Heh - which Bicycle Sport Shop did that to you? Most of them that I've been to have good people working there. I'm in the one on Parmer all the time.

Actually a good aluminum frame is the Specialized Allez E5 frame. The shop on Parmer had some good deals on them recently. I even thought about picking one up.

One thing to watch for with aluminum is if the frame was annealed properly. Most are - every once in a while some of the cheaper brands don't do it though.