Dealer service stories

[Mooseduncan]

I have ALWAYS worked on my own bikes. But they were Harleys and I knew them from top to bottom, easy bikes to wrench on. I just bought my Royal Star and since I have my big trip coming up here in a couple of weeks, I decided to take it to the dealer for the 16,000 mile service, just this once... The reason I have always worked on my own bikes dates back to the first time I took my first Harley into the dealer for a simple oil change. I went to pick it up and low and behold, there was a scratch on the tank. When I brought it up to the service manager, I was told that it was there before before they began to work on it and was looked at like I was trying to pull a scam. Needless to say, I raised hell but still only ended up with a free detail and did not pay for the service. I was able to buff the scratch out when I got home but that set the precedent for me. Take bike to dealer=get screwed. Back to the story at hand though... I took my bike to the dealer and spent a good half hour talking to the service manager about the pride and care I take in my bike's appearance and that I expect to come back to ZERO scratches/dents when I pick it up. The service manager ASSURED me that he would take extremely good care of my bike, there was nothing to worry about. I dropped it off Saturday for the service and a new rear tire. Well, I swung by today as they are only a couple of miles from my office to see how it was coming along. When I arrived my bike was parked about 10" from the bike lift, which had a dirt bike on it at the time. The mechanic who was working on the dirt bike had to repeatedly walk from the lift to his tool box, each time literally squeezing past my front tire and fender, his jeans actually rubbing on the fender. I immediatley walked over and moved my bike back about 2 feet. The mechanic asked me who I was and told him I was the owner of this bike and that I was not comfortable at all with how close it was where he was working and walking. He looked at me like I was crazy. I then looked at my front fender and big surprise, there is a small scratch right smack on the front of it!! I got more than a little upset and asked him how this happened. He looked at me and shrugged. I asked to speak to the shop manager and all he did was walk to the phone and over the loudspeaker, asked for the shop manager to come to the shop, customer waiting. When he arrived, I showed him the scratch and told him this is exactly what I was talking about! He rubbed the area with his finger and said it felt smooth and that he didnt think the scratch was new. This is after we had already walked the bike on Saturday looking for scratches and dents. As we were discussing this, the mechanic had pulled the dirt bike off the lift and had pulled my bike on and was taking my hard painted bags off. The first thing he did was set the bag and lid on a metal counter, no towel or anything down! That was my breaking point. I went from talking to yelling instananeously! " That is EXACTLY the sh-t I'm talking about!!" and I stormed back there, grabbed the bag and lid and walked right back to service counter where the manager was standing, mouth agape. I grabbed a couple of shop rags that were on the counter and put the bag down on top of them, latched the lid and turned the bag over. Thank god there werent any scratches, but still! At this point my head was pounding so I took a couple of deep breaths and then slowly tried to explain that this is the reason I don't usually bring my bike in for anything, it's not his bike so why, other than pride in workmanship, would he care?? The service manager looked as confused as I've ever seen anyone look in my life. I asked him what his plan was because I'm not happy at all right now. He asked me what I would like him to do. I told hime I would be much more comfortable if he would personally oversee the sevice of my bike, which he agreed to do. He promised me that my bike would be done today. It's 2:15 right now so at 4:30 when I leave I'm gonna head back over. Do you guys think I'm being over the top here or does everyone value their stuff the way I do? Be honest!

[Sylvester]

Yes you are over the top. Bikes get scratches and blemishes from all sorts of media. I know that once I buy a new machine (bike or 4 wheeler) that it is going down hill from new. I live with that and enjoy the time with the machine. I have a 9 year old RSV with over 120,000 miles and every time I give it a good cleaning, I see more damage. Cool your engines and realize nothing stays new forever.

 

[Mooseduncan]

I'm tryin Sly, I'm tryin... I'm actually an extremely calm individual, I'm just anal about certain things. This will definitely be the last time I take my scoot to the dealer. It's 13 years old and looks brand new, something I take alot of pride in. I also have a 69 Chevelle that I restored myself which is 41 years old and looks brand new. No one touches her but me as far as wrenching goes. My best friend tried to talk me down by telling me that it's "just a bike, not your car"... I don't know...

