Servicing during warranty period

[pointer2null]

I know for cars you can take your new car to any qualified mechanic for it's service and they cannot legally refuse to honour the warranty.

Is the same true for motorbikes? I would assume so and would imagine any manufacturer having a hard time should it come to court...

[adeejaysdelight]

Any garage that pays V.A.T can service your motorcycle under normal warranty conditions.


*source - Honda UK 2009 (in a private letter sent to me in response to a complaint about a shitty dealership called Victor Divine)

[pointer2null]

Perfect - thanks for that. Fowlers were trying to pull the "you must use a dealer (us)" one on me today. I told them that was illegal as far as I was aware.

[VNA - BMW Wank]

in a private letter sent to me in response to a complaint about a shitty dealership called Victor Divine

Victor Divine messed me about with a warranty claim back in about 1995 I think.  Never been back.

Honda have a reputation for being relaxed about warranty claims.  They have stated before that as they have utter faith in their product they are happy to honour all genuine warranty claims - period.  So my CBR600F ended up being repaired under warranty by a Yamaha dealer -Ride On - as Victor was not interested in helping.

Perfect - thanks for that. Fowlers were trying to pull the "you must use a dealer (us)" one on me today. I told them that was illegal as far as I was aware.

Well yes legally.  But beware that Fowlers are like all dealers are independent businesses and they are independent of the Yamaha importer whom is also an independent business independent of Yamaha Japan.

So if you chose not to have your bike serviced at the dealer from which you purchased it, there is always the chance that if you go back to Fowlers at a later date to claim under warranty they will just shrug their shoulders and point you towards the door.  You can quote the law if you want but they might just still show you the door.  And if Yamaha UK back them up or more likely just shrug their shoulders too, well good luck with a long legal process that you may not win.

The law and reality can be two separate things.

Just saying.

[lew600fazer]

Official dealers can screw you around. Sometimes I can understand why they will and agree on occassions why they are entitled to do so. Not all dealers are perhaps the size of Fowlers. I had a mate in Northern Ireland who bought his new Z1000SX from Wigan Kawasaki. He got a good deal they even shipped the bike over to Belfast for him. Well come service time he took it to Philip McCallans.
McCallans quoted him £300 for the first service. My mate said that is a OTT, McCallan agreed it was steep but if you would prefer to take it to the dealer you bought it from feel free!!!
Is Fowlers your local dealer??
But I think as long as genuine Yamaha parts are used and a qualified dealership regardless of Marque is used and service book duely stamped your warranty is still valid.

[Punkstig]

Just picked up two new suzuki company bikes from metropolis in London, rep said himself that for warranty to be valid the first service didn't have to be done necessarily at their place but to be done and book stamped by a certified suzuki dealership!

[chaz]

I was told that I had to use yamaha and if I didn't did I have enough money to take them to court? had the first "free" service at 6 weeks then one at a year and 6 weeks which took me to the 2 years, is it worth the trouble to save a few quid?

[flesh]

I have heard first hand that Triumph are really bad for this and I have dealt with Honda UK on a number of occasions (on behalf of others) where Honda has invalidated a warranty due to the work being done elsewhere.

Legally, as with cars under European law, you are entitled to take your bike anywhere as long as the work is done to the manufacturers specification with genuine parts. Unfortunately some individual dealerships will not honour this and in most cases the actual manufacturer will back up their dealer.
Pretty shoddy to be honest and ultimately you would have to take legal action, which obviously most people do not do.

My advice is always to try and find a sympathetic dealer, even if you have to travel a bit. You "local" dealer may not honour the warranty but you may find someone else will on the basis of good customer service. Phone around some of the dealers to see what responses you get and deal with the ones who are "nice".

[lew600fazer]

When I bought my Z1000SX I hit the internet and got best quotes nation wide. I took the copies of emails to my local dealer and asked him to price match. He said as a small dealer he could not match the big players but what he could not knock off on the price of the bike he would match with a service package and any accessories supplied and fitted at cost. I got the first service free, even the oils &filter, second service I think was also free as it was just a kick the tyres and brakes check. Annual service was £85.00. The whole time I had the bike they never charged me over £120. Also they always gave me a courtesy bike and not a junker, Demo models big  versy, little versy etc!

Only time I had a moan at them was when they did an MOT and serviced the FZ1, I had a bolt drop out on a brake callipher. Martin the service guy said they changed the pads but did not remove the calliphers as there was no need as the bike only had 10k miles on it. To be fair to them I was pushing him to crack on as I was rushing down to Dover for a ferry.

If possible I always try and support my local dealer, I use a local dealers here in Spain, they are really good very helpful.

[midden]

Not buying new solves the problem surely 

[Hedgetrimmer]

Not buying new solves the problem surely 

How're you going to buy second hand bikes if no one ever buys new bikes? 

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Wow I agree with Lew!

