Bike Repair Thieves

My mother takes care of her invalid mother (who has Multiple Schlerosis and can't take care of herself) and my son. In order to keep my son occupied and herself in shape they jog a mile and a half back and forth each day from my Grandmothers to her house. She started having trouble with the $50 bike (a Huffy) and took it in to Bike World in Desoto to have the training wheels fixed. Whe she got the bike back everything was ok.

Later the pedals began to slip. She then took the bike back in and asked if it was possible the bike could be fixed, if it wasn't she wanted to just buy a new one. The man put the bike on a table and looked it over. He said it was fixable.

When she went to pick the bike up, she paid 55.95 for the pedal problem to be resolved, a new tube in the tire and a new rear tire. She then went out of town on vacation for a week. When my son rode the bike for the first time after it was supposedly fixed, the training wheel came off and the rear tire bubbledd out. I screwed the training wheel back on and she took the bike in again for him to fix the rear tire. After he fixed the tire again, she let my son ride it and the chain began slipping off, almost like it was too big and the base of the pedals were wobbling.

She took the bike in to him to fix it again, he said it was unfixable. That the bike had plastic in it and that was causing the chain to slip. That was when she reminded him that she didn't want him to fix it originally if it was unfixable. He said there was nothing he could do except she could let him have his parts back and he would give her her money back. But she would not get her original parts back. So the bike would be useless.

She did not have an automobile large enough at the time to haul the purchase of a new bike of that size. She decided to take the bike home and see if she could find another bike at Wal-Mart for around the same dollar amount. Went back again (we still have the receipt), less than a week later; the price of the bike was raised $10.00. The man then told her she could only get her money back if she bought one of his bikes at a little over $179.00 dollars and the bike he was reffering to was big for my son. He was rude and told her if my son touched or damaged any of his bikes while in the store she would have to pay for that as well.

So now she is out $50 for someone not fixing a bike and will have to come up with more money to buy a new one. And if she exchanged the parts for one of his bikes she would be out over $150 dollars still.

Did I mention my son is 5 years old?