Do you ever get the feeling you are paying over the odds or aren’t getting the service you would like?

I have tried to support my local bike shops, there are 3 quite close to me,

Shop A, put on deore brakes (levers/calipers) and a reverb dropper post (not a stealth) onto my bike and charged me £500 for the privilege, this was 3months ago. I got my bike serviced there and two weeks later the left hand crank (which they assured me was fine) starts coming loose every ride. Added to that £50 for a new set of slx pads and a 180mm disc.

Shop B charged me £50 for a bike fit, then told me I needed a 56cm bike, but would give me no details about the fitting, only that if I then bought a bike from them they would use the information to set it up for me.

Shop C I bought some clothing from, £20 more than online price, my wife picked them up and they were just too tight (knee pads). She took them back as I was at the work, and according to her the owner was unhappy that he might have to replace the them with a size that fits. I couldn’t try sizes on when I was in the shop, because they didn’t have all sizes, and went with a recommendation.

Am I complete mug? , I am now learning how to do basic bike maintenance, but I am really not getting the whole local bike shop pay a bit extra to support them and get the better service. I think in future my purchases will be with the big online retailers!

I am not going to name any of the shops as I don’t think that would be fair or proper, I just wanted to have a moan and see if I was being unreasonable!

You’re absolutely right, all LBS’s are bastards, and their owners live in mansions constructed from the shattered dreams of penniless mountain bikers.

^ 😕

Good bike shops do exist, and bad ones wont exist for long.

if you are time rich and cash poor, do it yourself.

ive not really done the math but the shop A prices above look like rrp + labour

i dont know a trade that prices less than £150 day rate and their overheads run to a thermos and a transit.

shop B are trying to minimise the damage of you taking advantage of their bike fit offer and then buying online

C – meh

Are you A, B or C then Adam?

£500 seems a bit steep for a dropper and some brakes. list price = £120 brakes and £320 post so they’ve charged you £60 to fit them. Wouldn’t go there again!

shop B are trying to minimise the damage of you taking advantage of their bike fit offer

They’ve had £50 out of him though. Unless it took most of the day he’s entitled to expect the dimensions IMO.

Perhaps we should recommend him a good bike shop ?

I would hazard a guess that most of the people who moan about the cost of LBS charges to carry out work would be outraged of their clients turned round and expected them to work for free or massively discounted rates. Just saying like.
What you sow you will reap…..

I am quite happy to whore my skills for biscuits, hell make it jaffa cakes and I will throw in a kinky bonus.

nope, my LBS’s are all ace, not that I use them often for workshop, but they’re happy to order stuff in for me in a few sizes and let me buy the one that fits, and I get automatic 10-20% discount without even asking these days, which is nice 🙂

Not to mention cheerful banter, and a wide range of decent stuff in stock, and can normally price match or get close enough on most stuff if you ask.

They’re not all bad but you do seem to have had a few less than ideal experiences.

chakaping – Member
Are you A, B or C then Adam?

None of them AFAIK 😛

If I was able to get retail +2 hours labour for case A though, I reckon I’d be that little bit closer to finishing my mansion!

Leeds (not Morley) is devoid of a good bike.

Good bike shops do exist, and bad ones wont exist for long.

I had free beer in my LBS last night 🙂

My LBS is great and regularly charges me less than I expect to pay for workshop jobs.

They’re also a relatively big online retailer as it happens.

Maslows hierarchy of needs can be applied to Bike shop punters. How much you are willing to pay is dependent on how much you take out of the whole experience.

Shops B and C seem a bit poor, what was the contract with B?

A seems fair, there’s always folk.moaning about rrp + labour.

I had a guy in yesterday moaning about how the materials for his top tube bag cost £1.50, the carriage next tonight etc. He still bought it, after id asked if anywhere else was selling similar products more cheaply: “erm…we’ll…no…but you know what I mean”

Life is expensive, and its usually those with money who moan about it.

Good bike shops do exist, and bad ones wont exist for long (with some notable exceptions), and there are ones that are just really, really, really average to poor that somehow seem to last forever

FTFY, as they say.

ctk – Member
£500 seems a bit steep for a dropper and some brakes. list price = £120 brakes and £320 post so they’ve charged you £60 to fit them. Wouldn’t go there again!

