'Rip Off' bike shops?

quoted £25, charged £50.

I don’t understand how that is the end of it; that would just the start of a much longer conversation.

If you let someone bum you; it’s just as much your fault for being a pushover.

Never been ripped off but I can’t understand how bike shops don’t get the whole customer service part. Over all the years I’ve used local and not so local shops if anything is delayed they never tell you I’ve always have to ring and chase them. I find this so frustrating. One of my lbs is over the usual rrp but they are quick and reasonably priced with servicing and fitting headsets etc. the other shop I use give a better discount and will do there best to meet online prices but you can never get anything in the workshop without 2 weeks notice so I switch between them both

I went in for a headset to be fitted, and it was a tenner. Now, I don’t care what you say, you can’t do ANY job for a tenner these days. Given a shop has rent, light, heat, staff, insurance, inventory tools and other costs, to even look at a bike, let alone do anything, these says, needs to be able to charge a reasonable rate per hour.

Ever been into an oldschool road bike shop?

It seems only Audi-3k mountain biker LBS’s are charged Audi-3k rig prices.

I’m regularly ripped of by my lbs – they never have fresh milk in when I’m making the coffee! plus – have you seen the price of a packet of hobnobs!! 😀

A new LBS started up in a nearby town. Every time I went past it was empty and I felt sorry for the guy. So although I do almost all my own maintenance I took in an Reynolds road wheel to be trued, and bought a tube at the same time. I couldn’t collect the wheel so my wife went. He charged an hours labour to true the wheel and £15 for the truing tool! He kept the tool!

Not been back….

Ha, seriously? Do they need a special tool or something?

Can’t say I’ve ever been ripped off by an LBS.

Paying full retail for a set of gear cables or some GT85 isn’t being ripped off.

Alpine Bikes in Innerleithen gave me a loan of a helmet the other day and I’d never been in there before in my life.

The Hub in Glentress has given me a few bits and pieces and the odd free repair too adn I can’t remember ever buying more than a couple of energy bars anf maybe a Buff from them.

So if anything it’s me that ripping off bike shops!

Well, I’ve had to use C&N Cycles Redhill a couple of times.

not only have I NEVER felt ripped off, but actually the contrary, that they simply haven’t charged enough.

Yep, used them recently to do some work on my road bike that I didn’t fancy doing myself and they were prompt, courteous and inexpensive. They also tweaked my front brake as part of the job.

One thing to bear in mind with “rips offs” for small jobs is that 6 ten minute jobs will take more than an hour to do, and with bicycles a lot of jobs are “small”.

It’s an old argument, isn’t it?

“This is fifteen quid, it’s only a tenner at the supermarket / online.”

“Well, go there then.”

“But I want it right now.”

“Then that’ll be fifteen quid, sir.”

You pay a premium for convenience, for expert advice, for skilled service. Supermarkets have lower prices due to economy of scale but you might have to travel further. Online shops don’t have the expense of maintaining physical stores, but you can’t try things before purchase. You pays your money and you makes your choice.

Last time I bought some rock climbing shoes, I must’ve tried on every pair in the shop and tied up the knowledgeable assistant for a good hour. I could then have gone “thanks” and gone and bought the chosen shoe online for several quid less, but I didn’t, because I’m not morally bankrupt. I was happy to pay a premium for the quality service I received.

Where it falls down for companies is when you’ve got all the inconvenience and disinterested staff of a supermarket with the price of a local shop. Ultimately, that’s not sustainable any more, cf. Comet.

I don’t think there are too many places that would actually be trying to rip people off, but some shops are just rubbish and are run by/have staff that don’t know what they’re talking about.

I’ve asked for stuff and just had blank looks before, but have since gone back into the same shop and new staff mean’t better srvice and more knowledge. I’ll now happily go again.

Can’t say I’ve ever felt ripped off buying stuff. I’m sure I’ve bought loads of stuff I could have got cheaper online or maybe a different shop, but as above that’s not being ripped off- maybe if they were charging more than RRP it would be but that doesn’t seem to happen.

