How long does it take?

[Damon]

Last weekend I went bike shopping with my cousin and a mate who were both after new bikes, my cousin ended up getting a TL1000R from Red Barron, a nice and easy thing to do, as it was late on Saturday afternoon we left his bike there to be priced for a trade in and came back in on Tuesday night, had to wait about 30 mins for some chap to turn up so we could fill out the paperwork and we were off.

On the same weekend my friend test rode a really nice ZX7R from Mt Eden, he then called them on Friday to find out when they would be open on Saturday morning and told them that he wanted it rego’d and warranted because he wanted to buy it.
We got in there at about 9:30am, my mate had to ride up from Thames, when we go there they wanted to have the trade in looked over so gave us the ZX7 to go for a ride for an hour, when we got back it hadn’t moved? The sales guy came out and laid on some “we’re so busy” line and took the bike down to the work shop, he came back about 15mins later and then discussed the price for the trade in, we talked it over and made a deal, he then told us he needed to get it warranted and rego’d? as It was almost 12 we headed off for lunch so they could do that, when we returned after about 30 – 40 mins it was not done? So he went down to “push it through” and that took it’s time, then he had to go and get the rego which took longer than anyone expected.

All up we spent more than 5 hours there trying to buy this bike, their one redeeming move was to let my mate send them a cheque for part of the payment as his bank was pissing him around and wouldn’t let him at all of his money (national bank bite!), but I’ve never had to spent 5 hours in a store to buy anything and I seriously doubt I’ll want to buy a bike from Mt Eden after this ordeal.

Is this the sort of time frame you’d expect when buying from a store?

[skidz]

I would have been out of there in an hour or less. If they don't want a sale, just tell them you can't be stuffed getting mucked around. Start moving and if they are any good, they'll sort their shit out.

[kro]

I probably would have walked.

Often its a bitch when the shop has the only bike in your price range, that you like, but thats part of the purchasing process, you never give away any like/dislike info when shopping, and always mention "that ZX7R you saw yesterday, as well as the GSXR you are looking at this arvo", so they know they dont have you over a barrell for choice.

I had only one bad experience like this, and I was going to buy a TRX, and eventually got so f**ked off at the shop in question, I walked away, got on my gix, while the sales manager was busy running after me apologising, and I rode off casually.

I made a point of going in 3 days later on my new bike, for some oil.

[scooterboynz]

i probably would have walked too , they tend to look after the new bike sales rather than the second hand sales

[Lou Girardin]

This is the problem with customer service businesses. For all the kudos Mt Eden have got recently, they now have an unhappy customer bagging them. No one is perfect, mistakes will always be made. This is certainly not an extreme example either.

[MikeL]

And you presumably were the only customer they had at the time, and all the staff were off at smoko, and they simply ignored you...

Seems to me your expectations of "customer service" are rather uncompromising. Did you really expect them to have the bike rego'd and warranted just on a telephoned promise to buy it?? Would you always expect the workshop to drop everything else and do an instant check on your trade-in? What if my bike had been in for service and as a result I had to wait an extra hour or so to get it back?

And they accepted a personal cheque!

Do yourself a favour. Start looking at things from some perspective other than your own selfish wants.

[marty]

should have gone to botany - they have a really tidy TL in there, and if the service was like that when i picked up the busa, you'd have been riding away much quicker than you did. when i bought the bus:

i got dropped off at botany (so had no way other than the bike of getting home)
they lent me their ute to go down to botany township to get a bank cheque and go to the insurance office
the pack rack was fitted while i was away
bike had a full tank of gas
i rode off into the sunset
whole episode no longer than 45 minutes.
i wasn't the only customer.

[marty]

And you presumably were the only customer they had at the time, and all the staff were off at smoko, and they simply ignored you...