They charged a whole 2 hours labour to fit a set of brakes and a dropper post, no doubt they shortened the hoses and got them all aligned correctly, and had the cheek to charge retail price for them too; as well as a service. My god you were done there, not!

A and C is a bit of tough titty I’m afraid; you buy from a shop; you pay RRP. B is a bit crap, you paid £50, they should give you the dimensions. I can understand them not if it were free but their time is covered in the fee. Prob the only one I wouldn’t go back to.

deore brakes (levers/calipers) and a reverb dropper post (not a stealth) onto my bike and charged me £500 for the privilege

Am I complete mug?

Affirmative

Money-saving-tips-cause-you-to-die-alone

*goes out to get some jaffa cakes*

My local bike shop are ace (Two Wheels, Stourbridge). Take the bike in for work and it comes out with everything working as agreed for the agreed price.

Sometimes they even fix bits for free if a replacement isn’t really needed.

Don’t get me wrong they’re not the cheapest around but the service is worth it and I accept it will cost me more than if I did the job myself.

and I accept it will cost me more than if I did the job myself.

That’s crazy talk, right there.

My local bike shops Cadence Sports(Barton), Peloton Cycles(Rugeley) Lloyds Cycles(Swadlincote) and Run and Ride (Cannock) and the one I use when I am up in Scotland -Walkers Cycling(Kimaurs) are all great.

Nothing seems to be too much trouble, they help me out when I am stuck( including taking parts off bikes if they don’t have the stock, deal with warranty issues and prices are always reasonable for repairs.
BUT I do buy bikes from them or make decent sized purchases from them and I never use them to try/size something and then buy on line.

A) Did you ask for a price before you wheeled it in? Did they fit the extra pad and disc without asking? If you did, they offered goods and service at a price you were happy with so you took up their offer.

B) Pretty much saw you coming there didn’t they – here, he’s 3 bikes, which fits best – hey presto you’re a large – that’ll be fifty quid please, oh if you buy a bike of us we much change the stem for you, or slide the seat back a bit.

C) Could be having a pissy day I guess, but as long as you returned them in re-sellable condition I can’t imagine what their issues was – surly shop assistant couldn’t be arsed with the paperwork perhaps?

As for the prices though, you can’t and shouldn’t compare the price of something in a shop with something from a box shifter online – the whole point of a LBS these days (unless you like personal service I guess) is you go in, have a chat and discuss what you need – it eliminates the danger of buying the wrong thing, or the wrong size or something unsuitable – the margin they get is for the advice they give – if you know EXACTLY what you want, by all means buy it from the lowest bidder online.

About once a month I get a client, usually the young, agro ‘Boss’s Son’ who’ll call me up bitching about how the IT equipment I sold them is cheaper on eBuyer, or heaven forbid PC world and who I ripped them off – it takes all my cool to explain how before they bought it they didn’t have a clue what they wanted and I spent a few hours putting it together for them, or that the Techies spent a few hours making it all work perfectly and another Techie drove it to them, installed it and showed them how it worked – but as I “ripped them off” because I made a couple of quid for us all on it.

I’ve lived in our new place for almost a year and have only been into my LBS twice- once for brake levers and once for some crank bolts. They were very nice but they just don’t have what I need when I need it. They will keep going because a lot of people aren’t knowledgeable enough to use the internet to buy the right kit and need professional, informed advice, and they will be there for me when I need them.

Wanted £40 labour to sort a Pressfit BB though…

You’re absolutely right, some LBS’s are bastards, and some of their owners do really well out of misadvice/pushing new-to-the-sport or trusting customers on to an inferior product, taking money from people who pay tax who just want to enjoy a hobby in their limited spare time.

FTFY

some bike shops ARE great however they need GOOD owners and GOOD management who care about good service and pricing/experience as well as shock being able to make a profit. They aren’t charities and its nice to have a good customer experience with them sorts.

OP bad experiences in my early days of mtb’ing led me to believe some bikeshop staff and companies are tools that rip people off.

some are great though and if you talk to them the right way (respect/polite) it turns on their passion for bikes and you both have a shared interest. Even big chains have great staff- that shows good management IMO because surly/unhappy/bored staff aren’t happy for a reason and it aint you the customer.

