Indy taking too long to work on bike?

[trike lady]

When I ran my trike shop and I promised the trike in 2 weeks back to the customer, it was delivered on time. Yes, I had a lot of interruptions while building it, but to make up for the time I stayed late to make up for lost time.
In town there's a gentleman who brought his bike in for work before Bike Week 2012 started and he still hasn't gotten it back yet. We've all told the guy to pull his bike out of the shop and bring it elsewhere.
I'm from the old school and 'a good days work = a good days pay'.

 

[Hoople]

For me, the guy better come in UNDER the estimate to make up for it. I don't go for the "had to order parts" excuse. Is that the first time he did that job? He should know what is required if he has done it more than a couple of times. If he puts you off the way he has AND the bill is more than the estimate, I probably would not go back there for future work especially if I had a choice in places to have it worked on..

I had a repair shop at one time also. And I had times when I would put off customers job also,, but I would always either do something extra (small) at no charge or take a few bucks off the final bill. Also kept in touch with the customer by phone with updates. Sometimes that's all that is needed. People don't like being ignored.

See what the end results are when you pick up the bike.

 

[horizonchaser]

Being a small business owner I know that over the years I have not satisfied everyone.
Having said that if I promise someone to have a job done in a certain amount of time and I cant do that,I will tell them why I couldn't do it in the amount of time that I said.
Even now at 51 my stated hours are 8am to 5 pm. 5 days a week,but most of the time I am at the shop for far longer and most weekends trying to keep my customers happy.Most shops won't put in the extra anymore.It is a new breed of worker and owner and I am afraid we are the ones to blame.
We raised this generation of the workforce.

This is where he is falling way short IMO. I doubt that I will use him again. That is his loss. My only concern now is that he does good work and the bike will run fine afterwards. One would think that because I am a first time customer that he would try to garner more business from me for future service. But, like you said it's "a new breed of worker" and he may not care about a repeat customer or keeping that prospective customer satisfied.

 

[Rubyred]

This is where he is falling way short IMO. I doubt that I will use him again. That is his loss. My only concern now is that he does good work and the bike will run fine afterwards. One would think that because I am a first time customer that he would try to garner more business from me for future service. But, like you said it's "a new breed of worker" and he may not care about a repeat customer or keeping that prospective customer satisfied.

If he does not care I'm sure his business will fold eventually and he will wonder why it did!

 

[jsvt184]

I took an old bike of mine to an indy for a big job. Had to rebuild top and bottom end of engine. He stated 5 weeks for him to complete. 5 1/2 months later I got it back just in time for winter. He and I had words all along the way but I was pretty much stuck. He's a 1 man operation and like what's been said before with answering phones and dealing with the guy pushing a bike in with a flat tire he's stretched too thin. Still no excuse for him letting me go that long and with the money I spent to repair that old bike I could have bought a new Sportster.

 

[Jack Klarich]

Being a small business owner I know that over the years I have not satisfied everyone.
Having said that if I promise someone to have a job done in a certain amount of time and I cant do that,I will tell them why I couldn't do it in the amount of time that I said.
Even now at 51 my stated hours are 8am to 5 pm. 5 days a week,but most of the time I am at the shop for far longer and most weekends trying to keep my customers happy.Most shops won't put in the extra anymore.It is a new breed of worker and owner and I am afraid we are the ones to blame.
We raised this generation of the workforce.

For me, the guy better come in UNDER the estimate to make up for it. I don't go for the "had to order parts" excuse. Is that the first time he did that job? He should know what is required if he has done it more than a couple of times. If he puts you off the way he has AND the bill is more than the estimate, I probably would not go back there for future work especially if I had a choice in places to have it worked on..

I had a repair shop at one time also. And I had times when I would put off customers job also,, but I would always either do something extra (small) at no charge or take a few bucks off the final bill. Also kept in touch with the customer by phone with updates. Sometimes that's all that is needed. People don't like being ignored.

See what the end results are when you pick up the bike.

I think these posts say it all, I too agree that we cannot do enough to keep our customers in the loop and satisfied, We will not win them all but it is all about PRIDE JMO Thanks Steve and Hoople :s

 

[The4opps1]

When I did the upgrade on my '99 Ultra it took me about 8 hours working off and on. I turn a fairly good wrench, but it was my first time doing the tensioner upgrade. Like other posts mention, I'd pay him a visit, and check it out. If the bike isn't apart, and you didn't give him anything upfront, consider cancelling the repair order. Good luck.

 

[horizonchaser]

Just a little closure here folks. I finally got my bike back after 10 days. The bike runs fine and the billet cam chain tensioner kit that I have been saving my pennies for is now a done deal! The shoes on the tensioner, with 32,000 miles on them were definitely showing signs of wear and cracking!! If it wasn't for this forum I never would have even imagined that this was a problem that needed to be addressed! Thanks all for the heads up!! I have been telling all my riding buddies about having theirs looked at too..

 

[kyhdman]

glad to here you back in the saddle.hope your happy with the final results and a yr from now you will forget how long it took the indy to get it done.

 

[Jack Klarich]

Great News now ride that horse and enjoy no more problems:s