Joey Melnick

Review of Back Bay Bicycles

Buyer beware: Don't get the tune-up groupon here. ...

Buyer beware: Don't get the tune-up groupon here. Big rip off

The short version is the mechanics were rude, tried to sell me unnecessary replacements and generally were unhelpful. I've been to a lot of bike shops where they will give you advice and help you SAVE money. Sometimes even talking me out of having them do work on the bike because I can do it myself. BBB is not one of these places. They actually made my brakes worse then before I brought it in.

I am really disappointed , maybe I just got unlucky but I won't be going back to find out. There are lots of friendly Local Bike Shops in Boston so I recommend you avoid this place.

The long version

I brought the bike in and started explaining to the mechanic what the issues were. Loose cone in the front, front breaks squeaked, and a few items I didn't want to replace because the bike is a commuter and not worth putting a lot of money into.

He interrupted me to tell me my chain needed to be replaced. I had replaced my chain about 6 months ago and wasn't having any gear slippage so I told him, I think I'll hold off as I haven't had any problems (again, its a cheap commuter bike). He gave me a little attitude and told me I could pick it up Tuesday next week. I was sorta annoyed he but whatever, maybe he was having a bad day.

On Tuesday I called to double check the bike would be ready and I got more attitude (maybe the same guy?) "We will call you when its done, thats how it works".

They quickly called me back to let me know that they couldn't fix the breaks with an adjustment, they were worn down and needed to be replaced. $30 for parts and labor. I opted to pass, I can replace my own break pads for cheaper and was skeptical as I had less than 500 miles ridden on the last pads.

When I got my bike back t the breaks had been tightened. The rear breaks now didn't work at all and the front ones were squeaking even worse. I brought the bike to another LBS that I trusted and they confirmed what I suspected, the pads weren't worn down, they still looked good. I just needed to adjust the break cables.