VegasCyclist,

Thanks for clearing up the issue regarding you bike shop; I think Lotek pretty much got the service you should have. Also, as someone else put it, the mech. is there for the shop and has is vested in its success. As an LBS employee, I'm not there just to butter my ego or make money (for me or the shop); I'm there to keep people on their bikes and get people onto bikes (as I tell folks, the more people I get on two wheels, the less I have to worry about on four when I get out there). I see myself as an ambassador to the sport, and anything I can do to further that cause is important. In short, the owners of our shop opened thirty years ago because they couldn't get the kind of service they wanted at the local shops of the time. We now have the only two stores in town; can't tell you the number of them that have come again--at least a dozen. This attitude is why.

My advice--the next time you feel like you're not getting the service you desire, do two things: take your business elsewhere (and tell the new shop exactly why you've come there--motivate them to give you service), and call the old shop's owner and tell him/her exactly why he/she has lost your business--you ought to see our owner when he gets a negative call (and you should also see him when he gets positive feedback).