^^
The thing with a lot of bike shops is that many specialize in a certain type of bike and don't have any point of reference or experience with a bike out of their frame of knowledge. Maybe he didn't know how to work on it, or just didn't recognize it was a classic worth restoring. Sad fact also is that a lot of bike shops just wanna sell you stuff and not maintain the machine you have. a good LBS is hard to find.

I've been to a lot of shops and seen some crazy stuff. I went to one shop and asked if he could swap out a rear cog. The guy said sure, took off the wheel and was about to use a hammer and chisel to take off the lock ring. I had to stop him before he did any damage.