All I can say is HOLY COW! I called a fly shop the other day that organizes a fly-fishing consumer show. I introduced myself and asked about possibly purchasing some exhibit space and showing some new items we have coming as a sneak peek.
The owner of the fly shop could not have fit the mould of the stereotypical fly shop owner/worker any better. His arrogance oozed through the phone and the holier than thou attitude made me sick. I will just never understand what turns some fly shop owners/employees into complete idiots.
If I had been new to fly-fishing and walked into this shop and was met with this attitude I probably would have walked away from fly-fishing for good. Words cannot describe just how sick it makes me to deal with a complete &*%@# like this and know that they are representing our great pastime.
Note to all fly shop owners and employees. Be sure you understand the following:
Despite what you may think, you do not know everything.
Despite what you may think, you are not better than everyone else that walks through the door.
Despite what you may think, you are not gods gift to the fly-fishing universe, you are not the worlds finest caster, fly tier, fly angler, etc.
I will just never understand this attitude and it frustrates me to the core. I can?t tell you how many anglers I have spoken to that were completely turned off to fly-fishing after an experience like this when they were getting started.
Needless to say, not only will I never get involved in their show, I will be sure nobody I know spends a penny in that store and I’ll be happy to assist any shop that competes with them.
Oh great, now my blood pressure is up . . .
Jeff - AKA Dr. Fish
If it has fins and swims than I must chase it!
I know what you are talking about. I have been treated that way and it is not a good feeling. I teach a beginning fly tying class and have taken some of my students into a fly shop to help them get started and they were not treated the way I think they should have been treated and they were not talked to like they should have been. In each case, I apologized to them for the store owner. I do not understand what has happened to customer service. I come from a background where I have always worked with customers and love it. It gives me a good feeling to know that I have served and helped someone. If I could afford it, I would love to own a fly shop and show customers how it feels to be treated like a customer. My favorite customer is one who comes in upset about something because that gives me something to work on. My happy customers are easy to work with and make my day easier. Give me the upset ones and let see if I can win another happy customer. I need to stop and get off my soap box. I just do not understand where we lost customer service in the business world and hope it makes a come back. My 2 cents worth.
If I find a good fly shop in an area with friendly owners, I will keep going back. I would sooner go to Bass Pro and Cabelas where I always get friendly service before I would go to a fly shop owner who acts the way you describe.
“If firearms cause crimes and kill people, all of the ones I have must be defective.”
I’m certainly not saying ALL fly shops are this way because obviously this is not the case. I will say that I have been into many shops where this attitude hit you as soon as you walked through the door. I have also been in some shops where you were made to feel like an old friend when you walked in. I only wish there were more of these shops out there.
While I’d love to call this retailer out, it would only cause problems for us as this brain trust would then start bad mouthing our products to everyone and anyone who would listen.
If they only knew what they were doing to their business but chasing away customers.
It’s been a full week and I’m still steamed about it!
Jeff - AKA Dr. Fish
If it has fins and swims than I must chase it!
Jeff,
When I started, the guy taking my “paltry” $300.00 suddenly said he’d be right back, then came back & told me he had to take a call from one of his “high-dollar” customers, then proceeded to tell me about the thousands the guy spends. His attitude was clearly “bring big bucks or don’t waste my time”. Luckily, another man took over & the guys in that shop would stand there & demonstrate knots, etc…REGARDLESS whether I spent a dime or not! Quite a change & that welcome pulled me back in there after I had refused to return until I heard of the change in management. Sadly now, this large store has tremendously downsized the FF department…toobad, as flyfishing is growing in this part of Ohio.
Mike
I keep reading about all of these fly shops that display arrogant behavior and holier then thou attitudes. Where are they? I get to travel a bit in my work and one of the things I like to do is visit fly shops in those places I travel to. I have been in a lot of fly shops over the years. Frankly, I can think of only one in whcih the owner or shop worker was somewhat arrogant and that is just down the road from me. For the most part the shops I have visited the folks working there were friendly and informative. Somethimes I wonder if it isn’t the customer that has the attitude.
Kerry, in some cases, you are undoubtedly correct. There are always two sides to every story.
I think it would be a denial of the evidence to assign the cause you suggest to all (or even most) of the negative stories related. The accounts are coming from many different people, and the majority identify the “arrogance” trait.
Maybe we customers are humbled by the power relationship. Especially when we are new to the sport, “He’s got the knowledge and equipment I need. All I have to offer is money.”
And perhaps most folks appreciate a salesman who can see the inequity of knowledge and experience, and treats the prospect as a person rather than a quick income stream .
Another grand article JC,
It seems that, around here anyway, as the economy tightened it became harder for some places to keep “long term” up front. And maybe that has to do more with have “new” employees who’s “job” it is to “sell stuff” and don’t yet have the experience to “let you buy stuff”.
That said, there are some GRAND shops still out there. Especially between Burney and San Jose…
…lee s.
Do you think this “holier than thou” attitude might be a common denominator with specialty shops of any kind? I distinctly recall Massachusetts tack shops having the same attitude. Unless you were spending a thousand dollars on a new, high-tech pair of riding britches or boots, you didn’t really warrant their notice. I don’t think any fly shop has ever made me feel as inferior as a New England tack shop.
