F#%* Motorcycle shop!!

[AzHonda]

Here's my story. I mainly just need to vent.

After copper plating some brake linkage and attempting to copper plate all of my spokes on my CL350, I media blasted and painted the rims and hubs and then relaced the wheels. Well, I suck at trueing a wheel so I took both of them in to my local shop. I popped out the front wheel bearings because I was putting new ones in. I forgot that they wouldnt be able to true the wheel without the bearing in so, they did the rear wheel for me and charged me $15 ($55) more for that wheel. Nine months ago they charges me $40 to true the same type of wheel. So, I get my front bearings in after they told me to just drop them by when I got them. Im thinking they will just pop them in and no big deal. Takes one minute to do. When everything was done, I am wondering why the hell my bill is so high. $45 to true the wheel (front) and fucking $28 to put the damn ass bearings in!??? WTF!!
Another local shop I took my bike into because of idle/sputtering issues when I get above 20mph. Im telling the guy that it is probably the coils and that I also wanted the throttle cable slack taken out (even though I had already adjusted it to it's max) so I needed it shortened and I couldn't figure out why my blinkers weren't blinking. I get the bike back with a $280 bill saying he cleaned the carbs and he had to pull them apart a few times to figure out the sputtering. Blinkers still didn't work and I still had slack in the throttle cable. Me, being the dumbass that I am and not wanting or feeling like fighting. I pay, go home order coils, plug wires and caps, spend a couple hours and fix the blinkers and notice MY DAMN CARBS NEVER CAME OFF THE BIKE!!! How do I notice this you ask? Glad you asked. I had set the boot clamps in a certain position and just happened to mark them in a certain spot.
All I can say is screw it! I'm glad I can do most things myself and have the help and knowledge of good people here but my hell.......I am done with the shops. My sputtering issues are solved now with new coils.

My synopisis is this. If you take your bike into a shop to have wheels trued, I am convinced that they think you don't know two shits about working on a motorcycle let alone even know how to spell your name.

To you guys here that work in a shop and dont pull this crap. Your a rare breed.

And here's a picture of my finished bike with new unpolished copper accents and what it looked like when I bought it.

Yeah, I just want to show it off a bit as well as complain. 8)

 

[DesmoBro]

Cool bike man....ever since i've found this site i would never think of taking my bike in to a shop...That and i don't have the $280 to pay the guy in the 1st place...so it's been long nites etc but i've gotten a couple bikes running that started as scrap heaps that and other small motors etc....sometimes your taking things apart and it seems it will never get finished but somewhere some1 has run into the same brick wall and jumped over it ....any questions you have post up a new thread here there in the 1800 help desk section someone always pipes up with some great info takes a day or 2 sometimes but usually thats rare....Anywho GOOD FORTUNE TO COME!!!

 

[MorganCountyCafe]

Sorry to here of the trouble. I too cannot afford a bike shop. But wish sometimes that I could. Really like the bike though. Question was the copper plating done local or did you send it out and was it expensive. I have thought of it because I love the look. I have made a seat entirely out of copper just need to get it the sewing done.

 

[edukaycheon]

Bike looks awesome, man. Reminds me of a nice espresso machine or something. Luckily my experience so far with shops has been decent, the guys are willing to let me work with them in the garage and prices are fair as well. No hidden charges for things they hope I don't understand

 

[StinkBug]

Ok I totally understand your gripe with the carbs and such. You shouldn't be charged for work that was not done. However I dont see any issue with a shop charging you to install your bearings. They are a business, and doing things for free doesn't keep the lights on and the doors open. Just because it's easy to do does not mean it should be free. It still takes someones time to do it, and that person is being paid by the shop. If you want it done for free you should do it yourself.

 

[AzHonda]

Ok I totally understand your gripe with the carbs and such. You shouldn't be charged for work that was not done. However I dont see any issue with a shop charging you to install your bearings. They are a business, and doing things for free doesn't keep the lights on and the doors open. Just because it's easy to do does not mean it should be free. It still takes someones time to do it, and that person is being paid by the shop. If you want it done for free you should do it yourself.

Yeah, no kidding. I would have done it myself but the shop made it sound like they would pop them in. They charged a half hour for labor. Thats what bummed me out. I know how a business is ran. I own one. But then again, i dont nickle and dime everyone. Especially repeat customers.

 

[MNBikerPup]

Any good shop, especially one where you are a regular should be willing to do a small favor once in a while. Once, I had this car where the exhaust had fallen off just before the cat. So, I did the majority of the work to run new pipe. Course, it looked ugly without a tip, so I bought a tip and took it to my local muffler shop to see if they could weld (I don't have a welder nor do I know how, YET) a small piece of pipe so I could just then clamp it on. I was more than willing to pay for their time and the piece to weld on. When I went to pick up, they never charged me for it. To this day, I have all my exhaust work done at that shop. Why, because they extended me that small favor (not expected) and I refer anyone I know that is looking for a good shop. If the roles were reversed, I would have done the same thing. I can understand if the work would take more than five minutes to do to charge for it. Basically, doing a small favor will reap greater rewards in the future. Repeat business, added business due to word of mouth advertising etc.

