Out of control bike shop bill !?

Just wanted to ask forums advise/ general mob consensus on this one.

Pulled together all the parts for my wheel build myself (took many months and far too much ££), spokes arrived, laced them, found rears were too long.

Took one already laced front wheel and one rear hub+rim to said bike shop asking if it was possible they would be able to build. Didn't ask the price as wrongly assumed it would be something reasonable and I would just look like a birk asking such a petty question. Gave them all the details for the computer system job machine.

Next day rang back to get the correct spoke size from their own measurements, spoke to one of the people I'd spoken to in shop, advised him I was returning wrong size spoke to supplier (who has been great btw) and the correct size spoke would be in the post to them as soon as the supplier had the first set in their grasp. At this point I now asked about price, £17 (front) and £26 (rear). mmm ok, more than I paid a few years ago, but there you go. "Sounds fine to me" I said.

Sounds perfectly reasonable up until this point does it not?

A week has passed, spokes are due to get to me the next day, I get a phone call.

'yeah pal your wheels are ready to collect mate'
'oh great, cheers! Erm, how have you done that then? since you don't have any spokes yet?'
'we ordered some DT swiss............ you can collect them from tomorrow and the bill is £116'

So, I kept it calm on the phone, not really wanting to loose my cool with a half decent bike shop (had problems in the past, but nothing worth loosing sleep over).
But how the hell can £17+£26 = £116?
Plus I've already paid for the original spokes twice as the first set were the wrong size (my fault/ed spoke calculator error, not the suppliers), but thats not their problem.

My guess is they have thrown away/lost/de-laced my standard quality spokes and replaced them with diamond tipped platinum spokes with a 24ct gold coating, then added vat, maybe some iridium nipples, and will be presented to me by Thandie Newton (oh please I want that last part) with a cup of old Liz's finest tea.

Normally if a bike shop/car mechanic/joiner/decorator/plasterer's job is spiraling overtime or over spend, they come to the client and consult. They don't just spend like crazy to the tune of 3x the budget on a whim that the client will almost certainly have pockets that deep.
Whats the forum consensus, what should I do here?

^ what you said. i know the done thing in this country is to pull your trousers up, appologise for troubling them and limping off into the sunset, but they really have pulled a fast one on you. it's the sort of shit ropey plumbers do.

blb perchance?

Did they build your wheels? Build time costs?

hippy has been skim-reading again.

Your spokes should hacve cost between 70p and £1 each. Add that to the quoted price, tell them that's what you owe them, thankyouverymuch.

That's a pretty low price for a wheelbuild, but then LBS tend to have it lower than big brand one.

Go to the shop, and knowing the cost of spokes and such, ask them for the bill detailing the item needed + cost that somehow push it to £116.

But for all you could know, it might be an error.

Normally if a bike shop/car mechanic/joiner/decorator/plasterer's job is spiraling overtime or over spend, they come to the client and consult. They don't just spend like crazy to the tune of 3x the budget on a whim that the client will almost certainly have pockets that deep.

this

Your spokes should hacve cost between 70p and £1 each. Add that to the quoted price, tell them that's what you owe them, thankyouverymuch.

and this

ive had two quotes for wheel build. cheap everything. one shop was 35 pound the other 150

hippy has been skim-reading again.

Perhaps but I've read it again and I still don't quite get the problem.

Two wheels dropped off, both need building but with different spokes. Buyer waiting for spokes but shop goes ahead with build using their own and charges £116.
So that's £x for the spokes and 2 x wheel build costs, right? The problem to me doesn't appear to be the cost, but the fact they built the wheels without waiting for the buyer's spokes to arrive. Did they rebuild the front wheel or not?

Why was a front wheel with them if it didn't need work? They probably thought the same.

You pay massively over the odds for spokes in most shops. 50p+ is normal, whilst Sapim Race can be had for half that online.

They said they would charge £42 for building the pair, even though some of the lacing work had already been done, the rear needed unlacing so that evens out (unless they chopped the wrong-size spokes out. Which is highly likely).

Then they decided to charge the price of 300 spokes for 30-odd.

Which shop?

Had a similar one quite recently. Left a wheel with a crooked rim at the shop, along with a brand new rim and told them briefly what I wanted - to relace the wheel with any stainless spokes, but preferably use the same ones (which were black), if their length is correct. Later, I sent them a txt message explicitly stating that I want them to use the same (i.e. mine) spokes, if possible, but if not, just use some generic stainless silver spokes. But when I went to collect the wheel, it had new black spokes, the bill was ca. 30% higher than I expected and they were arguing that I wanted them to use identical spokes, so they ordered black ones, that are 30% more expensive just because of the colour.

All bikeshops are people by cunts. Fact.

^not entirely true.

At the moment I have no idea what they have actually done, the guy who rang me appeared to be the guy who built them, but appears worryingly clueless about the whole deal.

My point is that I had specc'd much cheaper spokes (they are 40spoke light duty touring wheels, so do not need the fanciest spoke in existance) @ 20pence a shot. Which I've already more than once paid for, and was happy to pay them the build cost £17+26 and to use my spokes. They have actually just gone ahead and special ordered some unobaintium grade spokes (that are totally over specced for what is needed here), possibly charged me a small order charge for the pleasure, and built them with their own mega bucks spokes.

Target outcome - I want my wheels back, built & true to a better standard than I can (otherwise I would build myself), £17+£26 maybe some VAT (?). The spokes they have fitted are tough luck IMO, if they have fitted them against what it says on the job card and what the client has personally instructed them to do then I won't be paying for them.

Bartering chips - I would offer to pay half of the cost price of the spokes (figure around half of 50-60pence each) so they are not too far out of pocket (for their own mistake).

Any worse than that and I'm not bothering, trading standards can play stupid games with them.

Get an itemised bill, and a talk through of what work was done.

You know that 17 quid for spokes and 26 for build is per wheel right?

Nope: He said 17 for front and 26 back - meaning labour cost.

They said they would charge £42 for building the pair, even though some of the lacing work had already been done, the rear needed unlacing so that evens out (unless they chopped the wrong-size spokes out. Which is highly likely).

Then they decided to charge the price of 300 spokes for 30-odd.

nah I did the unlacing as I had to return the spokes to the supplier.

Not into naming and shaming, just yet. They've pulled similar errors before (read 'did not read the description of the job on the computer properly, possibly illiterate') with a full bike having some warranty work done, when they finally got round to doing the work and offering for collection it had the wrong spec parts on it (I'd been in contact with mftr/dstrbtr about the problem beforehand) and magically all the Hope goodies had dissapeared (skewers, seatclamp and bar ends). The reason for this blatant theft? 'Oh its a whole new bike sir' erm, no mate, I can still see its obviously mine. Heated discussion later, UK distributor got involved and dealt them some pain.

This shop nicked your hope parts on a previous fuckup? And you went back?

I give EVERYONE 3chances in this life.

Nope: He said 17 for front and 26 back - meaning labour cost.

Ok. Just read it again. Quite right.

They sound like punks.

:)

What would make you lose sleep about this place, the mechanics appearing at your bedroom door brandishing chainwhips?

I refer you to catfood's^^^^ wonderful mental image.

I reckon it's:

1. BLB
   
2. ANY Evans
   
3. Brixton
   
4. Arthur Daley's Bike Repairs & Spares
   

Brixton my arse. You flange.