Ever felt a bit ripped off?

[barryG]

I didnt but will, I was a bit taken aback at the time! There was one guy working on it, I saw him change the oil, filter, remove and clean brake pads and generally poke about. I didnt see him lift the seat to check air filter and lo and behold Ive took it out and no sign of it being disturbed and it was filthy!

I could have done all that and much better too, but that bloomin warranty worry is what draws us in

[Data]

Barry, get an itemised bill mate. Then tell us all what you paid for in detail. It sounds as if someone has made a big mistake at your dealership if they completed in 1 hour and charged for two. Not acceptable in my book and I'm ex tech as you know. They are probably sticking to the menu pricing as laid down by Suzi though. Strictly speaking, the fact you had cleaned out the transmission would not make any difference to the amount of work they should do at 4000 miles so the cost should still be about the same as your original quote. But it's worth having a chat with them after you tell us in detail what you have been charged, at least if you want to. Most dealers do act fairly though in my experience.

[barryG]

The bill was for labour at £55 an hour, total of £99
Oil was around £22
Oil filter was about £10
Consumables was around £11

add the labour VAT and its the total of £163.

Doesnt say what they did, other than 4000 mile service. I have emailed them asking why I was charged so much labour for one hour, and why the air cleaner wasnt touched. Doubt Ill get much joy, but they aint getting any more of my custom either!

[martb4632]

I haven't used a main dealer for my car or scooter servicing for quite a few years as I too was fed up with being ripped off for what often amounts to a simple oil and filter change and checking the lights and tyres are in order, work I am capable of carrying out myself for less than £30.
I do understand having to keep the warranty up to date though on a new car or bike.
Recently my Astra started misfiring and running very roughly and with a bit of research I traced the problem to the coil pack and also fitted new bosch spark plugs at the same time.
The total cost was £70, using new parts sourced through ebay and it only took me 15 minutes although my mechanical knowledge is fairly limited. The car now runs like a swiss watch so Im very pleased

My neighbour who is a main dealer technician told Me that a Vauxhall dealer would have charged me at least £200 to carry out this work including diagnostic checks, labour, sundries, and the dreaded vat !

[gn2]

A former work colleague of mine had a son who worked offshore, had loads of dosh and drove a Jaguar S-type R.
It started running a bit rough so he took it to the main Jag dealer and they fitted some new sparkplugs and a coil, total price was over £550.
Later on it started doing the same thing again so he took it to a local independent Jag specialist who properly sorted out the rough running and did a complete full service for £300ish.

[Ginger Phil]

When you stated before that you intended to pay £160 for a service,( and alot of people on here thought that was reasonable) i could not believe that is acceptable in the scooter community.

I'm with you on that one chap! I've been saying the same ever since we started this forum all those years ago and it's what eventually put me off maxi scooters.

[Data]

Yes, a maxi is always going to be more expensive to service than a traditional geared or smaller auto scooter, that's for sure. Same in the car world too. A Jag will always cost more than a Fiesta to service. Whether you think it's reasonable to have to pay those sort of charges is dependant on what world you are used to living in. In the real world where you want things to be done properly to manufacturers safety specs etc, it costs. I know because that's what I've done most of my life. But Barry is rightly in my view, having a moan here about something else. Yes, he doesn't like having to pay the maxi charges for service (who does), but his actual real moan is about the time it took to do the service which was much less than quoted. Yet he is being asked to pay for the whole original time quoted. So there are in fact two issues that should concern Barry... 1. Has the bike been serviced correctly? The air cleaner should be blown out at the very least, or replaced if required, so I doubt it. And it's unlikely the bike has been properly nut and bolted which is time consuming. And for all those guys/girls who say it's a 10 minute job, I'd say you don't know what you are talking about and you've probably never done it properly. It's the panel removal and getting to the bolts you cannot see that takes the time. But it must be done. 2. However, if the service was done correctly but in much less time than quoted for originally, why is he being charged the whole labour amount? At my dealships that I worked for, a customer would be given a discount if a job was completed, properly, and ahead of time. If a job was completed ahead of time by a big margin, then the technician was usually asked to prove the job had been done correctly by a senior tech or management. This is to protect the firm against malpractice and any other problems that could/might arise if the job was not done correctly. Remember, workshops have to protect themselves and their insurers from every angle. In other words, it can be costly not to do a job correctly.

[Deeping]

A little insight

Back when I was fit and healthy and a mechanic I did some time in main agents, did not like it, some ‘times’ were tight, too tight, some were too long. We were told this is how the times were made.

Used car comes in and is sat on ramp.
The job gets done as technical data book advises, car goes out.
Same car comes in and is sat on ramp.
The job gets done as technical data book advises, car goes out.
Third time.
Same car comes in and is sat on ramp.
Stopwatch started.
The job gets done as technical data book advises.
Stopwatch stopped.
Car goes out…..

To me this is not a good way to do the work.
The third time doing the same work on the same car by the same person al nuts are free and all tools are ready – just like it is in the real world, NOT.
This means that some of the timed times that the mechanic has to work too are too short, so, not all but some will take shortcuts.

A good mechanic as opposed to a fitter, (in my old world a fitter did what the mechanic tells them to do, it’s the mechanic that diagnoses the problem – skilled, the fitter is the monkey)

A mechanic will usually find a way to do the same job just as well but quicker.

I ended up working for independent garages where I felt more at home and I think that the customer got a fairer bill at the end of it. If bolts were seized and it took a long time to free it they were charged, if jobs were done in under book time it was reflected in the bill. I also had customers that would follow me if I moved to another garage. We also worked on customer cars that needed first services etc. You do not have to take a vehicle to the ‘makers’ main agents to have a service or repair to keep it in warranty, any registered garage can stamp the book to keep it up to date and in warranty, well that’s how it was, maybe Data can verify if this is still the case.

Data is still right though with his insight of how the modern main agents work, my knowledge is from cars and is now quite old.

[Ginger Phil]

A mate of mine is a mechanic at a Citroen dealers in or near Chatham. He gets a bonus the faster he does the job.

That to me spells disaster!

[Data]

Deeping, yes we are singing pretty much from the same song sheet. Jobs done by the book unless the book was being silly and there was a proven tried and trusted alternative to doing the job properly. If it saved the customer some time then great.

Bonus work is just not a good way Ging. I quite agree. Quality dealers tend not to work that way now. Not sure about the bike world as I've only teched on Honda bikes (I was cars most of my techie life) and we didn't have bonus work there.