WORST bike shops

[Hitcher]

What is it about bike shops. Do you have to grab sales staff by the freekin' throats to get them out from behind the counter??

WORST BIKE SHOP AWARDS for the Wellington region:

1. Motomart. Out on its own the worst. If the retail staff haven't got a mate to yack to or a mag to read, they wander out the back. I'm tempted to wheel a Duc out the door and see if that gets anybody's attention. Crap location too. An unfriendly experience in all ways.
2. ANZA in Palmerston North. More interested in selling cars, I suspect. The guy behind the counter has his feet superglued to the floor. Its only redeeming feature is it's open on Sundays.
3. Wellington Motorcycles. "OK, so you haven't got it in stock. Any chance of ORDERING ONE IN??" Mrs H had to go to Palmerston North to get a test ride on a new Marauder coz WMC didn't want to get their's wet or something. Offered her a ride on a very used Honda 750 Shadow though...
4. Phil Turnbull in Palmerston North. Although Mrs H got a test ride AND bought her new ride from PTMC she got SERIOUSLY dicked around after riding up from Wellington for her bike's first service. Sawyers/Motorad have now got this job...

[Antallica]

Whangarei Region:

Moto-One: Unfriendly service, some of the guys are sweet but the main sales/service guys are wankers. Never quote GST on any of their prices even if you ask them to include, causes problems if using cash of course. Even more unhelpful since they lost their FXR spec sheet with all the part model's and prices.

Shaws: Rather unhelpful as well, hard to get any service. Not very good on tires from what I have seen. Prices good however.

Planet Honda: Haven't had anything serviced but the rear of the shop where they keep bikes when servicing can be subjected to damage or poped tyres. Good place for helmet accessories.

Would like to try that other shop which does Computers as well by the looks.

This town sucks for service, hence why my bike still needs one.

[wkid_one]

What is it about bike shops. Do you have to grab sales staff by the freekin' throats to get them out from behind the counter??

WORST BIKE SHOP AWARDS for the Wellington region:

1. Motomart. Out on its own the worst. If the retail staff haven't got a mate to yack to or a mag to read, they wander out the back. I'm tempted to wheel a Duc out the door and see if that gets anybody's attention. Crap location too. An unfriendly experience in all ways.
2. ANZA in Palmerston North. More interested in selling cars, I suspect. The guy behind the counter has his feet superglued to the floor. Its only redeeming feature is it's open on Sundays.
3. Wellington Motorcycles. "OK, so you haven't got it in stock. Any chance of ORDERING ONE IN??" Mrs H had to go to Palmerston North to get a test ride on a new Marauder coz WMC didn't want to get their's wet or something. Offered her a ride on a very used Honda 750 Shadow though...
4. Phil Turnbull in Palmerston North. Although Mrs H got a test ride AND bought her new ride from PTMC she got SERIOUSLY dicked around after riding up from Wellington for her bike's first service. Sawyers/Motorad have now got this job...

1. YOU ARE SOOOO RIGHT.
2. Ohhhh yes
3. Not wrong with this either
4. Don't mind PT too much

[dangerous]

Casbolts Honda ChCh: I go in there and say straight up 'no pissing around here I will go to were I get the best deal up north again if I have too' to which I had the reply 'thats right here' ok so I booked a test ride in for next Sat @ 11:00
I rock up and the sales guy chats to a mate for 3/4 of an hour. What do ya know its 11:45 and I'm told theres only time to ride around the block No thanks and went home. Booked in again for the next Sat @10:00

Rocked up again and was told that I can only ride there demo (VTR) if I buy it from them (remember my opening line....and don't the demo bikes belong to Blue Wing Honda anyway?) and was then told that I'd have to wait till the demo plate to come back (huh only 1 plate and I thought that I had booked it in anyway)
Well buy the time the plate came back and they yaked for christ knows how long I got my ride BUT it was 11:30 and they wanted to go home again.

Now I brought the bike from them, cos they had me tightly by the nuts (only dealer that could do the service checks, if I'd brought one elsewere and took it to them then thay'd proberly put sand in the tank) :sneaky2:

Any way I spent my $15,000.00 there and asked for a can of chain spray which was $14.50 thinking ohh yeh 10% 0ff...... na full price so all I have to say about this shop is

BTW I asked how much for a trade in on my 97 MG 1100i sport..... 7 grand and they said that thay would put 9,500 on it....but they had a old 1000S in there with umpdeump k's on it for 10 grand so I kept it.

