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Brakes & 'Safety Issue'

2K views 26 replies 10 participants last post by  Unome 
#1 ·
Yesterday, I went to local dealership to pick up my bike after having 2 tires mounted and balanced. I got the bill and there was an extra $77 tacked on for rear brakes. :( We(wife & I) asked what was this about because we had never authorized this. (Bike only has 16,000 miles on it).

The 'tech' said, "It was a safety issue. The brakes were real bad and they wouldn't have even let me pick the bike up with brakes in that shape." :rolleyes:
Wife said we should have been called in any case before any work was done on bike.
'Tech' told her that they don't call on safety issues because they have to fix them anyway. If they had called and I had told them not to fix the brakes, left shop on bike and had a wreck, who did she think I'd hold responsible for the wreck.
She told him I would be responsible.
'Tech' told her, "No, you'd come back on us for not fixing the brakes."
Wife( real ):mad: at this point) told him we didn't work that way and should have been called. What if I wanted to trailer bike home and work on brakes myself?

Now some questions for you folks:

1. Are rear brakes that much more 'fragile' than fronts? I'm like most of you and use the front brakes more than rear, have not been in any brake lockdown situations where rear was sliding. :confused: Again, only 16,000 miles on bike.
2. Doesn't it seem more likely that the front brakes would have worn out sooner? We definitely would have been pissed if they replaced those. BIG BUCKS there since dual disc. :rolleyes:
3. Any one feel that this 'safety issue' is not 'quite right'?:(
4. Any good way I can tell if the rear brakes were actually replaced? I don't have any guages to check the thickness of the pad or anything.:confused:
 
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#2 ·
I wouldn't have let them get away with that. Anyway, I would not pay for anything but the pads after i chewed some azz. I know that the pad material changed some time after 2000 because some rear brake pads were wearing out in as little as 5000 miles. Dealers were swapping out pads under warranty. I had 12,000 miles on mine when they were completely worn out. I don't know if you had the new version or not but I would expect that they were worn quit a bit. If you want to make a point about it, unless you signed an authorization to fix anything needing repair, they owe you $77.00, or at least the labor charge.

Later,
 
#4 ·
Nope, paid by check. Think I'm kinda s[rewed here. Might give dealership a call later today and 'try' to speak to the owner. This is 1st time they have done work on bike & I'm wondering if PO'ed that I brought
my own tires in instead of buying from them.

Did notice that labor went from $60/hr last week to $65/hr this week. It is posted, though.
 
G
#5 · (Edited)
Many years ago, I worked as an auto repair service writer. Simply put, the law limits how much over the estimate the shop is allowed to go. The limit varies from state to state, so try an internet search (somethiong like: "motor vehicle repair estimate law Indiana"). When I was working (Michigan 1970's...), the limit was 10% over or $25 bucks, whichever was less. That was ONLY for work you signed off on. If the shop does work you do not agree too, it's free. All you gotta do is yell long and loud, preferably in full view of other customers, and make it clear that you know about the law.

Here's the rules for Florida ...
 
#6 ·
The whole idea is that they should have called you to AUTHORIZE the work! I'd be pissed too! If you didn't authorize the work on the break pads and you left and had an accident, they wouldn't be held responsible because you didn't authorize the work. If you brought a bike in to get engine work done and it had no lights would they just install all the lights?? I think not. I'd raise hell!!!
 
#7 ·
It comes down to the relationship and trust between customer and shop, and it works both ways. When you are building something, you use what you need, there never is a problem. Big difference dealing with a person and a company, though.

Should they have called you. Sure. But if you have a wheel off and the thing needs brakes you put them on. It seems like a miracle that they lasted 16K.
 
#8 ·
You know it probably did need the brakes. Oh, by the way, it was FRONT instead of rear like guy said yesterday. I looked on bill and realized they charged me for 2 sets when only 1 brake disc on back. Looked pads over and the front look new.

My complaint is that I WANT to be notified about something like this. Tried to call dealership this a.m. to talk to someone about my bill and they transferred me to Larry(same guy I talked to yesterday). No help there so I just hung up.

What if transmission was making a weird noise and they thought it was 'safey issue' because it might come apart while riding down the road?
 
#9 ·
It is probably a good thing they replaced them. Seems to me that you should have noticed the FEEL of new front brakes on the ride home without having to look????????

Yea they should a called you and if they were that concerned about a saftey issue they could have provided a written recomendation to change em that you could initial refuseing the service.

Some things I would look at is if they charged you full standard labor for the brake job. In that you were changing the tires, the brakes were off anyway. All they would have to do is pry/remove old disks/and install new ones. The labor for the tire change should have absorbed 95% of the labor charges for the brake change. If it did not, then they double dipped your ass on the labor.

Offer to pay for the disks and demand the labor be refunded.

Now since you mentioned $77 I would say you probably did not pay much in the way of labor anyway. The damn pads are right around $35 ea anyway.

$77.00 for a set of front brakes ( installed ) is pretty good so I would let the damn thing go so ya don't get a reputation with a shop you may need.

Also, on a personal note ( my opinion ) DON'T LET YER OLE LADY QUESTION THE SHOP WITH YOU STANDING THERE CONCERNING YOUR BIKE. Again that is just my opinion but the guys will think you ride the back pad. No I ain't saying that to be smart or bash ya, just think about it.;)
 
#10 ·
JimmyK, They only charged $19.50 to put the brakes on so I figure that was less that what they would have normally charged.

Now as far as having my wife question them, I have no problem. She speaks her mind and I don't care what these folks think about us. None of them pay my bills or anything. Plus, I'm sleeping with her... :D

As far as feel, I did feel the brake fluid was on the handlegrip and right floorboard and see it seeping from the master cylinder. I tightened cover down when I made it home.

