Letter to LBS

I had my LBS build up my bike, they quoted me a $100 to put it together but I ended up paying over $300. Also, they did not warrenty the work. This happend a while ago so I forgot all about it. I recently got this real cute post card from them but it brought back bad memories.

Eric,

I know you guys have been in business for a long time and you know what you are doing. Thus I how that my e-mail does not come across as the ramblings of an uninformed angry costumer. My family too owns and operates a business and can understand the frustration or dealing with uninformed clients.

I initially feared that writing this letter to explain my frustrations could alienated me with you and your staff when I come into your shop. However, after the bitter experience, I found my self driving over 60 miles to Lake Charles for all of my bicycle needs. I also did not want to rush to judgement and be hothead, so I have thought about this for several months and compared you bicycle shop to many other including Houston, Austin, Seattle, Lake Charles, and D.C. Without a doubt I can say that your shop has treated me the worst and misrepresent the product and services you offer.


I do not feel that I got the type of customer service and respect at your bike shop that I should have received considering how much money I have spent with you guys. We have bought 4 bikes from you, and countless accessories. You know that cycling is not a cheap sport so over the years this has added to a good chuck of change.

In later February, I called in to request a quote for a bicycle build. I bought the frame and group set online. I was quoted about 100 buck or so to put the bike together considering that I had done some work (installed the cassette, crank, derailleur, etc.) the major thing that remained that the cables had to be internally routed and the fork had to be cut. Kelly was the mechanic handling my build. I brought in the frame and groupset and he looked at everything and said it would be ready the following day. I came back next day to pick up the bike to a bill of shopping 300 bucks! I know this is not that much money in bike terms especially considering that my frame (Cervelo S2) was 3,000 bucks and groupset (Sram Red) was another 2,000. However, my disappointment comes from that fact that your pricing was dishonest. I was not told that I would be charged 50 bucks for the fork to be cut, or another 30 bucks for the bartape to be wrapped. The bike build itself was 200 bucks, instead of 100, and minor things such as wrapping the bar tape were not even included. Perhaps what left the worst taste in my mouth is that when I asked Kelly if he could put on my Look Keos, he said no, and said I would have to buy a pedal wrench. I feel that if the build were going to go over 100 bucks, I should have been have contacted. Instead, I was presented with a 300 dollar bill without must recouse. I have checked around with many shops about the cost of this similar build. Firstly, I can tell you for a fact that no one charges for wrapping the tape or declines to put on pedals. Secondly, most of them do not charge an additional cost to cut the fork but include that in the price of the build.

My main concern is not with this, it is with your warranty. A couple months later, I brought the bike in because the cables were rubbing and the headset was making noise. Kelly said he would look at it, and quoted be 75 bucks just to look at these issues, of course there would be additional cost if I wanted to go ahead with the repair. From my conversation with him before the build, I confirmed that there was a warranty on the build, in case anything went wrong. Thus from my understanding, this should have been covered. I have checked with many bike shops about the build warranties and all of them cover things such as this, expect you. At this point I stopped coming to your shop. I took my bike to Lake Charles and had the fix the issue, it turns out that the problem was with Kelly's build of the bike. The headset had not been greased and the cables were not properly hooked to the facets in side the frame. This was a build error, there is no mistake about it. It should have been covered under some type of warranty. Cost of the repairs: 14 bucks.

I no longer consider my self a patron of your shop, and will not recommend it to any of my family members or friends looking to getting into cycling. My main concern is that pricing on your services is not quoted correctly from my experiences. Secondly, you do not offer a warranty on any of the services, this makes me think that your servies are inferior or you already know what is wrong and simply want to write another bill. Thirdly, wanting to charge 75 bucks for a service another shop renders for 14 means that you are not completive, misdiagnose problems, or your mechanics are incompetent.

I hope that you do not take this e-mail the wrong way. In fact, the only motivation I had for writing this email was because of the post cards you guys send out.