[Closed] Evans rip off merchants

they quote you a price, your choice whether to pay it or not. You openly say that you're not good at bleeding brakes, so that's their price.

Good service from the other place, but if it was any other shop that the big name "evans" would you have bothered with this?

I would have said it regardless of whether its evans or not?! 20 quid is extortionate!

I've always had good service from evans breahead. They gave you a price, they're busy at the moment, you didn't like it. Hardly a rip off.

I would never had bothered going Evans dont like using big chain bike shops but was a bit of an emergancy and it's my nearest bike shop so thought I'd take my chances ... £40 to bleed brakes is taken the piss !! there's a service and ****in robbing you blind would have done without rather than pay that.

[i]They told me no chance it would be Thursday at the earliest and it would be £20 per brake!!! .. [/i]

That means that the workshop is busy. Any company with a busy workshop (garages/bike shops etc etc) will operate a booking system, you wouldn't expect a garage to be able to drop everything and service your car tomorrow would you?
£20 isn't that bad a deal actually, sure it's at the expensive end but I know of other non-Evans shops that charge up to £25/brake.

£20 to bleed a brake is the going rate. Don't see what the problem is.

Going to take at least 30 minutes or more to bleed an XTR unit.

Funny how I got both for £20 then .. £40 is a rip off !!

[i]Funny how I got both for £20 then .. £40 is a rip off !! [/i]

My LBS is a very small place that basically survives off workshop stuff. He charges less than big places, it's the only way he can get business in and survive. I'd be willing to bet that the shop you went to is similar, doesn't have a lot of work on, needs anything it can get and so accepted the job of doing your brakes.
You could have put a constructive thread title like "Great service from LBS at short notice" but instead, as seems to be the fashion on here, you have to come up with the usual (rather poor) rant.

Learn how to do it yourself it aint hard

so if a (bisy)LBS can bleed brakes for £20 and a large retail chain charges £40 their taking the rise.
As I say I like to give LBS my money but it was short notice a 50% price difference so a rip off !!

ziggy - Member
£20 to bleed a brake is the going rate. Don't see what the problem is.

Going to take at least 30 minutes or more to bleed an XTR unit.

Ziggy to the best of my knowledge at least works in a bike shop, if not owns it. He says it's the going rate. Therefore I think you probably got lucky with your deal.

Oh, and it's "busy".

You'll have to put that £20 in the swear box soon..

It's a lesson that a lot of people on here should learn - support the little guy, the LBS, cultivate a relationship with them, they'll often do you parts for CRC prices or fix stuff on the cheap or loan out tools.

why didn't you just go to the LBS in the first place if they're so good?

30 mins to bleed an XTR brake!?!?!?!?!?

I can do mine in 5 minutes and as I don't work in a bike shop I don't exactly get a lot of practice...

Sorry, but £20 per brake IS a huge ****ing rip off.

£8 an end at our place, and were always busy as hell.

Smee why are you apologising, do you work for Evans?

I've never had any of my brakes bled before and I brake ALOT (cough drag my rear everywhere). What do you people do to need your brakes bled?!

30 mins to bleed an XTR brake!?!?!?!?!?

I can do mine in 5 minutes and as I don't work in a bike shop I don't exactly get a lot of practice...

Have u ever bleed XTR brakes? they definately do not take 5 minutes... if u can do it in that time your worth every penny 🙂

I charge £40 per hour labour. Brake bleed generally allow around 20 mins - so around £13 labour, then add a couple of quid for fluid (heck, I have to pay for it!). So, somewhere in between the two here.

Willy Bain (Bicycle Repair Man) charges a tenner a brake.

But honestly learn to do it yourself, A mate showed me how to do mine and now I can do it nae bother.

I got my (old) XTR's bled by Brixton Cycles (a truly top-notch independant London shop that gets good reviews from lots of people on here) a couple of years ago just before Mountain Mayhem. It took just under an hour, they did a fantastic job of bleeding and also cleaning the sticky pistons and they charged me £38 (discounted cos I know them).
I considered that a very reasonable cost for their expertise (they did it on the spot too).

I do normally do it myself but never with the proper bleed kit, decided it was about time the job was done professionally.