[straycatt]

Hmmm, a number of things come to mind, but I'll be brief.

 

I'll preface by saying that I work on my own stuff, always, because no one is going to do as good a job on my stuff as me.

 

Now, do you really think it's a good idea to yell at a guy who is about to take your ride apart and, by doing so have your life in his hands?

Next, if a scratch will "buff out" it's not a scratch.

 

I used to be all anal about my hardware. Always parked my scratch and door ding free cars taking up two spots. Got nervous if someone wiped their hand across my bikes paint.

Stone chips were a major life catastrophe and were fixed immediately.

 

Now, I'm calmer. Things happen, a scratch adds character. A little personality if you will. Do I still take due care? Of course, but there are other things far more important in my life now.

 

Should the mechanic have taken better care of your scoot? Probably.

But going off because he brushed your fender with his pants and sat a part on an unprotected counter is over the top in my opinion.

 

You asked for honesty.

[massey130]

Moose, i don't think you are over the top. I am the same way. If i bring something in for service, i expect the service and nothing else. i did not ask for scratches or dents. I also expect very little gas burned when testing. Toyota burned nearly a half a tank of gas in my trundra. after finding out what really happened, my bill was reduced. lunch & errand run for testing of repairs.

 

I hate a scratch or dent because now the item is damaged and has to be fixed and declared later if selling or giving away. If people were careful to begin with, this would not be a problem.

 

I am very touchy about my stuff. If i have a beater then whoop-de-doo, but, something new or just redone - i get huffy.

 

don't get me started, the end of my shift is coming.

[Mooseduncan]

Glad I'm not alone in this Massey... Straycatt, I get what you are saying about getting all bent at the guy who's gonna be taking my scoot apart, that's why I told the service manager that I wanted him to personally oversee my service. I know scratches can be buffed out and I fully expect to have to clean my scoot after this service, but should I really expect to do some scratch buffing? Is that just an accepted part of the process? I don't think it should be. I havent mentioned the name of the dealer yet because I'm a patient person. I dealt with the mechanic as I felt the situation called for at the time. I'm gonna reserve judgement on the whole thing untill tonight, when I can inspect the bike from top to bottom. Accidents happen I know but most can be avoided by being smart from the get go. We'll see if they wisened up after I left.

[SilvrT]

Contrary to some other replies, I am in agreement with you. I think I would have gotten a little "irate" myself..especially after having such a discussion with the shop manager and going over the bike to inspect it prior to them taking it in. I also agree that they should have set the hard bags down on clean shop towels. This is much the same as putting fender mats over the fenders of a car/truck when working inside the engine compartment.

 

Granted, we will get scratches, etc but doing all that can be done to reduce that occurrence is something some of us are very particular about. Maybe your actions will help to improve their customer satisfaction as no doubt such things (or worse) have happened to other's scoots while in that shop.

[Mooseduncan]

My Chevelle. For the car buffs out there...

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm6/beendad/thedream.jpg

[Mooseduncan]

Thanks SilvrT! Yeah scratches and chips will happen, but I want them to be ones that happen on the road while riding... Good reference about the fender mats!

[jburrell]

Yup, NO one will take the care that you do about how to handle the parts off your bike but certainly a shop towel should have been down. I have a 99 that has few scratches and it aint gonna win no motorcycle shows but it still looks a lot better than most of the 99's I see. When I take a prt off I set it on a rug or carpet on the ground so that it don't get scratched. Just normal procedure as far as I am concerned. I certainly would not set someones metal part on a table or concrete wihout making sure something prevents if from being scratched. Tell the dealer to take a hike and that its posted locally about how they handle the bikes and what happened to you. Its your bike regardless of how old or valuable it is and they should make every effort to return it to you in exactly the same condition that they recieved it. If they handled new bikes that were being prepped for sale they would have to discount every one of them and lose money. There is a reason car shops have fender covers ( to prevent scratches) and have to pay for scratch removal. Now the real suprise will be when you get the bill and see how much he thinks his work is worth. Note that we call them stealerships....for a reason.

