Sucks but at least you were able to get your money back. I recently had an awful experience with a LBS that is our only Felt Dealer in the area... the next closest one is 2hrs away. My LBS that was only a mile from my house recently closed shop so I went to the other LBS (of the same name) that is a Felt dealer to upgrade from my stock aluminum bars to the Bayonet Carbon Aerobar on my beloved Felt B12. I brought a print out of the bars from the Felt website that I wanted with the part number and everything (which is good because he had a very hard time finding them in their computer system). Anyway I get a call in two weeks that they are in (~month out from Ironman Louisville) so I ask if I drop it off later that week on Friday afternoon would it be done by Tuesday and I'm told yes. So I drop my bike off on a Friday afternoon after my morning ride and a good bike wash. Again I ask if it will be available for pickup by Tuesday evening when I get off work and I'm assured that it'll definitely be done by then. I was working a string of 12-hr shifts Sat-Tues so no long ride again until Wednesday.

Tuesday I call shortly after they open to verify that it'll be available for pickup that evening and I'm told that there are two other bikes ahead of mine but it'll be done for pickup around 6pm (they've had my bike for 5 days and haven't touched it yet?). Then around 3pm I get a call from the shop that it's taking a bit longer than expected and no one told him that I had planned to pick it up that evening (even though I confirmed this 3x). So I asked if they knew when it might be done the next morning so perhaps I could do an early afternoon ride and they say that they'll start working on it first thing at 7am and it should be done shortly after the shop opens at 10am. So at 10am the next morning I call for an update and the guy gives me an attitude. He said that he knows I wanted my bike yesterday but replacing the aero bars is complicated and it took longer than anticipated to rewire all of the cables. So I say okay can you give me an idea of when it might be done so I know if I need to go setup my road bike (that I haven't ridden in almost 2 years) for my ride today. He huffs and said it could be done at noon or it could take all day... I'll know when he calls.

At 11:30am I get a call that it's ready for pickup. I get to the shop and the guy apologizes for it taking so long and then tells me that they don't like working on tri bikes because they are complicated (seriously?). Then he tells me that the guy that recieved my bike when I dropped it off may not have a job when he gets back from vacation because not writing down when I needed it back is unacceptable (seemed a little extreme to me but okay). Then he asked if they quoted me for service when I dropped it off - I say no so he says he'll just cap it at $40 and then proceeds to point out all of the "extra" things that they did for me like grease my pedals because they were dry and they added a carbon bar between my aero bars so I can mount a GPS or watch IF I have one. I tell him thanks but I have an aero bottle that I put between the bars and it won't fit with the extra bar they added... he said no problem just cut off the zipties on either side and you can slide it off. Then he said they didn't cut off the extra on the back end of the aero bar extensions so I could bring it back in to do that and they can do it without having to rewire it they'll just be careful. My first thought on that is that I talked to them on the phone multiple times so why didn't they just ask if I wanted them cut to the same length as the ones that were on there already, but whatever. So then he seems like he's trying to rush me out of the shop, so I ask if I can have my old bars and he grabs them and holds the door open for me... then I notice it. Something is very wrong with my R2C (return-to-center) shifters... the left shifter is fine BUT the right shifter instead of being inline with the aero extension (~parallel to the ground) is pointing straight down towards the ground (90-degrees from the aero extension bar). So I stop and ask what's up with my right shifter and he says "oh yeah that's what I've been working on for the last 4 hours and I couldn't figure it out but it still shifts... see" and he proceeds to try and show me that it "still works". Then he asks me what gear I normally use because triathletes usually use this gear (as he points to the middle of my cassette) - I tell him that I use all of my gears because I ride a lot of hilly courses on my bike like Ironman Lake Placid, Mountains of Misery, Mountain Mama, and I'm doing IM Louisville in a couple weeks. So again he says well it still works you can shift through all of the gears we tested it to make sure. So I tell him that I'm not cool with leaving it like that and they need to fix it because I can't really shift well in the aero position with my R2C shifter facing downwards under my aero bar. He says well I sent an email to Felt so we'll see if they get back to me because I'm not sure what else to do other than to replace the shifter with a new one. At this point I'm in a state of shock, my IM is in 18 days, I'm leaving in a week, and they broke my bike (I love my bike). So I re-emphasis that they need to fix this and he said he'd call when he hears back from Felt.

I immediately take a test ride around the parking lot and yeah it's not going to work I have to shift my whole upper body forward to be able to get the right angle to shift. I take lots of photos of it and text them to my coach who sets me up with a new awesome bike fitter/mechanic he just hired (only reason I went to this other LBS was because they were the Felt dealer that I had to go through to get the bars). I meet my new mechanic first thing the next morning and he essentially has to rewire the right side because they did it wrong which is why they couldn't get the shifter back on in the correct position (cost me another $50). Then to add to the jacked up bars the extra carbon bar that they added between the aerobars can't just be slipped off, you have to unwrap the bars and remove the shifter to take it off. Also when they re-greased my pedals they didn't wipe off the old grease that came out so there was dirty grease caked on my pedals and my entire bike was covered in grease. I washed it before I dropped it off so I know it was clean and they didn't even bother to wipe it off... which normally it would just be annoying but on top of everything else makes it even more ridiculous. Then during IM Louisville my left aero extension bar starts sliding forward through the aerobar so the entire race I'm pulling the aero extension back in place so it's even with the right one - maybe this isn't their fault, I didn't have my new mechanic double check the left shifter and I should have.

It's now over 3 weeks later and still no phone call from the first LBS to follow-up about fixing my shifter (they don't know I took it somewhere else). Not sure what I can do other than send them a letter with documentation and ask for a refund of the $40 or ask that they pay the $50 I had to pay to someone else to fix their mistake. I'm sure that maybe Felt may want to know how royally one of their dealers jacked up my bike and their sketchiness in trying to do other things that I didn't ask them to do so I wouldn't notice that they messed up my shifter. I'm frustrated to say the least and just don't want others to end up in the situation that I did.

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Elisha
"Triathlon doesn't build character. It reveals it."