Well this is it I can do a half arse job with brake fluid everywhere myself. Brakes felt really spongy and decided it needed done properly but was shocked to be given a 40 quid quote. I know it's not worth that kinda money that's why I wanted a second quote and why I posted the original post if LBS is charging £40 and above to bleed brakes then your rip off ****ers also.

Why does a such a huge bike shop like Evans feel the need to charge such high prices. I for one will never step foot in the place again !

Oh and fao pk-ripper ino how to spell (bisy) busy just like I know the way to spell I know (ino) .. ce ce .. get wae it big yin !!

burnsybhoy - like your user name .. Hail Hail !

There is no such thing as a rip off. You do not have to buy the services.

£20 a brake? Sounds like they offered you a discounted rate, their published rate for a brake bleed is £25 plus parts...

[url= http://www.evanscycles.com/servicing/workshop-price-list ]Evans workshop prices[/url]

What published rate would this be ?

To be fair burnsybhoy Willie Bain is very cheap compared to most places for most jobs.

It's only a rip off if you are lead to believe it's cheap and then find out after it's expensive.

If you know beforehand, it's not a rip off.

Also, the place was busy, so obviously most of the public is happy with their prices, or are you so special that they should drop everything and give you a special lower price?

BTW it's almost certain that a large chain store will have higher overheads than a small lbs, so what do you expect?

So is anyone here saying £40 to bleed brakes is fair price ?1?!

[It's only a rip off if you are lead to believe it's cheap and then find out after it's expensive.

If you know beforehand, it's not a rip off.

Also, the place was busy, so obviously most of the public is happy with their prices, or are you so special that they should drop everything and give you a special lower price?

BTW it's almost certain that a large chain store will have higher overheads than a small lbs, so what do you expect?
]

I took a chance as one off at a major bike retailer and was shocked at the price they gave I would never use Evans but as I keep saying as one off as I needed it done today.
On the quote given i can only take it they hope Joe public has no idea what the price is for bike maintenance so they can charge what they want .. maybe much the same as some people would compare a woman going to garage with her car.
I think I know a valuation of the work needing done on my bike as prob most people on this forum do when they take their bike to a bike shop .. I had a valuation I would have gone with .. 40 quid is a rip off ..

no, we're saying that the price quoted is what was quoted, and you had the choice not to take it and shop around for a price that you considered more in line with [b]your[/b] expectations. A quoted price doesn't have to be fair, but if the prices someone charges are higher than the market will bear, they will either adjust or go out of business. Evans clearly haven't, so the market bears this price.

As epic so rightly says, it's a rip-off if you have paid that unfairly or unreasonably, and therefore have been "ripped-off". In this case, you did not get ripped-off.

On a car perhaps £40.0 is fair - but on a push bike i think its a little expensive. However i am ever so tight fisted and do all my own work - cos i can.

Mpk-ripper, so yes Evans a complete rip off IMO because I have choice does not mean it does not constitute it's not a rip off .. they obv count on Joe public for example bringing in the kids bikes for etc and charging whatever they want as the average person unless biking is their passion / hobbie has have no idea what the price is to fix /service a bike .. be intresting to see what the charge to fix a puncture ..
Go out of buisness hardly which is a shame .. My expections [/b]are paying a fare price as I repeatly say 40 quid to bleed brakes is a complete rip off ...

[i]What published rate would this be ? [/i]

The rate shown in the link that I posted to Evans workshop prices.

[i]be intresting to see what the charge to fix a puncture ..[/i]

If you'd bothered clicking the link that I posted then you'd know the answer to that already.

i have never bled a pair of brakes in my life (rip the piss, i run BB7's) but i think 20 quid a side is a bit steep. my condolances.

I have a pretty good idea what they charge to fix a puncture - it's in the region of £12. And that will include the new tube they will install as well. I know this as I worked in a bike shop 10 years ago and we would charge £10 back then as it's a job we didn't really want, so that was factored into the price.

Again, you can do that much cheaper I'm sure, as could someone else. But that's again your choice.

But, Evans have a successful business, and it's clear they're not missing your trade, and you so clearly state you want to see them go out of business - why is that? Because you don't want to pay their prices? Because you don't want to see them screwing the little guy? Are you consistent when extrapolating this concept to your other shopping?

[i]Are you consistent when extrapolating [/i]

Sounds disgusting...

