When did they tell you it would be done?

I have to agree that is an unreasonable amount of time for the repair, but did you ask how long it will take to do the repair? Maybe they had a lot of work in the shop before yours? Was it a scheduled drop off or a walk in drop off?

I called an LBS yesterday for an estimate of work, their lead time was 30 days. You should have asked how long and they also should have told you how long. Its probably the busiest month in the service department.

Repairs should be done first in first out. I think it would have been appropriate to give you an estimate of how busy they were and when it would likely be done, but the trivial nature of the job doesn't mean they should grab it and work on while other customers' bike have been waiting for some love.

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They said '4 to 5 days, possibly earlier' when I dropped it off. I called after a week (last Friday afternoon, 5/22) and they said there were 4 bikes ahead of mine..

housing and cable installs/replacements should be done in 30 minutes maybe a bit more if you have some tricky internal routing. Find a new shop, this one does not care about you.

4 bikes could be built in one day.

I always call ahead of time. When I had my bike tuned up this spring and had new cables they told me a date it could be done (about two weeks later). I dropped the bike off the evening before and picked it up the next afternoon.

Next time, clarify exactly when your bike will be worked on. If they can't give you an exact day, find a new shop.

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that being said, find a new shop and take your bike there, apparently they don't need your business

I always call ahead of time. When I had my bike tuned up this spring and had new cables they told me a date it could be done (about two weeks later). I dropped the bike off the evening before and picked it up the next afternoon.

This would be ideal. Most shops know you need your bike for training and try to get them in and out.

But two weeks? yeah, I'd go get it and take it somewhere else.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

This time of year everyone in the world is taking their bike in to be worked on but its a little shocking that it would take 2 weeks for a simple routine job like that. They must be short of mechanics.

May is a very bad time to try and get work done on your bike. I was in my LBS a couple weekends ago and it took me almost 20 minutes in line just to get to the counter to pick up a part I had ordered!. If I had had a multi tool with me, I could have fixed the 5 bikes in front of me myself in about 10 minutes and gotten out of there in half the time! They had 3 mechanics on duty and still had so many bikes in the back, when they did get me my part, the guy waiting on me could not get through all the bikes and had another mechanic in the back throw it to him.

Few things infuriate me more than poor service and not keeping the expectations that are set for a customer, or at the very least not following up when something goes awry and those expectations cannot be met. I've found that some shops get this and do it really well, slipping easy repairs in between larger jobs so the larger jobs aren't impacted negatively and so the smaller repairs can flow in and out more quickly. I'm fortunate to have a couple of shops locally that are good in that respect, and a couple that flat out suck and will never have my service business again (if much of any business, frankly).

That said, changing cables and housing for a rear derailleur is a simple job, especially since your limits are already set. There are a ton of videos on You Tube that can walk you through it step by step. It's really a matter of getting the tension correct and properly routing the cable if they're internal (again, more You Tube videos can help with that piece). There's something empowering about knowing how to do basic adjustments and repairs like that, it saves you time, it's a good skill to have if something goes awry out on the road, it saves money, and then you can support the shop with more convoluted or larger repairs and those that may require expensive specialty tools.

Wrenching bikes is about as difficult as falling out of a chair. Literally see one, do one teach one. I taught a woman in her late 40's with absolutely zero technical abilities how to build up her new frame from scratch....she was petrified of it at first.

This is your chance to vote with your dollars......save a ton of them.....get it done when you want it. A 'tune up' with new cables/housing charge at any of our local LBS's is more than the cost of all the tools materials you will need to to a completely bike build. And then you own them and the skills for life.

Guarantee you if you put a thread up saying 'learn basic wrenching hands on/free beer' and your location you will find an ST'er here who would help you learn in a couple of hours all you need. Yootoobes will suffice too!

If you are going to take your bike in rather than work on it yourself, you need to learn how to play the LBS game. Any decent LBS is going to be super busy on any spring Saturday. So, guaranteed, you are going to have to leave your bike. On the other hand, if you act all racer like (I mean like you really use and need your bike, not like an a hole ;-) and take it in on weekday afternoon when things are quiet, there is at least a chance one of the mechanics, bored with working on a rusty old beater bike, might just have pity on you and do your repair right then.

And, while emergency repairs come up, taking your bike in in May to get cables replaced is like taking your lawn mower in for a tune up on a May Saturday or deciding the day before a big blizzard that its time to get the spark plug changed on your snow blower. You're screwed long before you even get to the shop. Routine maintenance work like that should have been done in February ;-)

This - between the internet and books like Zinn, there are very few jobs you can't learn to do yourself and aren't worth buying the right tools for as you need them.

This. I just did this in my garage not long ago, with internal routing. Took less than 30 minutes, and I don't even do this for a living all day long. Real wrench could do it faster.

i own a bike shop. your experience is not reasonable. you should go elsewhere next time. i would leave it there for now as it can't be much longer and they might do something for you for the wait. be friendly but tell them your disappointment.

Yep it really shouldn't take long if you know your bike well too. Some bikes i've worked on required the removal of the headset and others required the removal of the bottom bracket to be able to route cable housing properly which ended up just being time consuming.... Would be nice if frames just has embedded cable housing guides.

If I were in your shoes I would call the shop and ask to speak to the manager. Politely explain what you were quoted and how long your bike has actually been there and let them know you will need to pick your bike up this afternoon whether it is done or not as you need your bike back. I'd be willing to bet it will be ready for you.

At the shop where I work - as one of the mechanics - we use a scheduling system. For the past 6 weeks, and probably the next 4-6 weeks, we are booking about 7-12 days in advance, with 8-10 work orders a day (varying on amount of work to be done, and accounting for random problems) for 2 mechanics. We are usually able to get more work from the next day done, and/or build new bikes. We essentially operate so that all booked bikes get done that day - given they don't need a part that needs to be ordered and unforeseen - and we have time to work on more stuff and never need to cram work in or have customers waiting extra time for their bike.

Whenever a customer calls or comes in, the first question is, "when do you need it by?", then we tell them our current lead time. If that works for them, great, if not then we try and fit them in to a time the works for both parties (we try and be as helpful as possible during pre-race weeks). We operate by asking the customer to drop the bike off the day before the scheduled work, or at opening on the day of. This way we have a full day to make sure it gets done - they can either pick it up that day if they receive a call/email, or the following morning if not otherwise notified. Any delays that may occur, we immediately contact the customer and let them know.

If the LBS in question did not give you a date, or lead time then I can understand your frustration - but if you dropped it off, without a booking and expect it to be done immediately, unfortunately some other people may have booked bikes before you. Best practice is open communication from both parties, we will let you know when we can do it, and you let us know if that works for you, we will always try and accommodate the customer - to some degree - as we all ride/race and know what its like to be without a bike!

I hope your problem is sorted out! I know many shops operate differently based on size and capabilities of the shop.

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