Kelowna Yamaha not the place for an oil change

[dunvilsteev]

Well FLB78,

I dare say that I have yet to meet someone that would not do all in their power to help a fellow VR.Org member while that were out on the road, weather it be parts, a tow, lodging or food, perhaps I have finally met the "missing Link".

 

 

 

 

Couldn't get this out of my mind. FLB78 made a legitimate comment about the thread. Agree or disagree, that's fine, but you don't need to get personal. Many here don't offer assistance and that's their choice, but I sure hope that's not a factor in posting. Surprised a monitor didn't comment.

 

Couldn't agree more!!

 

Comments posted like that SHOULD be censored.

 

If you don't have the room, tools or mechanical know-how to help someone out you're less than human????? ouch

[Oldslow]

Along the same lines...My wife and I rode 80 miles in the dark and rain to find the gas stations in the next town closed, we had no fuel showing on the gauge and had to go another 12 miles only to find the next town closing the doors as we pull up in 2 separate places, neither of them would turn on the pumps for us, yet they were still in the building. We were completely out of fuel. Nowhere to go.

Luckily a couple of kids pulled up to get some stuff and of course were refused but thankfully helped us out by giving us a little gas.

This was after a 14 hour ride at midnite!.

Sometimes I wonder why they let these people into our country!

[hunter 1500]

If you know your going to go over your mileage then you should bring something with you to catch the oil and do it in a Walmart parking lot. Takes all of ten minutes. I have a thing made just for oil changes that has a funnel that threads on to the jug that will hold 5 quauts and the funnel fits into it and doesn't take that much room.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Well FLB78,

....... perhaps I have finally met the "missing Link".

 

 

 

Hey Sasquatch is OK....just big and grumpy.

 

 

 

 

 

[flb_78]

 

Hey Sasquatch is OK....just big and grumpy.

 

 

 

[Dooder1]

Good point. Assuming most riders are able to lay down beside the bike, and turn a wrench, he ( or she) can carry or buy a 17mm wrench, a small filter wrench, a small funnel, and a little plastic catch pan, buy the oil and filter, and change it at a rest area or even in the lot adjacent to a recycling center, and dump the old oil right there. Might run you $30 all total.

 

I agree here. I just finished a 4200 mile trip to California and back. I needed my oil changed while on the road. I stopped in Holbrook AZ at a Kragans auto bought a 1.99 oil drain pan new filter and oil oh and a small funnel. Changed my oil and the store took the used oil. Was back on the road in less than 30 mins.

[sgtjcj]

I was on a trip from WA- CA one year. I got a slow leak outside Springfield Oregon, back when I was riding my Roadstar. I stopped in there and asked if they could get me in to change the tube. I was pulling a trailer and didn't feel like doing it myself. They said they didn't have the time. O.K. I have everything with me to do it myself. I went out to their parking lot and disconnected the trailer and began to do it myself. They came out and said I had to leave. I was a liability and their insurance wouldn't cover me if I hurt myself. I asked what would happen if a car got a flat. Could they change there tire. The conversation was over. They said to get off their property, NOW! I went across the street to a 7-11 and got some fix-a-flat. This stuff never works. But it got me on the road. I made it a few miles and the rear end started to bounce all over the place. I limped along to the next town, Cottage Grove. By this time it was 10 minutes to closing for them. I talked to the service guy. All their bays were full. He had me pull into the alley, gave me a jack and I pulled off the wheel. He fixed it and got me on the road in less than an hour. Now that's service!

[SilvrT]

Yama, maybe you got a whiff of the smoke from all the forest fires and it clouded your senses, put you in a snarly mood or something ... maybe the ribbing from your Honda riders on top of that .... ???

 

Anyway, there are numerous places to get an oil change. Nobody who has a shop regardless if it's the dealer chain (ie Yamaha) of your bike or not, is obligated to shuffle all their other jobs aside just to change a guy's oil just because he's on a road trip.

 

Granted, it may only be a 15 min job, but think of it .... 15 min for you, 15 min for the next guy that show up.... and what about the other 5 guys.... next thing you know the job that has been in the shop for the past 2 weeks that the parts finally arrived for that he PROMISED would be out the door a week ago and have been sweet-talking the owner for the past week offering him some special deal because of it.... now has to be put off for another day.

