I need to get a “repair or replace” quote from a bike shop and my LBS want £15 for the privilege – don’t mind paying, but are there any bike shop folks on here who’ll do it? I’ve got decent photos and it’s quite obviously a replacement needed!

Please get in touch if you can help out.

thanks

For £15 or for free?

tbh they do need to charge for their time, after all you might not use them for the repair/replace. Surely you can pass on the cost to the insurance anyway if it’s a problem?

I need to get a “repair or replace” quote

who for? won’t they pay?

Most shops (me included) charge for quotes but refund the charge if we get the business.

Which we almost never do as insurance companies will try to stiff you with a replacement from Wheelies or one of the other big companies who have the insurance market sewn up.

Well, for free! 🙂 or cheaper than £15!

Frame is worth about a grand, but house contents only covers it up to £500, so want to save as much as I can 🙁

just out of intrest do you work for free also

Yeah, if someone asked me to do them a favour, I would. Have often sent out bits to people on here for nothing. Why do you ask? Are you offering help?

No but your lbs is trying to make money to pay his staff ,god forbid it makes a profit

Yeah, if someone asked me to do them a favour, I would

Is fixing a puncture a favour? Fitting a chain? Servicing a suspension fork?

Is fixing a puncture a favour? Fitting a chain? Servicing a suspension fork?

I’ve done all these things as favours, so yes….

DrP “Devil’s Advocate…”

But presumably that’s not your job?

I do people favours. I even do it in “work time”. But when doing someone a favour means I can’t do other work and I lose money, then it’s not really a good idea is it?

Or do you really think that paying a bike shop for any service is ridiculous as they should just do it for a favour?

It’s a ‘favour’ if you’re mates with the LBS, not if you’re a regular customer (or potential customer)

Exactly. And what’s so unreasonable about charging for it, but refunding if the shop gets the work?

FFS, did I say it was unreasonable??

andyruss, you’re coming across as quite the dickhead, I hope you’re not.

So glad I asked this question! You know, thinking the STW “community” might assist. Must’ve slipped my mind what folk are like on here.

I have never been charged for an insurance quote from a bike shop. Is this a new practice? You should ask the insurace company to send someone out to assess the damage. M&S did this for a frame for me once.

I think the attitude of AndyRuss and BenCooper is pretty crap. I would do work for people on here for free and have done in the past.

you cant charge for a quote… if you willing to pay for a quote then you need to get a grip. when i get any work done of any kind, i ask different people for quotes and i choose the best price. nobody has ever asked me to pay them for them to tell me how much it would be to fix. must just be a bike shop thing ehh??

The point?

It went thataway ======>

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The topic’s gone where it’s gone, but, seems to me that the basic issue isn’t the shop charging, it’s the insurer putting their cost of doing business onto their customer? I mean, a £15 cost per bike insured… And what if you change the bike etc?

My insurer says “What are they worth” and I tell them.

It’s only an issue with custom built up bikes or one that’s been heavily modified. If I’d bought a lot of the bits from the LBS I’d expect a valuation for insurance purposes (assuming this is what we’re talking about…) to be free, if I bought the stuff from various on-line retailers I’d expect to pay up to about £15. It’s less of a rip-off than Dr’s charging to sign anything IMO.

The topic’s gone where it’s gone

Not sure where that is personally. 😕

Frame is worth about a grand, but house contents only covers it up to £500, so want to save as much as I can

Be careful with that, if you’ve under insured an item they’ll not pay at all.

Most shops I’ve asked about insurance replacement costs charge between £10-15 but will discount that (and often more) if you buy from them as a result.

It’s not under insured, I have my MTB as a specified item, but other “non-specified pedal cycles” have a £500 limit. Cheers for the info anyway.

I’ve generally not charged for insurance quotes. I think the only time I would if it was a particularly in depth or detailed quote, where I was very unlikely to receive any of the business. That’s a bit different to quoting for a job where you have a fair chance of gaining the business. A lot of insurance companies use Wheelies, so the LBS will get no business from them. If it’s a 2 minute your bike was worth approx £700, here’s a quote on headed paper job I’d do it as a favour/goodwill/keep a potential customer happy. If it’s a custom bike and it’s going to take me an hour to check all the pricing of all the parts, then I’d possibly charge, £15 would seem reasonable. It would depend a bit on any number of factors.

In the three years I’ve been going I’ve probably got business from 25-30% of the quotes I’ve done. A number of insurance companies have sent the customer a cheque made out to the shop so they have had to spent it in the shop.(This tends to be accident claims, not theft of a bicycle)

Go to a chain. When I worked in a small shop we charged but when I worked in a big chain we didn’t because as a staff member I had a lot less interest in the shop making even more money and it killed a few hours facing up. Ask nicely and they may well even twiddle it for you.

I don’t work for the shop any more so can’t really help officially I’m afraid.

As I said gearfreak “I don’t mind paying” (maybe I used some kind of invisible internet ink on that phrase), but thought, as it is just a “2 minute your bike was worth approx £700, here’s a quote on headed paper job”, thought, well, you know.
For info it’s a effing big crack in a carbon frame, so wouldn’t really take much analysis!
“This frame is not repairable.
Value approx £1000.”

That’s all!

I think the attitude of AndyRuss and BenCooper is pretty crap. I would do work for people on here for free and have done in the past.

I do work for people for free all the time – the thing is, they’re regulars. And did you miss the bit where I said I refund the cost if I get the business?

If the bike came from me to start with, of course, it’s simple – just find the invoice online, do a copy and paste, job done. If it’s something custom that I didn’t build, it can take up to an hour to dig out prices for all the components (or current equivalents) and price up the build.

what Ben said…

So £15 to get back £1000 – seems fair.

When we had an attempted burglery and they broke the patio doors it was a real pain getting any quotes, esp. the big boys as they knew the insurance company wouldn’t pay that much. In the end I rang the insuracne company back and asked who they dealt with, and the one company they did deal with gave me two quotes on different headed paper…

Dez – I’ll do it for £20….

DrP

Thanks mate. Can you just copy and paste what i put ta.

It’s quite amusing this forum, on one thread there is bile and revulsion at using an LBS and everyone is a confirmed CRC, Wiggle, ebay customer, the LBS is not needed for anything as everyone can do their own repairs etc etc, but someone goes to a shop and asks for a service and then gets upset that there is a charge for that service, blimey, its just a good job that the attitudes and responses on this forum are not indicative of the majority of cyclists out there isnt it.

1.So £15 to get back £1000 – seems fair.

2. gets upset that there is a charge for that service

Is there such a thing as “selective reading” or is it just selective comprehension?

So why didnt you just get the quote from your LBS and pay £15 rather than come on here saying you dont mind paying, you clearly do mind paying.

There’s another post you obviously didn’t read explaining that

just had a look and you say you dont mind paying, but the reason you started this thread is that you clearly do mind paying. I dont understand why you didnt just pay £15 to your LBS if you dont mind paying.

I’ve always charged for quotes, unless they bought the bike from me in the first place.

Sadly we rarely get the business as Wheelies have pretty much become the insurers choice of supply, they offer the biggest discounts basically.

£10 + VAT btw.