Ultra-professional LBS the norm these days?

hopeful

First of all, I LOVE bike shops. My own LBS is highly reputable, and great for buying bikes and accessories, and they deserve all the success that they obviously have. However, their professionalisation seems to have had consequences that sort of annoy me. First of all, there's no chance of getting any repair done on the spot - you have to plan a couple of days ahead to bring the bike in, and then plan to leave it with them for a few days (4 days before you have a working bike again, yikes). And it seems that they charge an arm and a leg for the simplest of things. I've found another guy who'll do some jobs for a reasonable sum, so I plan to stick with him for the services etc.

Am I being unreasonable in being faintly irritated by this? Should I just be rejoicing in their success and accept the cost?

oldandcrusty

Know the feeling. My bike goes in on Monday for the front triple, seven rear and a new chain. Booked the bike in a week ago!!!
The chap I use is VERY GOOD and cheap, hence his popularity and therefore the long lead times. This is one of the problems if you find someone that good everyone uses them.
I get your point about pricing though, there is a big name shop here in Norwich, the staff all wear smart uniforms and they sell some very nice gear, but their repair qoutes is enough to to give you a heart attack. Big name succes, big name pricing.

Monty Dog

This is purely down to demand - there are only so many hours in the day and each job takes a certain amount of time. You'd rather they did it properly than do a quick botch. The problem is that many people wait until the beginning of the school holidays, look to retrieve the bike from the back of the garage to find it has two flat tyres, iffy brakes and a rusty chain. Perhaps DIY or booking it in before the holidays/ dry weather (sic!) might have helped? How much is your LBS hourly rate? £25-30/hr is the norm based on basic pay, shop overheads etc - or do you expect them to be a loss-making charity?