WRV - - a service / retail biz that is lost

So after this thread I went online and bought a few shirts from WRV and had them delivered. Got everything I ordered in a timely fashion, receipt included in the package and got the exact shirts I ordered in the correct sizes. No issues, and the prices were great too. Just thought i'd throw it out there....

 

Just goes to show you that any publicity is good publicity. I bet Shane farted in the box before he sent it to you.

 

It did have an odd smell, strange...

 

If they were surfers, wouldn't they know something about the surfboards they were selling. Had pretty much the same experience as yankee at the shop in Kitty Hawk a couple years ago...save it please, pumpmaster...I can almost guarantee that you've never even been there. And I'm calling bull**** on your surfer theory, I'm a damn good worker.

 

Only time I've ever been into a WRV shop has been on the North Shore. The employee in there was absolutely classic. He came over from Cali to live the hippy-surf bum dream and shred the north shore, while working at a shop that paid him very little money. He had no reason to be nice to me. It was off-season. It was almost closing time. But instead of being a Shane about it, he talked to me for a while and told me the story about how he ended up in Hawaii. I wasn't going to buy anything, but I felt like I needed to after being treated so well. I brought up some fins and a couple tanks to the register. The guy looked at the stuff and said, "I'll give you 1/2 off the fins and take the tanks for ten bucks each."

I'll never forget that dude. And me writing about it now goes to show how important customer service is these days. I think that was the main point OP was trying to get across. You treat your customer well, give them something worth remembering, show them a good experience, and they will likely share that experience with others and recommend your brand.

My two cents.

 

Geez, should I shelve the Fernandez LB I'm looking at?

 

I'm a sponger, so crucify me now for my love of riding flat. I've surfed stand-up, as in short boards, longboards, and SUP. To this day, though, nothing gets me off like bodyboarding and bodysurfing. As far as I'm concerned every 'local' shop I've ever been in whether here in VA Beach or along the West Coast, and even Hawaii, straight sucks. The service sucks, the a-holes working at them sucks. In general, local shops plain suck. No body knows anything useful, and its hard to find anyone to help out with real questions or concerns that I have regarding my advanced skill set, soul-like desires, and needs.

However, I can go to e-bodyboarding.com, and when I have a question, Jay, as in former almost as great as Mike Stewart, Jay Reale will actually e-mail me back with very real answers to questions, or I can go online to any number of various shaper sites, either for surfboards or bodyboards (NMD comes to mind) and get very real answers to very serious equipment questions. Thus, the idea of anonymous internet sites is a complete and total farce. I get way better service online then I've ever got in any local shops in 30+ years in the water, so to tell me to be positive about kids who have no knowledge beyond whats in the latest magazine at the local shop is to tell me to stick my head in the sand and accept poor service. I don't think so. I refuse to shop local because the shops tend to be expensive and pretentious. In a world where its all about who you know, nobody knows me, because I spend my time surfing not trying to prove to some young kook how cool I am by surfing at the overcrowded spots, no matter where it is that I'm surfing.

If you want positive, its very hard for me to find a reason for me to give you any, but in VA Beach there is one minor exception, Austin Surfboards. There I find kindness, openness, and general Aloha. Everywhere else, and even at Freedom, for all those who proclaim its awesomeness, I find snobbery. I don't care to spend a lot of money on my sport, and at Freedom I feel as if I'm a lesser because of this choice. My fave there was I went in looking for a basic straw lifeguards hat, and the girl told me she'd lifeguarded for years and never heard of such a thing. There on the rack was one from Billabong. My problem is, I wanted one without some logo - a near impossible quest I know but excuse me for my peculiarities. Local shops just in general plain suck, the service sucks, and the prices super suck.

 

Well, good for you but your reading comprehension skills are lacking:

 

babies

Aww do you babies need your hand held when you shop. I never herd so much crying. Were do you go that you actually get this dream service, No Where. Get over it kooks. If you go in a shop to buy a board you should already know what your looking for, unless you dont know how to surf. So the guy working picks up on your kookyness and they dont want another b**** sitting on a board at first street. Sounds like you all go in the shops with these attitudes of course no one wants to help you I know if I worked in one and you came in I would tell you to kick rocks. cry babies

 

I never feel comfortable going into a surf shop so if I'm ignored I'm OK with it. However, Shane's attitude does reflect on the company in a negative way. Having said that as a restaurant owner I've seen customers come in with an attitude which makes difficult to be pleasant to them...

 

The vb location is just full of aggro macho bradda men. Every surfer IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE jelly of someone else working in a surf shop. it almost seems like a privilege, tho i have never worked retail...
anyway, i've seen a handful of them surf.... they shouldn't quit their day jobs.


MACHADOOOOOOOO

 

Try any of the tacky beach shops along the strip. They should have plenty and they're probably 50% off now that the tourons have gone home.

 

LOL!! You owe me a keyboard.

 

I don't see what's so offensive about "That's it?" It's just another way of saying "Do you need anything else today?" If I were shane I would've acted the same way to some pric making a big deal out of nothing.

 

Every gas station from here to Frisco sells those hats.

 

pumpmaster...yeah, i saw that after i posted. If that's all you got on me, is a little reading comprehension than so be it. From the way you talk on here, i figured you were so hardcore that you would have surfed obx...but i guess you just flock with all the other homies at the point.

jai-guru- there is absolutely nothing wrong with WRV boards. I own two of them and they are great boards, maybe a little light on the glassing, but other than that, solid. It's more about the people who they have working in their shops. I bought my WRV boards at another surf shop in OCMD, and they are always helpful and get my business.

 

Dude If thats the worst thing that happened to you that day Id say your havin a pretty good day.I mean really if you got such a bad vibe from shane you should have just left the **** on the counter and walked out. but to rag on wrv and possibly get him fired cuz you didnt get a bag.pretty weak.