Rant about a pathetic dealer/shop experience (Long)

[CNF2002]

Depends on the type of credit report they are running. A soft hit does not affect your rating (which you get alot of so those credit companies can send you daily shredder material in the mail - which I think they pay for with kickbacks from shredder manufacturers), a hard hit, which is what you get when you hand over your license and authorize a credit check (at dealers) does effect it in that if you have excessive checks your score goes down a bit. I think you are allowed 3-5 hard hits a year, or something like that, before it starts reflecting really badly on your score.

This is one of the reasons why all those 'in-house' credit cards are a waste of time and money, despite the promise to save you $10 on your purchase that day Anyone who signs up for those cards either shops at the store weekly and has no other credit cards, or they know nothing about credit (because they charge you higher interest on those cards than you would qualify for on any other card).

[oldschoolorange]

that is a joke that they would not let you test ride a bike. That is like buying a house before you even step inside of it. All you need here at any place i have ever seen is your full licence and a helmet. Besides tires are easy to do at home, Get a good set of bars, make sure they are thin and just coat your new innertube in baby powder and it will slip right in without pinching

[CHVYPWR]

I think the only things I'd be truely upset about is having to argue over the price for the final install (forgetting to subtract 1/2 the cost of the tire... what kind of tire only costs $20? btw?). Though in that situation, I would have just walked over and grabbed the parts guy who I talked too when I paid for 1/2 the tire. Rather then yelling at the clerk.

The tire was actually $34, tax and "shop fees" wern't added into my quoted out the door price. The parts guy I dealt with on the phone wasn't there, and wouldn't have been there for another hour.

And leaving the old weights on the wheels sounds like an amature mistake, but mistakes do happen. I'd take the bike back and insist that they balance it correctly.

Theres no way in hell I'd take my bike back there!!

How does running a credit check hurt your credit rating? I can understand the store wanting to make sure that you could afford to pay for a bike if you accidently crashed it or something. Otherwise they're out the cost of a new bike. I think you're lucky that they even allow test rides. I only ever got to SIT in the bikes I bought from dealers.

It does leave a mark that can be held agaist you if there are enough of them. If I want to go test ride 4 bikes at 4 different dealers, and have to do a credit check for each one, that could make for a higher interest rate because of too many "inquieries" on my rating. I've been though a bankruptcy and a credit clean-up. I'm very over protective of my credit now as a result. That credit stuff can turn around and F ya!!!

And for the record, putting on a new tire takes between 1/2 and 1 hour. However, that does NOT mean it's the first thing scheduled for the mechanics to do when they get in. There may have been some stuff that they needed/wanted to finish from the day before, or something else that came up (most shops are pretty good about helping you with a quick fix if you're out on a long tour and something goes wrong). Meaning they might have stepped in and helped out someone who broke down.

I was there first thing in the morning, and was "waiting". Also, I was told I didn't need an appointment becuase the just hired a guy to do nothing but tires.
I worked at a Firestone shop for two years, the "waiting" customer got priority over the drop off customer every time. Hell, in the time I was there I could have done 7 sets of 4 tires on a car!!!

My last tire change took 12 hours, because they were basically booked up that day. The service manager did me a favour and took the bike for the day (while I was at work) and fitted the tire between working on other bikes.

Perfectly acceptable, you were a "drop off" customer.