A mate of mine was charged £15 for 2 bike boxes at A local bike shop .
Is this the norm ? surely they didn't cost the bike shop anything .

All mine have been freebies

buy-a-bike near us have loads in yard at the back

Free from the local Halfords…. Sorry for your mate!

I would expect a bike shop I am familiar with to give me them from nothing!

If I walked in off the street and didn't know the guys I would not be surprised to pay something for them. Don't forget LBS is a business, not a charity! Was any inconvenience involved? ie – Unpacking new bikes before they really wanted to?

And he paid for them?

I know of a couple of shops that just leave them outside for people to take…

Sounds like the shop were taking the piss a bit, still recession and all I suppose they have to make their margin somehow…

Your mate was Mugged.

You're having a laff right? The shops will have to pay to dispose of them, so just by taking them you're saving the shop money. I'd have laughed and walked out.

EVERY time I've needed one, just a friendly request works. 🙂

Even if he weren't a regular customer, that's a bit cheeky.

That's a joke! We don't pay to have them taken away, there's a skip on site we use, but we'd never consider charging someone to have one!

Your mate was had. Most shops are pleased to get rid of them.

TBH – he's lucky they had them in stock
otherwise it would have to be a special order, with a deposit & no guarantee that they'd ever arrive

Free from Halfords for me… Some people would charge you for the air you breathe when you're in their shop.

We don't pay to have them taken away, there's a skip on site we use

So who's paying for the skip?

I assume it's for a holiday. In which case, use them and then when you get back, find a reason why they're not suitable and take them back for a refund! Maybe the handles tore when the baggage handlers picked them up. If you paid a shop for them, they come with certain rights now.

Covered in the estate fees, my point was that even though there's no direct cost to us (if you prefer) we're still very happy to give them away, if you're paying directly to have them removed then it's insane to ask for money for them.

Depends on the boxes, were they already used ones that come with bikes or ones that the store has made? I ask as I used to work in a busy mail order store who bought boxes in to send fully built bikes out to customers in.

My point is before everyone jumps on their high horse that the boxes could have been bought in by the store, therefore not necessarily free. The store I worked in didn't give any boxes away for free, as the only ones on site were what they had bought in.

last time i wanted one the LBS had just flattened all of theirs. i went to halfords the guy(not a regular -never spoken to him before) was more than willing to build me an adult bike so i could have the box. he was supposed to making kids bikes.

top man.

I wouldn't pay.

I've used flattened ones before. Few minutes with the parcel tape and they're good to go again.

—-errr if its just a cardboard skip it could well be free, or the shops may get paid for the waste.

They were the old boxes they had lying about . Apparently the charge was for storage and handling !

well if someone is happy to pay then they will charge !!! 😯

They were the old boxes they had lying about . Apparently the charge was for storage and handling !

In that case it could perhaps be considered a bit cheeky. In the defence of bike shops though I would say that I empathasise somewhat with their situation on things like this. People buy stuff cheaper than they can afford to sell at CRC/Merlin etc and then still expect to go into the local bike shop and get things like boxes and other help free of charge. Not saying this is what your friend does/has done but having been on the other side of the argument I can see why bike shops are sometimes reluctant to do things like this.

Bit of a catch-22 situation though as if you don't provide friendly service then people might not come back, but at the same time they might just still buy at the cheapest places regardless of effort/service provided by the LBS. If he is known to, or a regular in said shop there is no excuse though!

Free from the local Halfords…. Sorry for your mate!