Stop me if you’ve heard this one. So last month my bike’s back tire went all wobbly on me, to the point where I couldn’t ride it. I took it in to Cyclepath and they fixed it on the spot in about 15 minutes. They had to point out to me that a bunch of my spokes were broken. For some made-up reason they charged me an extra $40 to replace a piece of hardware on the wheel because mine was “too old and not compatible with their tools” to properly get the wheel on and off. So I ended up paying $70 and change to get the rear tire replace. Now, about a month later, my wheel is rubbing against the prongs which is causing me much dismay. I am trying to go over in my head exactly what I am going to say to try to get this repaired at minimal extra cost.
Me: “Do you guys have any kind of warranty on parts or labour?”
Them: icy stare
Me: “Because I brought this in last week and it’s already broken again. “
Them: “You did it.“
“Well I haven’t been taking it off road or anything. Why would I not have any problems for over a year, and then suddenly it breaks again 4 weeks after you guys fix it?“
“Well it broke 4 weeks ago, didn’t it?”
“You know what I mean, (you extortionists).”
“Did you buy the cheapest wheel possible?”
“Yes. Are you implying that I should have expected to come back in a month because of it?”
“It’s your fault.”
“Well maybe I’ll just take my business to the Bike Doctor.”
“We’re all owned by Coke so do whatever you want, you know-nothing-about-bikes nerd. “
“Ouch.”
“$40 for us to unlock the door and let you out.”
Though in fairness they did give me a free plastic cap for my air tube nozzle…thing. (truly I am a know-nothing-about-bikes nerd). Speaking of nerd, I ran a playtest of the World Wildlife Federation of Justice game that I’m running at H.P. Lovecraft’s Birthday Party (Aug 25-27 at the Marpole Curling Club!) and even though it went almost two hours over the estimated time, it was a lot of fun. All of the players seemed to enjoy it and one of them was even heard to say “I would kill small children to play that again.” I won’t reveal any of the details because I know people who are going to play it will be reading this blog. But after HPLBDP anything goes.
ps - I drew Velocelot, speedster and arch-nemesis to Go-Rilla, and will try to post the pic tonight.