[Two Smoker]

Well ive had both good and bad from Cyclespot... Good was when i was looking for a new bike for dad, really helpful had help instantly etc and good deals....

Then i went in there a few days ago, i had money burning in my pocket and wanted a back protector gloves and new knee slider...... i walked past 3 people (that i knew worked there) was walking around looking at gear in the shop, no one in the gear area, but 2 people that worked there looked at me and walked away, so i went fuck this, and went to motomail......

[Firefight]

Then i went in there a few days ago, i had money burning in my pocket, so i went fuck this, and went to motomail......

shit you must have big pockets if you can afford to shop at Motomail, apart from their anual sale, were the odd bargan may be found, they would have to be the dearest place in NZ to buy from.

F/F

[Two Smoker]

shit you must have big pockets if you can afford to shop at Motomail, apart from their anual sale, were the odd bargan may be found, they would have to be the dearest place in NZ to buy from.

F/F

LOL yep, hence why i only bought the spool back protector for $129.95 thought that was ok because everyone else sells them at the same price, as for the gloves and knee sliders..... well stuff that ill go somewhere else... I reakon one of the best motorcycle shops is Haldanes.. Everytime i went there, whether it was to drool or to buy stuff, i always got offered help straight away.... top shop

As for deep pockets..... well i dont know but i just started a second job (back milking afternoons after doing my postie round) so im starting to turn out like KK.... all work and no sleep

[marty]

well Road and Sport and Boyd Honda in hammy are both pretty good - well experienced guys who know their stuff. they are well priced too. boyds have really looked after me and my bmx team, so big ups to them. no problems taking anything for test rides either.

hamilton m/cycles over the road though seem to just sit there quietly - nothing bad to say about them, but nothing good either. they do have immaculate dukes and beemers though. i wanted to take a new kwaka z1000 for a ride, but they said 'sorry, we sold our demo - can't get another one'. that's ok i said, i'll go somewhere else. have a nice day. haven't been back.

[jimbo600]

What is it about bike shops. Do you have to grab sales staff by the freekin' throats to get them out from behind the counter??

WORST BIKE SHOP AWARDS for the Wellington region:

1. Motomart. Out on its own the worst. If the retail staff haven't got a mate to yack to or a mag to read, they wander out the back. I'm tempted to wheel a Duc out the door and see if that gets anybody's attention. Crap location too. An unfriendly experience in all ways.
2. ANZA in Palmerston North. More interested in selling cars, I suspect. The guy behind the counter has his feet superglued to the floor. Its only redeeming feature is it's open on Sundays.
3. Wellington Motorcycles. "OK, so you haven't got it in stock. Any chance of ORDERING ONE IN??" Mrs H had to go to Palmerston North to get a test ride on a new Marauder coz WMC didn't want to get their's wet or something. Offered her a ride on a very used Honda 750 Shadow though...
4. Phil Turnbull in Palmerston North. Although Mrs H got a test ride AND bought her new ride from PTMC she got SERIOUSLY dicked around after riding up from Wellington for her bike's first service. Sawyers/Motorad have now got this job...

Dunno what you're talking about. Every time I've gone to WMC for a test ride they have always gone the extra mile to get it sorted. I know a guy up in AK who got a Buell from WMC and he states that he will not buy a bike from anywhere else in NZ.

Always had good service in Motomart too.

Sawyers could be better.

and Motorcycle city, well they can be a bit ordinary.

At the end of the day the customer aint always right. Sometimes the customer can be a right twat and demand stuff that just aint reasonable.

[Skyryder]

The general attitude to service in this county is why should I take your money when it is going to the boss. The fact that it is our money that pays their wages seems to escape the retail help. I spent about two weeks in the States four years ago and the thing that cought my attention more than the traffic was something I saw in a mexican resturant. We had just come down from San Fran. and hooked in the Mex food bar in Los Gatos. After ordering I happen to notice a family of about five or six having their food removed from their table. I asked my friend what was happening as I had never seen this before. He told me that if any thing was wrong with your meal you just had to tell the waiter and it would be replaced no questions asked. This was not just one plate but whole meal. Now you may not believe this but within about two minites the entire spread was replaced. To put this kind of service into perspective I had been out fishing late at night and called into a MacDonald's for a burger in Papanui Road. Well the burger was luke warm. When I asked for a fresh one the female told me "You've taken a bite out of it." Pissed off with this attitude I replied with some sarcasm that "If I had not taken a bite how was I too know that it was cold." She had to go and get the managers permission for me to have a hot burger. I have never been in MacDon's since.

