A girl at work (who knows nothing about bikes) took her bike (hybrid cheapie) to the local shop as the brakes had stopped working. She was charged £60 and from a look at the receipt, all they did was change the rim brake pads. 1/2 hr labour listed but labour charge not listed. Sounds a bit steep, non?

that is shocking 🙁
she could have got a new bike from Argos for that…

Yes – I guess a tenner of parts at most, which means their labour rate is 100 quid an hour… which is quite steep!

Certainly sounds like she's been hard done by

Yep, if that's all they did that's steep. £50/hr + pads = £30ish in my book, probably less

We'll £15 for two pairs of suitable rim brake pads. That leaves £45 for 1/2 labour. That's £90 an hour. Too expensive. Evans only charge £35 – or they did the last time was quoted work for them.

Name and shame!

You forgot the "knows nothing about bikes" tax…

Sounds as though she's been stifed (sic)

That leaves £45 for 1/2 labour

half an HOUR to fit 2 sets of brake pads ??

wed charge £29.98 as long as that was the only thing being done……thats london prices! evans charge £25 for a puncture/new tube in london apparently

Why didn't you offer to do it for her? You'll never know what she'd have paid for the personal touch.

thats london prices! evans charge £25 for a puncture/new tube in london apparently

😯

If what you say is accurate then it's too expensive. However in situations like this there is usually more to it.

wed charge £29.98 as long as that was the only thing being done……thats london prices!

now we know why those city types need such bonuses…

There's "know's nothing about bikes" tax, but that's cancelled out by "saucy bird discount" in most cases.
If it's a simple change of rim brake blocks, in my shop, she'da been charged £10 for a set of 4 and £10 – £15 labour, £25 tops. £60 sounds a lot!

Should have gone to Halfords

Maybe they did a service – checked and adjusted all parts, lubricated where necessary, trued wheels and replaced brake pads?

Having worked in a bike shop, I know that a mechanic's till skills can sometimes be worse than their 'explaining-what-they've-done-to-the-bike' skills.

Still, sounds a bit steep and should be explained properly. Also, this might be wrong and she may well have been done.

€unt$ though they normally are, I'm sure Evans charge £25 for a puncture simply to discourage lazy cyclists from inundating them with "can you fix my puncture" begs

"to discourage lazy cyclists from inundating them with "can you fix my puncture" begs "

I'd bet it was simply because they seem to be able to get people to pay it. So why not?

I'm sorry bikemonkey but if she took the bike in for just the brakes, then that's all they should do. If they see or notice anything else it should or could be mentioned to her when she picked it up. Would you like more jobs done on your car if you only took it in for brakes? I doubt it. Besides if they dd a good job at fair price the girl may have been more inclined to take it back, she certainly won't now!
I'll help anyone out with fixing bikes or even building them up. There's only a few tools I don't have and so when my lads mates want anytihng doing I'm only too glad to help.

perhaps they put cables on too …. from workshop spares so perhaps not on the system and just part of the brake service ?

Which shop Jo? Not that dodgy B&B charlatan?

Spot on Dev. The lady is Chinese in origin, though more fluent in English than most locals. She knows less than nothing about bikes, usually getting Halfords to change her inner tubes and wouldn't know what a fair rate was. I think it highly likely that they spotted that a mile off. I've offered to help sort bits and pieces for her in the past but she's never taken me up on it.

That's pretty bloody expensive. We'd charge £10 an end to change rim brake pads (including pads). If cables were needed then it would be about £5 an end extra so a max of about £30.

The problem with some of these "I know nothing about bikes types" is that he do **** all to their bike between appearances at a bike shop. It's not unknown for brake fittings to be so badly corroded that they are impossible to separate and thus a "wee" job becomes a full-on epic. Of course, this should be explained to the customer. However, if the alternative is said customer turning up to find that the work hasn't been completed (as it was going to go above the estimate), that brings on the whingers too.

Did she not ask how much it was going to be when she dropped it off?

she should have been called or told when she dropped the bike off roughly how much it was going to be.sounds like the bike needed more than pads removed,pads fitted and cable tension/centering adjusted.

the mechanic probably didnt sleep that night after the utter mare he had with it lol! still,you dont go ahead and do double the work without calling.

