BEAVERTON MOTORCYCLES - Allow me to RANT (Recommend alternate shop for Service)

[Mtbjay]

Even though I scored my '12 ST from them at a substantial discount, my experience with the service writers in the service department is down-right terrible:

My calls are not returned
Simple sales quotes are not given promptly
Assumptive sales techniques were applied
Service recommendations were both unnecessary and premature
Service receipt was inaccurate and included parts & supplies not used
Paperwork process was painfully slow
Professionalism and basic customer service skills were severely lacking


Other than that… the actual mechanical work performed seemed OK (tires, throttle body synch, warranty headlamp harness).

Anyone else have disappointing customer service experience there? Even over at the main store, the bozos at the parts counter recommended the wrong final drive lube.


I'm at 8,000 miles and when the time comes for a full-tune, I cringe at the idea of giving them any more of my business.

Who do you recommend in the Portland area for service? Beaverton is the biggest shop, while Sublimity is a ways away…. so it's either Fairview or Hillsboro for authorized dealers, I think. I'm not at all opposed to carting myself out to Sublimity if the cowboys out there know their stuff. (They were, after all, the ones who turned me on to the Tenere in the first place.)

 

[krussell]

Jason, sorry to hear about the bad experience. Curious, what was the presumptive sales technique issue?

I was actually really pleased with their headlamp harness work for me. I rode the bike into the entrance to the shop, there were three guys on the phone, one guy staring at me as I took off my helmet. I had a 3:30 appointment, it was 3:27, he says 'your three minutes early' as I'm taking my gear off. I go over, sign the repair order, and head to the waiting room. When it was done 45 minutes later he walks in, hands me the paperwork, and says it's waiting out front, thanks for coming in. They've worked on my lawn mower twice and that was positive too. yz454 had his valve check done there and seemed pleased. I've been thinking when the time comes that is where I'd get my valve work done as well, so I'm interested in your experience. Their service facility is 1.5 miles from my door, so they are really convenient. I've been asking around a bunch, service wise they get the best reports of any of the local Portland dealers.

On the 'sales' aspect of service, I think you have to be very careful to communicate EXACTLY what you want, especially at a Lanphere owned dealership. I've got an Infinity sedan, and it's a brutal debate every time I got in there about what they want to tell me it needs, what the factory service schedule says, and what I WANT.

I think their folks in the clothing/helmet area of the main shop are fantastic when it's not busy.

Parts has been good and bad. The most frustrating aspect of it is when I know exactly what I want, which is about 90% of the time, and it's a struggle to communicate it. They seem to have tons of stuff, but I always seem to want what they don't have. I typically just go to www.rockymountainatvmc.com for parts these days. They are fast, typically less expensive, and it's SUPER easy. I tell the computer what I want, and it shows up three days later. I don't have to stand in line to order, then stand in line a week or two later to pick up the stuff they didn't have, and most importantly I don't have to explain anything to anyone.

I bought a WR250R at Beaverton, the guy that did the paperwork was a jerk and spoke definitively about stuff that was simply not true. He starts in on selling be their house maintenance package for something like $1200, and goes on about how the WR250R is a very high performance bike that needs valve adjustment very frequently, and how expensive it is. I told him it was 24k and when he argued that I said I'll go get the manual and show it to you. He said no, it's ok, I can see you don't want to protect yourself... I really wanted the bike, or I would have walked. I am not of fan that those they prey on the consumer. An uninformed buyer could be easily taken advantage of.

I tried to buy my S10 at Beaverton, but we were $500 apart, I ended up at Fairview. I've not had any service done at Fairview. I have made two parts purchases at Fairview. One for a yamalube WR250R oil change kit. It took SIX MONTHS. It was one thing after another. I stuck with it as it was so bizarre I found it entertaining. When I picked up my S10 I wanted to get the stuff needed for the 1st oil change. They didn't have the drain plug gaskets. ::010::

Sales experience at Fairview was very positive and simple. I called them, was quoted a price on the phone in < 1 minute, told them I wanted a test ride. I showed up 45 minutes a later, bike was out front ready to ride, they handed me the keys and suggested I head out Stark to Columbia River Hwy and get a feel for the bike. Beaverton needs me to show up, provide ID, comes back with the 4 way dealer sheet, has to go back and forth in writing, etc. I asked about test ride and I get hmm, well, ..., then an offers me a <2 mi loop. ::010::

This is the worst time of year to get a bike serviced anywhere. It's not an excuse, but there's a clear pattern in my experience where April is about the worst month of all. The dealers are super busy, and they often have seasonal help. My strategy has been to try and line up major services for January. They are happy to see you, you typically deal with long term staff, and if something doesn't go well you aren't missing prime riding time. My valve adjustment will be a January thing if at all possible, and I don't expect to see the dealer for anything else.

Glad you're ride has new boots, and the harness upgrade behind it. ::012::

 

[yz454]

I go to Jason only. The other guys don,t know sh--. They have made some mistakes , and I jumped on them for it. Now it,s down to warranty work only. This is the fist mc I have ever taken in and let a shop work on and it will be the last. I could not make deal with Beaverton and that's knowing the top manager for 35 years. I got mine at two brothers up north and saved 2k .

 

[EricV]

I've had good, honest service work done at Beaverton. I prefer the folks at Fairview for service work. To the point where I rode the bus over from Oregon City on several service occasions, (after dropping off the bike, riding the bus home). You guys know that's a three bus trip, and takes a couple, three hours sometimes, having to go into downtown Portland to transfer.

Sales at Beaverton has pretty much always sucked.