Another of my favourites if a security floozi wants to look in my bag I give them a choice. "Look in my bag and I get a refund. If I have not bought anything I ask for a warrent. I can remember a time when on particular nasty security guard wants to search my bag. It's the stores policy they usually bleat. "Well it's not my policy," so he called the manager and "If sir would please come to my office so as to save yourself embarressment (that's the bit that realy upset me. His presumption that I would be embarresed by anything he could do or say.)So off I trotts to the managers office where I am duly threatened with the call to the police. Having lots of time on my hands in those days I was not working so I dared him to call the police. Now I have no idea what sort of IQ some of these store managers have but it is in the low scale, this young upstart actually called the local plod who duly arrived and insisted that he looks in my bag. Now my wife's a JP so I know a little bout the law in this area. Not that local plod could give a toss he insisted that the store manager via his security guard did have the right search my property without a warrent. So I call up the wife on the cell phone and tell her the problem then let her talk to the cop. She introduces herself as my wife and a JP and then asks for the plod's number and the name and rank of his superior officer. You should have seen the look on his face change. Someone got a treat that night. Needless to say I walked out with a smug look on my face.

I know this has nothing to do with bike shops but all to do with service or the lack of. The next time I am going to spend some real money and the retail help pisses me off I will walk out go to the bank draw out the stuff in cash go back to the shop, get the manager and show him just how much cash they have lost. Money talks but it talks louder when it walks.

Skyryder

[matthewt]

What is it about bike shops. Do you have to grab sales staff by the freekin' throats to get them out from behind the counter??

WORST BIKE SHOP AWARDS for the Wellington region:

1. Motomart. Out on its own the worst. If the retail staff haven't got a mate to yack to or a mag to read, they wander out the back. I'm tempted to wheel a Duc out the door and see if that gets anybody's attention. Crap location too. An unfriendly experience in all ways.
2. ANZA in Palmerston North. More interested in selling cars, I suspect. The guy behind the counter has his feet superglued to the floor. Its only redeeming feature is it's open on Sundays.
3. Wellington Motorcycles. "OK, so you haven't got it in stock. Any chance of ORDERING ONE IN??" Mrs H had to go to Palmerston North to get a test ride on a new Marauder coz WMC didn't want to get their's wet or something. Offered her a ride on a very used Honda 750 Shadow though...
4. Phil Turnbull in Palmerston North. Although Mrs H got a test ride AND bought her new ride from PTMC she got SERIOUSLY dicked around after riding up from Wellington for her bike's first service. Sawyers/Motorad have now got this job...

1. Can't agree with you here. I've always found them to be helpful (not just to me) and would hardly rate them as the worst in the area. If you're going there it pays to ride in from the Petone side so you can skip the sharp u-turn after that intersection. I heard they are about to open on Sundays.
2. Yer, every time I've been in there I've had to ask for service.
3. I'd be pretty sure there would be more to it than just getting the bike wet. At the end of the day they are trying to sell a bike so it's not really in their best interests to hold back on demo rides.
4. Don't know much about them

My vote for the worst would be Eric Woods in ChCh. Used to be a Suzi dealer but are now Harley and Aprillia (and I think Guzzi). I got well and truely screwed over there a few years ago by the man himself.

[Ghost Lemur]

...My vote for the worst would be Eric Woods in ChCh. Used to be a Suzi dealer but are now Harley and Aprillia (and I think Guzzi). I got well and truely screwed over there a few years ago by the man himself.

Sounds like an interesting story coming if you care to share.

Being a bike drooler, I've had no experience when it's come to handing over cash, but I can recommend Sportzone Suzuki when it comes to browsing. The crowd there are always quick to see if you need help, and if not, back off. When I have asked questions, they've been very honest in their responses, even pointing out that a lesser value bike could be a better buy one one occassion. They've had no problems talking at length to me, answering my questions while knowing up front that I'm only a browser and there is no chance of a sale out of me. All in all when I can get enough cash together to actually buy a bike I'll be more than happy to deal with them.

[offtopic]
Btw, congrats on a wonderful forums you guys have here , been lurking a while now, but only decided to join in the convo's today. Oh and hi's to fellow OCNZers Antallica and k14.
[/offtopic]

[spudchucka]

What is it about bike shops. Do you have to grab sales staff by the freekin' throats to get them out from behind the counter??

