South Seas. Nimitz

[spike]

Does anyone else get a really bad feeling from these guys? They seem really shady to me.

For one thing, they promised me that I'd get my title within a few days...its been 2 weeks and still no call. Also, they told me that they checked the bike to make sure it was safe to ride. Today, my clutch went out. I had no clutch and the only way to stop was to stall the fricken bike. I checked the reservoir and it looks like its been dry for a really long ass time. There's actually old crusty shit that was probably left over from what fluid there used to be in there.

Shit, if they didn't even take the time to check the reservoirs for the proper level of fluid, what did they check? I doubt they checked anything.

Tomorrow, I will be raising hell with them, this is pretty ridiculous.

btw, this is what the clutch reservoir looks like at the moment

[Outsider]

So what's the word? Did they take care of the problems?

[Kreggae]

OMG wth is that shiat in the reservoir?!

[spike]

I talked to them on thursday and they were very apologetic. They agreed to fix the clutch issue as well as comb over the rest of the bike for possible problems. As for the title, there's some complication with a bank because the last owner had bought it under a loan and maybe he didn't pay it off or something.

That crap in the reservoir is crystallized chunks of old DOT 4 fluid, which means the clutch system hasn't see any fresh fluid in years and was probably working off of an air bubble of fluid.

[Outsider]

Hmm. I wonder if that bike was a bank-repo, and South Seas was given the green light to sell, to cover the remaining unpaid loan...hmmm.

[spike]

That's what I was thinking as well. They only had one key, the bikes are usually sold with 3. I'm thinking about painting it white later on, just in case the last owner really did have the bike repo'd and he gets some funny ideas. Should probably change the plates too.

[spike]

So I've concluded that South Seas Cycles has some major communication issues among themselves and with their customers.

The service advisor calls me to notify me that my bike will be picked up at the arranged time, but asked me what my bike was being brought in for....uhh....i spoke to the manager in great detail about why my bike was being brought in and he only made it a point to tell them that they are picking up my bike?

Secondly, who ever is responsible for scheduling REALLY sucks at it.

I took my bike in to get it's brakes inspected and I made an appointment for them to check it out at it around 9ish. They didn't get to it until 12.

Today, my bike was supposed to have been picked up for the clutch issue. They arranged for my bike to be picked up at 11:30. 11:30 passes by, no call. I give them 30 minutes to see if they are just a little behind. 12 comes around and I call them up and leave a message, asking why no one has shown up yet. 20 minutes later, I get a call back and someone assures me that my bike will be getting picked up and I should be getting a call soon. Apparently, the driver was on another route... So now its fricken 2:14 and guess where my bike is? YEP! still downstairs of my apartment. No calls.

SERIOUSLY?!?! If you can't f*cking schedule me at a certain time, don't f*cking tell me that you can. What a fricken waste of my time....

edit: oh lookey here, they're finally here....3 hours after the fact. 30 minutes i can forgive....hell even an hour. but THREE?

[Outsider]

Personally I think you should wash-your-hands clean of this one, and move on to something else...if possible. Sounds like they haven't been straight-forward with you from the beginning...and I'm guessing it's because the bike wasn't "theirs" to begin with. From what I've seen, places that service what they sell (out of the box, brand new stuff), take care of their own product first. Second-hand used, as well as off-brand used, gets pushed back. I hope I'm wrong, and they do you right from now on. But from what I've read so far, it's not looking good.

[xurusaibobx]

yeah am with outsider wipe your hands with this already. thats why its hard buying a used bike unless u know the history of the bike..

[Dimitri13]

Sorry you had such a bad experience with them. It seems like Outsider hit the nail on the head.

Not sure if they've cleaned up their act, or if there's different people, but I've had nothing but great experiences with them. I've had several things done with them, and even got great advice for when I wanted to do something myself. All the techs that man the service desk (I haven't been inside the garage) are always helpful and pretty thorough. Don't even get me started on how awesome the parts guys are. Even the salesmen are chill. If there's no one browsing the showroom, they'll usually talk story and ask how my bike is doing (been working on a cafe racer project for a few months).

But again, sorry you had such a bad experience Hope you'll give them another try.

[ArchangelX]

I know the managers for both South Seas...pretty good guys from what I've seen, but never had any reason to deal with them as I don't ride. I dunno.

[spike]

In all honesty, I'm pretty sure I would have been better taken care of if I were buying a brand new bike from them.

I understand their needs as a business to sell off this bike, but I would at least expect them to be professional and honest about what has and hasn't been done with the bike. They told me the thing was safe to ride. I found out later that the brake pads were completely toast in the rear and the fronts were on their way out.

I know how to check all this crap by myself but don't make me pay some bullcrap assessment fee and then tell me that the bike is safe if i have to comb down the whole thing myself just to find that the bike would get me killed within a few hundred miles of riding.

This is probably an isolated case and as I said, I wouldn't doubt they would take care of me better if I had blown $10k on a brand new ducati but with this kind of business practice, I would not go back to them even if I were looking for a new one.

I will say that in the end, everything was taken care of and everything is fine now, but it was not without many phone calls and lots of grief.

[ArchangelX]

Sad to hear you had that sort of experience, but glad it worked out in the end.