My experience with Colemans Suzuki K Road

[Robbo]

I dropped the wifes car in the garage today - a mystery noise at idle over the past week or so. Of course when I drop it off it is not making the noise .... they have had it for the day - started it up, ran it around the block, popped it on the hoist, nothing. Bloody typical.

He did not charge at all, (we get WOF's tyres etc from there and he does the shit stuff like cam-belts) - told me to bring it back if it makes the noise again.

Yep, that's "Murphy's Law" Allan. I often come across this scenario in my industry and it can be very frustrating. Worse still if your mechanic had pulled a lot of things apart and then put them back together again only to find that the noise was still there.

[BoristheBiter]

Then it's good advertisement for colemans. I know I won't go back for sure, every body else can make a more informed decision now.

Colemans have always been a bit pricey but i have always gotten very good service from them.

That being said i do think you are being a bit precious over it.

If it had been $500 then you might have grounds to have a little cry on a forum but not this, just do your own from now, it will save the tears, and the abuse when you have a cry.

[jellywrestler]

If it had been $500 then you might have grounds to have a little cry on a forum but not this, just do your own from now, it will save the tears, and the abuse when you have a cry.

if i had $500 for every time i've had sex with a women i'd have enough to pay them all...

[Big Dog]

Actually the best have a looks I have been the recipient of:
Geoff at Red Baron (or he was, not sure where he has moved on to) spent about 8 hours disassembling my DR and tracing electrical faults. Did not charge me for the inspection / diagnosis only the repair when the parts arrived.
Geoff at Red Baron told me I would have to leave it with him because he could not immediately see what was wrong with the GSX1100F... 2 or 3 days later tells me its all fixed and the labour is about an hour. Hairline tear in the carb diaphragm. Workshop manager was not happy...
Neil at K-Force Kawasaki (New Plymouth Circa 1995) spent hours if not days tracking down second hand parts and one off constructions to save my Ninja before telling me his team could rebuild it for about what the insurance payout was if I wanted to buy the wreck off the insurer. He would only charge for about 75% of the labour because he knew I could not afford more.
Mike at Red Baron. Pulled a couple of tyres off the rims and put them back on looking for a clicking noise that turned out to be a stone inside the read rim. No charge.


It is easy to remember the times a shop pisses us off, and sometimes given time to think about it, we were wrong. Other times we were right.
Either way it is important to remember the mechanics that were good to us rather than only reporting the ones who piss us off.

[ducatilover]

The issue is still the markup of the oil from the workshop.
I don't think I would complain with tightening the foot peg, because they didn't charge.
The hourly rate looks pretty decent. WoF was cheap.
But the price on the oil is more than what they sell over the.counter, how is this hard for people to read? This place is impressively retarded. Keyboard hoons the lot of you.

[Big Dog]

The issue is still the markup of the oil from the workshop.
I don't think I would complain with tightening the foot peg, because they didn't charge.
The hourly rate looks pretty decent. WoF was cheap.
But the price on the oil is more than what they sell over the.counter, how is this hard for people to read? This place is impressively retarded. Keyboard hoons the lot of you.

I get that the main gripe is oil. Beyond stating this is a common tactic by mechanics so they can appear to charge less for labour there is not a lot I can say. The only other thing that comes to mind is check the menu before you order.

Edit: total cost is a bigger deal than the individual cos of the components.
Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[jonbuoy]

The issue is still the markup of the oil from the workshop.
I don't think I would complain with tightening the foot peg, because they didn't charge.
The hourly rate looks pretty decent. WoF was cheap.
But the price on the oil is more than what they sell over the.counter, how is this hard for people to read? This place is impressively retarded. Keyboard hoons the lot of you.

Motomail are charging more or less the same price for oil - maybe the stuff out front is on special. Who the fuck feels the need to slag off a company on the internet over a few bucks on a litre of oil?

[Gianz]

The issue is still the markup of the oil from the workshop.
I don't think I would complain with tightening the foot peg, because they didn't charge.
The hourly rate looks pretty decent. WoF was cheap.
But the price on the oil is more than what they sell over the.counter, how is this hard for people to read? This place is impressively retarded. Keyboard hoons the lot of you.

love ya bro.

[Gianz]

Motomail are charging more or less the same price for oil - maybe the stuff out front is on special. Who the fuck feels the need to slag off a company on the internet over a few bucks on a litre of oil?

The stuff was not on special they checked. They were actually surprised of the incongruence because nobody else before pointed that out to them. They say the big boss (alistair or something) makes the price, fair enough, that's why he wasn't there but on his boat eating oysters. I told them: either you charge me for the oil what you sell it in the shop or I let people know how you run your business. Poor guy behind counter couldn't do anything, so here I am, anybody can make its conclusions.

I would have actually gone to Red Baron cause last time they tighten my chain on the run for free but they don't do wofs.

[Dangsta]

I doubt Doctors or Lawyers get paid that much

A good lawyer can be around $400 an hour. Typically they're around $250 an hour. If a senior doctor contracts themselves out they'll be around the $400 mark if you're lucky.

[Dangsta]

Motomail are charging more or less the same price for oil - maybe the stuff out front is on special. Who the fuck feels the need to slag off a company on the internet over a few bucks on a litre of oil?

Totally agree. Slagging off good operators may be how they do things in France but not in NZ. We do the oil changes ourselves.

[nzspokes]

The stuff was not on special they checked. They were actually surprised of the incongruence because nobody else before pointed that out to them. They say the big boss (alistair or something) makes the price, fair enough, that's why he wasn't there but on his boat eating oysters. I told them: either you charge me for the oil what you sell it in the shop or I let people know how you run your business. Poor guy behind counter couldn't do anything, so here I am, anybody can make its conclusions.

I would have actually gone to Red Baron cause last time they tighten my chain on the run for free but they don't do wofs.

Well dont worry, its not something you will have to bother about again. With showing your invoice you have told them who you are and every bike shop in Auckland will know who you are so you will get reamed everywhere you go. Good luck with that.

[awa355]

I would have actually gone to Red Baron cause last time they tighten my chain on the run for free but they don't do wofs.

FFS Dont go to VTNZ for your wof. Those bastards have been known to adjust the brakes without telling the owner, and doing it for free.

[mikeey01]

Gianz

"Consumer Guarantees Act" I'm not a legal eagle but...
Your point on the over priced oil (same product) is valid, I would say the consumer has some sort of protection / cover in this instance.
It might pay to investigate this further, the process does not involve to many hoops to jump through but may we worth it in this instance.

Have they given you a valid reason why it is over priced in the service dept v's the parts?
Their response will be interesting if not entertaining for us all, give them the opportunity to put it right firstly.

[AllanB]

It's not the same oil. The stuff in the workshop comes in a huge drum and they have to get a forklift to take it to the workshop. This is more expensive that some dolly carrying a four litre pack to a shelf.