The problem is that not all bike shops understand how to build a good wheel, even though it is very simple. The guy at the bike shop is clueless. Never take your wheels there again. I've taken our loaded tandem on tours over very bad roads and never touched the completely ordinary wheels. It weighs 400 lbs. in touring mode.

If you can't find a shop that knows anything about wheels, you'll have to build your own. The indispensable aid is a Park TM-1 spoke tension meter. It's not expensive. You also have to know the spoke tension required by your rim. Most rims want about 105 kgf on the front and drive side rear spokes. Non-drive side spokes tensioned to center the wheel. All spokes on the same side to have about the same tension.

Another thing you can do is: every time you have a wheel worked on or buy a new wheel, go over it with your TM-1. If it's not up to spec, bring it up.

With your current bent wheel, you can try taping the spokes together at the crosses so you'll be able to get the wheel back together again, then remove the rim by unscrewing the spoke nipples. Lay the naked rim on a flat surface and see if it's flat. If not, you can try reefing on it to see if you can flatten it. If you can get it approximately flat, put it back on the wheel and adjust the spoke to make it true and centered. You need the TM-1, but not a truing stand. Just put the wheel on your bike and true it using the brake pads as indicators. Flip the wheel to center it - the pads should be the same distance from the brake tracks no matter which way it's mounted. Same with rear wheel as front. Doing this will take you several hours, but you'll learn really a lot about wheels doing it.

As I said, taking the wheel to someone who knows what they're doing is much quicker. Your wheels should almost never go out of true, and you should never break a spoke on a well-built wheel. I've never broken a spoke, even on our tandem. If your wheel does go out of true, ping the spokes to find which are loose and which are too tight. Loosen one or more by 1/4 turn and tighten the other side by the same amount. 1/4 turn is usually all that's necessary.