As above servicing/repairs is where a gap can appear between expectations and the final bill which might lead people to feel they’ve been ripped off. And I’m sure it’s also an opportunity to actually rip people off by changing stuff that doesn’t need doing, putting in used bits or whatever, or just say it took longer- it’s all a bit opaque.
On the other hand some people have a very unrealistic expectation of labour costs and there’s obviously scope for more needing doing than first thought, or bolts taking hours to get out or whatever.

So it’s not surprising that most of the stories on this thread are to do with servicing.

Last time I bought some rock climbing shoes, I must’ve tried on every pair in the shop and tied up the knowledgeable assistant for a good hour. I could then have gone “thanks” and gone and bought the chosen shoe online for several quid less, but I didn’t, because I’m not morally bankrupt. I was happy to pay a premium for the quality service I received.

Maybe the question to everyone should be when did you rip-off a LBS? Sure plenty of people on here have spent time in a LBS trying clothing/shoes on, even sized up bikes, to then jump onto t’interweb to order them.

I’ve only ever been ripped off once when I had a credit note for over £100 with an LBS. I needed a new crankset fitted. Guess how much that cost? Yep – in excess of £110 on the basis that he had to ream out the BB shell and ran the risk of ruining my frame and had to offset that risk in his charges to me.

Only been ripped off the once …
Took my 6 year old rockhopper in for a fettle and gears indexing to be greeted by a manager who looked at it as if it was way below his esteemed values to even let it in the shop ….
Nothing major but the bill of £130 for a service and cables was a bit steep – with a new mech hanger at an EXTRA £25 PLUS £25 for fitting said hanger, in hindsight was ridiculous but i didn`t know any better ….
Move on a few years – ive got together a decent toolkit and now do all my own servicing/repairs on 3 bikes, so thanks to the fopp-haired jerk who manages MOORES cycles on Kingston road, Hampton wick im saving a fortune …. 🙂

Only been ripped-off the once too..

My rear shock needed servicing. So took it to the LBS.
I said I would like the bike serviced, and especially the rear shock because it hadnt been done in a year or so.
Picked the bike up a few days later. And was told they had changed a gear cable, adjusted gears and changed the bottom bracket .. they had not serviced the rear shock .. and bill was something like £100.

I questioned the bill.
Was told a service was something like £20 or £30.
I asked what they actualy did for a service?
Was told a service was to just look the bike over!
And anything wrong with the bike they sorted, and charged individual for any job .. from changing a cable, indexing the gears and fitting a new bottom bracked.
Was not happy leaving the shop..
Next day I took the bike out. And noticed the chainset was very loose.
Upon inspecting the bottom bracket I noticed the splines were chewed from over-tightening.
Took the bike back .. turns out they had not put the correct spacers behind bottom bracket .. and to add further insult. The shop owner implied that I had fitted it wrong .. obviously until I reminded him it was he who had fitted it, the previous day!

Never used the bike shop since.

Being an LBS owner, I dont rip people off, but charge rrp. if people want haggle then I enjoy the haggling, its all easy going.

However, I do feel ripped off by a lot of the importers/distributors.

Not ripped off, but back when 29ers were rare, Richmond Cycles (at that point pretty much the only person selling 29ers in London) spent 6 months not getting me a single ludicrously expensive tyre, and not returning calls as they repeatedly promised. Clearly the distributor’s fault if stock doesn’t appear, but what is the point in saying ‘we’ve ordered it, will be in by the end of the week’ ten or so times when you are clearly lying and don’t have a clue when you’ll get one in. Thank goodness for online suppliers where ordering something is in some way related to receiving it.

In the end, managed to pick one up from some shop run by someone on here that didn’t normally do mail order.

Southampton lbs…. Paid retail for a set of saint cranks, only to find a year later they had not bothered to grease pedal threads. Being charged £15 for having a dirty bike despite me giving it a once over before I took it in, I would have been fine with the charge if they had actually cleaned it….but it was as it went in with a bled brake. Last time I used them

Conversely I busted a spoke at afan, skyline cycles spent ages sorting it, literally a couple of hours, and charged peanuts, in between pangs of guilt I bought a nice new endura baabaa top even though I knew crc were a tender cheaper