Poor Customer Service Again

[SapperMedic]

We just had 2 of the motorcycle shops merge here in San Antonio. It was time to replace the brakes on the ol Black Cherry so I went to Yamaha of SA. On my other bike I bought the brakes from E-Bay for $45 (give or take) for all 3 sets, and they work great. This time I didn't want to wait so I went local. The parts guy (new from the closed store) looked them up and said "they list rear brake pads and a front brake "kit". When he brought them up it was only 3 sets of pads of course. he told me "it's $39.89 for the rear pads and $137.89 for the fronts!. I am pretty sure he was looking at it wrong, I didn't mind paying the 40 bucks for the front, but I am almost sure that the fronts must have flakes of gold enbedded in them. That would be almost $70 a set! I asked him to look again and he said "You're welcome to drive to Austin if you don't like it."Needless to say I ordered them from E-Bay again and will have to wait 3 days.

[BigBoyinMS]

I'm not sure what year your bike is but the EBC catalog shows that the 86-93 VR uses the same pads front and rear. You can get the organics (FA-123) on Amazon for roughly $35 each set incl shipping.

Either he made a mistake looking them up or their prices are just inflated. Maybe they don't realize there isn't another dealer to merge with. Next time it's close the doors. His attitude was the biggest mistake.

[rsstar]

Since he said "black cherry" I would assume he has an 06. As for the price I bought my pads for my 99 way back for like $35 a set. Since my last bike was a GW and this one is a Victory, I haven't had any dealings with Yamaha for years. I still say the 2nd gen is the best touring bike on the road out of the crate but way behind the times and dealer support is really lacking. Took my Cross Country in for its first service and was in and out in 2 hours. And that included the time for him mount and hook up my new aftermarket horn. Unlike the dealer in Jackson he only handles Victory and Polaris products, and George the manager, along with the mechanic are great. Next time you're out cruising stop by the Victory dealer in Loxley Alabama. Oh yeah, the Victory is one kick a$$ motorcycle. And I don't say things like this very often !!

[Yammer Dan]

For a 86 I'm pretty sure you can get all three sets from E-Bay for less than 50 bucks!! I would take them back and show him. But thats just me not trying to get you in trouble!!

[darthandy]

I've been trying to do as much of my work on my recently acquired '87 VR for much the same reason. Labour costs at the local Yammie dealer are insane as are parts prices. I also have an older Triumph Sprint 900 ('94) and the nearest Triumph dealer (45 miles away) is even worse. I know of one guy who brought in his Tiger for an oil and filter change at that dealer and was charged $160.00. Granted it was synthetic oil, but even so...my retail cost for 4 liters (Less than a gallon) of synthetic is about $50.00 + taxes. A Fram filter is less than $10, so how do they justify $100 for labour on an oil change ... we're talking about 20 minutes of work here...and I'm sure they don't pay retail for their material. I could go on, but you get the picture. I know times are tough in that industry, but this is a good way to lose customers to other dealers or to doing it yourself.

[mini-muffin]

Well as far as I understand the 1st gen takes the same front and back for brakes and the 2nd gen uses the same one as the 1st gen but only on the back. It's different for the front.

I'd say he was either looking at it wrong or the guys and idiot thinking you'd pay that much for the brakes. At least you can do your own work, I feel for folks who can't and get stuck with places like that.

 

Margaret

[BuddyRich]

Hey Brian, I have a set of front brakes for a 2nd gen here. They have about 80% left on them. Holler if you want them.

[saddlebum]

Pads do differ and maybe the front pads he offered were ceramic were the rear pads were organic