Originally Posted by comradehoser
I should add I didn't really reef on the wheel. The bending came with not a lot of effort. Kind of surprised me, actually.
Sorry to hear of your pain.
As none of us saw what you did to the wheel, its hard to tell what caused the rim to bend. If you really didn't use a lot of force, go and talk to the LBS as it looks like either:
1) Poor build - they never brought the spokes up to tension properly.
2) Faulty rim - but even poor rims take should take a decent amount of force to bend
I would talk to them and see if they can help you out. They may at least give you a free build if you pay for the parts. However as you've messed with the wheel build they may not feel like they're at fault here.