I have been a mechanic for close to four years now, first two as an apprentice. However, I still don't really have the hang of dealing with customers who bring in bike after bike that is almost too crappy to mention.

When I started, I wanted to help everyone, regardless of the state of the bike. But as I gain more experience, I can often see from ten feet away that that particular repair is going to involve lots of time, swearing and usually a dissatisfied cusomer, because people who bring in these bikes, usually don't want to spend a lot of money on them.

You then proceed to repair at as low a cost as possible. That means the result is often not top notch. Or you quick fix something, but the problem returns, because that bike really needed so and so part replaced rather than repaired. Not replacing parts means charging more labour-> grumpy faces at the register.

I guess I am lucky in that we do not repair department store bikes, I cringe when I see people riding on those! But I can tell you that there are plenty of other bikes around here that should have been tossed on the scrap pile ten years ago and are still riding and the people who ride them expect you to fix them for a pittance, because hey, how difficult is fixing a bike anyway-I would do it myself if I had the time, etc.

Example: I had a lady come into the shop asking if I could 'quickly fix the shifting and a problem with the rear cantilever brake'. I proceed to tell her that we are fully booked and will not have time to fix her bike until next week and all of the four bike lifts are taken at the moment so I can't hang it up and have a look.
Well couldn't you just take a bike off and put mine on there? Well......ok

So I have a look at the brake which has a broken spring on the left so the brake won't stay centered. I proceed to tell her wat the problem is, meanwhile fixing a minor cable tension issue with the rear derailer.The issue really was the crap gripshifter, but ok. I true the wheel so it clears the left brake pad and tell her that the spring or brake itself will have to be replaced . All of this is going on in a very busy workshop, with people running around, phone ringing a dozen times a minute, the bike I was working on blocking part of the floor etc.

As a gesture of service I inflate her tires because there couldn't have been more than one bar in them. I charge her three euros, she says 'is that for the air?', actually surprised that she had to pay anything. No ma'am, that is for the time I spent on your bike. Dumtiedum...

She came back ten minutes later complaining that her front tube was showing between the tire and the rim and that I had inflated both tires way too much because now she was bouncing around on the bike now. Anyway, I put the cheap dep. store tire back in the bead, pushed the valve a little, inflated again and all was fine.

Sorry for the rant, but how do you deal with this particular customer that is always complaining, taking your service for granted, never feels that the bike he/she rides is 'all that bad', even when it is falling apart in front of you, thinks that everything is a 'warranty' issue?