Greg, where to start with this one? The number one reason I go to the shop I do now is because of the owners/employees knowledge. These guys know what they are doin and aren't just your average Joe who throws a sight/rest on, eyeballs it up, and says your ready to go hunting.
I have had alot of great experiences at some shops, but I have had some horrible ones too. I can honestly say that our very own Big John was by far the best person that I have ever dealt with at a pro shop and he is the standard that all pro-shop employees should try to follow. My best friend and I stoped in at his shop (never having know that Spud and Big John were on in the same) as I was looking for a new bow. I had just visited an Alpine shop that had trashed talked the BowTech line-up to the point that it really made me curious about them. I stopped in and they had a Mighty Mite but I also wanted to shoot a Patriot SC. Big John wasn't working that night, but he was kind enough to bring his own personalPatriot in to let my buddy and I shoot. He also checked out our bows (at the time we pretty much had no knowledge of tuning) and he offered to tune our bows for us as they were nowhere near correctly set-up. I purchased the MightyMite and when I finally got my accessories and was ready to have it all set-up, I recieved a call from John telling me that the owner of the shop had un-expectadly packed up and left. He told me to bring my bow and accessories to his house and he would set them up and tune them, he also told me to bring my buddy (Matt) and his bow as he would tune them too. I couldn't believe that he would care that much to help out "some young punks". Several times after that he had worked on other bows of mine that I had purchased and we even went to a local club to shoot and tune. (I did get him in trouble, I was buying new BowTechs and letting him shoot them, so of course he had to buy some new bows
) I owe everything that I know about tuning bows and the technical side of archery to John and I can't thank him enough!
As far as other stories, as mauser hinted to, I was frequently treated as a "young punk" when I would walk into a shop and eyeball some of the top end bows. Alot of times I was treated as though I didn't have the money to purchase the bows and also that I didn't know what I was talking about. This was a huge slap in the face and it also made me turn away from that shop and let my friends know about the dealings with these shops.
As far as accessories go, most of the shops around here don't have alot of accessories in stock. You pretty much get a few very expensive target sights and some cheap plastic fiber optic hunting sights as your choices. You can order any sight you want, but alot of times I just want to try out a few different mid to upper range sights and that is impossible. Stabilizers are a major joke at every shop in the area, you have the Simms S-Coil and a Doinker or two, thats it. It would be nice to have more options to browse when you are ready to set up your bow.
Customer service is the major selling point, a few kind words and a little respect will go a long way!