 

Shops/businesses will often charge/quote over the odds as they may not want the work...

Pk-ripper at which at point to I "clearly state" I want them out of buisness ? I said it would "not be shame" bit different no ?
I'm at the point repeating myself again and again .. 40 quid to bleed brakes is a rip off I have a choice and I choose to "opt out" end of ! I thought I would share my opinion at the price they quoted me.
Fao simondbarnes I'm very grateful for the "discount" obv .. and your dead right I hadn't bothered checking your link CBA.

Evans Braehead is a big store in a prime retail area so they must have pretty high overheads compared with say Willy Bain, or even Dales or Alpine. They probably also make most of their money on retail, and a bit of servicing on bikes that they have sold to people who don't want to do work on their own bikes. So your request was probably not a job they really wanted or needed, so quoted you a fair labour rate in line with their overall return rate for a prime location store.

Personally I don't use bike shops for servicing apart from those jobs where it's not economic for me to buy the tools (headset cups etc), but when I do I am happy to pay the going rate. That said, if you join GMBC you'll get half price on all workshop work at Alpine -). Brake bleeding can be a bit fiddly, even with the £30 ? shimano bleed kit, so price seems reasonable.

Would you be happy to pay £40 to have your car brakes bled by a main dealer???
I think the point here is if you take your car to a main dealer rather then a smaller side street garage then you would expect to pay the higher rate.

how about £10 friggin pounds to put a rotor on a centrelock hub... literally a 10-15 second job (I got a bike store to do it as I don't have a torque wrench...) anyhoo, I paid it and walked out of the shop never to be seen again! I'm in the market for a torque wrench if anyone has one going 😉

As said before learn to do it yourself - its so simple and the cost of a bleed kit will be paid back in no time, heck you could even do your mates for a tenner a brake and 'rip them off'

Jay2 .. I would have contemplate paying that if were an Ibis / Shimano dealer and i knew it was 100% .. as you are refering to dealer ..Evans has nothing over the "smaller side" bike shops apart from it is part of a chain.

i swear to god it was the LBS who hacked us. and if if i ever remove my cranks to find my my BB shall HAS NOT been faced it'll be be me who hacks my lbs.....

I work in a small LBS. We usually undercharge on labour on service work, it's endemic in the bike trade. You'd probably get charged £8 to £10 an end for a bleed plus a little for fluids at our shop. We want your custom.

The big boys can charge what they like, if you don't want to pay, another punter will be along any minute. If you don't like the price, bring a packet of good biscuits to a local bike shop, and a good attitude, and you'll get a good deal.

I charge £10 per end, plus a packet of custard creams or m+s yum yums....
Price includes all fluids, cleaners and latex gloves.

...feed the mechanics, you get a good deal.

sound people are sound people. evans cycles sold me a shite lock to go with my new bike and guess what happened? yup.

I would imagine evans have worked out their pricing structure based on what it actually costs them to do a job that takes 40 mins as most main dealer/high street retailers do, including store overheads, rent, rates, lighting, heating, wages, staff training, insurance, tools I could go on and on!!

As bassspine has pointed out most smaller LBS stores undercharge on labour and don't really make any money from it but rely on building up a good relationship with customers, it's the "Cheep brake bleed today, New bike sale tomorrow!! approach!!

jay2 ..that's fair enough as I said in previous posts I didn't have a problem paying "a bit" over the odds but 50% over is shocking ... anyway I have loved and learned today about rip of bike shops off to my scratcher now up early tomoz to go riding ... so any evans mechanics on here have a word and sort it .. 10/4 rubber dicks!

[i]evans cycles sold me a shite lock to go with my new bike[/i] Because I would imagine you said you wanted to pay x amount for a lock and they stocked x lock for that amount. From what I know of evans they tend to stock pretty good brands.

Maybe I should clarify, we charge £20 for a disc brake service, per brake.
It's not just bleeding, the fluid is flushed through and new replaced, lube pistons where possible, face the disc mounts if nessecary, check pads for wear.

I prefer to charge full whack and do the job fully, we either do it fully or not at all, you can't make errors or mistakes with hydro brakes. A quick bleed may not find other brake issues that are present. We could end up liable if an accident occurred as we would be deemed liable once we have worked on the brakes.