I personally introduce myself to every new patron who comes to the library. I instruct my volunteers to greet every patron when he or she enters. Over time I have learned dozens of patrons’ reading preferences and I have adjusted my reading stocks to match. Patronage is up, the number of books checked out is up and we are receiving accolades from the community. I treat my library patrons the way I wish to be treated. It works and it works well. Arrogance is an awful affliction. Genuinely engaging a person is the cure.
Unfortunately, far too many of today’s specialty shop owners seem to have forgotten the old adage, “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
Another point I would like to make. I know several fly shop owners and all of them have stated that the money makers are not the high ticket items but the incidentals; flies, leaders, tying materials etc. With that in mind I would think the shops would be more interested in selling you flies every week then a rod every couple of years if that.
I assure you that at least in this case, it was not me with the bad attitude Kerry. On the contrary, I was eager to find out more about this event, PAY him for booth space and enjoy the show.
I was nothing but polite and this guy was ridiculous.
Jeff - AKA Dr. Fish
If it has fins and swims than I must chase it!
Local fly shop offered to let my scouts use his loaner rods,Help teach them basic casting stroke, and use his tying stations in shop to tie their own simple pattern. His charge was that there be at least one parent for every three scouts as he didn’t want the responsibilty when they did something dumb. Pretty cheap lessons and probably fly fishers for life.
There are good and bad shop owners and employes all over this country. I live in an area that has more shops than just about anyother in the country. And I will tell you that there are good shops and bad ones here to. Having guided out of a lot of them over the years I have found here are good employes just as there are bad customers.
I know one shop that has changed big time and it is do to the person running the front of the store. You walk in now and you are greeted and asked if you need help. If you tell them you do not need help they say “just let us know if you do”. In years past you could go into that same store and you might get waited on in a month or two or if you had a lot of money. Good to see the change.
I went onto a shop this past year as I lost my bottle of fly floatant. That was all I needed and my son and I went in and bought one bottle. The owner was less than nice from the start.(I was not from out of state) Even though I tried to be nice to him it was more like I was a pain in his neck than someone buying something. Granted I was not buying a rod but I was spending money. The thing that set me off was the floatant was $3.95 a bottle and I gave the guy $4.00 and started to leave I had forgot that area had a tourist tax.(Most of Montana does not have any sales tax) As I was walking away the guy Yells “Hey buddy you are short here” I was short 3 cents. Now I don’t know about you but for 3 cents it would not have made it worth my while to yell at a customer for those 3 pennys. I went back and gave him his 3 pennys and I also told him that I was a fly fishing guide and outfitter and that I would be sure and tell everyone that I knew about how nice he and his shop was. I then left. Nope I wouildn’t go back on bet.
There are a few other in this area that think that if you don’t have money they don’t want to talk to you. But there are a lot of them that are just good down home people to. It is up to each of us to find out which is which. Part of being a shopper I guess? Ron
We basically have two full service fly shops in town here…and then one marina store that also carries fly fishing stuff. The two honest-to-god fly shops are almost next door to one another…little more than a stone’s throw.
Walk into shop #1 and you’re greeted warmly and well taken care of. Info does not come with a price tag. They have hot coffee all the time and it’s free. And they give loyal customers a “volume discount.”
Walk into shop #2 and you’ll have a hard time prying a word out of the shop owner. Ask a question that’s not leading up to buying a new rod or a set of waders (of which he doesn’t even keep a really good stock) and the response always seems to irritate him. His wife is a bit friendlier, but pretty condescending. The air is thick with arrogance and apathy.
The 2 shops have not been next door to one another for long. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
A couple of summers ago, in July I think, a friend and I went to Ketchum, ID to spread the ashes of a good friend of his. (It was a wonderful experience and brought a lot of closure to my friend.) We’d fished our way down from Missoula, MT. We wanted to fish Silver Creek and went into a local fly shop to get the 411. The place looked really up scale and was. The young fellow who helped us, however, was not the least bit snooty or arrogant. We had both been on the road and river for 3 days and smelled and looked like it. The young man helped another customer when I told him we were just looking. I then hit the fly counter. He comes by, I tell him our plan, he pulls out a couple of trays of flies and made some suggestions. I bought a couple dozen flies and a pair of gaitors. It was a perfectly pleasant experience. He gave us more info than we could consume and off we went. I was expecting to get the attitude, but the opposite was true. When I am in that neck of the woods again, you know where I’ll go.
I’ve had the opposite experience several times, and, of course, those shops are off the list. Several of them have closed. I’m pretty sure I know why.
I know where you are coming from with this. I am the greenest of greenhorns when it comes to fly-fishing. Last fall I was invited on a duck hunt. While traveling to the duck hunt I went through some amazing country that I had only heard about after being introduced to fishing with a fly, the Catskills. I was so excited to see some of the rivers that I had heard many stories about as I passed through. I decided that I would only hunt the morning of the last day so that I could stop at the fly shops in Roscoe on the way home. The last day of the hunt came and I was off and runnin’. I went to the Orvis shop and a couple others. It was awesome for me to be in that area! And THEN, came a well known shop(I won’t mention the name, BUT SHOULD; you know who you are!). As I walked in, the two fellas working the shop totally ignored me. They were too worried about figuring out how to get a piece of plywood there for a display. After about ten minutes of browsing and hearing foul language, not even a HI, I wandered across the street and spent my money. I WILL be back to the area to fish as often as I can till I’m pushin’ up daisies(I’m only 35), and I can assure you that I, and anyone who is with me will never set foot in that store.
Talk about blood pressure,sorry about the rambling.
Especially between Burney and San Jose…