rhm

If I'm reading this right, you asked them to do a few things, not including doing anything to the pedals, correct? So they serviced the pedal, and then it failed, right?
So, my guess is the mechanic uses the same pedals and his pedal failed recently. Rather than buy a new one, he did the old switcheroo. Y'all call me a cynic, but I worked in a bike shop three summers of my misspent youth, and I know how these things are done.
As mentioned already, talk to the owner. All you have to say is, no one asked you to mess with my pedal. You did, you broke it, and now you can fix it.

judyplease

I am insanely thankful pedal didn't fail on ride!!! Had pedal issue not surfaced at shop, I would have been on century ride in Austin/Shiner this weekend and pedal failure in group would be awful. I want to become more knowledgable in bike components/mechanics and knowing that a pedal could just fall off without warning was disconcerting and seemed worthy of further investigation. Smug guy at shop just made not getting an explanation even more aggravating. Just knowing that it is not unheard of for a pedal to "just fall off" is very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to read/respond. (I edited original essay as to length (and sociable-ness). "Just the facts, ma'am. ". (Old people know that line from "Dragnet" tv series.)

judyplease

The mechanic said the tune-up included servicing the pedals. Though I am ignorant as to how they "service" them. Lube? Check bearings? (Take off and mutilate?!). New pedals ordered elsewhere and this shop not worth spending any more time on, though I will take time to post negative review as to employees' attitude.

likebike23

For all the talk about relubing all of the bearings on a bike around here, you rarely hear mention of relubing pedal bearings. I'll admit that I don't always do it, only on nice pedals. I've picked up used bikes and didnt check the pedals during the inspection, it just isn't a big thing to me. It's almost like pedals are a consumable, there are even some pedals that are not meant to be disassembled. I think speculating about what happened is pointless. Let's just say that there is a good bit about bikes to learn and you wanting to learn is good. Chalk it up as a learning experience and try to make sure that you check your bike thoroughly before bringing it in to the shop and understand exactly what is to be done and why.

SquidPuppet

That's your ammunition right there. If they serviced the pedal and noticed it couldn't be repaired, they should have called you and never should have ridden the bike. If they serviced the pedal and it failed, that's on them.

Pedal spindles do NOT strip themselves or the crank arm hole if the begin to unscrew. They just unscrew and fall out. If the pedal spindle or the crank arm hole are stripped, that is caused by human error during installation.

As mentioned above, talk to the owner. If you don't get satisfaction, dispute a portion of the charge that is equal to making your bike whole again with your credit card company.

kunsunoke 

It does sound like the service tech tried to jerk you around. It's the kind of thing that can happen to a bike shop after hiring an excessive number of twenty-nothing hipster types - who aren't spectacular mechanical talents and yet for some reason think that condescension is their birthright.

Servicing the pedals should include re-lube, assuming the bearings are loose-ball types.

Had I been the shop owner I'd have tried to get in touch with you somehow to let you know what happened and try to implement a fix - or at least I'd have tried to run a tap to fix the threads on the spindle. The service tech would be asked to take a hike.

Ed.

Sounds like a crock, as has already been pointed out. Don't look back.