beware The bicycle tailor

lowbudget

10 W
Joined
Mar 3, 2015
Messages
88
Location
Kitchener ontario
I wanted to lace up an alex dx32 rim to my 3540. The Lbs said no trouble, they have done others. I ordered spokes from Grin, disassembled my wheel, and took it in on a friday. After explaining that spokes were to be outside the flange, and no dishing was needed. I was told they would have it done Tues. or Wed.

On Fri. afternoon they called and I went to pick it up. All the spokes were inside the flanges. This is exactly wrong say I. I know says the kid, I,m not sure why I did it that way. He also informs me that he wasn,t sure where to measure from, and so, guessed at the dishing.

After making certain they understood what "no dishing" meant, they told me they would get right at it and call me as soon as it was done. They called 4 days later to tell me the wheel was done but they had dropped it and ruined the rim. They ordered a different rim. According to them you can,t buy an alex dx32 rim. So now 3 weeks later my wheel is supposedly finished, with a mismatched rim.

Do I get a discount, or even an apology? Nope. I get $113 bill!! Over double the cost of lacing a wheel anywhere else. Of course the first thing I will have to do is take it to another shop, and get the truing/tension checked.

Bad enough, but I had to cancel my holidays as well!!

Should I not be allowed to hurt this guy? How do I pay this crook without blowing a gasket?
 
See im the same way, I will pay the bill like a dumb sap and just never go back to them again, and feel like that's my justice...

My girl friend on the other hand would freak out and let them know they screwed up and how they are going to fix it and scare the ever living shit out the guys there and not pay a dime for the wheel until it was done correctly. For some reason I don't have it in me to do this myself and get slightly embarrassed when she does it with lots of people around haha

In my opinion the bike shop should have fixed it and not charged you until it was done even if it took another week...but if they can do a shit job and still get paid why not?
 
I speak as a longtime professional bicycle mechanic when I say that you shouldn't pay for work that was performed contrary to your specific instructions. They need to make it right. Have them redo it, if you trust them to do the work. If not, get a refund because you'll be paying someone else to do the work.

In my shop, when something gets screwed up it's usually because there was a failure of communication, either between the customer and us or between the guy who took in the job and the guy who did the service. But we do the job we agreed to do, or we don't get paid.

I'm curious why you don't want your wheel centered in the frame.
 
he didn't say he doesn't want it centered, he said he didn't want it dished, which would have me assume that center is actual center of hub. so all spokes same length = easy job

But if its a rear motor it doesn't make much sense since it would require dishing
 
Hi Chalo, when I informed them the lacing was wrong, they said they would redo it "right now". Four days later, they dropped the wheel and destroyed the rim. They have replaced the rim with one that doesn,t match my other wheels, added another week to the wait and still want me to pay through the nose for it. I worry that if it dropped that hard, what shape are my axle threads in? wires damaged? spokes ok? I,m afraid to go there, I have little self restraint, and a volatile temper. I have no problem expressing my displeasure. lol
I am waiting till my worker comes in, so that I don,t end up choking the bastard, or ramming the wheel up his spandex clad backside.

I am out everyday on my bike, and since it is unusual, I talk to many cyclists a day. I also have plenty of "advertising space" on my bike. There is no one within 50 miles who won,t soon know to avoid this place. A simple apology and some token compensation, could have prevented this, instead the guy has acted as though I am somehow to blame, and they have done more than they had too. He,s frustrated because the wheel had to be laced 3 times, and angry at me, rather than his employees.

That they dropped a wheel worth several hundred dollars,( won,t tell me what happened), and destroyed my rim, is bad enough.
 
I'd pay them in American pennies if they didn't make right
 
It's easy enough to drop a wheel with a 12 to 40 pound hub in it, and write off the rim in doing so. I don't charge extra for lacing hub motors, but I really should. It takes longer and there are a lot more opportunities to hurt yourself or the wheel when things go awry.

However, they should replace like with like, if at all possible. If "like" = something that's out of production or otherwise unavailable, well, you only have the suppliers you have.

If they eventually do a good job building your wheel, and they use equal or better parts to what you brought them, I'd say they came through. Keep in mind that they did in fact lose money on your business. Keep in mind how slender a thread e-bike access to regular bicycle service shops is hanging by.

I'm the only guy at my shop who'll always work on an e-bike, and today almost convinced me I was wrong to do so. I was handed an atrocious cheap Chinese turn-key bike by the guy who'd just bought it. It was full of problems. Twisted rear derailleur, half the rear wheel spokes slack, disc brake adapters on backwards, front brake pads absent, etc, etc. But there was one feature that really took the cake.

When I went to remove the rear wheel for truing and adding tension, I discovered that I had to cut a bunch of cable ties to release the motor cable. Then I noticed that there was no plug for the motor at the other end of the cable. It disappeared into a box that was screwed shut. Two of the screws I was able to remove, but access to the other two was blocked by the battery. And its mounting rail. And I didn't have the key to remove the battery. So I trued the wheel in situ.

But here's the fun part. As soon as that guy gets a rear wheel flat, someone (not him) is going to have to cut a mess of cable ties, remove the battery, remove the battery bracket, unscrew the cover to the electrical access box, unplug the motor (if there is even a plug in there), and only then be able to replace the tube and/or tire. And then reverse the whole process. That's not OK. And this dude will never do it himself, so he'll never understand how not-OK his bike is. He'll probably just think that bike shop guys are trying to take advantage of him by trying to get paid for their work. As for me, I offered a flat rate job, and I took a beating.

For what it's worth, the bike was an Ancheer brand steaming pile of Satan poo. Don't get one; you'll be sorry if you do.

P.S. --

Offset flanges don't equal a dishless wheel. You lace the wheel, you measure the offset, you correct it. Only symmetrical hubs get built with symmetrical spoking, and I've never seen any kind of rear hub motor that would build up truly dishless. Offsetting the flanges helps, but it doesn't center them in my observation.
 
Well, a lot of us take responsibility for getting ourselves into this situation with the wrong person, so l'd most likely be paying him the first time.

"I know." says the kid, "I'm not sure why I did it that way." He also informs me that he wasn't sure where to measure from, and so, ". . . .guessed at the dishing."

And right then it leaves his incompetent hands for safety sake.

What all are you paying him for that its' more than double? I'm getting the idea Darwin will eventually deal with the business, but there's a point where I don't want to wait for it in the fullness of time. "I'm not sure why I did it that way." He might not be, but I sure am.
 
Chalo said:
For what it's worth, the bike was an Ancheer brand steaming pile of Satan poo.
one of these boat ancheers?
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=57933&p=1289517&hilit=Ancheer#p1289517
 
chalo, they eventually got the wheel built with, supposedly, equal quality bits, but I don,t think they "came through". This wheel was supposed to be done 2 weeks ago, and has allready cost me my holidays, and alot of unecessary stress. Sure it cost them, but only because of their own mistakes, and carelessness. I agreed to pay for MY wheel laced in 4-5 days, not a mismatched wheel in 3 weeks. When I gave them the wheel, no one said it would be done "eventually". That it cost them to do it has nothing at all to do with me. I should feel sorry for them? At $113 a wheel, they will make their loss up quickly, while I have to wait a year for another holiday, have mismatched wheels, days of stress, and I still have to take my wheel in to another shop to get checked over.
 
Back
Top