But never make an empty promise and then deliver half-assed when the customer calls you on it.

Use a bit of common sense in traffic

One of the things that annoy me the most is someone that does not use his/her nut while driving in traffic.

You are not special, and you don’t have special privileges based on the price of your car, the size of your car or the colour of your skin (this is not a racist statement, just an observation).

If everyone used a little bit of common sense, we would actually get out of the traffic a lot sooner.

If you think you’re special and you race down the wrong lane to try and push into a line at the front, you’re holding up everyone that actually had the patience and common sense to be in the correct lane for where they want to go early enough. Continue reading Use a bit of common sense in traffic

Selfish strikers

Have the people currently striking at Transnet thought of the impact of their strike on the rest of South Africa.  My dad is of the opinion that there could be up to one person losing their job in another industry for every person that is striking at Transnet.

How does he get to this?

Lets look at the fruit exporting business.  They are currently in peak season for a number of different fruit, and cannot ship any of their product out of the country.  That means that the industry as a whole will not make their profits, and may make a loss if they have to dump all of their produce on local markets.  Who suffers?  The farmers, and the workers that they now cannot afford to pay anymore.   Their estimate is that they will lose R1billion equalling 30,000 jobs.

Economists say that the economy will probably lose R15billion therefore some 450,000 possible jobs will be lost, taking the scenario of the fruit producers. Take 10% of that and it amounts to some 45,000 additional jobs that may be lost. If this is not theft legalised what is it then? Continue reading Selfish strikers

Standard Bank Internet Banking problems

Seeing that I’m not entirely happy with the response time I’m getting on Twitter, and the fact that the website that Standard Bank lists on their Twitter profile has a broken communication page (it is broken in my browser of choice, Chrome), I’ve decided to list a few minor issues I have with my internet banking here.  I dare them to respond, and actually fix the issues, because I’m convinced I’m not the only one with these issues. Continue reading Standard Bank Internet Banking problems

Garmin, educate your vendors

I've helped two people in the last year to update the firmware on their Garmin units.  It is a fairly simple procedure, and it is FREE.  But in both cases that is not what the stores where the bought the units told them.  Both stores, different ones, tried to sell them new map software, which would not help to fix the issues they were experiencing, but on which the store would make a big profit.

Surely these sales people should have the training and INTEGRITY to help Garmin's clients, and if not, why are they still agents?