Originally Posted by
Dan The Man
Let's see, the first shop, I went in with my bike and said that I needed a replacement front derailleur cable clamp. I pointed to where the old one had fallen out. The tech tried a nut that was too big for the recess, and then went back and found a nut that fit, and then put a bolt and a washer on it.
The second shop, I brought in two bearings, and I said I need 18 of this size bearing and 20 of this bearing. The kid (didn't know much about bikes) put the bearings through a bearing size gauge and went and got them. I then gave him a broken brake tensioner and said I need a replacement brake tensioner. It should look like this and it should thread onto this. I also gave him the collar that it threads into. He went back into the brake parts bin and came back with a brake cable tensioner.
A small nut bolt and washer purchased at a hardware store is typically about 25 cents. So at $10, that is a mark up of well over 3000%. 38 bearings cost $10. That's 38 cents a bearing. From what I have read in this thread, a bag of 100 bearings can be bought at retail for around $5. So that's 5 cents a bearing marked up to 38 cents, a mark up of 600%. A brake tensioner, I have no idea how much it costs, but I know that it's less than $4.
What I get from this post is that he went to three different shops on three different occasions for three unrelated reasons. Not that he shopped at three shops gathering parts for one tune up session.
Dan, So the guy with the nut and screw tried a total of TWO nuts to find one that fit the recess and then added a washer and screw? Did all this take about 3 to 5 minutes or was he rooting around for 15 minutes to find the second one?
The bearing balls would have been an easy job to count out and I can't see the whole transaction taking more than about 2 minutes. Now $10 may seem like a lot for some balls but at the 100 or 1000 lot prices you're looking at a buck or two for the balls you bought plus the convienience of having them there and being able to buy them in the number you needed. So while I agree that it's a lot I don't feel it's the "rip off" that it sounds like you got charged for the one screw, washer and nut. I'd expect that a "good deal" on the same balls would have been $6 and a fair deal $8. As the others say the shop needs to keep the lights on and doors open and that all costs.
$4 for a specialty part off a brake isn't outlandish at all. Even if they picked it out of a junk box it got your bike back into running order. That's worth $4 vs the likelyhood of having to buy a whole brake set. Last I saw it was pretty hard to find brake parts other than replacement pads. The normal method is to just replace with new assemblies.
So to be fair I think the only honest beef you have is maybe with the guy that overcharged on the screw and nut. The rest is just the cost of not collecting and storing all that other stuff yourself.