Next time go to a maintenance day or ask somone on the site for help getting it ready for the season. that is how we help each other.

Have a great day. Attached is a pic of the Antique car I gave up to start riding again. Miss it once in awhile....but not the cost of the gas of course. Also attached my pics of me and wife on my 99RSV.

[LilBeaver]

I think that you have valid concerns; however, if your explanation of how you expressed/communicated those concerns are accurate, then I think your response to what you saw may be out of line.

 

There is nothing wrong with caring for your bike; but, quite frankly, you really have no business being back in the shop area. I do understand why you wanted to go move your bike and especially address how the saddlebag was laid down, however, again it was not your place to go do stuff in the dealership's shop - you are NOT authorized to be back there and it is a huge liability issue for the dealer for you to be back there.

 

It would have been,by far, more appropriate to address your concern's directly to the shop manager (or customer service rep) in a calm and reasonable manor first. It would have been easy for you to point out to the manager (or customer service rep) the location of your bike and what was going on as the tech walked around your bike and discuss your concerns with scuffing the fender (or other parts).

 

The technician was right to blow you off at the point that you addressed him, because in a situation like that, he has no way to know who you really are and if anything the technician should have asked you to not touch the bike (regardless of it being yours or not) while it was in their shop and then escorted you to the customer area.

 

It is unfortunate that there is a scuff in your front fender. Not being able to feel it means that you ought to be able to rub it out relatively easily and is NOT an indicator of it being 'fresh' or not. So, no worries there.

 

What I would suggest, for the future, if you are going to take your bike in and know that they are going to take the bags off or whatever, to just go ahead and remove those parts yourself. That way there is no risk of them damaging your bags. I had a rear tire replaced under warranty last summer and I did that since the bags are pretty top heavy, I figured it took me 5 minutes total to remove and reinstall both bags and I would be certain that the shop wouldn't damage them that way. I also saved about 15 bucks on the install - the service rep automatically took off the $15 since they didn't have to touch the bags ($40 install instead of $65).

 

Again, I would stress that when you go and voice your concerns (if any) you keep yourself in check. I don't care how ticked off you get, raising your voice, yelling, making threats or whatever will only HURT your situation.

 

I helped run a bodyshop for a while and we had a customer come in, walk back to the shop floor area and start yelling at one of our body guys. I will not go into details, but the story ends with assault and criminal tresspass charges being filed and on top of that his vehicle was rolled out of the shop and not touched by us after that. Now, don't take this the wrong way because this guy was very very extreme and quite frankly I think there may have been some underlying psychological issues too, but, don't forget that just because you walk in with money and agree to pay it doesn't mean that the shop is required by law to accept your business. No to mention that little waiver that gets signed saying that you authorize the shop to operate/move your vehicle as necessary and is not responsible for any damage (mechanical or cosmetic) done to it while it is under the shop's care, blah blah blah. SO, if they did scratch your bike or something and it can be proved, they are more likely to be willing to address the issue if they know that they are going to WANT to continue to earn your business.

 

By rights, if you do claim that there is some damage caused by them, you could 1) report it as a comprehensive claim to your insurance company and then the insurance would take care of it by either ponying up the money for it to be fixed or go after the shop or 2) file a civil suit against the shop and then you would have to provide beyond a reasonable doubt that the shop actually caused the damage. Although, more than likely you wouldn't even make it to mediation, since you have no proof other than your own personal eyewitness account.

 

As for having the 'shop manager' 'personally oversee' the work - really I think that is pretty useless other than potentially putting some responsibility on him/her for anything that you may question but in reality he probably won't sit there and babysit the technician since he really didn't see any wrongdoing except for maybe setting your bags on the bench the way the tech did since shop managers/foreman have plenty else to do.

