Keep or Return?

[punkypossum]

I think you complain too much
It appears you misjudged the guy in the shop, ok he sounded vague but in fact he came up with the goods on the day.
You could go to a shop with a much more positive and confident sounding staff, but how do you know they would provide a better service?
Your tyres will be fine, just ensure they are not distorted in storage and they will be ready for use when you need them.

He promised to have them in on the day we dropped the bikes off!!!! That's why we asked him to get them in 2 weeks in advance!!! He also promised the bikes would be ready today when I spoke to him at 10 this morning - my friend walked round just before 5pm only to be told hers wasn't ready and they had not even started on mine!!! Sorry if it sounds I'm winging, but it really annoyed me... There have been other little things happening recently, not just the tyre story, so I suppose it's just mounted up a bit...I know it's a busy time of year for bike shops, but still....or maybe I'm just having an oversensitive moment...

Plus this post wasn't meant as a moan about the shop, sorry if it sounded that way, just wanted some help making my mind up if I should keep them or not (suppose it turned into a moan in the process )

 

[punkypossum]

Put the name and address of the lbs on here. Also, add the name of the bloke you talked too. Then e-mail them the URL to the forum page so they know what's happening.

With over 2000 registered users on the site, plus hundreds of lurkers, word will soon get around. After they see a drop in takings they'll start to appreciate that pissing you off was a bad idea. If that's their attitude to customers then the sooner they get out of the business the better.

If they make a mess of your, or your friends, bike come back and do it again.

Apart from that be as nice as pie to them.

If it were me I'd have taken the tyres off you, covering your postages costs as well and fitted them onto another bike for a customer. It would have cost me a couple of quid in the short term but in the long run I'd keep a customer.

Tyres will 'keep' for a very long time. Chances your friend has the usual crap tyres which come with most bikes these days. Hers will wear out quick and you might have a ready made customer waiting for yours there.

I wasn't even expecting them to buy them off me, let alone cover the postage...just thought as they do stock them anyway (just happened not to have any), they could keep theirs and fit mine...I was only asking, but hey... Don't really want to name and shame the lbs, it might just be coincidental that a few things have gone wrong for me in a row...and I do realise they are dead busy at the moment...they have been ok in the past, so I would rather people made their own minds up...It's not like the actual work carried out has been bad so far...

 

[bonj2]

Yes, but is there much point in keeping them in a cupboard indefinitely? How likely am I to actually need them? If a set of tyres can do thousands of miles (and I also use knobblies on the bike), will I be too old to cycle before they get used?

how long does it take you to do 'thousands' of miles? years? or months?

 

[bonj2]

I think you're relying on the shop too much. The LBS shouldn't even be involved in anything to do with tyres, apart from if they happen to have the ones you want in stock at the time you want to purchase them you might buy them there and then and take them away with you. Nothing more.

Some sort of convoluted process involving dropping your bike off at a shop one week and picking it up at another week when it may or may not have new tyres on that they are hoping to get in stock is just wrong. That isn't the way to do things.
I recommend certain rules:
1) Any work that is to be carried out by the bike shop that can't be carried out that day should be pre-arranged for a certain day and a quote for the price of parts and labour to be agreed at the time of arrangement,
2) the bike should then only be dropped off at the bike shop for that day,
3) with the express knowledge that it will be picked up at the end of that day
4) if it hasn't been done at the end of that day the bike will be picked up anyway,
5) the only tasks that warrant the bike shop in the first place are headset fitting/removal, headtube facing, bottom bracket/crankset fitting/removal, BB shell facing, derailleur hanger straightening, wheel building/truing, and anything else that requires a tool whose price to times used ratio is too high to justify being bought. NOT changing the bloody tyres!

Not meaning to be harsh, but the extra expense it has cost you will hopefully teach you (a) not to be impatient , and ( to do things yourself!

 

[punkypossum]

I only got them to change the tyres because the bike was going in for a full service anyway, so it made sense to get it all done at once (or so I thought) - and unfortunately I don't feel confident enough to do a full service at this point!!!

 

[yello]

Personally, I like to have a stock of spares. Tubes, chains and tyres.

Tyres, sadly, don't always last thousands of km. I had one last only 500km before it was ripped sufficiently to be of no use.

So put them aside pp. You'll need them in due course. Should one of your tyres go, you'll be able to be up and running again in minutes - no waiting for mail order or bike shops.

 

[PatrickPending]

Tis always useful to have a spare tyre at home and Im sure you'll need to replace your tyres before your spare set go past their 'best before' date (I've no idea as to how long a tyre should last in storage but it will be a few years). This avoids the situation of finding a big gash in your tyre and having nothing to replace it with when the bike shop is shut and you're looking forward to a ride.

