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Do motorcycle shops.............

pregrid

pregrid

wait, what?
Joined
Apr 23, 2008
Location
Fremont, CA
Moto(s)
Husky SM610
Name
Dave
BARF perks
AMA #: 2884576
...........have to follow the same rules set down by the BAR? That is, things like having to give the customer a written, signed repair order. My son has his KTM in a dealership and they're telling him the repair bill is $200.00 or so more than the estimate. No additional OK was given. I'm not sure he even SIGNED a repair order. I'll know more when he gets home from work and checks his paperwork. Anyone here work for a dealership? I've got a coupla more questions too.

Dave
 
Yep. Signed work order, with an estimate on it. Supposed to call if it's going to go over the estimate. Customer signs and gets a copy of said work order at time of drop off.
 
Cool. I worked in the auto repair industry for 40+ years both as a business owner and dealership service writer. Now if a repair order was not generated and signed at all, what are my options?
 
pregrid said:
Cool. I worked in the auto repair industry for 40+ years both as a business owner and dealership service writer. Now if a repair order was not generated and signed at all, what are my options?
Click to expand...

Based on your stated credentials, I am not sure if anyone can answer this better than you.

Good luck!
 
I've never been in this situation and because it seems the dealership is genuinely trying to rip him off I'm tempted to walk out without paying if that truly is an option. It all depends on the attitude of the dealership. I understand the guy my son dealt with is new and if he did this out of ignorance we won't go that route. We want to pay our fair share but will not get jacked around.
 
The BAR is your go to if you think they are simply taking you for a ride. That or KTM corporate.

$200 difference on a service seems like a large jump. However it could be he simply forgot to include a required operation on the work order. $200 at a dealership only amounts to 1.5 to 2 additional labor hours, or one additional part. It could be that once they inspected the bike they found something else damaged. Of course they should have called and gotten the OK to go ahead with repairs if that was the case.
 
Thanks fellers. There's a whole lot more "hinkiness" to the story than I went into initially. Don't wanna go into it here, i'm just trying to get my ducks in a row before we go in there. 'preciate your help.
 
Found at http://www.dca.ca.gov/online_services/complaints/
"The Bureau of Automotive Repair regulates automotive repair dealers and any person(s) who receive compensation for repairing or diagnosing malfunctions of motor vehicles. The Bureau resolves complaints and has jurisdiction over repairing, servicing, or maintaining automobiles, motorcycles, and motor home chassis. Smog Check complaints are handled by the Enforcement Division. For assistance call (800) 952-5210"
 
I would politely point out to them that the bill is higher than the quote, and that you don't want to pay the extra. If they start with attitude, I'd suspect that the BAR would be really interested in the complete lack of a work order. So would the Franchise Tax Board methinks.
 
If they performed a repair that you did not authorize, they did it for free....period.
 
pregrid said:
My son has his KTM in a dealership and they're telling him the repair bill is $200.00 or so more than the estimate. No additional OK was given. I'm not sure he even SIGNED a repair order.
Click to expand...

Hopefully you're getting the full story from both the shop and your son.

I think repairs can only exceed the signed estimate by 10% without additional customer approval. Additional approvals can be done verbally via a phone call or email.

Curious to know what the legal dealio is if there's no signed estimate and yet the customer chooses to leave the vehicle with the shop to perform the service. There must have been some verbal meeting of the minds.
 
mototireguy said:
I think repairs can only exceed the signed estimate by 10% without additional customer approval. Additional approvals can be done verbally via a phone call or email.
Click to expand...
thats my understanding as well.
 
First, go and talk to the service manager. Discuss the issue like men. If unsatisfied, then explore reporting to KTM, the state or whatever. At this stage, why not try and work the whole thing out without a big hullaballoo?

Granted, you indicated there is more to this story which may affect why this approach may be pointless. Still, mistakes happen. I believe that most mistakes can be dealt with between the parties without ramping everything up.
 
Goose916 said:
First, go and talk to the service manager. Discuss the issue like men. If unsatisfied, then explore reporting to KTM, the state or whatever. At this stage, why not try and work the whole thing out without a big hullaballoo?

Granted, you indicated there is more to this story which may affect why this approach may be pointless. Still, mistakes happen. I believe that most mistakes can be dealt with between the parties without ramping everything up.
Click to expand...

This.

In the repair world $200 is not a lot of $$. About 2 hours labor. If in fact the work was done, and legit, I'd pay the bill.
 
OK, here's the skinny. By the way the shop is a dealership in Livermore. My son takes the KTM in to get, among other things, a recall done (for reg purposes), and to get a leaking countershaft seal replaced (which he has extended warr. for). guy writes him up and quotes him $115.00 if the warr. doesn't cover the seal. THAT's what he signed for. Because they've treated
him so good in the past he asks to have the valves adjusted, drive chain and sprockets replaced, and look into why it's so hard to start cold and is so cold blooded (turns out that Two Brothers neglected to rejet the carb when they converted the bike to SM and added a pipe). When he asked the guy what that might cost he tells him (off the top of his head) $400 to $500 IF warr doesn't cover the seal. He guessed carb jetting for that guesstimate, which it was. My son agrees that's fair but never signed an updated RO. When the guy calls to tell him it's ready my son asks for a total. Guy says "I'll get back to you". Guy leaves a voicemail and says it's gonna be $785.00 (warr covered the seal). Son calls him back and tells him that if the guy had called for additional authorization (which he did not) my son would have opted out of some of the work because it was way over his budget. the guy says something to the effect that that's what it's gonna cost. That's when I got the call.
So....................We went in this morning to find out what's what. We were nice. The guy explained the RO to us and when I said that my son never authorized that amount he went into a series of excuses why the bill was what it was. When he was done I explained how the BAR would like to have things done I got kind of a blank stare. Now in his defense I believe he was just put into that position (he WAS new there) without any training, and he was as professional as he could be given the circumstances. After explaining the law to him acoupla more times I told him we didn't want something for nothing and that we'd pay $500.00 less what the warr paid. $385.00. Period. He agreed, we paid, shook hands, and before we left I told him that we were not pissed, and that it really wasn't his fault, he just wasn't trained properly if at all. I also told him that it wasn't our fault either and hoped he'd learned something. I'm guessing he did. By the way, I learned this same lesson in almost exactly the same way a LONG time ago. Never did it again and I'm guessin' he won't either.
 
you should have immediately accused him of being a thief and then posted a thread about it even when everyone tells you you're nuts
 
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