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I took my back wheel (Mavic rim, XT hub, 3ish years old) into LBS, and asked them to fit a new freehub. And only fit a new freehub. Went back a week later to collect, and they'd charged me £22.50 labour, plus £29.99 for new XT freehub. I said, it takes about 5 minutes to fit a new freehub - why have I been charged £22.50? They said - half an hour labour, as your bearings were dirty. Cleaned hub out, regreased - but did not replace bearings. That took half an hour. I paid at the time, then started fuming - on the receipt, 'No further work unless advised' box was ticked, work done column sadi 'Fit new freehub', Maximum estimate was £45 - so went in this morning, and confronted the manager. He said - we're were only doing the job properly... I said - but you didn't do the job properly - if the hub needed overhauling, you should have put in new bearings... and as the receipt said 'no further work unless advised', you shouldn't have done anything before speaking to me.
He gave me back the difference between what I paid and maximum estimate - £7.50. Were they trying to rip me off? Or am I out of touch?
I recently phoned Cycle Surgery for quotes on a few maintenance jobs, which don't take long and aren't complicated, and was astounded how much they charge.
Anyone's thoughts appreciated....
My thoughts are if its simple job, do it yourself. If you cant do it yourself the shop shouldnt do any more work than you ask, or should ask you at the time if you want the rest doing if its required.
I dont use LBSs/
Did you take off your cassette first before taking the wheel in? If you didnt then I think thats fair.
Although £22.50 for 1/2hrs labour? Evans charge £12.50
a few maintenance jobs, which don't take long and aren't complicated, and was astounded how much they charge.
So do it yourself then.
To be honest I'd have been glad they'd saved me a job and just coughed up.
sounds fair enough to me, if you had got the wheel back and the bearings were ****ed you would be moaning more.
What they did and charged sounds about right to me.
No one apart from a pikey is going to remove the axle and bearings, unbolt the existing hub, replace it with a new one, reassemble and readjust the cones and just leave the existing shitty grease in. I wouldn't consider clean and regrease as 'further work' - it's the bare minimum.
22.50 for half an hours labour - cheap - very cheap
All they've done wrong as far as I can see is to go over the limit without asking, but £7.50 isn't much.
If I was the LBS chap, I'd have told you you'd be getting a clean up and new bearings weather you liked it or not, it's only doing half a job otherwise, IMO.
It's plain dumb to remove casette, cones and axle and not clean, regrease and put new bearings in whilst you're there. 1/2hr labour is reasonable for that job. It's probably not worth them doing it otherwise
Coffeeking/Singlespeedstu - I don't have the tools to do it myself.
Hora - i didn't take the cassette off first, as I don't have a chain whip. And how can taking the cassette off make their £22.50 charge fair? It takes about 2 minutes with the right tools. THanks for info about Evans
DIY and if you can't i'm sure you would have a mate who can show you.
seems very excessive too me too!
You have to take the bearings and axle out to change an XT freehub. The fact that you think it takes 5 minutes means that either you are so good a mechanic you shouldn't bother with a bike shop or don't understand what the job entails.
While the axle's out you might as well clean and regrease the bearings at least. (I normally put new balls in as it only a couple of quid)
Most places have a minimum labour charge. What they did sounds reasonable.
If they'd have literally replaced the freehub without cleaning/regreasing anything, then that also probably wouldn't have been correct? 😐
You cant do that job without changing the grease!
Im suprised they didnt tell you they were replacing the lot before you left it with them. If you think its a quick job, do it yourself surely?
I agree with the OP, he ticked the box saying he wanted X work done. If the shop had concerns about other components then surely a phone call should have been made.
They were wrong in doing extra work without asking - not great but probably an honest mistake and TBH they weren't being unreasonable since removing a freehub means taking all the axle parts apart so cleaning and regreasing at the same time is a sensible thing to do.
Coffeeking/Singlespeedstu - I don't have the tools to do it myself.
Cost less to buy the tools than pay someone to do it, as with most things!
All this over £7.50? They should have told you but its hardly that big a deal is it.
thanks for your responses folks
Tandem Jeremy - you're saying that £45 per hour for a bicycle mechanic is very cheap?!
joebooker - MemberCoffeeking/Singlespeedstu - I don't have the tools to do it myself.
Always makes me laugh when folks tell you a jobs easy but can't do it themselves. 😉
you could have bought the tools for what the bike shop charged you.
Yes. The mechanic will only get a small % of that and an hours minimum makes sense to me as well.
Want good quality mechanics they need to be paid well. Pay peanuts get monkeys
They said - half an hour labour, as your bearings were dirty. Cleaned hub out, regreased - but did not replace bearings
What they were saying is if your bearings were clean it would have took less time as they wouldnt have had to clean it all out and check nothing was worn, hence half an hour. As your wheel was dirty it took longer. They still didnt install any new parts, grease is required in the rebuilding of a shimano rear hub. Tho they certainly shouldnt have charged you more than the quote without a phone call (or a sensible quote in the first place).
Id accept they did a good job in line with your requests, tho they should have suggested new bearing as it'd have been only a few £ more and a good idea). In the future id question any quotes for acuracy before getting the work done tho.
Rent for the shop?
Tax?
