bluerider6
09-28-2003, 03:50 AM
All of you know exactly how important good service is. I think that by sharing first hand knowlege of using and/or recieving service from manufacturers and shops (including repair facilities), we can save each other the grief of having to deal with poor service and crappy products. I asked James to open a forum dealing with reviewing products because of a recent situation with getting repairs done on my own personal bike, involving a shop in Bellflower. Maybe I can save some by sharing this experience ...
Earlier this year I brought my bike into a shop because of a poor idling, and driveablity issues. I told the owner that I wanted him to look the carbs over and adjust them if necessary because that's what I suspected. To be honest I tried to handle the problem myself, but it got to the point where I had to say ... "self, you don't know crap", and needed to bring it in to a professional. That's when I decided to bring it in to a place where I thought I could get some good help.
Little did I know.
When I finally brought my bike in, the owner said that he would check my compression and other things before he went into the carbs. Fine that's a good start. Sure enough he said that my compression was low, and that this was what was causing all of my problems. I verified this at home by checking the compression myself at home. I didn't have the bike repaired initially because I didn't have the money for the recommended repairs. I would have to bring it back when I had the funding.
Ok, back to the story. The owner suggested that I check the valve clearance because he suspected that the problem lay within the workings of the valvetrain. I did check them with the right tools and factory manual feeding me the right specs. They were spot on! (clearances were within spec) I called him back and told him that the valve clearances were good and so he suggested that, when I brought the bike back, that I let him tear down the cylinder head and let him rebuild it. Fine, that was the plan -when I got the money to do it.
I eventually did bring the bike in and gave him the okay to do what was necessary to get my bike running again. Up until that point I hadn't ridden the bike more than a handful of times within a span of 6 months, because of it's poor driveability, so I was a bit eager to get it back, not to mention we had a track day coming up soon ... I was anxious really.
After I dropped the bike off I told him that I needed the bike before the end of the month, just to get him going on it. I figured, "okay, I've given him almost 30 days to fix my bike", I should have it back within 2 to 3 weeks at the most. While my bike was there, I only got one call from him, and that was so that I could drop off 300 bucks for parts. Wait, this was almost a week after I brought the bike in! I had to check in by phone once in awhile to see what the hell was going on with the bike, and it was usually to find out that he hadn't gotten around to it, and/or he wasn't there.
After about 2.5 weeks of playing phone tag, I went in to see what my bike was doing, and to my surprise I see that it's still sitting there with the head on it (not even touched). After talking with him for a bit about it, he promised that he'd start the work on it the next day, he just had to finish a bike that he was working on before he could start mine.
After dancing around with the shop owner for close to a month both on the phone and me having to visit, it was close to time for me to pick it up. I got it back from him the night before track day. Didn't even get a chance to ride it before I left (which was my bad), only to find out after I unloaded it from my truck at the track the next day, that it ran like supreme *shti!! $733.00 and an experience close to climbing a mountain, in dealing with this shopowner, my bike ran the same as when I first brought it in.
Well, when we got back I had to write a letter to him, explaining the situation, and that I could only give him 2 weeks to rememdy this huge F**K up. It took him a month to fix it, and it turns out that what was really wrong with my bike was that I had a bad coil. He went on to say other things about what was wrong, but I knew as well as he did that he was completely wrong in the diagnosis and repair of what was initially the concern.
As it stands, I gave him over 700 dollars to fix the bike and 2 months get it running right! The coil costs way less than what it took to fix the head, and by the way the compression still reads the same - go figure.
You can decide whether you wish to go to this shop or not, however I higly recommend that you don't. I was promised something that couldn't be delivered in a timely manner. I couln't get the guy to call me back half of the time to keep me informed and the quality of work was very poor. I don't hate the shop owner, because I've had work done by him before, but the way he handled my situation was inexcusable and very costly to me.
