How come Mary has turned into a guest? All this talk of expensive dealers means he can’t afford his £5??
Long story, but my Mrs bought the first BMW RR for me. 5 years later unbeknown to me she enquired at the same dealer about replacing it with another new one. The sales dept couldn't have been less interested, told her it was list price or nothing and didn't return several calls. I'd continued the annual servicing there, and gave the service dept the usual positive reviews on the satisfaction forms. And burned the sales dept, I filled in my details too, so the feckers knew it was me.
He’s left the building ExPat, he felt he was spending far too much of his spare time on here. He did announce his leaving , clearly you missed the post. I’ll miss him he made me laugh on occasion and was a very alternative view, Vanilla he certainly wasn’t.
Yep, when it came to bikes it was always just banter with Mary. And he took the time to message me to that effect. Unlike a bitter minority on here that make it personal.
That’s a shame. It’s easy to get too involved in forums. Hopefully he’ll be back after a short time out.
I recently went to a customers to repair their American style washing machine. He described to me what the machine did/sounded like when it broke down and left me to it. 10mins later I told him I was done and it was all fixed, he seemed rather disappointed and certainly annoyed when he told me “your company have charged me £150+ for less than 30mins of your time and I politely reminded him that his £150 didn’t pay for 8hrs of an engineers time but the years of experience that enables me to decipher your explanation of “it went clunk, click, click, whurrr, thud and just stopped” into a correct diagnosis and efficient repair on the first visit. Back to it though, the other option is dealers charge less per hour for servicing but then when you pop in for a chat and a free coffee, buy some parts or to take out a demo or buy a bike you get a “hospitality/admin invoice” before you leave. Your £85hr doesn’t pay just one mechanics wages.
Got the Aston back from service. Not done at main dealer but at a very well known and respected independent. Labour cost was £483 and parts £348 both plus vat coming to £997 all in. Biggest item was 11ltrs of oil at £11.50 +vat/ltr. 8 years ago I paid over £1300 at JHP for a service on my 1098, so far from unhappy especially for a top end vehicle. Attention and communication was also excellent and the whole experience was a real pleasure.
Or @Jonny Moto at Lincoln! B&B Suzuki (very well respected and loved dealer) are now an independent Ducati shop too, and have Gaz from Italia twirling spanner’s and Jonny handling the commercial end of things. @Peter B and B Lincoln has invested in the right tooling and people and it seems like things are really working out well. I was very sad that Italia closed down, but my experiences so far with B&B have been overwhelmingly positive.
My Aston is due soon as well. Not sure who I’m going to use yet. Works or HWM I think, Sevenoaks Aston (my local) have horrendous customer interaction Aston servicing isn’t so bad compared to some brands though huh. Considering. But then an oil change at a generic German rep mobil is often around the 500£ mark amazingly. which service are you on mate? Assuming not plugs or air filters (they’re taking the piss with the price of filters) at that price I’m assuming it was just oil filter and maybe brake fluid? i had my trans fluid done when the clutch was done so I’m due oil, filter, pollen and brake fluid I think this time round. Air filters got done last year. £350 for an air filter that can’t cost more than £2 to make, you’ve got to laugh haven’t you
5year/50k service. Car is coming up to 5 years old but only done 15k miles so oil and filter plus a few top ups and consumables. Oil was £11.50/ltr, filter £25.44. It also had anti freeze/coolant change and new pressure cap which took care of another £130. Total for all bits and pieces was £348 and labour £483 all plus 20% for the taxman. Overall I felt the price was quite reasonable and the service was impeccable in line with what you would expect for the brand. Far as I'm aware HWM is a well respected dealer and Works is also exceptional, I think you'll pay handsomely for the privelage but I'm sure the end result will be first class. Locality to yourself may or may not be an issue, I'm lucky that Nick Mee is only about a 15min drive away.
