Two issues - bad gas ain't Triumph's problem; fixing it w/o an authorizing sig is bad business practice.

On the bad gas issue,THE MAMA has a Ford Freestyle. You run anything but a few major company's gas and you will get an engine light after a couple tanks. For this car good gas = Shell, Exxon, Chevron, Texaco, Mobil. BP, Murphy, Valero, and no-names have all caused problems. Fina is a question mark as I've just recently run 1 tank thru the car. Most finicky car I've seen!

If your wife's Trumpet had some mediocre-to-poor quality gas, whether by manufacturer or by poor storage at the station, 3 weeks of sitting could cause a problem.

 

We still have not picked up the bike, they called us ten mins. before they closed. The mech manager asked what I wanted to do, and I told him I wasn't sure, but may be seeking legal council. A while after that, he mentioned that he had a sample of the gas that I could take to get tested. HMmm.... why didn't he mention that first? How hard is it to put some water in gas, and then say it came out of the tank right? I know she only puts 91 octane in the tank, as for the brand of gas, she doesn't remember. Sounds like I'll be paying for iteven though they didn't call to clear the work with us after saying that they would. After hearing $500 I would have picked the bike up, and done it myself, or had it done elsewhere.
Thanks for all of the advise, and experience...I guess the only thing that Ihave to stand on is the fact that they never called, and just did the work. Does anybody know if that's legal?

Thanks again!

 

Am I missing something? This bike is only six months old. Even if the same gas has been in there since he bought it how is that going to have been stagnent long enough to cause dammage to a brand new bike. I have had vehicles sit for six months to a year and have them fire right up after a little priming. Seems to me this dealer is trying to take advantage and not take care of a customer that just spent alot of money on thier product. Hope this works out for you. Sounds to me like its time to go above the dealer andcomplaine to an area rep. Good Luck DSRTDOC

 

if i encountered that i and they called me i woud have said thanks for the dianosis offer them $20 dollars for the dianosis and say thnks since they probally wasnt going to get a warranty payment for the dianosis. then i would have taken it home spent 45 minutes on the carb or less and clean it myself.

If i were you i would explain this to the shop but i would offer to pay for the filter reluctantly just to save from the hassle but no way would i pay 500 dollars. If this dont work and they wouldnt give me the bike I would go down and take it anyway or report it stolen but i hate getting third parties involved

 

I agree with hdpearson13. Did you have any paperwork that you signed when you left it with them? Check the fine print and make sure you didn't sign anything that would say you automatically authorized them to fix the problem if it wasn't warranty related. If you did, then you might be stuck shelling out the $500.

Check the paperwork and take it to an attorney (or even a paralegal), they might be able to help you further. (not sure if you want to go through all that much trouble though for $500.)

 

I dont know FL laws, but I have 25+ years as a GM service director.

yes bad gas or poor fuel is not a warrantable iteam.

6 months old should run, water in the gas is another story. I leave my little honda outside often. when it starts to stumble first thing I do is change the gas with water to fresh gas. always fixes it.

but your issue.
first did you authorize the repair?
did you sign a repair order? get a copy?
did you get an estimate first in writing? or in a phone call?
these would be all needed in CT motor vehicle law.
or the dealer wouldnt be entitled to charge you.

my suggestion
check your state motor vehicle dealer and repairers laws re estimates and charges.
if they are in your favor tell the service manager the law (i'm sure he knows it)
if he dosent listen and respond favorable go to the commissioner of motor vehicles division of dealers and repairs. you will get justice there.

When people told me they would call thier lawyer, I would state "I hope he can fix your car". that is never a good way to go, too expensive.
but when they said they were getting DMV involved I would jump.

on a real note if really had "bad" gas I would think a diagoniosis charge of an hour would be approprate.
after that draining, fresh fuel, filter and cleaning etc wern't autherized. I wouldnt pay that part.
so get a breakdown of charges and offer diag fee of 1 hour, approx $100. and take your bike.

good luck

 

Thanks everybody, I'm going to keep researching this, but Impala, I found this in a quick web search
Frequently Asked Questions
[ol][*]How is repair work authorized?
By the customer's signature. However, the customer may be advised of the estimate by other means: telephone, fax, mail, etc., but you should note on the work order all specifics of the notification and authorization to protect yourself in the event of a claim. (F.S. 559.901(1)) [/ol]

I'll be researching this more at work tommorrow. It sounds likewe have some similar laws down here fromhow this reads! Like some others have stated, I have no problem paying for the diagnosis, and the air filter as that's expected, but should have been notified on prior too.

Thanks again

 

I wouldnt leave the bike there i would pick it up asap. I dont know of any law where they can impound it at there shop. Honestly that would be my first priority once the bike is out of there shop you are going to be in a better position to negotiate with them. but i would still offer to pay for the parts but i would explaiin it to them that the only reason you brought it to them was because it was under warranty and you beleive by doing that you and the shop would have benifited but your not paying for something you could have taken care of yourself in under an hour. I also would let them know that you appreciate what they did but you should have been notified first of the problem before they started working. I hate to burn bridges because you never know down the road. this is my take of what happen at the shop the tech right away drained the take found it was filty or bad gas and to make sure that that was the problem he got to the carb saw it was bad figured why he was here he would clean it for ya and figure you wouldnt mind a new filter(he doesnt know he just was handed a peice of paper and told to fix it . now it gets to the service writer and he finds out its not warrantied and he looks in a book and it say its a total of 4 or 5 hours of work by the book when in esance it took the tech less than an hour of accual work. Now they figure they can make some money because most people would give in and just pay because they dont understand what the service writer was even talking about nor can they work on thier own bike. Its called passing the buck because nobody wants to admit they made a mistake. and at the end the only one who meant to do any good was the tech. alot of techs dont know or care how the writers or managers go about their bussiness they just want to fix your bike and make sure your safe riding it.

 

just go in and take your bike back. that is called theft of services.
most joints wont let you take your vehicle until the bill is paid. but you could always try.

sounds like the laws are the similar, but the essence will be the same.

did you OK any thing up front or on the phone?

if not the conversation could go like this:

I'm not paying a dime for you to release my bike back to me.

sir I cant do that.

let me speak to who ever is in charge like the service manager.

what up?

Ibrought my bike incause it wouldn't run right. I didn't authorize any customer pay work. your employees told me the would call to let me know what was up. ..... the never called me with a price until it was completed.
If they did call me I would have declined the repair and taken it out of here.

well there would be a diag charge

OK how much?

$100 or what ever

OK I'll pay 100

if this docent work go with split it 50/50
I appreciate that you repaired it. And I still want to be friends and have you do future work(I assume the want to keep you as a customer and you want to go back). But with the laws and my customer rights I know I don't haveto pay you a Penney. I just want to do whats right for you and me. So I will offer you a 50/50 split. I'll pay $250 and that should cover all your expenses. (they can drop the profit on the parts and labor and do it at cost, or internal price. this worked many times for me. I don't win or loose money, I keep a customer, and pay the mech. its the writer who screwed up)

 

Bad gas after sitting for three weeks is hard to believe. But 500 dollars to rebuild a carb for a motorcycle. Holy ****, I shouldn't have quit being a mechanic. At $65 an hour(the average rate around my part of the country)that means it took them almost eight hours to clean and rebuild it. That is horsecrap.