The best bet if buying new is to try and find a half decent dealer.  Then as Lew has done haggle.

The usual warranty is two years these days isn't it?  So most of us would need just one service under warranty (the first 600 mile one being included in the sale)  Or have warranties increased now?

You can haggle over that one service.  If you do your own servicing tell them that you are looking for a basic service to satisfy the warranty and get that stamp in the book.

[Gnasher]

The fist service for the big four is free i.e. there's no labour charge you just pay for the oil, other manufactures can and do make you pay.
 
That's said not having a first or any stealer service doesn't stop you claiming against your warranty should the bike develop a manufacturing fault in the first 12, 24, 36 months or whatever warranty period they give you.  Remember warranty is for the bike failing due to faulty parts, not parts that have failed due to misuse or lack of maintenance, reasonable care or length of use all are easy to identify, e.g. after 3k your chain breaks it's inspected it's found to be corroded, excessively stretched with kinked links clearly not been cared for so not a warranty claim.

These so called warranties are really only what the law requires i.e. the product must be fit for purpose the manufactures just offer extensions.  If your bike suffers some kind of failure due to a defective part/s during the warranty period who changed the oil has no bearing on it the part/component failing, providing the bike has been serviced using quality parts/oil to the manufactures standards. 
 
In fact the manufacture has to prove the bike hasn't been serviced correctly to reject a claim, what you will find is it's not the manufacturer/importer who mucks you about but the franchised stealer.  A stealer is only paid a flat rate for warranty work as laid down by the factory so if it takes 30mins to change a part that's what they get paid and no more, regardless if it takes longer.  It's all down to margin, money and through put, if a stealer is doing warranty work this takes up workshop time which he can't charge you anymore for.  Sadly we all know there are a lot of money grabbing stealers out there, some are just downright dishonest!  There are many well know examples of their tricks the most well known is, bike in for a service and low and behold they find this and that wrong with it i.e. extras which they can charge you for.  That way they are maxing their workshop time on your bike to make money, often this work isn't needed the dishonest one's don’t even do the work but charge you anyway!

There are many who try and refuse to do warranty work for the reasons given above or that they didn't sell you the bike, they don’t regularly service it and wont see it again i.e. they have earned nothing from it nor will they.  In these cases all importers have there fall back dealers who they will end up sending you to if you have trouble.  This often happens with recalls i.e. the bike is outside of warranty and there's a fault.  Last one I can think of was GSXR's master cylinders all 1000/750/600 built since 04 I think it was, had to have their master cylinders replaced, importers do a deal with a few large stealers and they do all the work.

I've had 30 plus bikes over the years the vast majority of those have never seen a stealer workshop from the day it left their shop, not even the first service, I've had several warranty jobs done over the years without issues to name a few:-

RD350LC 4LO carb mods and exhaust flanges. 
GPZ900R camshaft oil spray bars.
GSXR1100 repalcement cylinder block and pistons.
ZX10 front pads and discs
Hayabusa fuel return pipe, and sub frame.

None of these bikes had been serviced by stearlers all by me.         
 
If your bike has been properly serviced, it doesn't matter who services it providing it's serviced as per the schedule with quality parts/materials, manufactures can't refuse to honour warranties.     
 
                       
 

[lew600fazer]

Honda have not done a free first service since 2009 unless they have since changed the rules again?, they charge labour +parts, Kawasaki also do not do a free first service they charge for Labour and parts.

Blackpool Honda tried to charge me in 2009 for my first service on my CBF1000 which I bought in December 2008. They told me that from January 1st 2009 all new hondas the first service was now a chargeable service. I asked them to show me the directive which they did. I had been given a heads up from HOC and went prepared to do battle. I produced my purchase details/contract when I bought the bike and it clearly stated 1st service charge for parts & materials only not labour.

Talking to some on the Z1000SX forum the costs they are having to pay for fisrt service various from dealer to dealer. When some approached kawasaki customer services complaining about the costs for first servicing they were told that Kawasaki advised dealers of a miniumn charge if dealers wanted to charge more that was between the dealer and the customer.

If folk use a dealer for any servicing the best time to get a bike serviced is right now, bang on in the middle of winter. My reasoning is winter is a slow time for bike sales and also servicing and most dealers will discount servicing costs just to keep there staff busy during a slack period.

[lew600fazer]

       Re: Service Costs  « Reply #1 on: March 17, 2012, 06:32:43 PM » 

• Quote

   600 mile service quotes -

Motoplus Kawasaki, Coleraine - £80 (but then changed price to £157 when booking in)
McCallen, Lisburn - £130
MCO, Wigan - £202 (bike bought here)

Copied from Z1000SX site
 

[Gnasher]

Honda have not done a free first service since 2009 unless they have since changed the rules again?, they charge labour +parts, Kawasaki also do not do a free first service they charge for Labour and parts.

I stand corrected 

Thats just shows you the last time I used a stealer or bought a new bike