Originally Posted by
valleycyclist
IME, most shops that do not regularly build wheels would treat it the same way since they do not know how to properly service wheels. Instead of simply replacing the spoke or nipple, they need to retention(and balance the spoke tension) on the wheel. That takes time to do, and even if they know that is the problem, they may not want to 'waste' their time by doing that. It looks like they will lose a customer because of it.
I would recommend that the original poster buys a $50 Park Tool spoke tensiometer (or borrows one from a friend) and use this as an opportunity to work on a wheel himself. It is still fine to get a new set and use the current wheels as backups, but at least he will know the steps involved and will not need to rely on other people to do mediocre service on equiptment that he spends his hard earned money to buy.
The mechanic did assure me that they replaced the nipple and checked the tension on all the spokes and they are all good. But when it was in for it's 30-day tune-up two weeks ago, they were supposed to do that also. What I suspect they did was the first time the nipple came lose, they just dug it out of the rim and reattached it. The second time I think they dug it out again, reattached it, and as part of their 30-day truing tune-up, put it on the truing stand and made sure everything was straight withthout even checking other spokes. This time it sounds like they actually checked everything. But I'm still not confident in their "repair". I just want the wheel back so I don't have to deal with them anymore.