East Bay Motorsports HELL!

Hi all -

Over the few months, I've never heard one good thing
about East Bay Motorsports. In fact, I was one of the
few that had never had a problem with them.

I have a Suzuki Intruder 800 and a Yamaha YZF600R.

Both have been serviced by EBM, or in the case
of the Intruder by Hayward Honda (who seemed to
have moved most of their employees to EBM)
Services were performed correctly and on time.

The only snafu I ever had was a rear tire was
ordered, and was in, but word never got to service
to install it. I only had to wait an additional 1/2 hour.

I figured at the time, everyone fucks up once.

BUT!

I take my Intruder in yesterday for scheduled
maintenance, plus I hadn't ridden it much in the
year, having broken my foot in February.
(for those of you who are morbidly curious
www.frobozz.com/xrays.html)

So, the service writer says it should be done
that same day. I told him, that I'll pick it
up today (Friday) He said it would be cool.

He calls yesterday at 4:30 telling me the bike
was ready, and that he knew I was going to pick
it up today.

I show up at EBM at around noon. I pay for the
service, get my keys, and put all my gear on.

I put the key in and nothing. No lights, no
anything. Some idiot left the key switch
in "parking light" mode; the battery was
completely dead. I storm back into the
service area and let the folks know what's
going on.

"Must be an old battery you have"

"Um, I just replaced it last month"

So, they bring the bike back into
the service area, remove the battery
and start to charge it. They said
it would take about 45 minutes.

I go to lunch with a friend who
lives in Hayward. We come back to the
shop at 2:30. So, it's been at least
2 hours since I first notified them
of the problem.

I see the bike, sans battery. I inquire
WTF is going on. The service guy says
"Your battery keeps registering a low
charge"

"Um, so, put a new battery in there"

"Well, we don't have your battery in stock"

"Yes you do, take one out of the bikes
out on the floor"

"Well, we can try to charge it on this
other charger, but we'd have to wait
for it to 'cool down' before we install
it"

"And how long will that be?"

"About 2 hours"

I go hang out at my friends house
and return at 5:15. The bike is done.
Some flunky was polishing the tank
as if that will make it all better.
(as a side note, he left his finger
prints on the lower right side
where he was holding on)

"So, how are you guys going to
compensate my wasted day"

"Well, I talked with the service
manager (who just happened to
be off site) and she authorized
us to give you a new battery
if this one dies within six months"

"Are you serious? I wasted an entire
day waiting around for you guys to fix
a mess that only an idiot would make
for a lousy $100 battery?"

"Well, it's the best we can do"

....

SOOOO, riding home, I decided to
join the "East Bay Motorsports Sucks"
camp.

Now, the question begs, where can
I get my Zooki and Yamaha serviced?
I'll be living in Dublin starting next
month.

Or should I just quit my day job
and be a mechanic?

Very Angry Little Rice Girl

 

Understandably so.

If you work in SF or someplace BARTable, Mission Motorcycle is an option
-- I had good service from them when I lived up there.

 

Ditto this recommendation of Mission.
But I REALLY like Scuderia West ( http://www.scuderia.com/ Duboce. Their
service department is top notch, gets the job done right, and doesn't
overcharge like most of the clip joints in the Bay Area.
See http://www.moto-rama.com/html/dealer_recommendations.html
for general information on who sucks and who doesn't.
Hey that may be a good rating system. Like:
ABC Motors = sucks
DEF Motors = doesn't suck
Like vacuum cleaner ratings.