Originally Posted by
Wolfwerx
If your LBS has been helping you deal with this, that is a good place.
About 50% of the shops around here won't touch "online" bikes. They are specifically avoiding situations like this, I imagine.
It's not clear what situation they are avoiding. Service work that is paid for by the hour?
As long as they can make a profit at whatever hourly rate they charge, why not?
It would seem like they can make about as much money straightening out a BD bike as they can selling you a new bike. There was a thread earlier about this, and the responders who worked at LBS seemed to think that with the margins they can charge, per hour service work is likely more profitable than selling you a new bike.
If there are snafus on a new bike the LBS bike sold, then diagnosing and straightening out the issues comes out of the LBS profit. If there are a lot of snafus on a BD bike, that's more service work for the LBS - you pay for the diagnosis.
If they can make as much/more money on a BD bike as they can make on selling a new bike, and they don't need to risk any capital, it seems like a good deal for the LBS.