Purchasing tools?
etc
In my experience even good mechanics get paid peanuts - and it's because of this attitude. You'd think nothing of paying that for a car mechanic/plumber/electrician blah blah blah
tis a lot for 1/2 hours work but what they did seems reasonable but NOT the cost
Want good quality mechanics they need to be paid well. Pay peanuts get monkeys
But £45 an hour and an hour to change a freehub is a slight P-take IMO.
oh, and an XT freehub takes much longer to fit than somthing like a hope which just pulls off. Its a lot more difficult than 5 minutes!
But £45 an hour and an hour to change a freehub is a slight P-take IMO.
I dont think any shop would claim an hour to fit a shimano freehub, unless there was somthing wrong with it like rounded nuts/cones.
I dont think any shop would claim an hour to fit a shimano freehub, unless there was somthing wrong with it like rounded nuts/cones.
I was responding to TJs comment, not the original.
Any freehub is a half hour job max as you say, even with a bearing replacement and regrease etc, in a workshop environment. Joe Bloggs sat in his living room watching TV at the same time might take longer 🙂
most of you clearly never worked in an lbs..constant source of wonder it is,folk wondering in asking for jobs to be done that they cant or dont want to do themselfs then being shocked that it costs more than a tenner.oh yeah and why are all lbs spanner monkeys sh~t at the job when we expect it done for pennys? why are they not fully quallyed up race tech eng types??? 🙄
What is the shop? I only ask because it sounds a good place to take my bike. If you think that just taking a cassette off is 2 minutes and replacing a freehub is 5 then you seriously haven't a clue. Yes, they are not difficult jobs, but get real. The mechanic obviously did a good professional job, I would be very disappointed if they hadn't greased the bearings. Price sounds good for the work done and then they knock a bit off despite your unreasonable claims, just to keep you happy - good customer service also. Sounds like a good shop to me.
They've done fine as a shop, although probably should have stuck to the £45 for complete job as originally hypothesised.
From my days as a shop mechanic, I'd have done it for less than that, given the mark-up on the parts, but right now the true cost of things is becoming more apparent as shops look to bring in every £ they can.
Seems like a damned fine bike shop, looking after their customer's best interests. Unfortunately the customer is a tight fisted mechanical numpty who seems to think that the bike shop should pay him for the privilege of working on his bike. A dose of reality wouldn't go amiss.
Ok So when all the LBS`s have gone cos numptys who cant diy wont pay
How you gonna get it fixed then .
Actually you're also lucky that they had XT freehubs at the old price, the new price would tighten your sphincter somewhat.
Oh and the price you paid is the going and fair rate.
I'd say that the mechanic would be doing a bad job if they hadn't cleaned and regreased the bearings, the bit I'm a little surprised about is that the shop hadn't already factored that into the cost as it's a standard enough job.
How much would a replacement wheel have cost?
this is the first post I've ever put on here, because I felt quite strongly about the issue. thanks for the sensible replies, folks. And as for the others - Jenga, Trout WTF?! - you sound like the kind of self-righteous A-holes who make me almost ashamed to call myself a cyclist.
**** me, £45 an hour? I get charged out by my employer (Consulting Engineer) at £40/hour and I'm pretty sure I earn a fair bit more than bike mechanics (which ain't much, before anyone thinks I'm gloating)!
Do you have any idea what's envolved with changing a Shimano freehub? assuming you mean the freehub body & not the complete freehub?
You have to dismantle the hub to do it, so axel & bearings out, remove old freehub body, (which is probably siezed if original after 3 years)clean, fit new freehub body. What would you like then? dirty gritty bearings fitting without any fresh grease in your new freehub body, or cleaning & fresh grease to makre sure it runs properly?
Yes they probably should've called you if it was going to cost more than you expected, but at least they did it poperly!
I get charged out by my employer (Consulting Engineer) at £40/hour
Really? You must be pretty lowly. Comparing my charge out rate with what I get paid (again not really that much, though better than a bike shop mechanic), my overhead is more than £45 an hour.
It can take a few minutes pissing about getting the cones adjusted perfectly.
I do most of my work myself, but if I do go to a bike shop I want to be able to rely on them having skilled mechanics and do a quality job. And I'm prepared to pay a decent price for that. I don't want an unskilled muppet doing it - even if they are cheap. You get what you pay for in this world.
I dont think thats overly excessive for a well done job. Did you have to wait in a queue of other parts? My LBS has a turnaround of 2 days normally, and if you want it quicker they charge a little more for same day.
Its a simple job that cant be ham fisted. Taking everything out, cleaning up everything (it is just bloody stupid not to - you would have complained if he hadnt checked and half your bearings actually looked like golf balls or your bearing races were FUBARed!) and then refitting it. It all has to be done in a particular order otherwise the cones wont tighten and stay tight properly. Cleaning is almost essential as it can hinder refitting.
In my experience of a mechanic over a number of years, for my own bikes and in bike shops too there is nothing more annoying than trying to tension a set of cones properly. There are different thread pitches, bearing sizes and all manner of other things that affect how it'll tighten.
Cheapest way in the long term is to learn how to do it for yourself. Unfortunately trade prices are not going to come down, and with rising costs of products bike shops have to cover themselves as well. The only thing I can see wrong is they didnt phone you. Half the time though, when we did this we either got a voicemail as they were at work and never got back to us they or they wondered why we'd called them over an obvious thing.
Sounds about right to me, price wise. Probably a 30 minute job to do properly. Even if it's not they won't charge you for 22.4 minutes work, they'll round up.
They've got to make a living and cover the overheads, bet they get paid less than the majority on here.