Come on, your LBS is a business. They are not in the business to tell you to buy things online. Of course they would be hesitant to give you advice to purchase something elsewhere. While I do think what they did was a little harsh, I don't expect very many LBS to tell to go buy something online that they don't sell. They will try to spin it to something they do sell.
Sorry, I work in a shop and thats the one thing I hate about customers. They come in and waste our time on things that they have no intention on purchasing from us. Ok yes we don't care so much with our regulars on things we cannot get, but some people come in all the time and never buy things from us but continuously ask advice. We should start charging a consultation fee