An Exercise Bike: Game vs Makro
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I worked in retail, for about 18 months. I learned something vitally important. Well actually 2 things. First off, I learned that I never *ever* wanted to work in retail again, but more importantly, I learned how important customer service is.
It’s not rocket science.
It’s not even difficult, but it requires, a degree of energy, a modicum of patience (this does not apply to twenty something computer store clerks of course), and most of all a burning desire to succeed (hit your weekly/monthly target).
As a result of this short time in the retail industry, I am surprisingly sympathetic with store clerks. They spend long hours on their feet, have ridiculous targets to meet, and are often not incentivised to do so.
However, it has also made me increasingly dissatisfied with bad service. Because as I said earlier, it’s not rocket science, and a lack of service is not only careless and unnecessary, it just plain PISSES ME OFF.
Take this weekend for example. Thanks to an unexpected tax rebate, after paying off some bills, the husband and I decided that it was time to add to our home gym set up, and to speed up the recovery of the husbands knee after surgery, and so we set off on a Sunday morning with both kids in tow to check out some exercise bikes.
Our first stop was Sportsmans Warehouse.
Pros: Nice selection of really high end equipment, and had we not decided to stick to a smallish pre-determined budget, we could have really set ourselves up with a really good bicycle.
Cons: Had to seek out a sales assistant as they were all chatting at the back of the store. The one who did eventually reluctantly come over to help us was not knowledgeable enough to answer our questions (about tension/resistance/magnetisation etc) and frankly I didn’t like his attitude, which was one of ‘Oh this is such a waste of my time, because no one ever buys an exercise bike on a Sunday morning when they have their kids with them.” HAH.
Also: we asked about getting the battery in my Polar Heart Rate Monitor replaced, and we were advised by the guys at the service desk to send it to Polar ourselves, because they would take too long to do it. Which to me translates as, “We’re lazy bastards, do your own work, why the hell should we service your watch, for a measly battery?” Nice. Management, it might be time to chat to your peons about customer service, and brand management, and oh yes, vision.
Our Second Stop on our quest was Game.
Pros: A fairly good selection of bikes, with a good price range.
Cons: Spent nearly 10 minutes looking at bikes, without being greeted even ONCE by staff. Had to ask someone, to find someone to help in that area.
Notes: However, once that sales clerk turned up, he was extremely helpful, knew his products, and went and found one that was not on display, and offered to set it up for us. However, and this is what really annoyed me, we asked the sales guy if we could get a cash discount. In this current economic climate, with stores going out of business left right and centre. I reckon that stores should be hungry to make sales. It is a big ticket item, and it would barely dent their margin. Good for the sales guy, and he went to ‘get authorisation’. Management said, “No.” So I said, “Okay, then we’re not taking it.” Sales guy then said that the store was putting this particular bike on promotion on Thursday (down from ZAR 2699, to R2499 – a discount of approx 7%). So we asked why they can’t give it to us for a 5 % discount, and let us buy it today, given that we were standing right there, and willing to take it.
The answer came back, “No.”
So we left.
I just WILL NOT buy an item of that expense without getting a good deal. It’s not even like I was asking for the promotional price. Sorry Game, but you missed out on a nice sale, on a quiet Sunday morning. Sucks to be you!
So we then drove to our third stop, Makro.
Pros: Busy, exciting promotions going on, in store. Time between us looking at an exercise bike, and getting attention from a sales guy? Approximately 5.6423 seconds. Even though he was demonstrating a treadmill to another couple at the same time.
Price? ZAR R2499.00
Deal? Done.
Here’s the one we bought:
It was fairly easy to assemble, given that it came in a box, although it did require two people to do this – one to hold stuff in position, and the other to turn the screws in the right place.
Time to assemble from start to finish: About 20 minutes.
How does it work? Really, really well. My top three points about this exercise bike, are:
- It is seriously quiet. I mean my very light sleeping children to do not wake up, when I stumble out of bed at 05h30am and have a work out.
- The seat is easily adjustable (same as the ones at a Gym), and its comfortable. Yeah, why should my butt take strain just because it’s exercising right?
- It has a built in heart rate sensor, so I don’t have the added shlep of putting my polar heart rate monitor on (plus it needs a new battery anyway).
What are your experiences with buying big ticket items like this? Did you get good service? Bad service? Send us your thoughts! Leave a comment with your experiences!
Free Resources for WAHMs: Free Fax 2 Email Number
Are you a WAHM (Work At Home Mom) and need a fax number?
Did you know that you no longer have to rent a phone line, in order to be able to receive faxes? In fact, you no longer even need a fax machine!
Instead you receive your faxes, as attachments to your email! Doesn’t that make life a lot easier? It will certainly save you costs in the long run, and anything that saves on paper, saves trees, and that’s good for the planet, which scores major points in my book.
You can go to this website now, and get your own free fax to email number, by simply signing up. (Only available to South African Residents).
- A fax to email number can be printed on your business stationery, and business cards as soon as you receive it.
- People then fax as normal to the number, as you’ve given it to them.
- You then receive the fax, on an email, attached as a .pdf file. Most computers can read these files, but if you have any trouble, then you need to download Adobe Reader (look for the free reader bottom right).
- It’s really that simple to begin to receive faxes. This is really useful, if you need to receive fax orders for the business that you are running from home.
- If you have a smart phone, like a Blackberry or iPhone, you can then also receive your email wherever you are, at the shops, waiting to pick up your kids from school etc. So you need never be out of touch, or miss another order!
Fax 2 Email is by no means a new technology, but it certainly is very helpful, particularly when you are first starting out in business on your own, because it opens yet another potential communication channel between you and your customers. This service is provided free by Vodacom, as they receive an incentive from Telkom based on the number of inbound faxes. Therefore it costs you, the consumer nothing to receive your faxes on email. There are numerous places that offer this service and you are under no obligation to use vodacom as the service reseller.
Please note that for you to SEND a fax is not free. However, if you are operating with email and internet, in most cases, companies should provide you with an option to email information that you need, or even email in scanned documents as an alternative to sending a fax.
There should always be a way to do something for free.
NessWorld, in support of WAHM’s everywhere.
We’re Back!
Apologies for the delay in posting! An unforeseen computer disaster (namely a gorgeous 18 month old toddler, yes mine, decided that my Macbook looked better on the floor), followed by a shortage of Apple Macs in this country kept me away from you all for far too long!
The good news is we’re back and better, tastier, and way more delicious than ever before!
I have several new posts lined up, and I hope that you will enjoy them as much as I’m going to enjoy writing them during this coming week. They are going to be of interest to those of you (us!) that work from home, and some of the lighter stuff will be of interest to anyone, so please remember to share your favourite posts on stumbleupon, digg, become a fan on facebook, subscribe to the rss feed, and even follow us on twitter for up to the minute updates.
Remember that this website is here to entertain, support and be a place to find resources for WAHMs (work at home moms) all around the globe, so the more people who hear about us, comment on the site, and use it as a place for networking, the better for all of us.
Coming up this week will be the first of what I hope will become many, many profiles of WAHM’s as we aim to grow our network, and support each other.
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