Originally Posted by mikefranktroymi
P.S. this took a couple of seasons to fix and not once did I get charged.
IMHO: It should have taken about 1hr to diagnose and fix... given that they could put their hands, eyes, and ears on the problem. Who ever claimed to be a technician didn't know what they were doing and attempted the shade tree mechanic's approach of "remove and replace" in the hope that somehow they might magically solve the problem instead of doing a proper diagnosis. Again, I would suggest that you paid dearly for that level of service if only measured in the cost of your mileage to and from the shop and the value you place on your time spent doing so, never mind the loss of use / reduced enjoyment of the bicycle while the problems were on-going.
Please bear in mind, troubleshooters working via forums and email:
1. Have only a written description of the problem which, in this case was actually pretty good but was still missing a few facts that would have helped to narrow down the possibilities.
2. Are unable to "see" the problem, either in a 2D photo from the angles truly needed to assess alignment, wear, or configuration issues with or without a reference scale, or a short .mpeg that demonstrates a malfunction.
3. Are unable to touch the hardware, measure key dimensions, check key tolerances, operate the equipment, and to otherwise "work" on the bike.
Therefore, when presenting problems for diagnosis please recognize that most of us who try to help have only the information that you provide to go on and our past experience with "similar" problems, bounded by whatever additional facts that you provide or subject to the caveats included in the initial diagnosis. Speaking for myself, I will usually provide the "most likely" and then work down to one or two "possible things to look at" and will rarely resort to the "well, it could be most anything" (aka, the laundry list) since that's usually of little help and tantamount to the shade tree mechanic approach or a SWAG.
Anyone in a bike shop who claims to be a technician should NOT be perplexed all that often, notwithstanding the occasional bent derailleur hanger or frame (which, by the way, are easily checked by gauges that a professional bike shop should have on hand). If they can't fix it in two attempts, chances are they don't know what they're doing. With tandems, even good technicians who haven't worked on tandems will get stumped... but if they're REALLY good technicians they'd better get it right the second time.