 

[notanothercb]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It's stories like this that make me really appreciate the shop I've become loyal to (Parts Unlimited in Stanton, CA, in case anyone in the L.A. area is looking for an honest shop). They've always treated me right, and have given me a deal or two now that they know they're my main squeeze. I traded someone my CB650 over the summer, told the new owner the exact quote I was given from my shop for carb work, clutch replacement, and one other thing that I can't remember anymore, but he took it to a local-for-him shop in Silver Lake. Last I heard his shop charged ~$100 more than my total quote before they even got to the clutch, did some sloppy carb work, and tried to order some new parts to get it running right when the real problem was that they hadn't fully assembled the carbs...

Drama aside, your bike looks great. Good work; I would definitely rock that.

 

[AzHonda]

Thanks guys. I like where this bike has gone.

Mnbikerpup, you nailed it. Doesn't take but a minute to put the bearings in. Not a half hour. Now they will never see me again.
Anyways, I'm done complaining. Just needed to be a whiny baby for a bit.

 

[Getnjgywitit]

Yeah, no kidding. I would have done it myself but the shop made it sound like they would pop them in. They charged a half hour for labor. Thats what bummed me out. I know how a business is ran. I own one. But then again, i dont nickle and dime everyone. Especially repeat customers.

I worked at a shop before becoming a paramedic. I loved the shop that I worked at because it was honest. It was very expensive (ducati in a expensive neighborhood). If we would have told you to just drop the bearings off, we wouldn't have charged you. If we said, "sure, drop the bearings off, it will only be 1/2 hours labor" that would have been different. I feel they lead you to belive they were going to do it for free as well.

 

[Hoofhearted]

Those are some of the reasons I try to do everything myself. I can't afford shop rates and I trust myself. It's shameful to charge $45 for popping in a couple of bearings. As had been said if you were told up front what the charges would be then that's a different story. Thanks for the warning though. It'll keep me well away from shops for a while longer.

 

[gijoe13844]

My experience with my local shop is completely different. The owner has barely charged me for anything other than parts. Granted I usually only need him to do the jobs I just don't have the tools for yet...wheel balance, bearing press etc,. But I have established a friendship with him. I stop by and just talk bikes, I helped him diagnose a charging issue on an old cb, I pick stuff up for him when I go to harbor freight or the junkyard. Bike guys are all very much the same, we are lke a family. Families take work....take some time, get to know the guys at your local shop. Talk about THEIR bikes and their projects. I had a guy at a local muffler shop weld me up a whole 4 pipe exhaust system labor free just bc while we were working on it he had a chance to tell me about his cb450. but i asked...i showed interest in something he created. I guarantee you that at the end of the day that most of these shops are full of guys who will have appreciation for what you are doing and will do things on the cheap. But you have to establish that relationship first. Just my two cents but I hate seeing ppl lumping all shops in together. Most are very decent and are just trying to make a living.

 

[ProSimex]

There is only one shop in Ottawa I trust, ByTown Cycles. Its run by one guy whos a true bike enthusiest. He really only deals with old British and Japanese stuff and he really knows his shit. I dont pay other people to work on my bike, but I order all my parts from him. My good friend bought a XS650 from him and the guy let him use shop space to get it going. Now he's letting him use the space to build a basket case cb360 I gave him to re-sell. He's come out and gone over my bike, fiddled with the mix screws on my VMs (smoothed it right out BTW), and made suggestions here and there and never thought about charging me.

Stuff like that means Ill ride across the city to buy parts from him rather then go to one of the 5 bike shops that are with 5 minutes of me. Its all about customer service baby.

 

[4eyes]

There is only one shop in Ottawa I trust, ByTown Cycles. Its run by one guy whos a true bike enthusiest. He really only deals with old British and Japanese stuff and he really knows his shit. I dont pay other people to work on my bike, but I order all my parts from him. My good friend bought a XS650 from him and the guy let him use shop space to get it going. Now he's letting him use the space to build a basket case cb360 I gave him to re-sell. He's come out and gone over my bike, fiddled with the mix screws on my VMs (smoothed it right out BTW), and made suggestions here and there and never thought about charging me.

Stuff like that means Ill ride across the city to buy parts from him rather then go to one of the 5 bike shops that are with 5 minutes of me. Its all about customer service baby.

That's the way it should work.
It helps to find a shop that specializes in old bikes. The guys that are trained on the new stuff, just don't know what they don't know. You don't want them learning on your carbs...you may as well learn yourself.
The shops that have been around forever (figuratively) are old for a reason. But sometimes the reason is that they are good at screwing people over.

 

[WeberKid]

we always over-estimate at choppahead, and customers are always pleased when we finish well under it. The best bet is to just work honestly, anticipate the worst and hope for the best. that way everyone is happy when the job is an easy one, and return customers are much better than a short-term gain.

 

[crazypj]

Sorry to hear about your problems, glad it wasn't carbs, haven't you complained to local trading standards office?
After I re-built and set them they should be good for years of use (a long as your riding reasonably regular)
I think dishonest shops are the rule rather than the exception, (I believe it's part of the reason I was 'let go' after 2 weeks)
The overheads and insurance are pretty high and most techs are way underpaid ($10~$15/hr flat rate, only for hours worked-no work, no pay)
There are exceptions but very few techs are even close to the $40~$60K often 'quoted' by recruiters (even in Ca. @$100+/hr labour rate)