$500 for seals

[uts]

I have recently being billed $496 to have the fork seals on my klx 300 changed, I even took the forks off and took them in to save a bit of money. Is this a reasonable price as I have had fork seals done before on different bikes for under $200.

[ArcherWC]

wouldnt have thought that was cosha

[bistard]

that is alot of money for seals,what was the breakdown of the bill,did they straighten them or something

[White trash]

Jesus Christ! That's a good effort, cost me 1/4 of that with a pair of GSXR forks a while ago (I supplied the seals though) and they used the top shelf fork oil in it.

However, have you contacted the shop and spoke to someone and asked "Why so expensive?" They may be able to very easily justify it to you.

[ManDownUnder]

uts - that sounds well out of order, but before calling in the army do as White Trash says - get a breakdown on the bill/an explanation. There may be a good reason.

... and I'd LOVE to hear it!

[R6_kid]

cost me $36 to do mine, and thats including seals and oil.

[riffer]

Sounds plenty big money, but I'd be getting a breakdown on it from the shop, as you may find there was some significant damage there that necessitated some new parts being supplied.

It usually costs me about $70 to do the forks on my bike, but I do it myself so its only a parts cost.

[imdying]

Sounds plenty big money, but I'd be getting a breakdown on it from the shop, as you may find there was some significant damage there that necessitated some new parts being supplied.That would be my guess... slider bushes worn out perhaps? Hardly anyone ever even bothers to check them from what I've seen, so I guess replacement isn't typical :D

[dogsnbikes]

I have recently being billed $496 to have the fork seals on my klx 300 changed, I even took the forks off and took them in to save a bit of money. Is this a reasonable price as I have had fork seals done before on different bikes for under $200.

:gob: At that price I would hope the seals came with there own balls and hoops :innocent:

Do tell us where they were done so we dont go there :shutup:

what was the labour cost?

[Firefight]

I have recently being billed $496 to have the fork seals on my klx 300 changed, I even took the forks off and took them in to save a bit of money. Is this a reasonable price as I have had fork seals done before on different bikes for under $200.

sounds crook to me, pm Scott 411 he has a kwak dealership he can tell you what you should pay.

F/F

[cowboyz]

there must be other work that was done. The question now is did you authorize them to do the extra work.

step 1. get them to supply an itemized account.
step 2. Pay for the fork seals and oil.
step 3. assess the hours billed for. If it is more than 3 (others might argue this is an unreasonable ammount of time, go with whatever you feel comfortable with but I think 3 hours labour would be fair if they did a good job)
step 4. Pay for the labour that is appropriate.
step 5. If there was work done that you did not authorise thank them for the favour and leave it at that.

[cowpoos]

funny thing is is the klx300 are a bit bad on fork seals...had my klx seals replaced 7 times under warrenty heard a good number of people replace alot of seals on them too...also heard versrah seals are a better replacment than OEM...the bikes them selves are fantastic all round hooligin trailie though!!

[uts]

Rang up and spoke to a guy at the shop. Invoice break down is 329 for labour, 111 plus gst for parts(60 for seals and 51 for oil im guessing). He said the reason it cost so much is because "they are a little trickier than most".

[T.W.R]

I have recently being billed $496 to have the fork seals on my klx 300 changed, I even took the forks off and took them in to save a bit of money. Is this a reasonable price as I have had fork seals done before on different bikes for under $200.

:gob: Farkin must be some awesome seals they used on your KLX :shit:

We do the same job, including oil etc for under $250 and that's having the whole bike in the shop & removing the forks & re-fitting also. It's 1.5hr job max

[T.W.R]

Rang up and spoke to a guy at the shop. Invoice break down is 329 for labour, 111 plus gst for parts(60 for seals and 51 for oil im guessing). He said the reason it cost so much is because "they are a little trickier than most".

BOLLOCKS!!!!!!!!!! KLX fork seals are a piece of piss to do!

[Goblin]

Rang up and spoke to a guy at the shop. Invoice break down is 329 for labour, 111 plus gst for parts(60 for seals and 51 for oil im guessing). He said the reason it cost so much is because "they are a little trickier than most".Name and shame!!