Sublimity - I had one valve change there on the FJR. A fellow FJR owner talked them into a discount if we brought in 5 bikes for valve check/adjustment. I was the last and the tech, (Jesse James wannabe kid), screwed up and kinked the valve cover gasket. I took off on a 2k ride only a few days after picking up the bike from service and noticed the oil leaking during that trip. Got home, called them and brought the bike back in. They denied that it was leaking from work they did, claiming it was another gasket. Which they didn't have in stock. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, (little wankers had never seen a bike with over 100k on it, or with a CT mounted), and ordered and changed that gasket myself. No joy, still leaking from the valve cover gasket. Went back, they still claimed it wasn't the valve cover gasket and refused to R&R it. But were more than willing to let me leave my bike with them overnight for them to 'fix' it. On my dime. I let them try.

Bottom line, the little dipshit tech covered the entire valve cover gasket area with Yamabond and slapped it back together rather than ordering a new valve cover gasket to fix his mistake. Hey, shit happens and I know how much of a bitch it is to get the valve cover in on the FJR, but not owning up to the mistake was bad form.

I paid Beaverton to fix it for me as I was short on time, leaving in three days for a 12k mile trip. Beaverton showed me the valve cover and I had to pay their rate for an extra hour to clean all the yamabond off. (I'm a mechanic too, it only gets a dab at the corners, not full coverage). Only bad thing that happened at Beaverton was someone tried to do me a favor and pressure washed the bike, killing my HID harness. I had to scramble on Sat to find one and install it so I had headlights again.

Sorry for the rant, but don't take anything to Sublimity. Their manager just backed up the tech, regardless of what happened. No idea if that tech is still there, it was 2010 when I had this experience.

The O.C. Yamaha store was good for tire mounting, but not on sales or more complicated service. They seem to have a hard time keeping good techs. The sales droids were so bad I went to Salem to buy one bike, and to Prosser, WA to buy the next one after that.

 

[krussell]

Eric, the Oregon City dealer is gone. I did get a screaming deal on a KLR from them once. I think the whole transaction took 15 minutes.

If I understand it all the Oregon City and Fairview shops were owned by the same folks, who sold them while back. The buyer ran them into the ground and defaulted, so the original owners got them back, closed the OC shop, and now are focused on just the Fairview location.

The OC location is now a Leer truck top dealer.

 

[EricV]

Eric, the Oregon City dealer is gone. I did get a screaming deal on a KLR from them once. I think the whole transaction took 15 minutes.

If I understand it all the Oregon City and Fairview shops were owned by the same folks, who sold them while back. The buyer ran them into the ground and defaulted, so the original owners got them back, closed the OC shop, and now are focused on just the Fairview location.

The OC location is now a Leer truck top dealer.

The OC dealer was owned by the brother of the Fairview dealer. The Fairview told the OC brother to change their name because of their crappy rep. Not surprised that the OC place closed. The Fairview shop had several 5 star rated techs for Yamaha. My understanding was that they stayed there thru the ownership changes.

 

[yz454]

Yes Sublimity sucks for everything. One of the only good yamaha dealers in Oregon is in NorthBend Or.

 

[Mtbjay]

Let's face it, relinquishing your baby for anyone else to service is a nervous crap-shoot. Yamaha, to their credit, promptly sent out a survey to me after my harness (and other work) was performed at Beaverton Moto. I tried to outline the poor experience with enough detail to garner some empathy - but may have come across a bit of a grouch, as my negative experience was still fresh.

As Kevin pointed out, it is very important to communicate exactly what you want. Initially, I may not have, which set the tone for the whole experience. However, I think the guy I was working with was newer (and may not have been playing with a full-deck). He lost my respect when I asked them to quote two new tires- and he told me he'd have to call me back. He left a message almost two days later with what I thought was a quote. Meanwhile, I had already ordered them on-line and relayed that back them. Apparently, the message was not received as the Service Writer called a few day slater and said "your tires are in" (an assumptive sale, in my book.) I called back to make clear that when they didn't respond to my request for a sales quote on tires, I had ordered them myself. I added that I had to actually have the tires in my hand before I could commit to a firm date to bring the bike in- (a concept he couldn't seem to grasp). In retrospect, I think he had already set the appt. and was hoping I would simply come in on his first available so he didn't have to reschedule.

When I came in, I wanted a throttle body sync (along with tires & the warranty harness). He tried to sell me a tune-up. I was at 7,500 miles and thought I'd wait, but agreed to a "safety inspection" … for ninety bucks. I was thinking they would check the major fasteners (swing arm, steering head and the like), but was surprised to find from the mechanics checklist after the work was done, that it was simply a "visual inspection" (i.e. kick stand works properly, fluid levels are adequate, etc.). As far as I know, not one wrench was taken to the bike in said "safety inspection." My beef with this, is that I believe I was exuding enough basic mechanical competence to not be recommended this "Jiffy Lube" service check by newer service writer dude. Lesson learned. (Ninety bucks coulda bought me a tech manual!) ::010::


The work: headlamp harness, tires installed, and throttle body sync was good. The communication poor. Then, I found discrepancies on the receipt. First, a charge for an oil filter (when I stated specifically I would perform the oil change myself.) The paperwork re-do took too long. Second, I found a charge for, "shop supplies'' I refused to pay this, paying only what I was quoted instead.


So long as I get competent and fair priced technical work done for my money, I should be happy. But a frustrating, insulting customer interface taints the experience and was reflected in my survey response.


No one's chimed in on Hillsboro yet…. anyone?

 

[yz454]

They didn't try any of that with me, I let them know right a way I have been around a long time and probably forgot more about bikes than some there mechanics have ever known.