 

It just doesn't happen "just because". If the shop has the time and the manpower, they'll do it... otherwise, go down the road to the next guy who ain't so busy. ... like maybe the Honda shop?

[FuzzyRSTD]

Yama, It was a shame you could not get your oil changed. I agree that the shop should have offered more help. Maybe at least sold you the oil and let use some tools or something. But there again, as you said everyone is not able to just lay down there on the ground and do the job. Some of the people here are older folks and some with disabilitys.

That is a good idea to print some of the fine folks addresses and phone numbers for help on a trip. HEY, IF YOUR EVER AROUND MY PATCH OF THE WOODS, JUST DROP IN WITH A PHONE CALL. IF I AM ABLE AT ALL, I WILL DROP EVERYTHING AND OPEN MY GARAGE AND TURN ON THE HEAT OR AIR AND CHANGE YOUR OIL. PROBABLY EVEN FEED YOU AND YOURS BEFORE YOU LEAVE.

[massey130]

Hey don, can we have a new VR assistance radio button for oil change station available?

 

I work at the casino in Kinder, Louisiana and I see many ventures (mostly 2nd gens) in our parking lot. I am 11 miles from the casino and can open my shop to who ever wants to change their oil.

[Drreb]

I would have bought what I needed and change it myself. But that's just me. I don't trust many of the shops myself.

[V7Goose]

I think this thread is a great heads-up about a dealer who does not care about customers. There is no doubt that the dealer had no obligation to help an out-of-town rider in any way, but how they choose to treat someone in need is often very indicative of how they treat everyone.

 

Let me tell you a little story with a similar lesson - several months ago I had a friend in town - on the road from Canada. I offered to help him adjust his valves while here. Unfortunately we broke my valve adjustment tool in the middle of the job, so we had a bit of a crisis - he was scheduled to leave the next morning, and we had his engine torn down with no way to finish the valve job.

 

I went to the dealer I have used for years - bought my RSV from him, given him lots of business and sent many customers to him . . . Pleaded our case with how we had a man stranded many thousands of miles from home - were willing to buy or rent the needed tool at any price . . . Yamaha Suzuki of Texas simply said "too bad, so sad, we are not willing to help in any way."

 

So we went down the road a bit to a different dealer who I had spoken with in the past, but never frequented because they are further away. Stadium Yamaha in Irving not only GAVE us the tool at no cost, no deposit, but they also GAVE us shims free (did not even want to trade shims, just gave them to us) and offered us a premium discount of 20% on anything else we might need!

 

Bottom line is that the dealer who said "screw you" to a customer in need and a stranded traveler will never get another penny of my business and does not deserve a penny of anyone's business, while Stadium Yamaha in Irving will get all of my business and my referrals from now on.

Goose

Edited August 4, 2010 by V7Goose

[SilvrT]

He said all was taken and their policy is not to take walk ins. They have two sites so the other one wanted me to leave the bike for the day and they would maybe fit me in. What should I do in the meantime with no ride????? not their problem.

 

 

Some here get the impression Yama was treated badly ....

 

The main dealer had no one available to work on his scoot and he was referred to their other shop .... what's wrong with that?

 

The other shop OFFERED to try and fit him in if he could leave the bike... what's wrong with that??

 

What should he do in the meantime with no ride...?? do like anyone else who takes their vehicle in for service and has to leave it ... walk, take a bus, take a cab, rent a car.

 

I really don't see the problem here. I guess I should ride up to Kelowna one day and check out the attitudes of their service staff coz it wasn't stated that they had a bad attitude. They were only doing their jobs which was taking care of their existing customers first and OFFERING to fit Yama in...which they probably would have done if he left the bike for a while.

 

[Freebird]

Hey don, can we have a new VR assistance radio button for oil change station available?

 

I work at the casino in Kinder, Louisiana and I see many ventures (mostly 2nd gens) in our parking lot. I am 11 miles from the casino and can open my shop to who ever wants to change their oil.

 

I'll take a look at it. The problem is, the list is already too wide when converted to an excel file or .pdf file. I have a very difficult time already getting each entry on one line so that the printout isn't too many pages.

[dynodon]

I have been on both sides of the situation. Didn't get service when I needed it and DID.

 

But I run a business, and know that you can't solve every problem, every time. Some shops are busier than others, some are backed up and need to get regular customers out.

