Re: I try hard to support my LBS
- From: Tim McNamara <timmcn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 12:10:11 -0600
"Josh" <furmanj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> So I went in today for a single spoke for an old mountain bike that
> I wanted to fix up enough to sell. Simple enough, right? Since its
> an old freehub which I didn't have the removal tool for (drive side
> spoke), I asked the guy if he could spin it off for me. He goes,
> "sure, but it'll be a couple of dollars labor." I was stunned, but
> said that'd be fine. Removal takes 20 seconds, maybe 30 at the
> most. I go to pay and they charge me $0.75 for the spoke and $7.50
> in labor charges. When I said that was crazy he started to give me
> some speech about how he has to pay his mechanics blah blah blah
Here we go. "It'll just take a second so you should do it for free."
Hey, Josh, a bike shop is a business. You want a service, you expect
to pay for it. Simple as that. The shop owner had to move somebody
else's bike out of the way, maybe leave paying customer standing
around while he took care of your problem, hunt down the tool, etc.
You don't mention if you were nice enough to just bring in your wheel
with the QR removed or if you brought in the whole bike. Five minutes
is probably more likely that 30 seconds. The shop probably costs $50
per hour to operate figuring in all the overhead (and that's a small
shop- a large shop would be more).
Frankly I think your shock and amazement are the result of your own
attitude, not reality. The shop owner was right to charge you. Your
argument that "he should have done it for free because I might have
given him more business some time in the future" is a crock. The odds
are good you'd have continued to give your future business to Nashbar
and the like. Do yourself and the bike shop a favor- buy some tools.
.
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