Learn from this experience. Finding a good shop is hard to do on your own, so ask around. If the shop looks like a junkyard, then mostly likely it is. Check the techs out. If they look pissed off all the time then most likely they're gonna in some way take it out on your bike. And most of all DON'T GO TO BAMM motorsports!! I know for a fact that this shop used to be good, but that was when they still had good mechanics and good people running the shop.
That's all folks.
Earlier this year I brought my bike into a shop because of a poor idling, and driveablity issues. I told the owner that I wanted him to look the carbs over and adjust them if necessary because that's what I suspected. To be honest I tried to handle the problem myself, but it got to the point where I had to say ... "self, you don't know crap", and needed to bring it in to a professional. That's when I decided to bring it in to a place where I thought I could get some good help.
Little did I know.
When I finally brought my bike in, the owner said that he would check my compression and other things before he went into the carbs. Fine that's a good start. Sure enough he said that my compression was low, and that this was what was causing all of my problems. I verified this at home by checking the compression myself at home. I didn't have the bike repaired initially because I didn't have the money for the recommended repairs. I would have to bring it back when I had the funding.
Ok, back to the story. The owner suggested that I check the valve clearance because he suspected that the problem lay within the workings of the valvetrain. I did check them with the right tools and factory manual feeding me the right specs. They were spot on! (clearances were within spec) I called him back and told him that the valve clearances were good and so he suggested that, when I brought the bike back, that I let him tear down the cylinder head and let him rebuild it. Fine, that was the plan -when I got the money to do it.
I eventually did bring the bike in and gave him the okay to do what was necessary to get my bike running again. Up until that point I hadn't ridden the bike more than a handful of times within a span of 6 months, because of it's poor driveability, so I was a bit eager to get it back, not to mention we had a track day coming up soon ... I was anxious really.
After I dropped the bike off I told him that I needed the bike before the end of the month, just to get him going on it. I figured, "okay, I've given him almost 30 days to fix my bike", I should have it back within 2 to 3 weeks at the most. While my bike was there, I only got one call from him, and that was so that I could drop off 300 bucks for parts. Wait, this was almost a week after I brought the bike in! I had to check in by phone once in awhile to see what the hell was going on with the bike, and it was usually to find out that he hadn't gotten around to it, and/or he wasn't there.
After about 2.5 weeks of playing phone tag, I went in to see what my bike was doing, and to my surprise I see that it's still sitting there with the head on it (not even touched). After talking with him for a bit about it, he promised that he'd start the work on it the next day, he just had to finish a bike that he was working on before he could start mine.
After dancing around with the shop owner for close to a month both on the phone and me having to visit, it was close to time for me to pick it up. I got it back from him the night before track day. Didn't even get a chance to ride it before I left (which was my bad), only to find out after I unloaded it from my truck at the track the next day, that it ran like supreme *shti!! $733.00 and an experience close to climbing a mountain, in dealing with this shopowner, my bike ran the same as when I first brought it in.
Well, when we got back I had to write a letter to him, explaining the situation, and that I could only give him 2 weeks to rememdy this huge F**K up. It took him a month to fix it, and it turns out that what was really wrong with my bike was that I had a bad coil. He went on to say other things about what was wrong, but I knew as well as he did that he was completely wrong in the diagnosis and repair of what was initially the concern.
As it stands, I gave him over 700 dollars to fix the bike and 2 months get it running right! The coil costs way less than what it took to fix the head, and by the way the compression still reads the same - go figure.
You can decide whether you wish to go to this shop or not, however I higly recommend that you don't. I was promised something that couldn't be delivered in a timely manner. I couln't get the guy to call me back half of the time to keep me informed and the quality of work was very poor. I don't hate the shop owner, because I've had work done by him before, but the way he handled my situation was inexcusable and very costly to me.
Learn from this experience. Finding a good shop is hard to do on your own, so ask around. If the shop looks like a junkyard, then mostly likely it is. Check the techs out. If they look pissed off all the time then most likely they're gonna in some way take it out on your bike. And most of all DON'T GO TO BAMM motorsports!! I know for a fact that this shop used to be good, but that was when they still had good mechanics and good people running the shop.
That's all folks.