 

Sounded like the original shop wasn't nasty, just couldn't do the work, and it wasn't anything that stranded the biker. The bike ran, and would continue to run, and extending the oil change wouldn't hurt anything.

 

Oil changes can easily be extended when on a long trip. Long days are EASY on oil. It is short trips that wear out oil faster and contaminate the oil more with gas. If on a long trip, you can extend the change interval probably by at least a couple thousand miles over typical start and stop riding. But again, an oil change isn't an emergency!

 

Yes, it would have been nice if the shop had done the job, but NONE of us, even the OP don't know exactly what was going on in that shop, and how much pressure the service writer/manager was under to get REGULAR customers out the door and preserve his bottom line. I won't put down a shop for trying to take care of regular customers over someone on a trip that has a non-emergency request.

 

Oh, and change oil at a rest area and DUMP the oil there? How about I change oil in your front yard and dump it there? Better make plans on how to legally and safely get rid of the oil if you change it on the road. I would suggest find a parts/auto supply store, buy the pan/kit and then they can dispose of the oil and supplies and probably won't mind a bike doing it at the side of the building. But dump it at a rest area? They don't have facilities for that, and you do NOT want to put it in the camper toilet dump. FYI

[Rick Haywood]

Well speaking of bad service I have just bought a used RSV. It didn't have a manual or the lower fairing air deflectors (assume they got broke so he never repaced them) so I stop at my local Yamaha dealer and ordered a clymer manual and the lower fairing deflectors. Total bill about $200. I go out and get on my bike start it up and pull out to the end of their drive and am setting and waiting on cars to go by before I pull out. The bike just stops running. No power no nothing, I push the bike back up to the parking lot and since I just bought it a few days earlier (I didn't buy from this dealer) I didn't even know where the fuses were located. I went in and asked them if they could look at the bike to see if it was a fuse or at least tell me to locate the fuses. Well he came back from the shop and said if I could leave it they may be able to get to it tomorrow. I told him that wouldn't work but could he at least let me know where the fuses were and they wouldn't even do that. So I called my daughter and had her come 40 miles withmy pick up and then rented a uhaul motorcycle trailer and loaded my bike up and hauled it home from the dealers lot. I will never go back to this place again for anything. I figure it's their loss since that has happened I have spent about $700 on other things for the bike but not with them. The dealer is Sportland Honda and Yamaha in Bloomington Illinios.

[mrich12000]

$ 1.50 Turkey roast pan, Wally mart at the oil change bay.

But first ask the manager if it is OK to do this by a parking spot. I had no problem in Monkton NB to get this done. The store even had my fitter, Amsoil, so they profited from the pan, oil, and filter.

If you ask with sugar, The work is done sweetly.

[Jus Monkeyin Around]

I agree with you on regular maintenance when you are in your enviroment but 4,000 miles away from home and your regular dealer you need service not rules and regulations.

I ride 14,000 miles a year from coast to coast US and Canada Never never happen to me before.

:sign yeah that: :sign yeah that:

I tottaly agree

[Ky. Rider]

I have been on both sides of the situation. Didn't get service when I needed it and DID.

 

But I run a business, and know that you can't solve every problem, every time. Some shops are busier than others, some are backed up and need to get regular customers out.

 

Sounded like the original shop wasn't nasty, just couldn't do the work, and it wasn't anything that stranded the biker. The bike ran, and would continue to run, and extending the oil change wouldn't hurt anything.

 

Oil changes can easily be extended when on a long trip. Long days are EASY on oil. It is short trips that wear out oil faster and contaminate the oil more with gas. If on a long trip, you can extend the change interval probably by at least a couple thousand miles over typical start and stop riding. But again, an oil change isn't an emergency!

 

Yes, it would have been nice if the shop had done the job, but NONE of us, even the OP don't know exactly what was going on in that shop, and how much pressure the service writer/manager was under to get REGULAR customers out the door and preserve his bottom line. I won't put down a shop for trying to take care of regular customers over someone on a trip that has a non-emergency request.

 

Oh, and change oil at a rest area and DUMP the oil there? How about I change oil in your front yard and dump it there? Better make plans on how to legally and safely get rid of the oil if you change it on the road. I would suggest find a parts/auto supply store, buy the pan/kit and then they can dispose of the oil and supplies and probably won't mind a bike doing it at the side of the building. But dump it at a rest area? They don't have facilities for that, and you do NOT want to put it in the camper toilet dump. FYI

Oil changes are not emergencies therefore I would like to hear how they responded to someone with an emergency before I black balled them. I am disappointed with them in the parking lot deal. There are times when common sense needs to prevail.

