Advice on unsatisfactory service standard

[Biker Biggles]

The first service would have been free labour so no compy there either I suspect.If your bike had this intermittant fault from the start,usually cured by shaking it,and the alarm has been playing up,I reckon your loose battery terminal may have been the cause all along.If the bike is otherwise good Id chalk it down to experience,as I dont think you will get anything else other than stress and hassle.

It was the run in service so only thing I payed for was the consumables but this is part of the deal when you purchase the bike so that it was I am seeking compensation in another form.

Tim I will wait to see if how things pan out before naming and shaming as it could damage any case I hold against them but I do still stand by my view that not only was the service not carried out properly but could have caused an accident as a result.

I contacted trading standards last year regarding all the problems I had with the bike dealer. They advised that I could demand a refund if I was not satisfied with the vehicle, subject to the statutory consumer rights.

I think that you may have some issues with getting compensation- I guess this will hinge on the report of the second garage (if they are willing to put it in writing).

I'd have a word with trading standards anyway- if their customer service is bad and they are evasive about their responsibilities, it's good that ts are told, as others may also contact them about it.

[21QUEST]

Personally I think you are being a touch unreasonable.

Good post from BB.



Ben

Originally Posted by 21QUEST

Personally I think you are being a touch unreasonable.

Good post from BB.



Ben

Thats pretty much how i feel, although its probably more that i don't like the compensation culture. In tonights news a bloke wanted a few hundred thousand pounds for slipping on a grape in a M&S car park!

Stuff does work loose on bikes, sometimes by human error, sometimes by mechanical defect. I'm not sure the shaking of the bikes helps things from a legal perspective.

If they are prepared to sort the problem then i would personally be happy with that.

If you dont get the result you want, then a mention of a letter to MCN/Bike/RiDE/TWO might do the trick. No company likes bad publicity...

To be honest I don't think you are asking for too much ...there is far to much don't give a t*ss attitude these days ...

I know I am a Master tec and am a NVQ assessor in the automotive trade but as soon as I read your first post with the symptons there was a good chance it was going to be a bad earth !

If I was in your position it would be a letter straight to the 'Top' at Suzuki UK if they do not offer some compensation for the hassle you have had (by the way I don't like blame culture) but I think in this case you should be offered something.

Hope You enjoy your Sv I am sure you will !

It's a real bummer when things like this happen. It usually boils down to poor training. When I went through my apprenticeship as a mechanic, too many years ago that I care to mention, we had it drummed into use when fault finding. "START AT THE BEGINNING". This was always the battery and it's connections, and then follow the circuit through. Had they followed this simple principle they would have found the fault in seconds by the sound of it.

This may turn out to be a bit of a long reply, but I hope many of you find it useful.

While we are on the subject of electrical fault finding, I learnt another very important lesson from training. DON'T JUST RELY ON A MULTIMETER FOR TESTING A CIRCUIT! A multimeter, as useful as they are, will only tell you part of a story. As part of our training we had to make ourselves the most vital tool in diagnosing a fault in an electrical circuit. This was a humble 12 volt 21 watt indicator bulb in a brass bulb holder with twin core cable about half a metre long and crocodile clips on the end. Basically the principle is this, start at the begining of the circuit and follow it through to the first joint. Pull the plug apart and earth the circuit through the bulb. If the bulb lit to normal brightness the problem is further down the circuit.

At this point you may say, why can't I use the multimeter to do this, it's what it was made for. Well, the problem is the multimeter might load the circuit to several milliwatts and not show a problem, whereas the bulb is pulling 21 watts of power down the circuit, if it lights to full, brightness, no problem. This is a very safe technique on all but the starter motor circuit.

If you have one of those circuit testers that were popular in the 80's that look like a fat pen with several LED's down the side that also bleep when a circuit is made, throw it away, they're rubbish, they may tell you there is a circuit but not that there is a poor connection.

Anyway, it is a shame bike dealers do not operate the same as major car dealers. A stern letter to the dealer principle pointing out the poor PDI practices of the dealer in letting a brand new bike out in this state will get results. Especially if you let them know you have also sent a copy of the letter to the manufacturer. Unfortunately errors happen at the best of times, but it's what the supplier does about it that sets the good dealers apart from the bad ones.

I hope this has not put you off, I think the SV is a great bike.

Tim

Originally Posted by Tim in Belgium

You could also name and shame the garage you had a bad experience with. If you are prepared to stick by your view point I believe there is no problem doing so on a public based forum (mods, please advise if I am wrong...).

It works by the way, yes I am talking from experience where they tried to charge for a similar fault/repair "your motobike went boom then stopped working because the fuel injection system was spat out of your engine sir, that will be £ xxx" then after some advice from the forum, I went to pick up the bike and they agreed to pay for the repair. and yes I now do recomend the garage I am speaking of.

But since you haven't had to pay, or been asked to pay for anything, you can't really expect anything but an appology from suzuki

Cheers for all the advice and opinions.

I personally think that I am not being unreasonable because I spent about £6k with them and they failed to pick up a basic fault not just once but twice and that to me stinks of incompetence and the way the have spoken to me has been like I am the one on trial and done something wrong.

The have been very difficult and I am loosing the will to fight with them now as they show me no respect and if the bike is how it should be (in the end!) then I will just warn all that I encounter not to deal with them and let the damage to their cash flow sort them out (hit them were it hurts) but I will know more probably Monday and will post my results when I know.

Oh by the way can any one tell me how a K7 is restricted, I know its done at ECU level, but how exactly they told they remapped the ECU (well that was there second answer so I do not know what to believe) which I find difficult to believe and just wondered if it was like a plug power commander type job or a totally different ECU?

Cheers.