The cost of doing business in Singapore is high... and I have friends who run small enterprises, and they are feeling the squeeze... so for bike shops, there are costs like rental and manpower. Also, the Singapore market is small compared to US or Taiwan, and the smaller the market, the more costly per item because they do not have volume to make the profits to pay rent and wages (even when you consider rents and wages to be the same as overseas).
On line shops are definately affecting the LBS, and nowadays, the LBS will charge a higher price to install something bought from an online shop because they cannot make the profit from selling the item + installing.
does not matter what lbs charge. service in sg is poor and we will aviod lbs as much as we can..
i think most people rather buy tools install themselves. if i install myself and i damaged it i blame myself. if the bike shop damaged my gears who do i blame? other than my fork issue. those jokers in many of the well know lbs for eg.. wear the shoe step all over my shifter cable. don't even use torque wrench. etc
the problem today for LBS is not because of online shop competition. the problems is because LBS has poor service and they don't bother to care for cutomers. even up to distributor and local shimano office.. i called shimano sg wanted to buy olive and insert for my brakes. they tell me to look for rodalink. i called rodalink outlet all they tell me is sorry don't have. so i call rodalink office but they refuse to sell and directed me back to outlet. JOKE...
honestly i hope some LBS will close down because of the online competition. we need sincere service.
Of course.. i make this clear. there are good people around. I did meet some good and honest mechanic. but they are minority.
"Surely, bike shops in Singapore have a lot of explaining to do."
Yes, we've all had a some bad experiences with bike shops, but there are some honest ones out there. Keep looking. We're not permitted any criticism of shops here on the forum (because they are the advertisers!?), but I would recommend staying well away from one shop that sells American bikes with a name starts with one of the first three letters of the alphabet
Quote: "Formerly posted by maylee5252: "Surely, bike shops in Singapore have a lot of explaining to do."
Yes, we've all had a some bad experiences with bike shops, but there are some honest ones out there. Keep looking. We're not permitted any criticism of shops here on the forum (because they are the advertisers!?), but I would recommend staying well away from one shop that sells American bikes with a name starts with one of the first three letters of the alphabet "
Agreed with you. I initially thought the staff were quite nice, but when I went home and researched, then I figured out that they were scamming me by trying to sell the 2013 and 2014 model which they couldn't sell.
So, for now, the good thing is that I am going with a Specialized Roubaix The bad part, is that, I am paying exactly S$1000 more on the retail price
Totally in agreement about the shop selling American bikes starting with a letter between B and D (in case your spelling is really bad!). Totally over-priced, bad service and slimy characters... There's lots of choices out there.