[Bonez]

Rang up and spoke to a guy at the shop. Invoice break down is 329 for labour, 111 plus gst for parts(60 for seals and 51 for oil im guessing). He said the reason it cost so much is because "they are a little trickier than most".
What's their hourly rate? $329. All in all it seems way over the top. I've seen OEM Honda seals priced at around $30 each at a large local Honda dealership. Needless to say I left them on the counter and got some elsewere, so no surprise there then. How much oil did they use, 4 litres?

[cowboyz]

Rang up and spoke to a guy at the shop. Invoice break down is 329 for labour, 111 plus gst for parts(60 for seals and 51 for oil im guessing). He said the reason it cost so much is because "they are a little trickier than most".

a little reluctant to post as most people know the contempt I have for bike shops but to me this in another example of how bike shops expect top dollar for inexperienced or incompedent mechanics.

I would argue that if they were that slow doing it then they shouldn't be charging full rate per hour.

[uts]

Whats the etiquette for naming shops on here, I havn't picked them up or paid for them yet

[cowboyz]

well it is a bit like this

If you name the shop you will get 101 replies from people who have brought a bike off that company and never had trouble with it. Then you will get 99 replys on how mechanics are human and mistakes happen so you should just put up with it and accept that if you cant do the job yourself then you have to accept whatever figure the bike shop decides to charge you at a whim.

[Drum]

Cowboyz is right. You will also get some people abuse you for naming and shaming.

I support the practice, but give the shop a chance to put it right first. Tell them you have had advice that it shouldn't be that expensive. If they won't come to the party then Name and Shame.

Oh, and you should definitely get your bike back first!

[White trash]

It's a bit of the ol' six of one, half a dozen of the other. Especially when you have to pay to get the forks back first.

But you should be asking what exactly they had problems with that took so long to fix. That labour price is simply over the top.
If they can't come up with a suitable explanation, and wont renegotiate the price, pay the money, get your forks back, then bag the shit outta them online.

[Shaun]

Whats the etiquette for naming shops on here, I havn't picked them up or paid for them yet

Hang fire on the name and shit mate, awnser my PM first, it might save you a lot of grief

[scott411]

KLX300 Forks are very simple, they are not hard to take apart and any decent mechainc should be able to do them in 2 hours tops, (we normally charge 1 and a half if they are out of the bike already, $396 for labour is outragous,
Genuine Forks seals are $23.76 each, ,
they take approx 600mm a leg, so even f you havd to by 2 1 litres of oil it should be $40 tops,


this job should be $200 tops in my opinion, unless they did fork bushes stc, which by the sounds they have not done,

as for naming shops, its a tough call, i would go back and discuss the bill, tell them what you think and give them a chance to remidy the problem first, it works better than name and shame with out giving them a chance,

[cowboyz]

i would have thought they would have had their chance to put things right when they did the job and wrote out the bill. Oh well. you best go back and talk to them and give them another chance, then next week when you are argueing with them you can give them another chance then,, if you are feeling nice there can be plenty of chances by the end of the year. Thats ok though cause no one else will know about the billing problems with this company and they will make plenty of money with unexpecting customers in the future.

[Shaun]

i would have thought they would have had their chance to put things right when they did the job and wrote out the bill. Oh well. you best go back and talk to them and give them another chance, then next week when you are argueing with them you can give them another chance then,, if you are feeling nice there can be plenty of chances by the end of the year. Thats ok though cause no one else will know about the billing problems with this company and they will make plenty of money with unexpecting customers in the future.


My suggestion to hang fire on the name and shame game, was so this guy could try to resolve his problem with the shop that has ripped him like this

If he was to name and shamed before talking it through with the shop, do you think he would get any better help from them?

Just trying to help a rider out here

[Ixion]

I certainly think that any perjorative comment should be witheld until the parties have talked the matter through , and determined why the bill was so much greater than reasonable expectations.

One would not normally expect a forkseal change to take that long (the principle dispute seems to be the labour charge), but we have all experienced those jobs that should "only take an hour or so" that for one reason or another, end up taking many times that.

There might be some valid reason, beyond the control of the shop, why the job took much longer than normal. Whether the customer should be charged for all the extra time is a matter that will depend on the circumstances of each individual case, and can only be resolved by negotiation between the parties.

