Different Bikes West Van

Horrible service in the bike shop as of late. Have dealt with this shop since it opened a few years ago and things have generally been good.
Took my bike there 3 weeks ago, seems like they have had a shake up in their management, so all new faces. I had crashed my bike and needed a rear derailer hanger. They told me it would be 1 week. After 10 days, I call them only to hear it would be another week. Wait another week, no contact. I go there in person, the shop manager is rude and doesn’t care, doesn’t know where the part is or when it would be delivered. Kinda shrugs his shoulder and says «whatever, you can take it elsewhere if you want. «
Took my bike to Northshore Road Bike, Dave had me back on the road in less than 24 hours.
Don’t go to these guys they offer horrible service, there are other shops on the Northshore with people who genuinely care about cyclist.

As a newbie joining the sport, I heard about all the horror stories about LBS and their attitudes towards new people. My friend who is an avid cyclist recommended that I go check out their west van store as they were having their yearly sale. At the sale, I purchased a pair of Shimano custom mild shoes and was told to come back during the week to get the shoes moulded to my feet as they were designed specifically to do this. After taking some time off of work to come in to get my shoes fitted, the guy at the front desk replies, «oh, I haven’t done that in so long. You can do the same thing by fitting them in your microwave». Fine. So I leave the store and start reading instructions on how to mould them to my feet. Turns out there is actually a bit more of a process which includes moulding the actual shoe to my foot as well and requires some additional equipment which I don’t have. So I go back in and the same guy basically shoots me down and tells me that it’s way too complicated and doesn’t need to be done.
At this point I am so mad because I had to take time off of work and when I called in before, they told me to come in to do this and when I show up, I am basically told to take a hike.
Never will I again shop at Different bikes nor make any recommendation to them. They do not back up the products they sell and have zero customer service. Asking them questions felt like talking to a brick wall. I hope one day I can actually find a LBS that treats all their clients with respect and look forward to dealing with them.
Different Bikes will never get any more of my business or any of my friends if I can help it. I am utterly disgusted at their business practices and don’t believe they’ll be able to succeed if they even treat a small percentage of their customers like they did to me today.

I have been to this location once. It was for an emergency repair on a Sunday afternoon. I had popped a spoke on my road bike while riding down Cypress. I managed to limp down to Different and hoped they could help me repair it enough so I could get home. The store was packed and I was soaked from the rain storm that hit on the ride down.
I was standing thinking that it was going to be a long walk home as cashier told me they could look at it Monday at the earliest. She mentioned that they were really backed up in the shop area. Ugh. That’s when the mechanic saw me and came out to see what the problem was. He quickly took the wheel and repaired and trued the wheel for me. For that I am thankful as it saved me a long bus/​walk/​cab home.

i went to buy a pair of gloves after my right glove decided to leave me. the staff were friendly, the shop was bright and well laid-​out, but the selection wasn’t overwhelming. i would have liked to have a bit more choice, but when you need bike gloves, any size will do. i’d shop here again.