By Rca on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 01:00 am:

Had 15,000 KM service on RSVR performed at Junction 3 Aprilia (Also known as Martin Rumble). They didn't change clutch fluid, nor did they clean and grease rear shock linkage, nor clean and oil chain, but the worst was they left the front bolt on the front cylinder cam cover undone, oil pissed out and got absolutely everywhere, engine covered, exhaust covered, belly pan covered, ran out of belly pan and and onto back wheel. Damn lucky I wasn't killed. Faxed dealer to ask them to pick bike up (couldn't ride it with no oil showing on sight guage and oil everywhere) to rectify the problems also phoned to agree time with them. At the agreed day and time they didn't show up, they didn't even bother to call to say why didn't show up.  

By Benw on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 02:10 am:

RCA,

What does the 15,000km service entail? Have you checked the manual for what should have been done?

I've been using J3 for a while now and my bike is treated with the utmost respect - the services I've had on it are the best it's had from anywhere.

Glynn is the guy that runs the bike side of things, have you called him to find out what has been going on? Stuart, the mechanic, also fettles some of the RSV-Rs that run in the Aprilia Challenge. I guess people make mistakes - glad to hear you were ok though.

Talk to Glynn.

B.  

By Rca on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 05:20 am:

Benw,

The 15K KM service is a major service, it entails changing oil, filters, plugs and checking valve shims. Other than that it's checking, cleaning and lubing everything else as necessary.

Working on the principle that in order to check something you have to at least wipe the dirt off where necessary and occasionally undo a bolt or two, I am certain that the shock linkage, and chain were not checked, cleaned and lubed, and the clutch fluid was not changed (despite been as black as tar). An attempt at checking the valve clearances was clearly made as the evidence is the loose bolt. Everything else, I cannot tell if it has been done or not, but there didn't appear to be any fresh grease on lever pivot points, the coolant level was halfway between the min and max marks (precisely as much as was in it when dropped off for the service), there was evidence that they had adjusted the throttle linkage as their was zero mm of free play (it's supposed to be 2-3 mm).

Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, and all the evidence suggests that the mechanic was in a rush to complete the service (The loose bolt showed evidence of having been tightened using a screw driver or chisel on the side, which indicates to me that after re-assembly the mechanic realised the bolt was loose and attempted to tighten it up without removing all the other bits and pieces necessary to get proper access. Also; A major service takes the best part of a whole day to complete, and Junction 3 did have several other bikes to service when mine was in).

If Junction 3 had apologised, collected the bike when they said they would and put the things right that needed putting right, I wouldn't have posted anything on this site. But when they fail to show, don't phone to tell you and then when I phone to find out where the van is all they have to say for themselves is they are very busy and forgot to collect it then there is obviously something seriously wrong with their attitude.

As a follow up, I spoke to the Service Manager again (David Hyde) a short while ago. He apologised for not picking up the bike and for not contacting me to advise of that fact. He has said he can pick up the bike today, but he still doesn't know when they can get round to fixing it as they are snowed under with work at the moment.

I have decided to decline his offer, get the bike properly serviced elsewhere and will present the bill to Junction 3 for payment or demand a refund on the service they performed (All £327 of it). I will let you know if they agree to pay first time, or if I have to resort to the courts to force them to payup.

Regards,

Russell  

By Crmc33 on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 05:57 am:

Well said Russell,
If I paid that much for a service I would expect a tip top bike when I get it back - no excuses.  

By Richandall on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 06:14 am:

Very small issue, but I spake with Glynn twice about product needs and despite promises never did he get back so obviously overworked & under staffed.

Must've been the nice posts on Daz's site about J3 made us all rush at 'em. Shows in what a sad state is the general run of 'prilia dealers ...

Hope yours is an isolated problem

- Rich



If you're not living on the edge then you are taking up too much space 

By Aprilliag on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 07:04 am:

If a work shop is Snowed under with work they should stop taking it in,then take time to do the jobs they have got properly.In the end they must benefit they build a good reputation and then get more work/money a good reputation is hard comeby but easyly lost.There are NO excuses for bad Work Not even one bad job.I bet like all the other dealers out there giving crap service they didn't forget or do a bad job of totting up the bill.At £327 for the servise that seems to be one part of the job they have mastered.I Think we should all boycott these shops then there work load may come down enough to make them think about what there doing.There all a bunch of ROBBING Bastards and shoddy workmanship by anybody regardless of their workload should be complained about.So I say SREW um and SCREW them hard.
Ben you say you have had good work done by these people and give the impression you know the people to speak to. I am the same with my local Dealer and I think that may be reflected in the Servise YOU get,but the level of servise Russell has got is no where near what anyone should expect
Think about it everyone if you paid for a meal and drinks and a night out for the old Women on the promise of a dammed go shag then only got ya Nuts tickelled,at the end of the day you Like Russell paid for a servise you didn't get.I then suspect it wouldn't be long before you were looking elsewhere for your serviseing.uummm!The princible is the same.  

