[BikerBobby]

Hello all,
I booked my bike into Ride On Glasgow Scotland for its first service. As I had not bought the bike from them, it was explained to me that the free service was not available and the cost would be £120.

When I picked the bike up, the final invoice for the service (nothing else was done) was £203.07 incl VAT. (2 hours at £55 per hour (£110), gasket £0.64, oil filter £8.94, gear oil £15.75, engine oil £33.50 and consumables £4.00 plus 17.5% VAT).

No explanation for the differing price. Have I been ripped off or is this what others would expect to pay?

Bobby

 

[NMCoolBlue]

ripped off?

BikerBobby,

I'd say so. :shock:

First, they quoted you a figure then exceeded it without your permission. Second, the 120 pounds also seems high. I'm not mechanically inclined but did the 600 mile (and all subsequent) maintenance myself. These bikes are really not hard to work on and there's a few sites that take you through step by step these procedures (e.g., fjrtech.com).

 

[david1300]

Hello all,
I booked my bike into Ride On Glasgow Scotland for its first service. As I had not bought the bike from them, it was explained to me that the free service was not available and the cost would be £120.

When I picked the bike up, the final invoice for the service (nothing else was done) was £203.07 incl VAT. (2 hours at £55 per hour (£110), gasket £0.64, oil filter £8.94, gear oil £15.75, engine oil £33.50 and consumables £4.00 plus 17.5% VAT).

No explanation for the differing price. Have I been ripped off or is this what others would expect to pay?

Bobby

Sounds to me like a classic case of misinterpretation. The 'service' did cost about what was quoted - £110 actual cost vs quoted £120. As I understand it you would have had to pay for the oils, parts, etc even if the service had been 'free'. To my understanding that is what the 'free service' covers - you don't pay for the 'service', which is the labour.

However, I believe they should have said that the service will cost £110 plus oils, parts etc.

 

[teejay]

Jesus!!!!

I would have to check the bill but my first service was about £60.00 and 6,000 done for about the same and thats dealer!!

Teejay

 

[Rabbit1300]

I agree, most dealers will quote cost (labour) - but it means plus parts - as that is likely to be a variable.

Well, my 600 service cost me £24.35 - which was oil and filter.
The labour was FOC of course.

I would say rip off in any event. Two hours to change the oil and filter, check general tightness of bolts/steering bearings/all fittings.

My 6000 service cost £183, with some extra work like two tyres fitted, rear wheel spacer fitted.

I know servicing is expensive, but £40 for oil!!!!. I buy Castrol for £25 and I can buy Yamaha driveshaft oil for £18 and that will cover TWO services.

I know it's nice to have a trained eye check your bike but you are ending up paying for your warranty just to have the dealers stamp in your service book.

You could consider part servicing yourself and get the rest done by the dealer, he should still stamp your service book.

 

[malki]

I also used Ride On for servicing, but bought my bike there, so the first 600 mile service was £65 just for parts etc. 1st years service was £220 and the second year was £265 without an air filter, coz they didn't have one. I had to buy this later at an additional £30.
This dealer will not stamp the book for doing a partial service. He will only stamp it if he has serviced the bike 'as per manufacturers specification' which means doing the full thing.
I initially felt ripped off by these prices, but in the end it payed off when my bike was written off at the tail end of last year. The insurance company paid out way more than top book price, simply because it was dealer maintained and service book stamped.
Dealers of Japanese machines seem to have a thing about only looking after those who buy the bike from them, everybody else gets hammered. Especially when it comes to warranty work, they tend to only do warranty work on bikes they have sold. So much for a European Wide warranty!
Two mates bought Suzukis new from a dealer who subsequently lost the franchise. Both were unable to find a dealer who would honour the warranty work.
A lesson could be learned from the likes of BMW who have a more structured network and tend to look after the customer Europe wide no matter where you buy the bike, new or used.

 

[Ian]

Mine's in for the 24,000 mile service today and its first MOT! I expect to be bankrupt for the rest of the month.

 

[woody]

When I picked the bike up, the final invoice for the service (nothing else was done) was £203.07 incl VAT. (2 hours at £55 per hour (£110), gasket £0.64, oil filter £8.94, gear oil £15.75, engine oil £33.50 and consumables £4.00 plus 17.5% VAT).

Bobby

Engine+Filter & Gear oil change 3/4hr what else did they do! and I cannot think what the consumables could be.

£33.50 for oil hell do they refine it them selves I hope it was FS for that!

I also think they owe you half a bottle of gear oil as well.

 

[woody]

Mine's in for the 24,000 mile service today and its first MOT! I expect to be bankrupt for the rest of the month.

Your havin a laff, IT man kin loaded you are... :crylarf:

 

[malki]

All Fjr's come from the factory with Fully Synthetic oil, hence the price at service time. Going back to what i said earlier about servicing to 'manufacturers specification' hence the reason dealers don't use Castrol R4 or similar cheaper FS oil.
IMHO this is why the FJR needed a longer break in period.
FS oil from day one is not a brilliant idea, takes forever to bed things down, mine was just starting to loosen up at around 9000 miles, and then the horses really wanted to play in earnest.
Modern cars these days run on FS and most no longer need that 600/1000 mile oil change...so why bikes?

 

[marshman]

The 600 mile service on Fat Albert cost around the £60 mark in 2002, which was the cost of engine and rear drive oils and a filter.

Thats why when ever it went in for a service after that I told them not to change the oils, and they were still happy to stamp the book. Even running fully synthetic, I could do two oil changes for the price of one of theirs.

 

[malki]

@ Marshman - I would totally agree that I would prefer to change my own oil and filter and let them do the technical stuff. Mine always came out the dealer half a litre short. Must admit I doubt if the dealer mentioned in post one would stamp the book without changing the oil himself. But these are the lessons we learn as we expensively find our way to find good service.

The only 3 scratches on my bike all happened while in for service...one each year. Infuriating.
10 countries two up in all sorts of shite weather, loads of luggage, and the dealer puts all the scratches on it !!!
Until I totalled it :crylarf:

 

[malki]

@ Ian - just clocked your website...nice cake.

 

[Ian]

Mine's in for the 24,000 mile service today and its first MOT! I expect to be bankrupt for the rest of the month.

Your havin a laff, IT man kin loaded you are... :crylarf:

IT!!!! That sir is slander, you shall be hearing from my lawyer! I work in Marketing!

 

[tontofjr]

I had a 18000 mile service today and total cost inc. VAT was £118.00

So for 600 service to be that much is ridiculous.

Mind I was warned that on the 24000 service I will need new pads back and front so I am thinking of taking out a 2nd mortgage ready for it.

 

[Ian]

Well it turned out to be £2 shy of £400 including MOT. All fluids were changed valve clearances checked (all in spec) brakes serviced, lots of lovely copper grease in evidence and filters changed and a Y reg Fazer thou to go play on while they did it all . So that's the road tax paid for now too and the insurance renewal sorted (E-bike £40 less than last year even with every modification declared and adding the Bandit 650 I'm buying (did I mention that? :mrgreen onto it too!). So that's me skint til payday which luckily is a week before the Swampfest!!! :ale: :ale:

 

[teejay]

Checked the docs:

1st service £41.60
2nd (6,000) £89.65

not bad.

New set of tyres in a month or so and we are ready for the first trip abroad this year --- roll on

Teejay

 

[BikerBobby]

Thanks for the responses. Been ripped off I reckon. Have sent a (nice) letter of complaint to Ride On. Will let you know if they feel sorry for me and give me a refund.

Still a brilliant bike though.

Bobby