Le Grand Cycle Enr

Le pire du pire.
Le pire service après-​vente qu’on peut imaginer. Le propriétaire a l’air sympathique quand vous voulez acheter quelque chose (vélo ou accessoire). Mais lorsque vous avez un problème avec ce que vous avez déjà acheté, attendez-​vous à recevoir le pire service imaginable.
Vous voulez acheter des accessoires? Sachez que tout coûte plus cher ici. Même avec le 10 ou 15% de rabais sur les accessoires qui est offert lorsque vous achetez un vélo, tout revient quand même plus cher qu’ailleurs! Quelques coins de rue plus loin, chez Garantie Bicycle, sur Marie-​Anne, vous aurez de bien meilleurs prix sur les accessoires. Et sinon, ABC Vélo sur l’avenue du Parc!
Mais jamais je né retournerai au Grand Cycle — ni pour pour un achat, ni pour une réparation.
Adiós Brunos! Dommage!

Ugh. There are too many bike places in this city for me to ever be inclined to return to this one. If my bike dropped its chain and both wheels magically disintegrated ten feet from their door, I might just pick the damn thing up and carry it somewhere else.
Here’s what happened: I went in to buy new tubes for my dinosaur of a bike that I use for riding short distances, transportation, etc. Yes, it’s ugly. Yes, it’s older than I am. But it has clipless pedals and a special saddle as well as fresh bar tape. Clearly, I am doing my best to maintain the POS. I told them the size tubes I wanted. The girl helping me either was struggling because I was speaking English or because she didn’t know what I was talking about. Either way, she solicited help from another guy, he told her what to get for me, and she came back with tubes that were a quarter inch smaller than I’d asked for.
Now, I’m no Lance Armstrong. But I was carrying cycling cleats and I was buying tubes. My bicycle, however unattractive and old, combined with these other two things imply that I know enough about bicycles to 1) ask for tubes, not tires/​wheels/​whatever, 2) change my own flats, and 3) potentially be a repeat customer, as I am concerned with maintaining my bicycle and presumably ride enough to drop $ 250 on a pair of stupid-​looking shoes that basically can’t be used for anything else. In fact, someone who hadn’t been a jerk might have looked at all of the bike paraphernalia I was carrying and correctly assumed that I probably have multiple bikes – one of which is even more absurdly expensive than the stupid-​looking shoes – and that I would potentially be in there all the time to buy other ridiculously expensive things.
So I really do not appreciate that I was treated like a complete idiot when I asked if the slightly narrower tubes would be a problem. Frankly, I’m pissed off that the snide response was «This is my job, I know what I’m talking about.» Because this may be the guy’s job, but this is my bike. I know that this is a thing for a lot of bike shops (and, now that I think about it, for a lot of sports equipment shops in general). That doesn’t mean that I have to like it or that I have to recommend it or that I have to return. So I’m not going to do any of those things.

Mon vélo avait vu plusieurs mécanos et aucun né pouvait arranger ma roué grandement voilée…je m’alignais pour remplacer la roué quand un ami m’a dit d’aller vers Le Grand Cycle ou le Patron Bruno et le chef d’atelier savent faire des miracles! Situé sur la piste cyclable près du Parc Lafontaine, j’avais souvent vu cette boutique que je croyais à tord snob et chère…
AU CONTRAIRE, le service est impécable, de la réceptioniste au téléphone au chef d’atelier en passant par les autres mécanos venderus, tous sympa, patient et surtout connaisseurs de leur produits versus le besoin de leur clients… Ils ont réparé ma roué pour le cinquième du coût d’une neuve (je m’attendais à la changer!)… Bref, vraiment le meilleur endroit de service pour vélo que j’ai rencontré depuis longtemps! MERCI.
JM