my LBS is 'Jons bike repair'... seems to know his stuff...
But, yes, otherwise I've found most bike shops appalling, including some well respected one locally. Unless you're flashing a lot of cash in which case they can't do enough to help you. TBH, I can understand why that is the case.
hello captain! waves!
ok so lets have the other side response!!
i like to think i give good service at the shop, but . . . i have sat someone down on a stool in the shop, put a cup of tea in their hand and said "we're gonna have a chat, what do you think it's gonna be about?" response was "i don't know" my reply was "i think you're a ****".
now obviously that was a shock to him, i still can't believe i said it to be honest. the back story to that conversation (which ended positively with that guy becoming a sensible customer) was that he felt he got bad service in every shop he went in, he was completely unaware of how he came across to the point where his name was known locally and staff would do what they could to not sell to him for fear of bad reviews on google, claims to trading standards, threats of outing on social media etc, now obviously he is an extreme example of a bad customer. of course most people are not like that, but all retail shops/restaurants etc do suffer with "karens" from time to time.
i consider myself pretty lucky to have a good customer base and as a result seem to get a lot of referrals as a result, i rarely get complaints and when i have it's usually the result of a faulty part or a genuine mistake and when i deal with it the people are usually very happy as i sort them out "John Lewis style" meaning i try to go above and beyond.
what i will add is that sometimes people will know more than staff, for various reasons, quite often the customer knows everything about his specific stuff, but nothing generally, they'll be the guys that used to work in shops but are actually out of touch now, but then there's the internet with all the tech docs that a customer might have time to read but the shop guy is too busy servicing stuff to keep up with the new stuff that comes out that he rarely sees.
my attitude tends to be, be polite, but honest and in some cases firm, especially when it's a safety issue, i will refuse to work on some things if i think the bike won't be safe and sometimes this upsets people but i stress it's for safety reasons, usually it's when the bike is not sound and the customer refuses to have something done properly and asks for a cheap bodge, the reason i won't "bodge it" is not just the safety issue but also because when the bike fails they blame the bodge and not the fact it was in a state to start with, literally had this conversation with a customer 5 days ago, gearset on his daughters bike was dead (it was his old commuter bike) he refused to pay for a new gearset as the chain/rings/cassette were unbelievably worn, gave it to his daughter, first day she had an accident on it when the chainset slipped under load going up a hill when she was stood up on the pedals, she came off and hurt herself, luckily not too badly, that bike is back in the shop having a new gearset fitted to it.
so in conclusion, while i accept there are bad shops, bad staff and bad experiences there are also, good shops, good staff and good experiences. like any situation you need to find a place that works for you and sometimes that takes a little time.