Colorado Kid

After a week and half of waiting for the LBS to fix my bike they called and said it was ready. I called back and asked, "What was wrong with BB"? "What there was something wrong with the BB? We just replaced the chain and did a tune-up". That's not what I wanted or asked for. This came from the area's better known shop. I am mad as ....! After a talk with the shop manager, they said it would be no charge for anything. So what's your bad shop story?

CliffordK

That sounds like an odd story. It was nice that they went ahead and fixed your bike for free (labor? parts and labor?)
But, I bet things can get pretty hectic in the bike shops around this time of year.

beerRun

It's good they are taking care of it (hopefully ).

I haven't had any service yet, but I did switch LBSs when the employees at the first acted like I was completely wasting their time while picking up tire levers and a patch kit (and I found them on my own; all they had to do was ring me up). The new LBS has been a lot better. They treat me the same as any customer as far as I can tell, even when making my small, silly purchases to maintain my 90s MTB.

CliffordK

Why would you be any different than other customers? Although obviously there are some customers that like to look on their own, others that ask lots of questions.

Or... is it the bike? Would it be different if you rolled in on a $5000 Carbon-Everything bike?

beerRun

I'm sure customers who have bought bikes from a shop often get better service. Employees probably do this subconsciously even. I can understand that (but still don't enjoy it, obviously ).

And while I don't ask a lot of questions, my questions are definitely newb questions. The folks at the new shop have been very nice when needed.

CliffordK

I imagine there are a few types of customers.
1) Those that just bought a new bike (and thus won't need a new one for a long time).
2) Those that continually come in for a few trinkets... which add up quickly.
3)Those that really need to come in to buy a new bike.
4) Those that like to come in, ask lots of questions, then go buy stuff off of the internet.

The new shop probably is looking at your bike, and hoping you will UPGRADE!!!!

beerRun

Ha! That could be, @CliffordK! And I'm hoping in 2016 to do just that.

DiabloScott

At one shop I went in to buy ~$100 worth of stuff from behind the counter - there was only one salesman on the floor and he was spending time with this other guy who was obviously going to ask a lot of questions and demand a lot of time and not buy anything. I waited about 20 minutes and the salesman never even acknowledged I was there.

HardyWeinberg

I brought my wife's 1989 schwinn into a shop for a tuneup/rehab when we moved to town 11 yrs ago and they refused, said we should just buy another bike and they were having a sale in another 2 weeks. I haven't bought anything there since.

The next shop I took it to did a great job of rehabbing the schwinn and I was so happy with that that I stuck with them despite two severe problems over the next couple years. I still valued that shop for conversation just not for buying stuff. So I was a pretty awkward customer there I guess. They closed recently.

In fairness, the first shop I went to was probably assuming I wouldn't pay $200 for the rehab of that bike, but I did (to another shop). At a 3rd shop, I saw lots of people freak out at realizing they wanted more than just a bike (raincoat, rack, panniers...) and walk out when they saw the other stuff would cost the same as the bike they wanted. That shop is gone now too.

Squeeze

In my experience, which may be more limited than most, I don't like the big shops with multiple bike techs, where one guy writes up a work tag and then wheels the bike into the back for another guy or guys to work on whenever it's my turn.

The shop I prefer is near my office and has three employees total, I think. There, one guy does everything for a customer's bike, including ringing up the sale at the cash register when the work is done. That last part doesn't matter as much, but the point is there's one person who takes responsibility for the work he has done.

The other place with a bunch of techs is like big corporations in America these days - no one is personally accountable for anything, and you can never get the same person on the phone again if you have a problem.

A strange analogy, perhaps, but that's the vibe I got the larger place, where they didn't even test-ride the bike afterwards, or they would have clearly seen the problem wasn't fixed. Then, the second time they fixed it (and did it right), no one ever called to tell me the bike was ready. They won't keep me as a customer that way.

I'll stick with the small LBS where I can trust the employees to stand by their work.

Hopefully as I continue to acquire tools and knowledge, I will need LBS service less and less. I haven't used them much, but I had a MTB with a bent RD hanger and a gift of an old road bike that needed a complete overhaul. I didn't have the tool for the RD hanger and I knew I wasn't about to start learning about bike mechanics by doing an entire overhaul. Looking back, that might have been smart, but at the time it was worth it to pay a pro to do it right. That was the smaller shop, of course, and two years later, it still shifts, brakes, and rides flawlessly.

kickstart

My mechanic is lazy, unreliable, cranky, sometimes bodges things up, and often orders the wrong part, but there's nothing I can do about it as he has gotten under my skin.

rmfnla

I thought you were going to say there's nothing you can do about it because you do all your own work...

rmfnla

I have a sign in my office that says: Everyone makes mistakes; it's what you do next that defines your character!

I'd say the shop took good care of you...

ItsJustMe

There's a bike shop on my route with just the owners (husband and wife) working there, the husband does the wrenching - and he's a former (retired) VP of Cannondale moved back to his hometown. Very nice place. Unfortunately I can't really send them much business since I do all my own work and don't really ever buy anything that they have for sale - they cater a lot to roadies and have a lot of $120 jerseys and PI garb that is too rich for my blood.

baron von trail 

I usually do my own work because the LBS wants to keep my bike for a minimum of a week, and that is just unacceptable.

mstateglfr 

I ride 80s steel. Over the winter I took an old 1st gen uniglide wheel and hub to an LBS near my work because the hub wasn't moving right.
They at first didn't understand what the hub was. Then I found a guy who knew what it was and he said he probably won't get to it, but to drop it off if I wanted.
Wtf?
I went back 2 weeks later and just took it back. It was like he didn't think I wanted to pay since its older equipment.

