I needed help adjusting the rubbing disc brakes of my bicycle, so I brought it to REI where I bought the bike. But they’re switching to ski season now, so the soonest their shop techs could help me was more than 2 weeks away(!)
Instead I went to the Trek Bicycle store in Madison. In 10 minutes, the guy had it fixed and taught me how to fix it myself next time (I just needed to loosen the caliper screws, pull the brake lever hard to center the pads, and retighten — easy in retrospect but I’m a slow learner when it comes to hardware).
This reinforces my opinion that specialty shops almost always beat general goods shops for service quality. I’ve had good experiences with REI, but they’re just not a bike shop.