Trust.

General scooter chat, any scooter related non technical info.
10 inch Terror
registered user
Posts: 1447
Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:17 pm
Xbox live gamer tag: No.
Playstation gamer tag: PLEASE!
Main scooter: Lambretta LI Imola 185
Location: Farnborough Hampshire
Contact:

4 years ago I bought a ready built RB250 motor from a dealer. It already came with ‘top quality parts’ and by the time I added a Cyclone 5 speed the total bill was a touch over £3,500. Anyway roll on 4 years and only 600 miles later ( other scooters other projects and work .) I’m finding some of the top quality parts are actually made from cheese. I’ve had a front sprocket fail, the stator fail, rear oil seal fail, rear bearing fail and now the CDI has packed up. Now most of these parts are inside the engine and short of stripping it down when purchased and checking how do we know all the parts inside are the quality items promised on dealer websites? It seems we put a lot of trust in dealers and some are letting us down. Am I the only one finding this out or are others finding the same thing?
oneday
registered user
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 9:40 am
Contact:

I bought stage 4 200 engine about five years ago and stator went in a couple of weeks. Sorted by seller readily as cheap fix. On the way to Margate, again couple of weeks later, crank twisted. Supposed to be quality parts, paid top money, but it was made of cheese. When I phoned and emailed Andy Francis about this got no answer and I had to bear the costs of repairing it 😥 He may offer better service but didn't give a toss then.
User avatar
Scoot
registered user
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2017 8:03 pm
Main scooter: Lambretta Jet200
Contact:

I paid a well known dealer to refurb my engine. When I got it back he hadn't changed a part I had asked him too. When I swapped out the part myself I noticed that some of the work wasn't what I expected so I decided to drain it down and drop the case off for a look. What I found was unbelievable! Old worn parts reused. Parts I had paid for not even changed? I paid for a new cassette clutch and all I actually got was the old worn and rusted clutch filled up a bit and reused!!
I ended up completely stripping the engine down and rebuilding it myself and buying the parts
I had already paid for!

No you are definitely not the only one and I would recommend that if you are going to get a dealer to refurb your engine you are very clear what you want done. How much it will cost. And check that they have done what you have paid them to do!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
User avatar
Doom Patrol
registered user
Posts: 1823
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2009 5:03 pm
Main scooter: Jet 200
Location: Second star on the right and straight on till morning
Contact:

I'm lucky. I've got a friend that builds my engines, and he's top notch. The advantage being that I know exactly what's happening and what parts are going in. I wouldn't go to a dealer, to be honest.
chippy
registered user
Posts: 263
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:19 pm
Location: YORKSHIRE
Contact:

I do believe if you have a problem, firstly contact the dealer and hopefully they should sort it out. If not they should be named and shamed as this would make them change their attitude if they lost customers.
10 inch Terror
registered user
Posts: 1447
Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:17 pm
Xbox live gamer tag: No.
Playstation gamer tag: PLEASE!
Main scooter: Lambretta LI Imola 185
Location: Farnborough Hampshire
Contact:

chippy wrote: Wed Oct 04, 2017 1:22 pm I do believe if you have a problem, firstly contact the dealer and hopefully they should sort it out. If not they should be named and shamed as this would make them change their attitude if they lost customers.
To be fair as it’s 4 years down the line I’ve not bothered contacting the dealer. If I’d of used it more when I 1st got it these problems would of appeared sooner and I’d of been asking questions. I’m just wondering which ‘top quality’ part will fail next. I call it the Sh#%e part lottery.
fairspares
registered user
Posts: 361
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 7:48 pm
Main scooter: Lambretta GP RB252
Contact:

Theres one very easy way around this , every engine i build i photograph the strip ( showing damaged /worn parts) and rebuild and put onto cd or email the pictures , this not only covers myself but the customer knows exactly what ive done to their engine.
Fairspares Lambretta workshop.
GeorgeS
registered user
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2015 1:58 pm
Main scooter: 1961 Series II Granturismo 240
Contact:

Photographing and/or making small videos sounds like a really good thing to do, for me that would prove you're a trustworthy person who's open & honest with the work carried out & care about the result.

People who try to trick their customers by not replacing parts of even worse secretly palming off their old crap surely can't last long, can they? You tell a few mates down the pub & the bad word spreads and people will stop going there surely.

Naming & Shaming on internet forums is a touchy subject. Unless the other party is present there's only one side of the story being presented & these posts can live for a long time & turn up in searches. Who knows, that one person's experience may have been a one-off bad one etc, but there's this indelible mark on the dealers record that he had perhaps corrected only for that not to be also included in the tale.

I love the spannering so happy to do my own work. Personally I'd find it hard to trust anyone else, but of course there's others who are not into it at all.
oneday
registered user
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 9:40 am
Contact:

I do not understand the point of not naming people. If you have paid top money for workmanship that is poor why should the dealer not be shamed if you are genuine. If you have tried to resolve things with them but they have made no attempt to resolve it why should they get away with it. They know exactly what they have done and they have chosen not to make it good. By saying nothing they are getting away with it and whose to say that other people may not suffer the same treatment. If they are shamed perhaps it may make them think twice about the level of service they provide going forward.

I accept that issues may have been a thing of the past and that dealers do change over time and perhaps for me to bring up an issue that took place several years ago may not have been appropriate so I apologise for that, but would we really accept this level of service in other situations? Would you buy an IPhone for £750 only for it to beak after 2 days and not look for a replacement? Would you take the car to a garage and pay to have 4 new tyres fitted only to get home and see that only 2 have been fitted and say nothing?
Timbo
registered user
Posts: 1276
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:46 pm
Main scooter: SX200 and GP230 RT
Location: Luton area.....
Contact:

I had my RT engine rebuilt by a local guy and everything he replaced was given to me in a box. Presumably you could ask a dealer to do the same.
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Information
  • Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests