Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > General Motorcycles only > Dealer Service!

[MARTIN H]

Saj288, I will off course give them a chance to explain! And if its a plausible reason I will be straight back on here saying what it is. If its something like 'we noticed one of your pistons had melted and have ordered you another one' then fair enough.

However I do think it is more likely to be because they have booked more bikes in for a service than they can handle! The fact is even though my service was booked for Wednesday it was not started until sometime on Saturday. When I spoke to the dealers on Saturday they said they hoped it would be done by 4pm but that the mechanic had to keep breaking off to 'sort other bikes out' He went on to say the mechanic had said my bike would be done if they just left him alone to do it without interrupting him!

I don't think a service in two parts is good enough! Should I have to keep taking the bike back until all the service is done? Oil and filter one week, Belts the next, and bring it back next month sir and we will sort your fuelling out for you.

I don't think so!

I did find it unusual that when I phoned in the first place to book it in for the service that I only had a wait of a couple of weeks when other people on this site were talking of much longer waits at other dealers.

I am in the service industry myself, I supply Gaming and Amusement machines to pubs and clubs and I know that to retain business you have to give them the service you promise them and the service they pay for.

'If you don't look after your customers someone else will' is a phrase that springs to mind at the moment.

[Nattyboy]

Im sad to say this is not the first time ive heard of stories like this.

Ive a mate who, for the past 2 yrs has taken his 998s to a dealer in the Bucks area, on a monday (when it was booked in for the weekend to do them a favour) and every time, its been there for over 2 weeks coz theyve forgotten to order parts or some other feeble excuse.

Its just not good enough is it really ? Im sad to say I cant wait till my S4R has done its 2 years 'offfcial' 2 years servicing/warranty thing so I can get it serviced at Lougi Moto for half the price, and get ten times the quality of service like I do with my other duke..

Cheers
Nat

[MARTIN H]

I have just got off the phone with the dealers now for the third time in 20 minutes.

I phoned them to ask when my bike will be ready and what the parts are they are waiting for. I was told they were waiting for a gasket on the exhaust as it had to come off for some of the service work? So I asked when my bike would be ready for me to collect and was told 'The mechanic is not in this week (he is in the Manchester branch) so it will be some time next week' As you can imagine my reply was unprintable on this site. The bloke I spoke to said he would ring the mechanic at Manchester and see what could be done and phone me back, he also said that perhaps they could get the work finished by an outside contractor (his words) so I could have the bike for weekend.

Well true to his word he phone me back 10 mins later and told me that he had spoken to the mechanic and my bike was finished and ready for collection.

Now bear in mind that I had a message on my machine just before they closed on Saturday saying parts were needed and the fuelling needed to be set up. And that I had phoned them on Sunday to be told that there was nobody there from the service department, And that they are closed all day on Monday and Today the mechanic was in Manchester. So exactly when was the service completed on my bike? I asked this question and was told 'he must have come on yesterday just to finish your bike'

It gets better! 'I will come for the bike tomorrow, How much do I owe you?' Asks I The reply? Are you ready for this??

£621 !?

At this stage I hit the roof, I informed them they had quoted me £325 max for this service as had a couple of other dealers. He recited the works sheet to me and said that was the price, I said that was not the price and on it went like this until I had to say that I would phone him back shortly as I could feel myself about to become very very abusive. I checked on this site and Multistrada.net to see what everybody else had paid for the 6000 mile service and sure enough £300 to £325 was the norm. I phoned a couple of dealers and was quoted £300 ish + vat. I was about to phone them back and go absolutley ballistic when they rang me to say 'sorry sir we have mixed your job sheet up with someone else and you bill is actually £311 all in' Right I will collect the bike tomorrow.

To calm myself down I took my dogs out for a walk for 15 minutes and when I came back there was another message on my machine from someone else at the dealers saying 'There appears to have been a bit of a communications breakdown at our end and the price we quoted you of £621 is definitley not right we can do it for £325 all in' WTF!

I rings them straight back and asks what the price actually is £621? £311? £325? any other figure they can think off?

So my bike is ready, but is it just me or would anyone else be really confident that the bike has been serviced correctly? I am not too confident, supposing the valve clearances have been checked and one or more required reshimming, Will it have been done or will it be a case of they will be ok for another 6000 miles/1 year? Will the fuelling have been set up?

As you can imagine I now have zero confidence in this dealer and they will not get any further custom from me. I took the bike and my previous 996s to them for all servicing because I had bought them there and I had been very happy both times with the financial aspects of the deals. I felt a sort of loyalty to them because of this (somewhat foolishly!)

I would be very interested in all your thoughts on this

Thanks

Martin

[ian johnson]

i say vote with your feet

go where you feel you get value for money.

if you give good service people will openly recommend you as per lots of businesses on this site.

i felt ripped off on a service on my 748 last year by an official dealer close to manchester.not been back since.

[jobr]

Martin, that is awful.

As dsered says, John and the team at Ducati Leeds do appear on the ball and you get good service, vote with your feet as it appears lots of people now avoid Flyde/Ducati Manchester because of issues.

[jobr]

Originally posted by Dseered
They sold me an '03 bike when I asked for an '04, I stupidly signed the docs that were put in front of me, never will I use them again, ever ever. I have some horrer stories from mates with Suzuki's from there aswell and get this about two years ago another mate had a 748, booked it in for the service took it in a van and came back later as arranged, service not started, they said, well your a mechanic arn't you (he is) gave him the filters and oil stamped his book and sent him on his way ??? TRUE STORY He left it till he got home, about an hours drive then rang the top man there, can't remember his name and explained that what his dealer ship had done was wholly unacceptable and to get a van up to collect his bike, they then did this, but FFS DIY and they stamp the book ?

It don't inspire much confidence when your "ducati' technician comes out wearing Suzuki overalls either !

I don't know wether to lagh or cry, you couldn't make it up.

[dickieducati]

this sort of thing is all too common the only thing to do is, as other say, vote with your feet. i now take my bikes over 2 hours away to jhp because i know they wil do a good job and trust them implicitly.

i really think we should have an EBAY style feedback sytem somewhere on the board, that way people can see others comments and make their own minds up.

positive feedback
neutral
and negative

along with comments

that way we all get a better deal and hopefully some of the not so good outfits in this business will buck their ideas up.

[Nattyboy]

Great idea Dickie - has this been raised before..??


Nat

[jobr]

Originally posted by Nattyboy
Great idea Dickie - has this been raised before..??


Nat

In the members section there is the dealers vote, but it seems a bit out of date old fashioned.

[dickieducati]

Originally posted by Dseered
I would like to put up a post saying DO NOT USE THIS DEALER, mentioning by name, I think we would end up being dragged through the courts though, Watchdog anyone ??

Oh yeah and if DUK are reading this, I am the bloke who rang for advice yesterday with regard to being done over and I am still waiting for the returned phone call, I only wanted advice from a friendly voice, please ?

i quite agree but if we give people the opportunity to credit good service as well then i cant see a problem with it. if someone complains about all the negative comments, we can simply tell them to get their act together like........so and so who have a massive positive rating.

we have a fair amount of clout on this site lets use it .