 

With all of that said, I KNOW that there are some shops that are terrible, but there are also some that do fantastic work, so, hopefully they'll do you right.

 

Honestly, at this point, I think you may owe the guy you talked to an apology.

 

Okay, I've given much more than my :2cents:

 

Hopefully everything is fine when you pick up your bike, the 16k mile service was done correctly and completely, and you are a happy customer.

 

:080402gudl_prv:

[LilBeaver]

...but should I really expect to do some scratch buffing? Is that just an accepted part of the process?

 

...

 

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

 

 

...

I dealt with the mechanic as I felt the situation called for at the time.

...

 

If there wasn't a customer service rep around, I probably would have done the same thing in moving the bike...

 

...

Accidents happen I know but most can be avoided by being smart from the get go ...

 

I couldn't agree more with that statement. It is unfortunate that 'common sense' on some of these matters doesn't seem to be all that common

 

 

My Chevelle. For the car buffs out there...

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm6/beendad/thedream.jpg

 

Very nice. I'll post a pic of it tonight when I get to the computer that has the pictures on it, but a few years ago my sister bought a 72 Chevelle SS convertible, Her, my brother-in-law and myself spent a good amount of time restoring that puppy.

[Mooseduncan]

Wow Jim, that car is bad to the bone! You do the body work?? I'm loving the front end of that thing! And Lil Beaver, you make some valid points. I know I should'nt have gone into the shop like that, but it was instinctual. I was in there doing what I was doing before I knew it... I too hope this thing works out in the end.

[Mooseduncan]

Oh man, an SS convertible?? That's close to the Holy Grail right there!! Can't wait to see the pics of that thing!

[Mooseduncan]

It's 4pm and I just got the call. Bike is done and ready to go. I'm heading over there to get it in a few minutes. Gonna be out in the field in the morning but I'll check in about mid day with an update...

[short-haul]

When I worked a Cadillac for 10 years, it was bet into our head that we took care of the customer no mater how picky they were. No grease, no scratches, no dent period.

 

I am the same way with my stuff my 98 GMC is not dented or scratches and I plan on keeping it that way. My bike has some scratches and it drives me nuts but I bought it that way. and will repaint it in the next year or two,

 

So no your not to picky you just want you property respected which does not happen nowadays

[LilBeaver]

Oh man, an SS convertible?? That's close to the Holy Grail right there!! Can't wait to see the pics of that thing!

 

I've attached a few of right after she bought it, it was in pretty rough shape (it was used as a drag car for a while) so we rebuilt almost all of it. Motor and tranny are not original, but it sure was fun to drive. Probably the fastest, off the line, car I ever drove.

 

It's 4pm and I just got the call. Bike is done and ready to go. I'm heading over there to get it in a few minutes. Gonna be out in the field in the morning but I'll check in about mid day with an update...

Good luck!!

[jlh3rd]

can i come and yell with you.........and the 69 chevelle is what got me hooked on muscle cars in the late 60's...

[MiCarl]

As you described the position of your bike next to the lift it was an accident waiting to happen. And the parts should be protected when they're laid down.

 

I'm wondering how they can afford to tie up a lift for as long as yours was apparently on it too. That's expensive real estate. Gotta get them on, get them done and get them off.

 

A few weeks ago I scratched the rim on a customer's wire wheel changing a tire. I refinished it as best I could, told him what I'd done and offered him a new rim or $200, his choice. He took the two bills and headed for the hills with a smile on his face. Hurt like heck to part with the $$, but it was the right thing to do. On the plus side, he'll be my customer for life.

[davecb]

If the dealer scratches it, they buff it out, not you.......

[Wolf]

Now all of you know why we have signs that say...." No customers in the shop area due to insurance reasons".

 

My shop insurance does not care, but my mechanics do.

