Rant about the Local Dealership (long?)

[coffee_brake]

Ladies, you'll understand this situation better than all the wonderful gentlmen on this forum. I've had a terrible experience with a local dealership and I'm just really mad about it.

You need to know that I am fiercely devoted to doing my own maintenance on all my bikes...and I am a full time rider, no car, just bikes. My best bike for all-around stuff is my '05 Kawasaki Concours, excellent machine with a full fairing, my husband bought it new for me for my birthday in '06 and it's almost paid-for. I don't condone ever buying a bike with payments, but hey, how could I say no to such a great gift?
I can ride all winter on this bike and it took me from GA to CA this summer and back, riding alone. Excellent machine.

So...some years of Concours are bad for camshafts, and mine went bad at 28 thousand miles. The valves require adjustments at every 6k miles and I have been faithful to my maintenance. My cams went bad under warranty (3-year, unlimited mileage warranty--wow!). I didn't expect the best service dealership near me to be cool about it, but they were, so I took the bike there after they got the new cams ordered, and got the bike back a week later. These folks did the first break-in service job on the bike in '06 and I have done all the rest of the services because it can get very expensive.

Now, the Concours has a lot of fairing/plastics to remove and put back on, and I can say it's a real pain to do it all, and do it right. Plus, I have auxiliary lighting and crash bars that go through all this fairing on my bike. I called and said if they had any problems to call me, I know the Connie is hard to work on and I can answer questions about mine and I care more about having the job done right than having the job done quickly. They never called.

A week later I got word my bike was ready. I got a truck and went to get it, it sounded kind of rattly on startup (indicating the valves were loose, which indicates in turn that the camshafts were not installed right). My auxiliary lights didn't work. I got it home and found the wires for the lights were torn apart and the fairing had never been put back onto its brackets. It was such a shoddy job that I was embarassed to ride it.

I took the bike back and they said the sub-fairing where the plastic goes was broken but it was an "old break" and they just couldn't figure out what was wrong with the lights, and just hemmed and hawed and wouldn't fix what was wrong.
Get this: the owner of this dealership is a lady rider and she didn't do anything but listen to me b*tch about it. She said she'd get to the bottom of it but all she did was play "yes-woman" to her technicians.

I really thought I'd get better service.

You know, I could have replaced those cams myself. Because the engine design is very simple, I could have easily done every bit of it on my own with just my Craftsman tool set and my torque wrench, but I thought for a warranty job, this dealership, the best in the area, would be the best place. It was over 25 miles to get to them, too, when the nearest Kawasaki dealership is only 5 miles away.

I used to reccomend these folks to new riders, but no more. Sad thing is, I have no better option to reccomend to them. What happened to doing a job right? What happened to competence, to professionalism? I would have done better to put in the new cams myself, and it would have been faster, and it would have been done right, and the plastic would be on right and my light wires would not have been cut. And, I would not be out of two mornings of work and a lot of anger and stress. This ain't just some old bike, this is MY bike, MY baby that I've taken care of since new. Her reliability and longevitiy rests in MY greasy hands and I don't want anybody else touching her because I would rather blame myself if anyting goes wrong than fret about what some punk technician did on a Friday to speed things up and get out of work early. But it was warranty work and I had to let the dealership do it. I just couldn't afford to buy new cams outright and skip the warranty covering it.

So girls, I know you can imagine my anger right now. What if this was your bike? Short of having a heartbeat, this machine is family. It's so unusual, especially in the deep South, for a woman to own the local dealership, but then she screwed me over. She seemed so strong, too.
This is in SC, by the way. I live just over the state line in GA.

It's sad, girls, real sad that this is still happening. Some of you are painfully aware of the butt-whooping the local mechanics have in store for you. Here on this forum is a good place to learn to work on your own ride. Ask questions, guys are not inherently better at this than we are. Heck, as a newleywed I taught my husband how to gap a spark plug! And it's willingness to learn, not mechanical background, that does it.
So...while I will go behind the incompetent mechanic and fix up my bike like it should have been, you out there can determine to do your own oil change, brake fluid and pad change, add some extra lights, change your battery....it's just a matter of learning how and many, many of us can help! Don't get robbed, and don't let your bike be poorly serviced for lack of the knowledge that so many will share with you.

