I'm a shop manager at a Scooter shop here in Portland. It's a well established place. When I came into work on Monday I got a phone call from the owner that I'd been expecting for a while: "Hey today you wanna head over to ———- and scope it out? See how they are, we got the guys and we can hire, but if they're good maybe we keep em?"
See, the company I work for is purchasing your smaller more "boutique" shop. It's sad really, and honestly I've felt very conflicted about it for some time. I for one got my start at a small shop and I honestly respect the bread-and-butter shops more than bigger ones. Nonetheless, my marching orders were clear. So I rolled in on an old scoot that was a trade in recently. I knew it had issues, I knew what it needed. I was so hoping I could walk in and get great customer service and have good vibes and get honest quotes for honest work so I could go back and call my guy and say "hey keep em the place is A-1." That didn't happen. You guys were rude, pretentious, acted like you didn't even want to work on the bike I brought in. In fact, you, Mr. Manager, even insinuated that I save my cash and junk the thing. When I refused, you overquoted by 500 bucks what our shop would have done the repairs for, AND, you flat out lied about a mechanical implication that would leave the door open to re-quote. The call I made wasn't good. I don't make the decisions, and I didn't throw you under the bus. But I was honest. Best of luck to you and your guys.