Apart from a refit (if it's wrong in the first place of course) a stem 'swap out' is one of the cheapest and easiest ways of improving comfort. I'm about to swap out a 100mm for an 85mm just to bring the bars closer in. A new set of forks also gives me the chance to raise them up a little too. Some folks use these adjustable stems which, I can imagine, let you experiment with the stem config till the cows come home (they look quite heavy to me though). Sounds like the guy at the lbs couldn't be bothered undertaking the task and tried to take advantage of your ignorance on the subject. In my experience of LBS's that's what they do (some of them are just glorified box shifters these days). I'm not an LBS fan so have learned to do my own maint. A pain in the ass and quite a steep (money wasting) learning curve but ultimately worth it.