Dealer unhappiness

Hello all.

It's a shame I have to do this, but I really have to recommend to anyone in or near the Hampton/Twickenham area not to ever, ever use Apex bikes.

Here's the saga now from my experiences-

Bought my SV, 22nd Dec. Picked it up 23rd after MOT and new battery in. Battery died over Xmas- was barely used. Spoke to them- they seemed not to want to help too much- battery was new.

Had a crash- it turns out because tyre pressures were way out and the bike was unsteerable- front WAY down (by 18psi), back way up (by 14psi). Now- it was a couple of weeks since I picked it up- bike had hardly been ridden and tyres don't inflate themselves and should not drop by 18psi over 2-3 weeks, even in winter. Sadly, too late to have any evidence to check this- though accept I am responsible for checking my tyre pressures.

So- battery keeps dying- they check it with their meter and charging seems OK.

In the meantime, when in rain the front cylinder SERIOUSLY plays about. Call out recovery- charge is dropping as the bike is revved. Bit of both here I think- water and the regulator/rectifier.

So- he agrees to sort it- 5 minute job and I arrange to go in last Friday at 4:30. Turn up- the mechanic's not there- was sent out on a job that's taking twice as long. Apparently he had forgotten about me turning up. Nice. So- call again on Tuesday to get him to send the mechanic to me (as I can't find time off work). Not willing to do that- I explain regarding the problems I had and that I'm starting to get sick of this- he gets well shirty and is 'sick of me bitching and moaning' then hangs up.

I call back and suggest that we talk a more reasonably to each other- arrange for sat am. Then explain that I am not happy that he was rude and hang up, try explaining my unhappiness in general with the situation- he still doesn't want to listen. When I point this out- he says he's very busy and just says goodbye and hangs up.

Nice- their website says they pride themselves on aftersales service- I feel that it's more of after-thought service. Sheer incompetence on every level. Basically- I've only really had 2.5 weeks of non problematic riding on the bike for various reasons.

I will be posting this in as many places as I can. I'm appalled at the attitude and rudeness I've been subjected to.

[Viney]

The only issues that i see there are the battery, and the tyre pressures. The rest im sorry to say is down to you. You cant blame the crash on them, and a tyre can loose that ammount of pressure if it has a slow puncture or a dodgy valve!!

The front cylinder playing up is the normal water issue (Get a fender extender)

Id suggest going of down to Steve Jordans for your servicing needs in the future.

The only thing is the guys attitude. Everyone has a bad day/week.

I had pretty similar issues with a car sales garage (second hand, not new).

It basically meant, like you, that I had limited use of the car, for the purposes I had bought it for (eg, clutch went 6 weeks after it was bought, it spent a couple of weeks before that off the road due to ABS issues, central locking didn't work & was advertised).

In my case, I think I was lucky. The sales guy that originally sold me the car (and was therefore taken to be my point of contact with the garage) was new. It was his first car sales job. I'm not ashamed to say I exploited that to the maximum possible.

I read up on Sale of Goods, specifically the sections about being fit for purpose, and all Consumer laws I could lay my hands on.

It turns out, that if you can claim, within 6 months of purchase, that you have not had use of a vehicle as you desired on purchasing, that the place you bought it from (assuming no private sale) has to be able to prove the condition of the vehicle. Outside this 6 month limit, the onus is on you to prove you haven't had sufficient use.

If they can't prove that you haven't had "sufficient use," then they have a few options. Namely:

1. They can cut their losses, give you your money back and try to re-sell the vehicle (you're not entitled to any compensation ordinarily, but there are exceptional circumstances to this, maybe the crash is one of them, maybe not, legal advice for that).
2. They can "make good" the sale, and pay for it to be rectified.
3. They can come to some agreement with you that strikes a middle ground between option 1 & 2.

At first, I was expected to pay £1500 costs, because the garage tried to claim it wasn't profitable for them to bear all the costs. They're allowed to do this, so beware. I stuck to my guns though.

However, all this hinges on them taking at least some of the blame. I wouldn't say it's worth fighting the tyre pressure issue, chalk that down to experience. But the reg/rect is a fault on the vehicle that you can't reasonably be expected to check, and they should of done (since it's been MOT'd, it's deemed roadworthy at that point, even though the MOT itself doesn't cover reg/rect).

I'll try dig out my papers on the fight I had over the car later tonight. In my case, I was sly, and got the initial sales guy to admit to things he'd told me prior to the sale. This happened to be recorded on a dictaphone, whilst I was fighting with them about the issues. The dictaphone was then played back to the garage owner, and a copy of bits of legislation handed over. He realised he pretty much didn't have a leg to stand on, and caved in.

Cheers Baph. I'm going in on Saturday to get the reg/rec done and the front HT/Spark sorted. Choosing not to speak to the sales bloke, however 'friendly' he tries to come across (if), just the mechanic.

If owt else goes wrong, I've got a reliable mechanic- if it is something warranty coverable, then I will go to trading standards. Got 1 month left on the 'warranty'- if the covering company write to me asking to extend that, I'm gonna write back to them explaining re Apex's service.

It's not so much the problems I've had- it's the guy's attitude. I've never heard anything like it! Absolutely no way to speak to a customer, regardless of what you think of that customer.

I agree Viney- though from maintenance experience since the crash, the front tyre hasn't gone down nearly that much despite a lot of miles and a couple of potholes. I do completely accept my responsibility in checking/maintaining tyre pressures, but am certain they weren't right off the forecourt, and given the difference when they were corrected, the lack of steer was more of a problem than my riding skills.

I use Les Kibble in Twickenham for anything now, brother and others recommended him-he is clearly a reliable and decent chap and good at what he does, even Apex accepted his reputation when I did complain about the tyre pressures.

I accept people having a bad day (I'm actually a VERY forgiving and reasonable person- sometimes to a fault)- but I've worked in customer services/sales for over 10 years of my life and know how you speak to customers. He has shown signs of the attitude before- gets very defensive when you start either criticising or pushing an issue- and responses aren't exactly consistent with previous statements either. Clearly doesn't have any listening skills either. My biggest issue here is with his attitude- that's what's left me with the nasty taste in my mouth- the issues with the bike can be sorted, but it would take a lot of work to mend the bad words. I wasn't even rude to him!