LBS related question…

I always thought it would be taking the mick to buy a part online and take it into the local LBS to be fitted. Seems like it’s a fairly common thing.

I’d ask them for a quote for a part+fitting but I think i’d feel a bit tight saying “I can get them cheaper from so-and-so, would you still fit them for the labour” and if you haven’t got anywhere else local it’s probably not worth burning your bridges…

Is it taking the mick? Would be interested to hear from LBS owners/staff 🙂

ask them to match the price,

don’t they offer free fitting with parts bought from them?

Still paying them for a service, nowt wrong with that imo

Paid work is paid work. A really good LBS would advise you to get the stuff online whenever they can’t get it at a decent price anyway.

It’s somthing we do often at work.
As a small shop my boss can’t match some of the mad deals online
We know that and understand people will not see the point in paying more than they have too

And any money coming into the business can only be a good thing
The only thing that gets annoying sometimes is not being asked what price we can do somthing for

orangeboy – that makes a lot of sense, and yeh I would certainly give them a chance and ask for a quote first.

I suppose the thing to understand is that if you ask for a quote for part+fitting, don’t expect to turn up with an Internet-bought part and pay the same for fitting.

My personal view (and I’m far from a normal LBS) is that you don’t pay me for just sourcing a part that you (and often I) can buy from CRC. You pay me for my skills and expertise. As long as you are willing to pay a sensible amount for that, I don’t really care where the parts come from.

Fitting stuff, servicing, building…it’s bread and butter stuff for bike shops. Don’t even give it a second thought.

We fit lots of parts brought online.Keeps the workshop busy,and when they order the wrong one,its there fault..lol

Where I work we fit parts bought elsewhere for a fee, no problem with that but what’s really annoying is when someone comes in to ask/try/touch the part and then wanders off to buy online. We even had some idiots openly admitting that was the main purpose of their visit, and we were kind enough to quickly show ’em where the doors are 😉