[SilvrT]

Yama .... you sure opened a "can of worms"!

 

This thread is a very interesting read!

[flb_78]

Am I still a sub-human missing link with no friends?

[massey130]

Am I still a sub-human missing link with no friends?

well, you may have a different take on things, but we all do now an then. sometimes it takes a different approach to help see some things a bit more clearly.

[massey130]

Am I still a sub-human missing link with no friends?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.AmarilloGunOwners.com

 

where'd you get the avatar of the bullet hitting steel? that's cool.

[flb_78]

http://chzgifs.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/superslomobullet.gif

 

There was actually an entire video of super slow motion bullets hitting and deflecting off various objects.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDoQwIAaXg]YouTube- 1 million fps Slow Motion video of bullet impacts made by Werner Mehl from Kurzzeit[/ame]

[LilBeaver]

Wow, I haven't been on much in the last several days due to travling and just now saw this thread. Although I believe anything that I have to say has already been said I will answer FLB's question.

 

Am I still a sub-human missing link with no friends?

 

Yes :stickpoke::rasberry:

 

 

Hey Sasquatch is OK....just big and grumpy.

 

 

 

 

In all seriousness folks I am amazed that some of you will openly feel that because someone chose not to open their personal information up to the world wide web that automatically makes them some horrible person. Quite frankly, I don't like my last name anywhere on here and was really hesitant to put my phone number for the first couple of months of my membership (and DIDN'T). Did I magically become a different person because I decided to add my name to the assistance list after I hung around here a while and got to know a few folks a little better. While almost all of the members I have met in person, spoke with on the phone or interacted in a public sense have seemed to be good people, there are a handful on here that I know have ripped one another off or were involved in some sleezy shenanigans that make me hope they never call me some day asking for help with something.

 

I have met with FLB on a few occasions now, 2 were business transactions (one turned into a mini M&E where we shot the bull for a few hours, and met an interesting character) and one was a maintenance day. Take what you want from his comments, he seems like a good guy to me. He offered to help me with a handful of things - changing my shock for one, and offered a lot of very good mechanical advice on a few other items.

 

I just finished a 5.4k mile trip, changed my oil in a parking lot and didn't think twice about it. A member here offered for me to use their garage while I was in town, and among other things, I ran out of time to do it while I was there as well as decided to run a few more miles on that oil before I paid Canadian prices for oil (I had a filter on hand). In the future, if I was going to need an oil change on the road and knew that I wanted a dealer to do it, I guess I would have planned ahead enough to at least have the dealers phone numbers on hand as to where I thought I was going to stop and call ahead. After all, it shouldn't be a surprise that you are going to want to change your oil. A tire blowout, flat, spring a leak somewhere, have some mysterious fuel pump or electrical issues, a windshield snaps off - okay, those while you can plan ahead for some, sometimes stuff just goes wrong and you have to deal with it. Even if it was a day or two ahead of time, that would give them the opportunity to work me in or allow me to make different arrangements, but maybe that is just me. I know on my last trip, I had a series of unfortunate events that seemed to put me at the mercy of dealers within a few hundred miles of me and other members here. I realize that in any of those cases, any of them could have just said - shrugged it off and said that it will take however long it takes or whatever, but I am quite thankful that we have the supportive network we have here to help on the road as necessary. It is comforting to know that anywhere we are there is the possibility of assistance within a few hours of just about anywhere you are. Whether it is someone with parts nearby, someone willing to overnight parts to you, or receive parts for you so that you could stop by, pick them up and install them as needed. In any case it is nice to be supported by so many good people.

 

I am often impressed with the stories I hear about HD dealers that are so willing to stay open a little late to help a traveler. I have also heard similar stories about some Yamaha dealers (either parting out a showroom bike to get someone moving again, or personally driving some throttle cables to someone a few hours away, etc.). I do also try to keep the 'poor ones' noted as if I am on the road and have an option to stop at a particular dealer for something along the way, I certainly like to support those that have shown good customer service and a general interest in participating in good business practices.

 

I suppose I will stop here since I am not really adding anything to this at this point...

Edited August 4, 2010 by LilBeaver