This is really irking me

[Ed]

I can't remember the last time I felt as wound up by something.

Me and the wife decided we would buy the kids BMX bikes for Christmas, so we started looking around various places and checking out the prices. I had to go into Halfords for something car related, so while I was there with our youngest I thought I'd take the opportunity to check them out. He went for a particular one, in purple, with gyroscoptic handlebars, etc., and the prices looked to start at about £80 and go to £120 before a big leap in cost, so I thought £120 to £140 seemed reasonable (they'll only trash them anyway). I shared the knowledge I'd gleaned with the missus, and thought no more of it until the day before yesterday when I get a phonecall from her, pleased as punch - she'd put down a deposit on two bikes at Tri-UK. Yeah, she says, they were £180 each, but the guy knocked off £10 each because I was buying two. WTF? What a crap deal. But she thought that was good. Apart from not being happy with the price she paid, I felt left out because I would have liked to have at least seen them and had some input into choosing them, plus they were well over the price we had discussed.

Anyway, the longer I thought about it, the more it irked me, so I said I'd ring them up and ask them to cancel the order and give us back the deposit (£100). Nope, they say, it's against our policy to refund deposits. But I'm not happy with the deal, I tell them - I want something sorted out. Nope, says the manager, hard luck. Then he starts quoting the sales of goods act at me. I kick up a bit more, but to no avail. Finally he says, when you come in to pick up the bikes, as for me and I'll throw you in something that'll put a smile on your face. The only way the guy can put a smile on my face at this point is to carve one with a knife.

So we go in yesterday morning. He turns out to be a pinched little man, like a gay Bruce Forsyth, but without the likeability factor or the sense of humour. He asks me what we're planning to do, and I say get the bikes, because we're stuck with them now, aren't we? Yes you are he says, quoting the sales of goods act again. Plenty of people pay the full price, he says - I did your wife a good deal. If you want to make yourself an unhappy customer by going to a solicitor to take us on, that's your right, he says. By this point I'm bubbling. I look around to see if there are any cameras pointed my way in case I can't resist the building urge to twat him one.

I can't understand why you're unhappy, he says, I've done everything right, by the book.

Maybe, I said, you might be within your rights to trap us into the deal, but I can't believe you would do that - it would have cost you nothing to cancel the deal - the bikes were already in stock, not special order or anything, I even tried to cancel on the same day she placed the order - you could have handed the money back without it costing you anything.

What, and let you go and buy the bikes elsewhere, he says, why would I do that?

For the sake of future custom, maybe? I said. Very short sighted of you to trap us now, isn't it?

No, he says, I don't think it is.

Well I do. I've bought six bikes from that shop so far - do you think after this I will ever go back there? Hell, no. The money is frankly irrelevant at this point. I just don't want the bikes - not even if they were the last bike shop on earth I wouldn't buy from them again.

I grudgingly handed over my card. He threw in a couple of wanky cheap helmets, not the full face ones the kids want, and expected that to pacify me, but like I say, the deal is irrelevant to me by this point. I hate being trapped into paying for something I don't want. So now the kids will get their bikes, one black, one white, on Christmas Day, and I'll put a smile on my face and be happy for them in my heart, but I'll also be thinking hateful thoughts about Tri-UK and their manager at the same time. It's taken the joy out of the kids' main present for me, and when I think of all the graft I've put into earning the money to pay for them, the reheated meals every night because I'm still working while they eat, the pain and discomfort, the stress and hardship of all those days of work - I want it to count for something, you know?

Is that unreasonable?

[delph_ambi]

You needed Rose.

Rose is my daughter. She can walk into any shop and get money back. I don't know how she does it. Even goods she's used, goods where she hasn't a leg to stand on. She still gets refunds. (It may be something to do with her being petite and pretty with big brown eyes.)

As you can't transform yourself into Rose and charm the socks off the Tri-UK guy, you'll just have to hit your head against the garage wall a few times and then put it down to experience. Your kids will still enjoy the bikes. That's the main thing.

[desertwomble]

As Cathy says: "Your kids will still enjoy the bikes. That's the main thing."

And who knows, if you ever revisit 'Tri-UK', the manager may remember you, greet you with a 'Nice to see you, to see you, nice!' and give you a cuddly toy as a no-hard-feelings gift.

Don't you feel better now, Ed?

DW

[delboy]

Don't let it take the joy out of the bikes, Ed. I don't know much about BMX bikes but the lad bought one out of his money not long ago for a little over two hundred quid, which he reckoned that was about the going price. He immediately took off the front brake (they don't use them, apparantly - some of his mates take off both brakes and simply apply their very expensive trainers to the front tyre to slow down), changed out the the handlebar grips and the seat (and put the new one on at an angle that would make your little gay Bruce Forsyth fellow smile)  and headed off to ride over some crazy jumps. He loves it. So for the money you've probably got great bikes, and the kids have endless hours of huge fun.

As far the shop, and the frustration and the anger - why give someone else so much power over your own happiness? Maybe the guy was about to lose his job or his business because of a lack of sales and your money saved his home, his livelihood, his marriage. Hell, maybe his life. Maybe he saw the moment of salavation being torn away from him and was so desperate to save it that he came across so poorly? Maybe he just got out of bed the wrong side. But so what? That's his problem, not yours. You can't control his life or attitude, but you can control your own reaction to it. So smile, and imagine all the quiet hours of writing you'll enjoy whilst the kids are wheeling and jumping, and all the reading you'll get done whilst waiting to see a doctor in the casualty department...

Del

[Rev. Austin]

Set Dom Littlewood on him haha

But otherwise, your kids will be over the moon to get BMXs (BMXes?). I know I was when I got mine, aged 7 Stuff the manager, at least your kids will have a happy christmas and if the manager didn't have some reason to be crap, like Del suggested, he's a horible little man who'll get his comeuppance.  People like that always do, sooner or later.

[Ed]

Yeah, I've calmed down a bit now. I just hate being trapped into doing anything, and I especially hate small-mindedness, particularly when applied to arbitrary rules. Turns out he doesn't know his sales of goods act as well as he thinks, either. Because they took a deposit, it makes the transaction a credit agreement, and as such we were entitled to a seven day cooling off period, during which time we were also entitled to a full refund.

I'll be writing the owners a stinking letter, for sure, but as you say, the boys will enjoy the bikes, which is the main thing. Mind you, when I brought them home a motorbike a few years ago, the first thing they said was they would have prefered a red one, so the colour may still be an issue

[delboy]

Clearly, when it comes to motorcycles, green is the only colour!





Del

[delph_ambi]

When I was little we always painted our bikes with scraps of gloss paint left over from decorating the house. Odd, but individual.