[tsigwing]

I have ALWAYS worked on my own bikes. But they were Harleys and I knew them from top to bottom, easy bikes to wrench on. I just bought my Royal Star and since I have my big trip coming up here in a couple of weeks, I decided to take it to the dealer for the 16,000 mile service, just this once... The reason I have always worked on my own bikes dates back to the first time I took my first Harley into the dealer for a simple oil change. I went to pick it up and low and behold, there was a scratch on the tank. When I brought it up to the service manager, I was told that it was there before before they began to work on it and was looked at like I was trying to pull a scam. Needless to say, I raised hell but still only ended up with a free detail and did not pay for the service. I was able to buff the scratch out when I got home but that set the precedent for me. Take bike to dealer=get screwed. Back to the story at hand though... I took my bike to the dealer and spent a good half hour talking to the service manager about the pride and care I take in my bike's appearance and that I expect to come back to ZERO scratches/dents when I pick it up. The service manager ASSURED me that he would take extremely good care of my bike, there was nothing to worry about. I dropped it off Saturday for the service and a new rear tire. Well, I swung by today as they are only a couple of miles from my office to see how it was coming along. When I arrived my bike was parked about 10" from the bike lift, which had a dirt bike on it at the time. The mechanic who was working on the dirt bike had to repeatedly walk from the lift to his tool box, each time literally squeezing past my front tire and fender, his jeans actually rubbing on the fender. I immediatley walked over and moved my bike back about 2 feet. The mechanic asked me who I was and told him I was the owner of this bike and that I was not comfortable at all with how close it was where he was working and walking. He looked at me like I was crazy. I then looked at my front fender and big surprise, there is a small scratch right smack on the front of it!! I got more than a little upset and asked him how this happened. He looked at me and shrugged. I asked to speak to the shop manager and all he did was walk to the phone and over the loudspeaker, asked for the shop manager to come to the shop, customer waiting. When he arrived, I showed him the scratch and told him this is exactly what I was talking about! He rubbed the area with his finger and said it felt smooth and that he didnt think the scratch was new. This is after we had already walked the bike on Saturday looking for scratches and dents. As we were discussing this, the mechanic had pulled the dirt bike off the lift and had pulled my bike on and was taking my hard painted bags off. The first thing he did was set the bag and lid on a metal counter, no towel or anything down! That was my breaking point. I went from talking to yelling instananeously! " That is EXACTLY the sh-t I'm talking about!!" and I stormed back there, grabbed the bag and lid and walked right back to service counter where the manager was standing, mouth agape. I grabbed a couple of shop rags that were on the counter and put the bag down on top of them, latched the lid and turned the bag over. Thank god there werent any scratches, but still! At this point my head was pounding so I took a couple of deep breaths and then slowly tried to explain that this is the reason I don't usually bring my bike in for anything, it's not his bike so why, other than pride in workmanship, would he care?? The service manager looked as confused as I've ever seen anyone look in my life. I asked him what his plan was because I'm not happy at all right now. He asked me what I would like him to do. I told hime I would be much more comfortable if he would personally oversee the sevice of my bike, which he agreed to do. He promised me that my bike would be done today. It's 2:15 right now so at 4:30 when I leave I'm gonna head back over. Do you guys think I'm being over the top here or does everyone value their stuff the way I do? Be honest!

 

 

Over the Top? I would say so. It is a bike (or car or truck). It will get dirty and scratched if you actually use it. Just drive it and enjoy it.