By Benw on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 08:30 am:

I'm not defending them here guys. If you pay for a service, you should get a service. The only reason that I use them is because I've been given a good service.

I don't deal with the service manager, I deal with everything through Glynn the bike manager. Things obviously need to improve - write to Martin Rumble. He's a good guy who wants his bike business to succeed. It'll only do so if we tell these people what we want and expect for our money. Either call him or write to him and see what he says. At the end of the day, he's the guy with the money running the place.

You pays yer money, you takes yer choice.

B  

By Rca on Wednesday, May 15, 2002 - 06:34 am:

Got an interim report from the new mechanic now working on the bike that Junction 3 last serviced. The front cam cover bolt was cross threaded, which is why it wouldn't tighten properly and caused the oil leak. The new mechanic has put a tap down it to clear the threads, but a heli-coil maybe required (I may demand Junction 3 pay for a new cylinder head). The majority of the cam cover bolts are also chewed up, one rear cylinder plug cap is broken and the sump plug is rounded. I am now waiting for new cam cover bolts, plug cap and sump plug to arrive from Aprilia UK. I'll keep you up to date with any other little horror stories as they are discovered.  

By Rca on Wednesday, July 03, 2002 - 04:39 am:

Total bill for rectifying faults and completing service items skipped by Junction 3 came to £419.

I wrote a letter to Martin Rumble at Junction 3 and included the invoice and mechanics report as well as copies of all other correspondence between myself and Junction 3 and asked for them to re-imburse me the £419. Martin Rumble placed the matter in the hands of his After Sales Manager M Tooze who initially offered me £219 pounds compensation as 'a good will gesture'. M Tooze later upped this to £327 (the cost of the original service). Today I got a phone call from M Tooze and Junction 3 have now agreed to re-imburse me the full £419.  

By Richandall on Thursday, July 04, 2002 - 04:28 am:

Well done Rca, if everyone had your energy we'd get a better deal from dealers. Don't let them jerk you around waiting for the compensation cheque - tell them you'll pick it up personally and go visit!

It looks as if your bike was off the road a long time so you have them on that if they try it on.

- Rich

 

By Rca on Thursday, July 04, 2002 - 05:56 am:

Rich,

Total time without use of my bike was about 3 weeks. The dealer that did the rectification work was Action Motorcycles (A former Aprilia dealer, sadly, they now only sell Triumphs and a collection of Scooters). I do most of my riding at weekends and each week Action kindly offered me the pick of their fleet of demonstrators for the weekend. I didn't want to make a nuisance so I only took them up on the offer once, and had a very enjoyable trip to Wales on a Triumph Sprint RS.

Russell  

By Richandall on Thursday, July 04, 2002 - 06:38 am:

Did Action Motorcycles say why they gave Aprilia up? It might throw light on the difficulties most of us are experiencing getting decent customer service.

The serious motorbike press refer to Aprilia's financial problems as being all bad news with no end in sight. It doesn't explain a sh*t service, which is a peculiarly british (english?) thing, but it might explain why Aprilia hasn't banged the dealers' heads together yet if they're distracted by financial battles back home. It definitely looks as though they've lost sight of their overseas customers.

Btw How did the Sprint RS compare?

- Rich

 

By Rca on Thursday, July 04, 2002 - 07:24 am:

Rich,

Action cited the differential pricing policies of Aprilia UK as the main reason they gave up.

Essentially, Aprilia UK would sell bikes in large volume at very low prices to pile-em-high sell em cheap merchants. The prices were so low, that the price OYB and others were selling to the public at was less than the price Aprilia UK would charge Action for their stock.

The Triumph Sprint RS was 'fun', smooth (much more like a four than a twin), comfortable and strangely, felt hugely different to, with much better handling than, a friends Sprint ST (who also came on the Wales trip). I wouldn't trade the RSV in for one but as a fun bike for touring (perhaps as an alternative to the Falco) it is worth considering. Perhaps Daz should have tried one (They do em in yellow Daz).

Russell 

By Richandall on Thursday, July 04, 2002 - 08:06 am:

I KNEW it!

Well, I spose we all did
Aprilia has been actively dumping its bikes in the UK. You can get a brand new 02 RSV-R today from Taz Motorcycles for £7995 (in black or yellow!) and an RSV for a grand less. The good dealers are going to look elsewhere for a manuacturer that wants to build a relationship, not shaft them. Add together dumping, disaffected dealers and poor spares distribution with the Italian flair for organisation and you get what you get. Damn' good value parallel deals direct from the factory, negligible after sales support and arse-about warranty treatment. The Italian jokers are here big time

- Rich