Thanks for listening to me rant. It helped a lot and the fellows just would'n't get it, y'know?

[goodies]

Vent away! That's why we are here.

[ofblong]

Girls that work on mechanical stuff are awesome.

[blues2cruise]

coffee_brake......this requires the next step. Write to kawasaki....cc the letter to the dealer.

If your bike was under warranty then they had an obligation to fix it, but....they also have an obligation to do it right and to fix what they broke.

You can bet Kawasaki would not like to know that they have bad dealers out there representing their products.

[coffee_brake]

Blues, I may have to. Today before heading out to ride I found they had changed to oil, which was necessary with the cam change, but they overfilled it by at least a quart. Too much oil can do more damage than too little, blowing out gaskets and seals. So I was late to my meeting because I had to sit there in my leathers and siphon out over a quart of oil before I rode. Sad, sad work they did. They'll never touch my machines again.

[Mr. Invisible]

I would have to say that along with what Blues said, that you should also send a letter to the Better Busines Bureau. Botching a job like that is not a good way to get repeat business.

[Lion_Lady]

Sad. Sad. Sad. But I've heard this tale before. Dealers just don't seem much inclined to take care with owner customization. They don't understand it, so they don't bother to try to figure it out... just cut the wires.

A lot of BMW owners have extra farkle, etc installed. Including lights, and all manner of other doo-hickeys.

Too late for you, but for others who are looking at warranty work by a shop: Take the time and un-install what auxilliary bits you can. Particularly such add ons that will inhibit access to whatever work they must do, like lights and other wired in stuff.

Since it takes 45 minutes just to take all the plastic off some BMW models (like the R/RTs) I know of a few folks who'll take all that off at home and ride or trailer their 'undressed' machine to the dealer to save the labor cost of removal and installation.

P

[delete.the.adjectives]

That's a real shame that your bike (and you) were treated that way, especially from a female-owned dealership. The one thing I can say is, echoing blues2cruise, write a letter. Explain what happened, give as many specifics as possible, make sure the letter doesn't sound irate and aggressive, but instead emphasize your loyalty to the company and the products and how this interaction was a total disappointment.

A few months back, a friend of mine was in a similar situation with his Honda (also under warranty), and the dealership gave him the run-around and treated him like crap for a month and a half. He asked me to help and I drafted a letter to Honda, explaining how he, his sister, and father are all loyal customers, all owned Hondas, etc. I gave details about the interactions at the dealership, what was wrong with the bike, who he spoke with at the dealership, etc. The result was Honda ended up calling him a couple weeks later, apologizing, and extended his warranty for another year.

Point being, it really does pay to sit down and take the time to write something up in a thoughtful manner. Even though the ordeal you went through was a pain and shouldn't have happened in the first place, something good may come out of it. And if it doesn't, you'll still feel better that you went the extra step and didn't brush it off.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[ofblong]

hey speaking of that I have a story. Isnt exactly the same but kinda pertains about being nice . I bought some Mt Dew and one of the bottles had a piece of 0-ring in it. I called (yes called) Pepsi and said something. I hadnt opened it yet. Long story short I was nice about it and for that 1 bottle I got 24 free bottles for it lol.

[follow]

Coffee_brake...Venting is good.
I'm sorry to here about your ordeal, I sure hope things work out in the long run...
I had a simular situation with one of my bikes when the dealer rebuilt the motor on my bike when putting it back together ( had new exhaust put on too) they broke the exhaust bolt right in the motor but would not fess up to it since I drove it off the lot, I was livid since it was a brand new exhaust. But they would not honor there work. It ended up costing me a lot to have it drilled out. I did take it somewhere else for the work. The whole motor had to be pulled since it was in the front. After all done I could have gotten a brand new motor. So I have never been back to dealer for service.
But on a different not...I think your AWESOME, since you work on your own bikes........you rock girl.

p.s. A letter did not help me but may help you, different manufactures.