Seems to me your expectations of "customer service" are rather uncompromising. Did you really expect them to have the bike rego'd and warranted just on a telephoned promise to buy it?? Would you always expect the workshop to drop everything else and do an instant check on your trade-in? What if my bike had been in for service and as a result I had to wait an extra hour or so to get it back?

And they accepted a personal cheque!

Do yourself a favour. Start looking at things from some perspective other than your own selfish wants.

i'd say spending $11k-odd would be a good starter for 10

[Motu]

I don't think you can really expect 100% service on a saturday,I'm not sure on their staffing level for a saturday,but they are always busy when I go in.It's not just them,but everyone else is on limited staff over a weekend,it all just compounds to problems.I come in on a saturday,but don't get deeply involved anymore,things go wrong and you just can't get it all together like on a week day.

[Pathos]

No bike shop has ever been fast for me. They have to keep busy to get food on the table.

But I would have expected more when you're about to hand over a couple of grand.

[Matt Bleck]

Nothin worse than waiting when all ya wanna do is ride

[Biff]

Basic customer service rule - Dont set any expectations and the customer shouldn't be dissapointed. If the bikie shop person (or anyone) gave the impression that the bike would have been looked at/WOFd then didn't do it, then you have a right to be somewhat peeved. I would have walked. Gotta love the laid back Kiwi attitude to customer service. Not.

[Damon]

And you presumably were the only customer they had at the time, and all the staff were off at smoko, and they simply ignored you...

Seems to me your expectations of "customer service" are rather uncompromising. Did you really expect them to have the bike rego'd and warranted just on a telephoned promise to buy it?? Would you always expect the workshop to drop everything else and do an instant check on your trade-in? What if my bike had been in for service and as a result I had to wait an extra hour or so to get it back?

And they accepted a personal cheque!

Do yourself a favour. Start looking at things from some perspective other than your own selfish wants.

been a hard day Mike?

Under the cercumstances i'd say my expectations of "customer service" are rather broad at the moment, my only problem with the whole process is the time it took, when you have some one in the store wanting to give you $11,000 you wouldn't expect to be asked to hold while the sales person runs off to sell a pair of gloves or what ever he was up to. five and a half hours is a long time to keep 3 people waiting, and by half the responces here i'm not the only person who thinks that.

[T.I.E]

does not matter how much your paying or what for or what day it is. they are selling a product. and keeping someone waiting that long is just shocking. considering what need to be done i might say 2 hours tops. and thats a maxium.
if they couldn't do that then why were they open, why were they offering any products.
i think they need to look at their sales dept or side of things and sort something out.
in any company that is unexceptable.
and i would have walked ages ago. well done for hanging on.

but seriously from a business point of view something needs to be done.
or they should have been straight up from the beginning.

[MikeL]

been a hard day Mike?

Not particularly. Been quite laid back, in fact...

I realize I'm outnumbered on this one, but I stick by what I said.

If you were dissatisfied with the service you got, did you complain? What response/explanation did you get? Was it unreasonable? Will you be following it up with a written complaint?

Your description of what happened, assuming it is accurate, would certainly justify some frustration and annoyance, but without having the other side of the story it is difficult to condemn the shop outright.

While you might believe your $11,000 purchase gives you the right to jump the queue, what about other customers (who might very well have booked in ahead)? If you are in the shop being served and the salesman says to you "sorry, but this customer's spending more money - I'm going to attend to him", will you smile and say "Sure, I'll wait two hours until you've finished" ??

I took my car into the garage on Thursday morning to see if I could have the brakes done. They told me they were short-staffed because two mechanics were away sick, but they would do their best. I called back at 5 p.m. - they were still working on it as they'd had to go back to the supplier three times because they were sent the wrong pads. Did I rant and rave? I've been going to this guy for 12 years now - never been ripped off, always got good service and one thing I've learnt is that if you're prepared to be understanding when things take longer than expected you can expect them to go the extra mile for you.

I'll be interested to see how you, and Mt Eden Motorcycles, follow up this incident...