Don`t want to be offensive - but feel its pretty unfair to post something like that. It might be interesting to hear the other side of the story as well. If you walked in and didn`t have a consise list of exactly what you wanted and needed everything explained to you and the parts guy had to look everything up and chase down the info - he lost money on you anyway. And a 1000% markup was more than a bit of an exaggeration so don`t know how seriously to take the rest of your post.

Some parts that seem expensive are thrown in with a tune-up at no cost if the customer brings in the bike, is on a buget and there are second hand parts available. But time IS money and personally I did 60 hours this week trying to keep customers happy with a turnaround time of three days or less. Same day or while you wait for simple things like flats.

Then there was the guy who came in and wanted to know why his chain was skipping. Maybe because it was so long it was contacting the rear derailleur hanger cause he`d installed it himself without cutting it. And it was the first time I`d ever seen rollers so badly damaged and gouged that some were actually missing.

But he wasn`t ready to cough up $20 for a new chain or $7 for installation and just left. He`s well known to the shop and although everyone is polite - the guy is a waste of time and his own worst enemy. Hope thats not the LBS`s opinion of you in this scenerio.