I have tried really hard to support my LBS and the 2 other semi LBS’s but they really do make it hard.

It seems they don’t stock anything I need, even basics. Maybe I am just unlucky with what I ask for?

Last week I phoned the local one to ask if they had something in stock, I was on hold for 9 minutes before I hung up. In the end I just ordered it from Wiggle and it was on my doorstep before lunchtime the next day.

Wanted £40 labour to sort a Pressfit BB though…

A whole £40 for a new frame and transferring all the parts – bargain of the century! 😀

The bottom line is, it’s daft to feel loyalty to an LBS just because they’re an LBS. If it doesn’t work for you, for whatever reason, then go elsewhere (just don’t assume they’ll be there for you if you need it)

I’m lucky to have a choice of excellent shops, and doubly lucky that none of them depend on or expect you to only buy things from them, for silly prices- I go to them when I need a good LBS, they design their business to cater for people who need a good LBS.

Trimix – Member

Good bike shops do exist, and bad ones wont exist for long.

Wish it were true but some of my favourite shops have gone out of business, and none of the terrible ones.

I do some work to my bikes, but not other stuff. If I go to my LBS then I expect to be charged for them to carry out that work rather than getting them to do it for free. We recently had a new road build for herself, supplying all the parts, carried out by the LBS for a fee – the only unexpected charge being the seatpost battery charge lead extension cable that needed to be ordered separately, but that was discussed and agreed before being ordered by them. And they got to buy some new tools for the shop as well 😉

My LBS is actually 40 miles away, but I’m prepared to make the effort to get there because the 4 shops that are within 10 miles are all a bit rubbish.
I don’t mind paying full whack for things from shops, as they do have overheads to take into account that the big warehouse online boys don’t.
I don’t mind paying a reasonable amount for them to do jobs I can’t be bothered or don’t have the tools to do.
I do mind being treated like I should feel priveliged that they have deigned to take my business, or worse still the assumption that I know absolutely nothing about bikes or mechanics just because I’ve asked them to do something.
Those sort of attitudes mean I’d rather not give my business to the local boys.
Being sent update pics of my wheel build on a Sunday evening because the wheel builder has taken them home to do as he’s too busy in the workshop during the week, or taking a bike in for a brake rehose & bleed to find it cleaned and polished upon my return, or just the 30 min spent over coffee chatting about early 90’s parts and bikes are e reasons the ‘not so’local bike shop are my first port of call.

Many thanks for the replies. I just wanted to get a feeling from the hive mind whether I was being unreasonable in my expectations or they were being unreasonable. It seems that it’s a bit of both which is fine.

I guess my approach from now on will need to be a bit of a mix and match as well. Bike shop if I am buying a new bike, order parts from the web and pay for workshop time (at full rate which I am happy to do) to get them fitted, and clothing from online so I know I can return without an issue.

I am quite comfortable that local bike shops are businesses and are there to make a profit, I am also perfectly happy to pay to access that service, it’s just I am not an expert on bikes and my understanding of what I can expect may need to adjust.

hora – Member
I have no idea about retail, but you can bet your ass I have a fistfull of opinions!

Fixed that for you!

Adam I didn’t name any of the shops, and I did say that I was having a moan, and wanted to know if my expectations were unreasonable. I didn’t say that all bike shops owners are terrible, however after sitting back and adding up my experiences with three different shops I felt like I had been taken for a mug. I accept that if you work in the industry you will have more knowledge and experience than I do, it still doesn’t change how I feel about my experience though.

No Worries Phil – that post was directed at Hora, as he generally likes to have a moan at LBS’s

To address your points rather than just taking the pish (but in a nice laughing with you, not at you way!)

Shop A) Don’t see a problem with this – prices are all RRP and labour not outrageous. As far as the crank goes, maybe it was ok when you got it serviced and something happened to it later? Although why did you specifically ask about it at the service, was there already a problem?

Shop B) – Sounds dickish. I can understand shops not giving out whate size/geometry/posiotion to stop showrooming, but you paid these guys for a bikefit – name and shame.

Shop C) – Maybe the guy serving was having a bad day (not an excuse, but it happens), Or maybe your Missus picked up on something that wasn’t really an issue? Either way, not ideal if it’s put you off using them.

Hope this helps, and trust me, not all LBS’s are the same!