WORST BIKE SHOP AWARDS for the Wellington region:

1. Motomart. Out on its own the worst. If the retail staff haven't got a mate to yack to or a mag to read, they wander out the back. I'm tempted to wheel a Duc out the door and see if that gets anybody's attention. Crap location too. An unfriendly experience in all ways.
2. ANZA in Palmerston North. More interested in selling cars, I suspect. The guy behind the counter has his feet superglued to the floor. Its only redeeming feature is it's open on Sundays.
3. Wellington Motorcycles. "OK, so you haven't got it in stock. Any chance of ORDERING ONE IN??" Mrs H had to go to Palmerston North to get a test ride on a new Marauder coz WMC didn't want to get their's wet or something. Offered her a ride on a very used Honda 750 Shadow though...
4. Phil Turnbull in Palmerston North. Although Mrs H got a test ride AND bought her new ride from PTMC she got SERIOUSLY dicked around after riding up from Wellington for her bike's first service. Sawyers/Motorad have now got this job...

Can agree with all except No: 4. Turnbulls are normally pretty good on the service, in my experience. Maybe you just struck them on a bad day???

[matthewt]

Sounds like an interesting story coming if you care to share.

Being a bike drooler, I've had no experience when it's come to handing over cash, but I can recommend Sportzone Suzuki when it comes to browsing. The crowd there are always quick to see if you need help, and if not, back off. When I have asked questions, they've been very honest in their responses, even pointing out that a lesser value bike could be a better buy one one occassion. They've had no problems talking at length to me, answering my questions while knowing up front that I'm only a browser and there is no chance of a sale out of me. All in all when I can get enough cash together to actually buy a bike I'll be more than happy to deal with them.

[offtopic]
Btw, congrats on a wonderful forums you guys have here , been lurking a while now, but only decided to join in the convo's today. Oh and hi's to fellow OCNZers Antallica and k14.
[/offtopic]

Sportszone does look good, I haven't lived in ChCh since 93 but I remember some of those guys from a shop they had around the corner (St Asaph Street between Manchester and Columbo).

The Eric the Hood story goes a little like this. I grew up in ChCh and when my first bike was stolen I started looking for a new bike. I was working at a supermarket while at ChCh Poly and decided on a 84 RG250 after riding a friends (these where the pre RGV models). Found one at Woods and was dealing with the man himself. I got a bank loan so I could pay cash for the bike ($3000). When I picked it up the price had jumped to around $3,250 after they added "extras" which they neglected to mention to me. $250 was a lot to me back then but I was young and slightly naive so I payed up. 4 weeks later EVERY bulb in the bike blew so I took it back, turns out the battery had no acid. Now I'm not a genuis about these things by any stretch but a bike shouldn't just run out of acid in under 4 weeks. One of the "extras" was $50 for a "on road check" so if the acid was low/empty that should of picked it up. So I talk to the man about it, "Sorry electrical problems aren't covered by our warrenty". F**k thanks a lot mate. Not only do you do me for extra shit I never wanted you then run for cover and don't even attempt to help. I had to borrow money from my girlfriends mother to pay for the bulbs and labour involved to get the bike running again. Then the workshop loses the rear indicator lense while they were replacing the bulb, in the next 3 months it takes to get one from Japan I get pulled over by the same cop 4 (yes 4!!) times about it.

Then fast forward 10 years past a vfr400, fzr400, cbr900 and onto the MV F4. After riding the MV Brutale in November last year I was thinking about trading my MV F4 on one. Then at Xmas I saw a Tuono Racing and thought that would be the ticket. Slightly more expensive than the Brutale but Ohlins suspension all round and carbon everything. Only problem was that my Xmas was in ChCh visiting the parents and no way I'm spending $32k at THAT shop. By the time I got back to Wgtn things had changed big time on the bike front so ended up trading the F4 on the Brutale in Feb at my dealers.

If it had been a sales guy then maybe I would of gotten over it. But given I was dealing with the shop owner then I didn't really have anyone else to go to at that shop. As a side note my girlfriend was training as a legal executive and asked about my options to her lawyer boss, without her saying what shop it was he already knew. What does that tell you.

[Firefight]

well Road and Sport and Boyd Honda in hammy are both pretty good - well experienced guys who know their stuff. they are well priced too. boyds have really looked after me and my bmx team, so big ups to them. no problems taking anything for test rides either

,,

Yep, Id agree with you Marty, have bought and sold bikes with Greg, always good, great after sales service never a problem to take demos for LONG rides,
also has that great pop in anytime for a coffee attitude, supports Honda trail rides, race day coaching, happy as I am with my R6, I have a feeling next bike will come from Boyds, oh yeah and hes right into those south island road rides tours.

Firefight.