Blimey, my LBS did shock bushings and refitting a crankset for just £28 the other day… and another LBS did a Fox Float service, new seals and change of travel with spacers for £45.

NAME AND SHAME!

(yes I can the above work myself but the need to ride and work hours hinder maintenance)

surely that has to be a full service ! have you checked the bike for her to see what was done ?

I want to work at that bike shop 🙂

I'll name and shame them – they're called bikes and bowls in Elgin and a bigger bunch of incompetents I've never met. They are Kona dealers apparently so when I took my Dawg in for bearing changes they kept it for 2 weeks and then decided it was too hard. Meanwhile I was getting fat and tetchy with no bike. Bothy in Aviemore did it in 40 mins. Worse than that though was the fact that they undid my front mech and didn't tighten it so I had to set it all up once the bike was returned and they cut the cable ties for my brake and gear cables at the back. I only noticed this when they had started wearing through my seat clamp and themselves so my back indexing went to pot too. There is a story of one of the Moray MBC guys who went in to get his pads changed and it cost more than a full set of new hayes 9s (before CRC much cheapness). His mum paid without knowing the going rate. Truly shocking. They'll never get their hands on my 10 bike family's cash again.

jesus! we charge 15 quid for a brake service with pads about 10 quid for 4 on top (depending on the pads) hydraulics are more but thats bonkers

I hear what people are saying re the condition of bikes owned by "know nothing types" and the consequent lack of basic maintenance, but this is a relatively new bike that's only ever ridden in the dry.

The lady in question wasn't complaining about the cost, she just dropped the amount into the conversation and I nearly choked on my cuppa.

Martin and Druidh, I would gladly pay double what she paid to have either of your expert hands adjust my bits 😉

That does sound a bit steep. However we need to know how long the mechanics spent on the brakes. Hourly rate is 35€ then a pair of rim brake can be 15-30€ depending on what they have in stock.
So if your brakes aren't shot, it's half an hour and 15€ parts so around 30€ if your brake are shot and gillou needs to get his hand dirty it's one hour and parts so 45-60€.

Once again did she got in and ask for pads? Or did she got in and ask for the brake to get fixed.

However if I were her I let you help with the biek 😉

Martin and Druidh, I would gladly pay double what she paid to have either of your expert hands adjust my bits

Nae don't bother 😉 I'll do it for almost free (you'll repay me in kind. Or haggis or ice cream)

I'm sure Evans charge £25 for a puncture simply to discourage lazy cyclists from inundating them with "can you fix my puncture" begs

You're half right. Puncture repair is £12.50 plus the £4.50 cost of the inner tube. So £17. And yes, it's done to discourage people from taking up workshop time. All Evans shops (in fact any decent shop) should have tyre levers and a track pump to lend to anyone who wants to do it themselves out the front of the shop, it's not like they just tell them to f*** off.

this is a relatively new bike that's only ever ridden in the dry

Hard to see how it'd need new pads at all then…

2 sides to the story I suppose – maybe a badly explained till receipt and it was actually a full service, maybe she's just been conned.

they're called bikes and bowls in Elgin and a bigger bunch of incompetents I've never met.

I'll raise you on that one with the bike shop local to my girlfriend. She'd taken her winter bike in there twice to have "an annoying creak" fixed (gf being another one who's quite happy to ride but knows sod all about the bike) and twice they'd charged her £25 and not fixed the creak. They once kept her bike in for 2 days just to change the pedals!

I've got her bike at mine at the moment; used my own LBS workshop and within 1.5hrs I'd stripped, cleaned and rebuilt the BB and chainset (inc all the chainring bolts) , swapped the cassette for the new one she'd bought and completely cured the annoying creak.

I can see why an "annoying creak" might take ages to diagnose and fix though, there are so many possible causes and where it sounds like it's coming from, might not actually be the source of the problem.

I was talking to an LBS owner the other week who was amazed that people would give him a tenner to fit a new inner tube, but as people were willing to pay that, that's what he charged.