Originally Posted by
itsajustme
...Does the word "professionalism" mean anything to you? You can be rude to customers, not answer their calls, profile them based on their alacrity to purchase useless knick knacks, and show them out the door, all under the guise that "this is how a bike shop operates", but in the end it all boils down to professionalism and based on your description it sounds like the "good" bike shops don't have any (which begs the question, what exactly is so "good" about a bunch of unprofessional hacks posing as a business under the name "bike shop"?).
I presumed we were talking about good bike shops - ie those that will fix your bike properly.
The point I am obviously failing to make is that the whole concept of "professionalism" and acting like a car dealer is alien to them. They are doing it because they love bikes - they're usually not making a fortune, or even particularly interested in doing so. (Remember we're talking about a good bike shop that employs craftsmen, not pimply bike monkeys).
Good lbs are usually specialist in the sort of bikes that interest them. They have more than enough work and business as it is, so they're not keen to take on stuff they either do not like or outside their particular interest. To illustrate, a guy with a downhill bike is not likely to get much interest in fixing his bike from an lbs that specialises in exotic road iron, and vice versa.
Most of their business is obtained by word of mouth and recommendation - that's why you don't see them advertising (I know, I know, reprehensibly unprofessional of them). To find a good lbs, get yourself into the loop, talk to other cyclists with the same interests as yours and find out who they use.
Oh, and by the way, when you do find one, you probably won't have to "pay big bucks for a sense of cycling fraternity" because they are usually so unprofessional that they charge lower rates than the chainstore cycle shops for their service.
I know I have re-acted strongly to your extremely negative comments about the industry, but what I am trying to tell you is that if you want a specialist (which you seem to want), going in with the attitude that you have expressed is going to get you shown the door. Your money will not buy you the respect that you seem to expect.
If you can't accept that small lbs tend to be part of the cycling fraternity (was that supposed to be scornful?), you have the freedom to go to the bike chains and get the quality of service that has so incensed you.