Another LBS measured some hubs and rims for spoke length so I could lace em up. Not 1 of the 3 spoke lengths were accurate. The fronts were 4mm too long. It was infuriating since I had spent a few hours over a couple days trying to adjust what I thought was my poor build. Ends up they just can't measure. I measured everything, returned the spokes, and bought the correct spokes at another LBS.

ItsJustMe

This is my situation as well. For the first 10 years, I only had one bike and I rode it every day. If I took it to a shop, it was at least 7 miles from home and I rode it there, if they couldn't be done in an hour while I waited, what was I supposed to do?

Besides, I have yet to find a repair on a bicycle that the shop can handle and anyone with the most basic of mechanical skills and a $50 tool set can't handle. There just isn't anything very complicated or hard to fix on a bicycle. For bonus points you should have the Park Blue Book, to make sure you're doing it "right" but anyone with any mechanical sense at all can fix most anything with an hour to poke and scratch their head.

The only time I've ever given up and taken it to a shop, they couldn't fix it either, and I had to take it home and figure it out for myself anyway.

baron von trail 

There are also excellent videos on you tube showing which tools to get and how to use them when replacing a chain or cassette. Invaluable, IMO.

himespau 

That's mine as well. I've been without a bike for months at a time before when he's started to rebuild the wheelset, gotten frustrated and just set things aside. Right now he's building up my wife's bike with a frame and parts that were bought a minimum of a year ago. If he keeps up his current build speed, the build itself will only take ~2-3 weeks (after sitting on it for a year) which might be a record for him. If I didn't have to look at him every day in the mirror, I might say some more nasty things about him.

BobbyG

I haven't had any truly bad experiences with bike shops, and there's a couple I like that go out of their way to make sure things are done right and at a fair price. But I used to take my car to a locally owned service center. I had always found them to be good, fair and expedient. Then one day my wife, who they had never met, brought our other car in to see about a squeek in the door. She left with a list of services they insisted needed to be done before they would even address the squeeky door. Services, many of which had just been done elsewhere. I double checked the car myself and knew they had been done by the other shop. And she said they were less than courteous. I don't know if they tried to bamboozle her because she's a woman, or they didn't treat her with the respect and courtesy they always extended to me because she's not white (like me), or if somebody was simply having a bad day, but that was eleven years ago, and it was the last time we ever dealt with them even though they are within walking distance of our home.

squegeeboo

I had a while where if I brought my bike in for repairs, magically something else would break within a week after picking it up from the LBS, but it was a 6 year old bike, with 25k+ miles and 6 winters on it, and I don't maintain it very well, so it was believable.

My shop is always willing to work with me on timing. They like several days, but generally if I tell them schedule me further out then, but make sure mine gets priority once it's in, it works out to only 2 days or so. Then again, I always bring them a 12 pack of beer as thanks for the larger repairs, seems to keep them happy with me.

AlTheKiller

Did you sign a work order and receive a copy? That should be standard procedure at any decent shop. Customer's sometimes have very odd ideas of what they *thought* they told us, or thought was clear to us, when they really just said "blarghgh tune up... squeak..check out... hrrrgh". On the other end of the spectrum it's easy for certain techs to write you up who might not have listened to exactly what the customer said.

Always ask for a copy of the work order, that way you can see what is ACTUALLY written down. It's not uncommon to have someone write you up a tune up, and then you add in "oh, and can you check out 'xyz' also?" and the guy behind the counter says SURE! but forgets to amend the work order, and five days later some other tech sees the work order, with no note of checking out 'xyz' and they do a standard tune up.

bkrownd

I had the same experience with my old classic mountain bike at an LBS. I wanted to rebuild the old warhorse, so I asked them to replace shifters, drivetrain, brakes etc. The owner refused to work on it. He looked at me like I was an idiot and said I should buy a new bike instead. I never went back there and for many years have told everyone to avoid that place.

I rebuilt the bike myself with parts sourced from friendly online retailers.

hardboiled718

^^
The thing with a lot of bike shops is that many specialize in a certain type of bike and don't have any point of reference or experience with a bike out of their frame of knowledge. Maybe he didn't know how to work on it, or just didn't recognize it was a classic worth restoring. Sad fact also is that a lot of bike shops just wanna sell you stuff and not maintain the machine you have. a good LBS is hard to find.

I've been to a lot of shops and seen some crazy stuff. I went to one shop and asked if he could swap out a rear cog. The guy said sure, took off the wheel and was about to use a hammer and chisel to take off the lock ring. I had to stop him before he did any damage.

bmthom.gis

Hmm no shop stories as a customer. Once I became a roadie I met my super good friend on a one of my first few group rides. He was a mechanic and from then on I never got charged any labor, and once Instarted commuting I always got all my parts for 5% over cost, which when he told me i should work there part time ended up being the employee discount. Now we just work on bikes in his garage and drink beer.