 

[snorri]

Sorry if it sounds I'm winging, but it really annoyed me...

Now that you have further clarified the situation, I think some annoyance is justified, I take back what I said in my earlier posting.
Best way to get rid of the anger inside is to get out on that bike and pedal for miles, and miles, and miles............

 

[bonj2]

I only got them to change the tyres because the bike was going in for a full service anyway, so it made sense to get it all done at once (or so I thought) - and unfortunately I don't feel confident enough to do a full service at this point!!!

What exactly is meant by a 'full service'
So your bike needed stripping down, facing, new headset, and new bottom bracket/cranks then, did it?

 

[punkypossum]

It means that it went in for a full check up to see if everything was working properly, adjusted properly, bits that might need replacing that I didn't know about could be replaced etc. You might be able to do this yourself, unfortunately I don't feel confident doing it and not possibly missing something - especially when going for a 275mile ride next week. Yes, maybe I should be able to do it all myself (and hopefully I will be at some point) and yes, that probably would save me money - but at the end of the day, at the moment I'm not competent/confident enough to do it, so I chose to take it to the shop and pay for it. What exactly is wrong with that bonj?

P.S.: This section is called beginners, you know!

 

[summerdays]

I agree with you punkypossum ... there is no way that I would feel that I could check a bit as thoroughly as a LBS should. Yes I can tell if a few things are wrong, and I can now do my V-brakes myself. Its a learning process that you can't afford to get wrong the week before a big trip.

 

[punkypossum]

Hmph...if you read my latest post in know-how about the rubbing brakes, trusting the shop was clearly a mistake....

 

[bonj2]

It means that it went in for a full check up to see if everything was working properly, adjusted properly, bits that might need replacing that I didn't know about could be replaced etc. You might be able to do this yourself, unfortunately I don't feel confident doing it and not possibly missing something - especially when going for a 275mile ride next week. Yes, maybe I should be able to do it all myself (and hopefully I will be at some point) and yes, that probably would save me money - but at the end of the day, at the moment I'm not competent/confident enough to do it, so I chose to take it to the shop and pay for it. What exactly is wrong with that bonj?

P.S.: This section is called beginners, you know!

What exactly is wrong with that, is that actually riding a bike is a process which is infinitely more likely to highlight any problems with it than putting it in a workstand, turning the pedals and making sure it goes into every gear, then applying the brake and making sure the wheel stops, right - wham, done - onto the next one, that's twenty quid for thirty seconds work thank you very much.
Tell me - what do you think could possibly go wrong with it that you as a supposed 'beginner' are unable to detect that a bike shop will instantly spot within 30 seconds of having it on a workstand. Perhaps you could start with thinking about what moving parts there actually ARE on the bike that contain components that you aren't likely to know through riding it whether they're working right or not?
A bike isn't like a car, you know - it makes sense, it doesn't have lots of internal parts that are inaccessible have to be tested in special ways and that if left to wear down will start to damage other parts.
In the frienliest possible sense, you can't be a beginner forever you know!

there is a trait which is the exact opposite of being 'eliteist' - that of being noviceist - you appear to be showing a predisposition to it.

 

[Mortiroloboy]

Yeah, just keep 'em 'just in case'.

 

[punkypossum]

What exactly is wrong with that, is that actually riding a bike is a process which is infinitely more likely to highlight any problems with it than putting it in a workstand, turning the pedals and making sure it goes into every gear, then applying the brake and making sure the wheel stops, right - wham, done - onto the next one, that's twenty quid for thirty seconds work thank you very much.
Tell me - what do you think could possibly go wrong with it that you as a supposed 'beginner' are unable to detect that a bike shop will instantly spot within 30 seconds of having it on a workstand. Perhaps you could start with thinking about what moving parts there actually ARE on the bike that contain components that you aren't likely to know through riding it whether they're working right or not?
A bike isn't like a car, you know - it makes sense, it doesn't have lots of internal parts that are inaccessible have to be tested in special ways and that if left to wear down will start to damage other parts.
In the frienliest possible sense, you can't be a beginner forever you know!

there is a trait which is the exact opposite of being 'eliteist' - that of being noviceist - you appear to be showing a predisposition to it.

This is exactly why I want to go on a maintenance course - to give me the confidence of doing it myself! I'm one of those people that needs to be shown how to do stuff, really struggle with picking it up from books, so till I have properly learnt how to do it, unfortunatley I will continue in my overreliance on bike shops....