If the OP still feels he has had a raw deal after a reasonable approach to the shop then let us all hear both sides of the argument.

But I suspect that an approach along the lines of "Can you have a look at this bill please . It seems very much larger than I would have expected. I'm told that labour would normally be only a couple of hours at most. Is there some reason why it is so much more, and can you do anything to trim it back ?" will produce a amicable settlement. Very very few bikes shops actually have a philosophy of swindling their customers. Word gets round far too fast for that to be a workable business model.

[poorbastard]

Hey uts.

Finally joined aye.

Yea hurry up and sort the bloody bill out and pay for them so we can get the bikes out again.

[cowpoos]

Hey uts.

Finally joined aye.

Yea hurry up and sort the bloody bill out and pay for them so we can get the bikes out again.
shit is this my old KLX bro???? thats done shit loads of fork seals....and the masterton dealer charged me for the last set because it was out of warrenty was only $200 ish... tell him to stick these ones in next time they go http://proride.co.nz/757.html or versrah ones [apparently they are pretty good]

[uts]

With the help of SHAUN shop has reduced the bill to 295 all up. The hours were "inadvertingly" charged twice. Still up there in terms of fork seal prices but $200 off original price so rapped as.

[poorbastard]

shit is this my old KLX bro???? thats done shit loads of fork seals....and the masterton dealer charged me for the last set because it was out of warrenty was only $200 ish... tell him to stick these ones in next time they go http://proride.co.nz/757.html or versrah ones [apparently they are pretty good]

Yea thats your old bike man

[poorbastard]

With the help of SHAUN shop has reduced the bill to 295 all up. The hours were "inadvertingly" charged twice. Still up there in terms of fork seal prices but $200 off original price so rapped as.

Rep going shauns way.

Right so now we just need to get the car going so we can tow the buggars then.

[cowboyz]

good to see an outcome you are happy with.

[Shaun]

Glad to have helped, it was more another man getting of his big arse really. Some times it just pays to talk first with the people you are having trouble with, hence my post on hand fire

[riffer]

Well done that man.

[Toast]

... tell him to stick these ones in next time they go http://proride.co.nz/757.html or versrah ones [apparently they are pretty good]

I've heard that Vesrah seals are an awesome product too...and that's from someone who is self-proclaimed shit at wheelies and tests them well.

[barty5]

Rang up and spoke to a guy at the shop. Invoice break down is 329 for labour, 111 plus gst for parts(60 for seals and 51 for oil im guessing). He said the reason it cost so much is because "they are a little trickier than most".

what a load of shit i charge out at my workshop (cars not bike) at $65 hr plus gst around $73 hr incl there tryin to say at that rate it took 4 1/2 hrs you got ripped or there hourly rate is hellishly high just done mine on my yzf426 with out any special tools it took me an hour each and i was being real anal about cleanin them and it not like ive enen done them on this particular bike before

[Mully]

With the help of SHAUN shop has reduced the bill to 295 all up. The hours were "inadvertingly" charged twice. Still up there in terms of fork seal prices but $200 off original price so rapped as.

I call bullshit. They tried the rip-off and got pinged (how many times have they tried it and got away with it??). So they backed down and said they charged in it twice in error.

Maybe the price was correct, and they were trying to use baby fur seals. I find those are expensive due to supply problems. It's usually cheaper to club your own.

[Max Preload]

Funny how they initially said that they were "tricky" to justify the charge & labour time, then changed their tune to "billing error".

I smell uber bullshit.

[magicfairy]

and they were trying to use baby fur seals. I find those are expensive due to supply problems. It's usually cheaper to club your own.

Good one. :lol: - the mental picture...

[The Pastor]

Yeah stories like that piss me off, sure everyone can make mistakes (clicking on the add labour button twice....) but how hard is it to look at the final bill and say "500 bucks.... hmm let me check here"


also the oil and seal charge seems through the roof.


I hate buying parts, I had to pay $120 for some brake seals, but I got them off a dealer I trust and my bike is 21 years old, but still so much money for a 4 little gaskets? lol

around 300 for a waterpump

and (if i payed new price) 200 for a rear brake lever.

Bikes are expensive - esp when there old and rare.