[DragonRider]

Before I got the Venture I had a very nice 83 Seca Touring Edition, hard bag, faring and rear box. I took it in to have a shifter seal replaced that was leaking, the paint was original, it had some wear and tear on it but I would have rated it at 8.5 on scale of 10. Jamie and I went to pick it up and when I got to the service desk, the first thing out of their mouth was, we had a little accident with your bike. I was expecting the worst, went back to look at it and it wasnt all that bad, the glass cover over the headlight was gone and it had a small ding in the front fender that didnt break the paint, they said they would take care of the damages and zero out my bill. They looked up the parts needed and guess what, they couldnt get them. I told them not to worry, I would take care of the repairs and get back to them. I had a piece of plexi at home so I cut it to size and fitted it in the fairing, took all of about 1 hr to do......as for the fender they said they would pair for the repair or give me 50% of the cost of a new fender. I ended up getting a check from them for $173.00 to cover the fender and the glass, and I feel like I ripped them off. I didnt repair the fender because it just wasnt that bad, but they felt bad about it. It actually didnt cost me a cent to fix it, so I got my seal replaced and got a nice little check in return. They are very careful with my bikes now, they know they got away easy on the first one........wont be so lucky if they do it again.

[ATTACH]44295[/ATTACH]

[Mooseduncan]

Okay it's finally over! When I last wrote, they had called and said the bike was ready. So I got there at about 4:15 and the first thing I noticed was that the front tire whitewall was shining like new! That was cool to see. The service manager made it a point to tell me that the mechanic had cleaned it for me to match the new rear tire and that he had wiped my bike down for me as well. I thanked him and asked him if we could go start it and look it over. We walked back there and I went straight for the front fender to look and see if the scratch was still there, it was. I commented on how nice the tire looked and he yelled back to the mechanic (i guess) that I really liked the front tire. I was looking the bike over as he was doing that and no sooner did those words come out of his mouth than I see a HUGE scratch on my rear fender! Huge and deep! Looks like perhaps a wrench was dropped on it or something. I immediately said "I'm not too happy about this though" and he walked right to me and looked, all surprised like, and said "we didnt do any work back there, that wasnt us". I told him to look where the scratch was and look where one would work to take the saddlebags off!! He just went, "oh yeah". He called the mechanic over and asked him if remembered doing this. The mechanics reply was one syllable "nope". The service manager looked at me and said that he was gonna have to stand by his guy on this one. That was my boiling point. I got on the bike and started it up, backing it out of the shop. As soon as the sunlight hit it, I almost puked. The "wipedown" that the mechanic did on my bike was either done with a brillo pad or, more likely, the same shop rag he had been using for the service! My black bike looks like it's been sanded. Even the chrome bezel around my speedo is scuffed to hell! I put the kickstand down, pulled my helmet off and started in towards the shop. The service manager saw me and came walking out, asking me if everything was okay. No, nothing is okay I told him and proceeded to show him. While doing this we found another actual scratch on the rear of the right saddlebag lid. I told the service manager that I wanted to speak with the owner right now. He told me the owner had already gone home for the day and that although he didnt think they were responsible, he would like to take care of this for me. I asked him what his idea of take care of this was and he said he has a buddy who paints bikes. I stopped him and told him to let the owner know that I would be coming back tomorrow (today) and that if he wanted to sit in on the conversation he was more than welcome. I took the bike to Dutch Boy Mobile Detailing, he's the guy who washes our fleet, and asked him if he thought he could bring it back, he said yes to all but the three scratches, but he told me to get some touch up paint and he would fill them for me and make it close to new. So this Saturday, he's gonna do it for me. I had to go see a job this morning, so I made it over to the dealership at about 11:30. The owner knew I was coming and saw me right away. I asked him if the service manager would be joining us and he said no it would just be the two of us. He asked me what he could do to make things right which calmed me down right away. After going back and forth for a few minutes (I shot for the stars and asked for all my money back plus they pay for the detail) we ended up agreeing on the labor being refunded, the parts at cost and they pay for the detail (125 bucks). I left with a check for 573.52. I shook his hand and told him that he had impressed me with this and that while I would probably never bring my bike back in for service, I would continue to be a customer. (I have purchased a quad and a dirtbike from them) So on the whole, I guess I'm okay now. Still reeling from the headache this gave me but hopefully come saturday it will all be behind me!

[DragonRider]

Glad it all worked out for ya.............I know you are still ticked about the condition of your bike, but the owner did the right thing.