Your opinions on what is fair.

[Sidewinder]

That's not how I'm used to doing business down here south of the Bombays. Businesses are alot less profit driven. Salesmen go out of thier way for you. They actually want you to go back to them. Down this way, the shop would offer to fix it for nothing because that's precisely what it'd cost them to fix! And you can't put a price of customer retainership... you never know, someone you've been going out of your way for might just win Lotto, or get divorced!

i know lol. i did a trade in on my vfr800 on my gsxr, no full lience so the ticked it up on my account lol

[FROSTY:Me]

Dealers make heaps as it is. The dealer should pay!

Thats taking into account an outside influence that may or may not be true. The closure of a number of dealerships argues the contrary.
However is that relivant to this discussion?
Ok now for the sake of argument--to redress the balance.
The customer DROVE into the bike shop in His $200000 Ferarri and was the managing director of telecom spending his "performance bonus" on a bike"

[Sidewinder]

Thats taking into account an outside influence that may or may not be true. The closure of a number of dealerships argues the contrary.
However is that relivant to this discussion?
Ok now for the sake of argument--to redress the balance.
The customer DROVE into the bike shop in His $200000 Ferarri and was the managing director of telecom spending his "performance bonus" on a bike"

yea so why be such a tight ass then, and why wouldnt he just get a new bike?

[YellowDog]

Seems clear cut enough.. if they wanted the fairing fixed they shoulda negotiated at the time of buying, not once the deal was done..

Clearly someone has given him advice after he has got home with his discounted bike.

It is tough enough for bike shops to maintain a reasonable reputation without jokers like this creating crap for them by spreading their version of a hard done by story.

As a former business owner I would say: make sure the customer goes away happy, but not at any price.

[madbikeboy]

Thats taking into account an outside influence that may or may not be true. The closure of a number of dealerships argues the contrary.
However is that relivant to this discussion?
Ok now for the sake of argument--to redress the balance.
The customer DROVE into the bike shop in His $200000 Ferarri and was the managing director of telecom spending his "performance bonus" on a bike"

What a wank stain. It's always the rich fucks who stay rich by being mean assed scammers.

For the record, I'm on your side, but I reckon my previous post will be his argument. I'd personally tell him to fuck himself.

[NDORFN]

The dealer should have fixed it before they sold it.

+1 What is with dealers selling broken bikes? They're just asking for trouble.

[Sidewinder]

+1 What is with dealers selling broken bikes? They're just asking for trouble.

nah the buyer knew so its his bad!!!!!

[Indiana_Jones]

Tell the customer to come in with the bike.

Kill the customer.

Put the bike back for sale.

Pocket the money.

Sell the bike with repairs done and use some of your windfall to buy a 12 pack.

-Indy

[FROSTY:Me]

The dealer should have fixed it before they sold it.

For clarity here dude. The deal was done based on the bike being as it stands cosmetically. Ie the customer would not have gotten the bike at that price if it was an expectation on either parties part that the cosmetics would be fixed

[grusomhat]

The customer DROVE into the bike shop in His $200000 Ferarri "

Ouch

[Stirts]

So based on the information given being EXACTLY the full extent of matters and conversations wadda ya reckon is the FAIR solution?

As it is quite obvious that there has been some form of "misinterpretation" of the deal (God knows how, but this shit happens all the time). I think what would be fair and reasonable when taking the next steps in this situation would be to have a discussion with the customer. Explain your understanding of the agreement and then let the customer explain their side. Then come up with a resolution that both parties are happy with.

And as YellowDog so rightly put ....
"make sure the customer goes away happy, but not at any price"

[NDORFN]

There's always going to be people like the buyer... the only way to avoid them is to not sell bikes under those circumstances. Fix the fucken thing before you put it on the floor and you wont be taking any risks. It's that simple. Now the dealer has a lose-lose situation. Fix the fairing and loose profit, or stand his ground (which he rightfully can do) and lose some rep because you KNOW a buyer like that is going to make it his mission in life to let the world know about it.

[NDORFN]

For clarity here dude. The deal was done based on the bike being as it stands cosmetically. Ie the customer would not have gotten the bike at that price if it was an expectation on either parties part that the cosmetics would be fixed

Got the moral yet? Dealers sell nice bikes, scrap yards sell broken bikes. Scrap yards have big dogs to eat problematic customers, dealers don't have problematic customers because they sell nice bikes. Come on dude, in ANY business, sometimes you have to get out of certain dealings because they are more trouble than they're worth. If you're a dealer, you should make it policy to sell only bikes that you would be proud to own yourself, not bikes that require further work. Take some pride in your product and the profits will climb.

[FROSTY:Me]

There's always going to be people like the buyer... the only way to avoid them is to not sell bikes under those circumstances. Fix the fucken thing before you put it on the floor and you wont be taking any risks.

Bugger you actually raised a point I diddn't clarify.-I'll add this to the OP
Customer came into bike shop saying "hey Ive got $*** to spend on a bike" Sales manager shows a number of bikes to customer in his price range-NONE he's any too keen on. Sales manager then remembers a (for example) Gsxr600 in the workshop because some numbnuts had knocked it over and done some minor damage-scratched bar end scratched indicator etc -including a 75mm crack in the fairing lower.He tells the customer. Hey look the bikes still a great bike. but repaired its outa your price range. as is I can do it for the money you've got.

[MSTRS:Me]

No good deed goes unpunished.
The customer might think he's being clever, puts the shop in an awkward position, but the sale agreement was very clear. It's there in writing.