Quote:
Originally Posted by shut the front door
Not so much for Villages Cycles.
I belong to a group that raised thousands of dollars to gather up angel tree kids cards at the regional rec centers. We are limited as to how much we can spend per child as we'd rather provide Christmas for as many kids as possible. Therefore, many of us go way above what we raised, in particular for kids who want bikes. We dipped into our own pockets to be able to provide bikes for many children, but we wanted to make sure that our efforts at assembly wouldn't leave a child in danger. Took a bike to Villages Cycles, explained that this is an angel tree gift and asked if they could look it over to make sure it's safe.
Sure we can! For $40 we'll look it over!
Knowing that we are trying to provide for underprivileged kids, they wanted $40 per bike to take a look.
Fortunately, I have found another avenue. I just hate that they had to be this way about it. The 1 bike took 10 minutes for them to tell us that we assembled it correctly and we shelled out the $40 out of our pockets.
As an aside, please know that the deadline for helping these kids is Dec. 14. Please go grab a card and provide Christmas for an underprivileged kid. They deserve this.
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I never fail to get a few cards from the angle tree at Laurel. I look forward to it, and always try to take at least one requesting a bike. I have always bought the bikes at WM and they have all been assembled. But, as to this "situation", you paid Villages Cycles their $40 for the "look over", and they will still have customers of course, but I would venture they will never know just how much they REALLY lost in sales by getting the $40.... that $40 will probably cost them MANY hundreds, possibly thousands. Villagers are EXTREMELY generous, some for different causes than others, but just one of THE most generous communities ever. But they don't like to patronize merchants who are not likewise generous to others, especially children. I was in a position to need bicycles and some rather pricey items for some area families, I must say the Walmart manager NEVER said no, always asked what they could do. No to single them out, just too many to mention, so Villages Cycles is in the minority I am sure. By the way, just a thought, there are so many cycle clubs in the villages, have a neighbor who belongs to one of them, he knows more about every type of bicycle, gears, parts, everything. Think he could build one and take it apart blindfolded. Was thinking, there are probably many like him all the bike clubs here... perhaps if asked, some of the would be glad to check out the bikes after you've assembled them ??? Just a thought ?