Poster: A snowHead
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What would you do if you overheard the following:
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customer (unprompted): "my heels are lifting in the boot, it feels wide round my heel"
sales assistant (I think bootfitter would be going a bit far!): "are you trying to lift your heel deliberately"
customer: "er, I suppose so"
sales assistant: "well push your knees forward and it should be okay as you flex in the boot - is that better?"
customer: "a bit, yes it's better" (sounding not terribly sure)
sales assistant: "don't worry then, as you ski in them they will fit better" |
Here's the dilemma, do you:
a. walk right up and tell the customer the person selling the boots is obviously clueless and she should go elsewhere (risking being kicked out of the shop and never being able to go back in again, not that I go in very much)
b. stand, look perplexed and try to make eye contact with the customer (but fail) in a way that avoids any conflict and in order to silently suggest she should high tail it out the store as soon as possible but end up just walking away thinking "been there done that, she'll learn poor thing"
At the time I chose b. - did I do right or should I have been braver?
Wow, the moral dilemmas I get when I enter a Slush and Rubble, it's always so much easier in EB
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Something between a/b
Walk up to the customer and offer some helpful advice. Either they'll decide to go elsewhere, or else they'll be too ashamed to, so will buy there anyway, but at least they will buy the right boots.
You have ruined somebody's skiing holiday.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I couldn't have just walked away. Not sure what I would have done but I would have to have done something.
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Wait 'til the bootfitter moves away to gets something else/she goes for a practise walk/etc, then tell the customer. Or go tell the store manager..
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Quote: |
a. walk right up and tell the customer the person selling the boots is obviously clueless and she should go elsewhere (risking being kicked out of the shop and never being able to go back in again, not that I go in very much)
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Been there and done that and I don't know that much about boots ( though a bit more than they did)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Wot clarky999 said
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Hmmm, sounds like I was a coward and you guys are much braver than me but I have had 'conversations' with a manager in that particular place before about boot fitting and he just wasn't interested (he got quite combative which was unpleasant to say the least)!
I think I'll stick to EB in future, as I say I've never had these moral dilemmas there!
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roga, In my case it resulted in the sales assistant getting another more experienced fitter to help as it turned out that it was the first time he had done one on his own.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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roga, so if you deliberately try and lift your heels in your boots, do they move at all??
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kitenski, very little (a millimetre or two with effort) but they are a very tight performance fit!
Go on make me feel better by telling me the fitter was okay after all
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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roga, well actually no idea, unless a shell test was done, but I guess that is the problem, in my boots it feels like my heels are moving, but it can only be a few mm like yours....esp as you can compress/stretch the skin around the heel, so it could feel like it was moving more than it actually does....
I guess not knowing what the fitter had done prior to the conversation is going to be hard to pass judgement!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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always travel with a handful of CEM's business cards/brochures
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There is a difference between the heel lift you get if you stand up straight and deliberately lift up that heel, by flexing your foot and heel lift when the leg is flexed forward, and it's the latter which is the issue here (at least, I think that's what CEM told me.....)
Even in my Zipfits I have some of the former - but none of the latter.
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You know it makes sense.
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c) tell them that snowboarding boots are more comfortable
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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pam w, I am having a little trouble writing this but here it comes.....
+1
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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What Pam said, if you pull at the heel you will always lift it somewhat. If it can't lift up, the chances are that you wont get your heel down there. I don't understand this post, the 'bootfitter' in this instance is pretty much right, so what is the point of this? Are we becoming the Snowheads, Bootfitting Police???
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Quote: |
I got the impression the customer was talking about more than a little bit of heel lift
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Let the sales staff decide, it's their job.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Quality trained staff there lol
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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SMALLZOOKEEPER, are you suggesting that definitive statements shouldn't be based on cursory or incomplete information? Burn the heretic.
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SMALLZOOKEEPER wrote: |
What Pam said, if you pull at the heel you will always lift it somewhat. If it can't lift up, the chances are that you wont get your heel down there. |
Fine so I did the right thing - must be the first time I've found solace in one of your posts!
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I don't understand this post, the 'bootfitter' in this instance is pretty much right, so what is the point of this? Are we becoming the Snowheads, Bootfitting Police??? |
No that's your job is it not?
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SMALLZOOKEEPER wrote: |
What Pam said, if you pull at the heel you will always lift it somewhat. If it can't lift up, the chances are that you wont get your heel down there. I don't understand this post, the 'bootfitter' in this instance is pretty much right, so what is the point of this? Are we becoming the Snowheads, Bootfitting Police??? |
Yeah, people are overly-obsessed with whether or not they can lift their heel in the boot. Boot manufacturers used to be overly-obsessed with it too, using nice blood-restricting cables across the instep to cure it and big it up as a major selling point of their rear entries. Anyway, people get the boots they deserve - some (many) buy them too big but just get on with it and then there's the macho brigade at the other end of the scale that must have them too small and too stiff - easily recognised by the steam and bodily fluids escaping from their ears and their screaming in agony half way up the T bar. Somewhere in the middle is about right eh?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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it - i'd leave them be.
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Bode Swiller, spot on, mirrors my recent boot history. I had a pair of Lange Fluid 90's from Shurefoot with injected lining, the full monty. I'm UK size 9 and the Lange were 26.5 shell. They were great (if very tight all round and toes bashing up against the front) for about 4 seasons, then the trouble started. Massive pain on the instep on 2/3 trips, debilitating pain. The tipping point was reached last December when I jarred my foot landing a jump and the instep swelled up making skiing impossible. I spent the next two days sitting on the sofa waiting for the swelling to go down, and even when it had I couldn't get the boot on without crying. Frustrated, and concluding that the liner had packed down so was offering zero cushioning, I went to Tricher Sport (in Schladming) and walked out with a pair of Salamon Impact 9 CS boots, apparently a good mix of performance and comfort. These were shell 28, and I was initially worried they were too big; I could raise my heal a little bit, there was a bit of internal swivel going on etc. After playing around with the clips, and a few more days skiing, I managed to get them almost spot on. Still a bit of rub on the inside ankle, but nothing a preemptive blister plaster didn't sort out. My conclusion was that I was over thinking the whole thing. Of course once the boots had settled in I went and bust my ACL so the next test will have to wait until next season....
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Dr John, I love the Austrian way!...
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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flangesax wrote: |
Dr John, I love the Austrian way!... |
Mooooooo
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