Service

"Ian Blake" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

So I decide winter is over and the commuter bike has just about survived.
Some
obvious problems so I decide time to let the bike shop have it. They do
the
usual good job and hand me the bill.

£186.48 Ouch.

The most expensive regular service I have ever had. I have had more
expensive
but only when I has said thing like build me a new rear wheel with a DT
hub.

This was just stuff being replaced whose time had come. Anybody had
worse?

I spent about £400 a few months ago having my original 3 year old £600 bike
revamped and the main cost was new wheels, as the labour cost was a fixed
£40. It's peanuts compared with the cost of running and maintaining a motor
vehicle.

"Ian Blake" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

So I decide winter is over and the commuter bike has just about survived.
Some
obvious problems so I decide time to let the bike shop have it. They do
the
usual good job and hand me the bill.

£186.48 Ouch.

The most expensive regular service I have ever had. I have had more
expensive
but only when I has said thing like build me a new rear wheel with a DT
hub.

This was just stuff being replaced whose time had come. Anybody had
worse?

What do you get for that?

cheers,
clive

On Fri, 7 Apr 2006 22:14:51 +0100, "Clive George" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Ian Blake" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

usual good job and hand me the bill.

£186.48 Ouch.

This was just stuff being replaced whose time had come. Anybody had
worse?

What do you get for that?

The expensive items were a new hope disc brake caliper and a new 48 tooth
chainring. I knew these things were needed. I probably paid a bit of postage
for them because they were both items the shop would not normally have in
stock. (I wanted a black chainring, they had plain aluminium in stock). The
chainring had done under 30,000 miles and was looking very worn. The disc
caliper was sticking. The shop tried to fix it last service.

Next came the rear tyre which had a bit more life but I told them to change it.
The chain is the only thing I could complain about, he supplied a better chain
than I would of chosen. My fault for using expensive chains in the past.

But mostly lots of little jobs done. I could of saved £25 by doing the service
myself but the shop does a better job than me.

Ian Blake said:

On Fri, 7 Apr 2006 22:14:51 +0100, "Clive George" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Ian Blake" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

usual good job and hand me the bill.

£186.48 Ouch.

This was just stuff being replaced whose time had come. Anybody had
worse?

What do you get for that?

<snip>
But mostly lots of little jobs done. I could of saved £25 by doing the service
myself but the shop does a better job than me.

Eek. did you have any advance warning of the cost? But if it was only
£25 more expensive than doing it yourself its money well spent.

Stan Cox

In article <[email hidden]>, Ian Blake
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

So I decide winter is over and the commuter bike has just about survived. Some
obvious problems so I decide time to let the bike shop have it. They do the
usual good job and hand me the bill.

£186.48 Ouch.

The most expensive regular service I have ever had. I have had more expensive
but only when I has said thing like build me a new rear wheel with a DT hub.

This was just stuff being replaced whose time had come. Anybody had worse?

Yes - £200+ to have my Evans serviced at Wheelie Serious in George St,
London. Might not be around anymore. They replaced both wheels and did
loads of other stuff too. They phoned to tell me that major repairs were
required and the cost would be high. Still cheaper than the annual car
MOT.

--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

Stan Cox said:

Ian Blake said:

On Fri, 7 Apr 2006 22:14:51 +0100, "Clive George" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Ian Blake" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
> usual good job and hand me the bill.
>
> £186.48 Ouch.
>

Eek. did you have any advance warning of the cost? But if it was only
£25 more expensive than doing it yourself its money well spent.

Stan Cox

Everything that was replaced was expected. I just had not added all the bits
up properly. Typically I pay £80 for the spring service so I was thinking of a
cost around £130, Oh well, at least the headset survived this time.

The service charge is their standard bike service charge. The bike does around
8000 miles a year. I get it serviced in April and October. April because the
Winter is can be very hard on a commuting bike and October because the bike
needs to be in good condition if it is not going to let me down in the Winter.
The October service is usually a lot cheaper. £25 + chain + rear tyre being
the certainties.

The real problem the shop has, is not people like me or you who take a step
back then hand over the credit card. They get a problem when someone brings in
a makro or supermarket bike. Customers can get very upset because the repair
can cost a large proportion or even more than the bike. The shop always
estimates the cost when a job comes in and if something comes up that radically
expands that price they phone the customer to confirm that they should do the
job.

Customers can still get upset I remember a customer getting really annoyed that
a service/repair cost £40 on his £60 bike. Coincidently I was in the shop the
following week when the same customer came in, very pleased, he didn't know is
bike could work that well and could they do it to his wife's bike.

The unhappiest customer I came across was a youth who had put his bike in with
a huge gash in the side of tyre. He wanted his wheel trued. So the shop trued
the wheel but when they did that they refused to refit the damaged tyre (not
safe, they had pointed this out before they accepted the bike). They asked the
lad to choose a new tyre but he believed they were trying it on. The shop said
buy a tyre in another shop and we will fit it. Take the bike and fit the old
tyre yourself but we can not put a dangerous tyre on the bike for you. But
what ever they said the lad believed it was an evil bike shop conspiracy to
sell more tyres.

On 08/04/2006 20:13, congokid said,

Quoted message said:

Yes - £200+ to have my Evans serviced at Wheelie Serious in George St,
London.
Still cheaper than the annual car MOT.

Ouch! I know London is expensive, but an MOT in the rest of the country
should be around £40, not £200+! My 11 year old Mondeo doesn't cost me
that a year with servicing and MOTs put together!

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

In article <[email hidden]>, Paul
Boyd <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

On 08/04/2006 20:13, congokid said,

Quoted message said:

Yes - £200+ to have my Evans serviced at Wheelie Serious in George St,
London.
Still cheaper than the annual car MOT.

Ouch! I know London is expensive, but an MOT in the rest of the
country should be around £40, not £200+! My 11 year old Mondeo doesn't
cost me that a year with servicing and MOTs put together!

It's years since I've owned a car (my VW convertible was stolen in
1998), so I don't have all the details, but I'm sure the cost of repairs
associated with the MOT service was often around the £200 mark and on
one occasion about £400.

Perhaps my mistake was bringing the car to the central London branch of
the VW dealer I'd bought it from.

The £200 for the Evans service included replacing both wheels.

--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

In article said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Paul
Boyd <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

On 08/04/2006 20:13, congokid said,

Quoted message said:

Yes - £200+ to have my Evans serviced at Wheelie Serious in George St,
London.
Still cheaper than the annual car MOT.

Ouch! I know London is expensive, but an MOT in the rest of the
country should be around £40, not £200+! My 11 year old Mondeo doesn't
cost me that a year with servicing and MOTs put together!

It's years since I've owned a car (my VW convertible was stolen in
1998), so I don't have all the details, but I'm sure the cost of repairs
associated with the MOT service was often around the £200 mark and on
one occasion about £400.

I have spent that on car repairs, but not year after year. I have bought
cars with a years MOT for £250, but they lasted more than one year
without needing major work.

(I was once estimated "at least a £1000 before we even think about
the welding", but I did the work myself, and it was only about £60 in
parts. The last time I took a car in for a pre-MOT fix it was going to be
£980 for one part (new steering rack) so they didn't bother looking at
what else needed doing, and we've now bought another car.)