Unreasonable dealer charges.

[Dave20046]

What stewarts are doing seems fine, he doesn't push at all I'm only aware of them from spotting the sig/ the odd helpful and/or pervy post or an orger recommendation.

Unlike the other traders who've sent me uninvited slimey pm's!

[dizzyblonde]

Originally Posted by Miss_Undaztood

Popcorn anyone ?

I'd offer cake, but I fear it may be used in a bun fight

I reckon all dealerships should have gold plated door frames, marble floors and a complimentary buffet so that way they can charge even more and pull out the 'overheads' excuse. When does an overhead become an unnecessary luxury?

Fine the people that go to dealerships and pay the higher prices should know the reason behind it, but when I pay money for bike work, I want to make sure it's going into reliability and safety of the work, not because my bikes company is plastered all over the front door and they have a nice carpet floor.

I live in the London area and don't have any real biker mates. The next time my bike needs work, I shall be paying spannerman a visit solely due to the testimonials I've read on here. I've got no beef with that, and the way I see it is I'll be getting good reliable work at a reasonable price. Where does someone like me who doesn't know any real bikers or what prices should be get the low down on stuff like this - here, that's where, so there is no need to beef it.

Originally Posted by dizzyblonde

I'd offer cake, but I fear it may be used in a bun fight

Ooh, what kinda cake ?

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by Miss_Undaztood

Ooh, what kinda cake ?

Anything so long as its not rock cakes Otherwise someone's gonna get hurt.

A nice sponge cake, chocolate or coffee

Originally Posted by maviczap

Anything so long as its not rock cakes Otherwise someone's gonna get hurt.

A nice sponge cake, chocolate or coffee

Good choices, or toffee/caramel.
Sainsburies do a nice Coconut sponge too

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Sycophants? Sucking up to someone in order to gain favour... there seems to be plenty of that in this thread from Stewart's customers.

but they don't get any mention because there's a man who does good work (without the higher overheads that need paying for) doing it cheaper. Running a main dealership is no cheap affair, Mechanics cost more, you are tied to holding so much stock, workshop standards are expected to be higher, corporate image isn't cheap and everything that goes into making a main dealership a nice place for customers to visit all costs money, and ultimately it's the customer who pays. Not every penny of the extra a main dealer charges is pure profit, most of it goes to keeping the place running so you, the customer, can walk through the door and buy some of that stock, or see all the latest new bikes under one roof, or ride the demos. A small main dealership like ours has roughly 60 grand tied up purely in clothing and helmets alone. Some small repair and servicing workshops could open three branches with that amount of money in their account.

I am backing him up, I do all my own work. The f*ck do I care about gaining favour?
Same with customers, you will find they don't get discount for saying they are impressed.

Same bleat about overheads we always hear

Why is your showroom costing workshop customers money? If it doesn't pay for itself why have it? Each part of a business has to support itself. Same reason my Dads business does not have high street shops for their products, they were costing money to keep open.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

You don't need a lathe, you want a lathe, there is a difference. I don't know of very many franchised dealerships who possess one because the need for one is so small that it's not worth the capital outlay. If you want to offer machining services then you're straying away from your core business model. Everyone pays rent, rates etc, but a service and repair workshop takes up fewer square feet and can be sited anywhere on an industrial estate where rents are cheaper, unlike a decent main dealership which relies on prominence and footfall to survive. Your overheads are nowhere near a main dealer's for that one simple reason - that's why you can afford to charge less, not just because you want to save your customers money.

It doesn't take a genius to understand why your rates must be higher.
It does however take a great leap of imagination to understand why anyone would choose to pay more, for no reason.*

Lets be honest about the specialist tools. Taking an extreme example which I believe encompasses a majority, their fitters (yes, fitters), do not need specialist tools because they will simply throw a part away rather than fix it.
Massively time saving, but more expensive for the customer in end.

You can get a lathe and a sh*tload of tooling for <£1k, hardly a massive capital outlay there.


I'm not anti-dealer. I don't particularly care, these are just reasons I think paying (be honest, a great deal) extra for dealership service is a poor idea. And same with everything else which I see as a poor idea, I will question the reasoning () behind it.


*Except for a cup of sh*t coffee, or a settee to sit on. Which I can get for free. And if I'm honest there's no way I want to let some monkey at my bike unsupervised. Carpet or not.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Oh my Gawd you're really swinging your handbag today aint ya!

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Nice to see you rose to my spamming comment in the way I thought you would. Did you not notice the little smiley face. For those including you who's eyes need checking, here it is again

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

'Row your own boat' comment.....Cheap keyboard nobility more like! SMILEY AGAIN!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Regarding workshop equipment, of course one doesn't 'need' a lathe as you put it, but a showroom doesn't 'need' carpets either. Although I bet you'll have them when your new 'Secret squirrel' venture gets going.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

We have a lathe for the same reason we have many other items of equipment, because it expands the capabilities of the business, as well as for making sprocket carrier spacers, which are sometimes missing after people have visited another business for a set of tyres, & some moron has lost it. (In the carpet probably).

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Oh & by the way working as a rep doesn't qualify you to comment on mechanical matters.

