Two "experiences" of my LBS, one funny and one utterly awful.
Awful: I took my Kona in there to have a new headset put on it, I was only young and had neither the tools or minerals to do it myself.
Picked it up later on to find that rather than bang the old cups out from the inside of the head tube they had literally chiselled them out from the outside leaving the top and bottom of the headtube chipped all the way around.
I paid for the headset but refused to pay for the work done.
That was 1997 and I've never forgotten it or bought a thing from there since......
Funny: ..until recently when I needed some chain ring bolts for a single ring set up and wanted them quickly so drove down to see if they had any. Couldn't see any on the shelves so stood by the mechanics work stand (which thankfully had no bike on it) for ages until in the end a lad appeared. I asked for said chain ring bolts and he went over to the workbench and came back with two chain links and asked if they were what I was looking for.
Politely as I could I told him I'd go and try somewhere else.
Absolute joke of a bike shop.
Awful: I took my Kona in there to have a new headset put on it, I was only young and had neither the tools or minerals to do it myself.
Picked it up later on to find that rather than bang the old cups out from the inside of the head tube they had literally chiselled them out from the outside leaving the top and bottom of the headtube chipped all the way around.
I paid for the headset but refused to pay for the work done.
That was 1997 and I've never forgotten it or bought a thing from there since......
Funny: ..until recently when I needed some chain ring bolts for a single ring set up and wanted them quickly so drove down to see if they had any. Couldn't see any on the shelves so stood by the mechanics work stand (which thankfully had no bike on it) for ages until in the end a lad appeared. I asked for said chain ring bolts and he went over to the workbench and came back with two chain links and asked if they were what I was looking for.
Politely as I could I told him I'd go and try somewhere else.
Absolute joke of a bike shop.