I've been a HOG member for about 18 months and joined the local chapter that is affiliated with this shop about same time. I've been to 6 - 8 chapter meetings(at most) because of other things coming up, sickness, etc. NOT ONE TIME has ANYONE in the local HOG chapter said hello, kiss my a$$, what's up, or anything. I've even gone up to a couple of people and said howdy and they didn't even respond. And I'm the kind of guy that talks to ANYONE.

H3LL, day I dropped it off I was waiting for wife to come get me and there was some lady in there looking at bikes and had some questions. One of the sales ladies came over and was going over things and I was just standing nearby watching. Lady looked at me and started asking me some questions. I didn't want to be rude so I answered what she had. Seemed she just wanted to talk to someone and not necessarily a sales person.

Well, after about 15 minutes, there was lady on bike, 4 sales people(3 women - 1 man) and me. I was keeping my mouth shut at that point. Sales guy tried to get lady to let him run credit check(2 TIMES!!!! :( ). She told him no that she was just wanting some information. At that point, all 4 sales people kind of 'drifted' off and left me standing there. Me & lady talked about 20 more minutes. Maybe that was what pissed them off, huh? But it seemed to me they were interested until they realized she was just 'kicking tires' and wasn't going to buy right then.
 
#11 ·
LOL !

I'm probably not the best person to talk to concerning H.O.G.

Well, looks like they got you for roughly 15 minutes labor to change the pads. Again, yea they should a called you but that would a meant stopping what he was doing and trying to get you on the phone on what is a relatively small thing. If ya needed em ya needed em.

Last night the combination of frustration and a bunch a Vodka had me on the phone cussing the Manager of the shop out this way. It's the way it goes sometimes and no big deal.

Hell ! It's FRIDAY! Woooo Whooooo !
 
#18 ·
When you mention the transmission, it is pretty obvious that one would call the owner before going into an area unrelated to the service being done that can potentially run into the thousands.

Inspecting the brakes is part of most services and replacing them is a minor incidental.

See, when you have someone working on your bike you are not only paying for labor. You are also paying for judgement. If you question the judgement of the person working on the bike, you should have taken it somewhere else to begin with. Quite often one fixes little things that are not quite right without ever telling the customer or charging for it. Some notice, some don't, c'est la vie.

A bike is not a car, as far as working on them and the consecuences of sloppy work they are much closer to an aircraft.
 
#19 ·
JimmyK said:
OK, now you have GOT to let us in on the wonders of that group... Don't want to knock HOG, but one of the local chapters here is nothing but Dudes with too much money to spend on their bikes, yet never to ride them....

Oh well... That's why there are other clubs :):D
 
#20 ·
Were you just gonna wait until 32,000 miles when it needed tires again and hope the dealer called before he replaced a warped rotor and who knows what else was damaged by brake pads that were shot?
 
#21 ·
No, Logical, I was not. My complaint is that I wasn't called AT ALL. Kind of a b*tch to walk up and have to shell out more money than you thought. I'm glad they found out the brakes were bad but would have liked a call.

Plus 'tech' said that with brakes like they were, they wouldn't have even let me take bike from shop. HUH???? What's that crap? I could have trailered the damn thing home and replaced pads myself if I wanted to.
 
#23 ·
Unome said:

Plus 'tech' said that with brakes like they were, they wouldn't have even let me take bike from shop. HUH???? What's that crap? I could have trailered the damn thing home and replaced pads myself if I wanted to.

Again, yea ya could have done that but in that the guy did not rack you on labor, what the hell?
 
#24 ·
If I were to ride my $20,000+ motorcycle untill the brake pads were unsafe without ever checking them (you weren't even sure whether they replaced the fronts or rear) I would be thanking the dealer, not ragging on him for spending $75. Sure, you might have saved $5 (I assume if you never check them you probably wouldn't replace them yourself) and perhaps you could have parked the bike while you saved up the money. Perhaps the dealer should have called first, but we only talking $75. Please don't take this personally, but if I were the dealer I would hoping you took your business elsewhere. (we're talking about your life and your wife's life vs $75).

Sorry, just my view. Normally I might agree with you but not considering the seriousness of the problem vs the amount of money involved.
 
#25 ·
Gbenner, When picked up 'tech' told me they had replaced the REAR. Only after reviewing the bill and looking at brakes did I determine they had replaced front instead. My issue is that no one called me in advance.

I look at brakes on regular basis because I do look bike over and check things out before I ride. BUT I don't have way to meaure thickness to see if they are getting a little thin. I have to use the 'eyeball' technique. So I can't be 100% sure if they actually needing replacing or not. They had looked fine(to me) but maybe there is some H-D 'standard' that when they reach a certain 'thickness/thinness', they 'have to be replaced'.

I can replace my own pads(on front) because I have done so on many cars owned by friends, kids, relatives, etc. Principle behind this is essentially the same. I'm not about to attempt the rear brakes yet(which look almost as thick as new front brake pads) but will be buying tools and jack and learning how to fix what I can without getting dealer involved.

Hey, if they had called and said, "We've checked these front brake pads and they are pretty bad. Since we have tire off would you like us to go ahead and replace them?", I'd have said yes. BUT I never got the call.
 
#26 ·
Unome, good point, I think I sounded more critical than i intended. It sounds more like the dealer may have overstated the risk, i.e. the pads probablly were'nt a bad as they indicated? I agree with most everyone else, they should always call first. Maybe they had the same view of my last comments, not that that justifies it. To me, the issue revolves around the mix of how serious the issue vs the dollars spent. Anyway, I bet they don't do it again. good luck, greg
 
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