It's these style of 'humourous' comments that mark you down for what you are. Unable to put a reasoned discussion together you resort to trying to get the audience laughing with you. I'm not laughing because I think this is a serious matter and would rather you put a stop to your consistent slating of anyone else who picks up a spanner. You're good, but I'm sure there are better out there.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

If a main dealer has higher overheads then they'll be more costly than smaller outfits such as ourselves. It's then up to the customers to decide on whom they patronise. Providing the work is of a decent standard, & is actually carried out I don't have a problem with it.

Then why is it we only ever see you slagging off main dealers in general. I've never seen you praise any other mechanic, from any other dealership, and when you slate dealers in general and laugh along with the "Stealership" morons you're effectively slagging off every decent dealership out there, whether a member of their staff is on this forum or not.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

My views on the majority of main dealers are based on my experience.

Your experience is very limited then

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

I know of two or three dealers in the West London area of which the only complaint I hear is that they're expensive. Which usually means they actually do what they're being paid to do.
When I work on a bike that has previously been serviced by one of the above I usually find that the work that should have been done at a given age or mileage has been done.

So you admit that not all dealerships are the same, then why don't you make this clear when you're slating franchised dealers in general?

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

I cannot say the same about the vast majority of the others big & small in the area. Plus, some of the independents are pretty poor too.

Absolute rubbish. What you're saying is verging on slander.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Slagging off? You didn't notice the smileys again did you?

Maybe that's because no matter how funny you may think it is, I don't find it particularly humourous. Adding a smiley on the end of something defamatory does not make it acceptable.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Oh & by the way working as a rep doesn't qualify you to comment on mechanical matters.

Without knowing my background or what I was selling you're not qualified to make statements like this. As my mum once told me "if you don't know, don't say".

If you must know I have been working on bikes for the last 32 years, my current boss asked me to join his company when he found out I was made redundant from my last job - I didn't apply to him, he came to me. Maybe because I was a mechanic at one of the country's leading Yamaha dealerships, have spannered a top club racer's ZX10R and Daytona 675 to numerous wins and podiums over the past 4 years, have spannered bikes for another rider who currently holds an NW200 lap record on a bike I've spannered, been invited to spanner for a well respected TT rider on two occasions but had to turn it down because of family commitments.

Now who's not qualified to comment? I'm not up my own backside either, I do it because I love it. For the most part I keep these kinds of things to myself, but when someone doubts my knowledge and capability I will let them know in no uncertain terms.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Insecure? Up my own behind? I hardly think so. I didn't derail this thread did I? & as for losing your respect I couldn't give a flying banana.

That much is obvious, you don't seem to have a problem with riding roughshod over main dealers and slandering their work, so why should you care who has any respect for you or not.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Where in any of my posts including this one, have I slagged off Steve Jordans? Or indeed implied that everyone should avoid their shop?
I have been there once to collect a part that I was in desperate need of. They indeed look to be a respectable dealer, & their general reputation is pretty good from what I hear.
Hardly refusing to acknowledge them eh!

Not directly, but every time you slate main dealerships in general you take a swipe at them and every other good dealer out there. I've certainly never seen you say a good word about them or anyone else before, and to be honest I'm surprised you even acknowledge there are mechanics out there as conscientious as yourself, even if their businesses do have higher overheads and consequently charge more.

I'm sure I'm not the only one reading these forums who finds it tedious and defamatory. The only difference is I'm not afraid to say so.

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

I believe that they have been.

Thanks for pointing that out, Fizz. Because I never see Sarah actively pushing her business in this way I didn't think it had been given

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

*Except for a cup of sh*t coffee, or a settee to sit on. Which I can get for free. And if I'm honest there's no way I want to let some monkey at my bike unsupervised. Carpet or not.

Chris - you're tarring every decent mechanic with the same brush as spannerman tars the bad ones. Calling them all monkeys does you no favours. As for your 'fitters' comment, do yourself a favour and think before you post. Most of those guys have been through years of poorly paid apprenticeships and college to get the qualifications to work on customer's bikes, don't slag them down.

Do you know why I like carpetted floors in dealerships? Because it's nicer for the sales staff to walk on when they are on their feet all day and in winter it helps insulate the floors in hard to heat showrooms. You'll find most bike shops do it for the same reasons.

Don't lower yourself to using the same analogies to get a laugh, leave it to Spannerman as it's more his sort of thing.

You and I are lucky enough to be mechanically talented enough to do our own work, but there are thousands out there who aren't, and a fair few of those are mindful of keeping their bike in warranty and getting the type of backup that only a main dealer can provide. For a dealer to keep his franchise the importers expect standards to be met, and in some cases that will include a seating area, a coffee machine and various things like courtesy bikes being available (I know Kawasaki insist that we have at least one courtesy bike from the current range available). That costs the dealer money and unfortunately that cost has to be met by every customer in some small part.

This doesn't mean that the mechanics are monkeys and you saying that is basically shouting from a position of ignorance, because I doubt you've ever had a dealership mechanic lay a finger on any of your bikes. Hearsay doesn't count in this regard, personal experience does.