Tosser - find a new shop. He's just pissy cos he missed out gouging you.

 

Thank you and my thoughts exactly. Just wanted to know if I was the only one who thought so

If servicing my Duke at the other authorised dealer in town won't affect my warranty (and it shouldn't as far as I'm concerned) I'm going there and hope they're better

 

It probably would've been better in this instance to get the price from the other dealer and then see if your local dealer could 'price match'. This gives them the opportunity to still make money, (just not as much as originally quoted), but they keep your business which should be important to them.

 

I agree with Timmy to a point, except that fitting the cam will take more than a can of WD40. I certainly would've given ol' mate dealer the opportunity to match the price.

Hey boldor


I did ask my dealer, and he didn't even get back to me with a price initially. When he finally.did (he didn't seem.bothered at all), it was $500 more and he wouldn't budge at all, wouldn't even try to match....

Oh well, at least my new system is on its way, can't wait to try it out

 

I did actually give my dealer a chance to price match last December but he wouldn't. Said it was due to shipping costs (difference of $300+) when I only had to pay $40 shipping

I'm hoping the other authorised dealer in town can help me. They said they would happily look at my exhaust and try and fit it, altho they have never fitted one to a 690 before

 

Hi, fitting the exhaust is a pretty easy job if you're not too experienced with spanners, what about having a go yourself? It is pretty much unbolt the old, bolt on the new. Just spray all nuts/studs with some penetrating spray like WD40 or GT85 half an hour before you start and use the correct fitting sockets or spanners and you should be fine.

On the shop not wanting to fit, I own a shop selling items and we get asked to work on items bought elsewhere, I must admit we are not keen either as our price is partly subsidised by the profit in selling the products in the first place, plus it is slightly cheeky. Let the other dealer make the big profit on the sale but then your dealer has to fit it, I will get flamed for saying this but I do sympathise. Everyone is obsessed with shopping around and trying to screw people down on price but then expect top service and shops to bend over backwards. :tt2:
It's the profit in the sale that pays for the premises, the displays, the staff, the experience etc etc.

 

Well, it's not giving him happy customers at least.
But if the job was to be paid for, I really don't see the deal here. It's either money for him for doing the job or nothing at all?

But yeah, as Tim mentions, it is a bit cheeky coming in with parts from a competitior askin if they can fit it on.

Anyways... Instead of wasting money on the dealer, buy yourself a nice toolkit with spanners and pipes, and some bits, then do the installation yourself. It's very easy! The Akra comes with a very detailed manual for installation aswell.

 

Fair play. I understand it from a dealers point of view too, but didnt like the fact he wouldnt even try to budge on price. After calculating, I was wrong, his price was actually US$492 higher. That was just him taking the mickey I reckon. Shipping cost me $40

I would have happily got the exhaust from my dealer if it was $1-200 more but not $500 for the same product.

I wouldnt have minded paying him for installation so he could make his coin too. There are only 2 Duke R 690's in the whole state, mine being one of them. He doesnt even seem interested in keeping my business for servicing etc. Before I bought the bike he promised he would look after me well…..

 

Everyone is obsessed with shopping around and trying to screw people down on price but then expect top service and shops to bend over backwards. :tt2:

Wasnt quite expecting him to bend over backwards, but was willing to pay whatever his labour rate was plus any extra he feels justifiable.

If I had a shop and was selling my products substantially higher priced than the rest of the market, I wouldnt be pissed off that people werent buying from me

But I Understand where youre coming from

 

Yes, don't get me wrong I wasn't saying necessarily that you expected him to bend over backwards, I was just saying that is what often happens with us.

I can see the dealers perspective on these things sometimes. We even get customers coming to us spending ages looking at stuff (hours), messing around with things, asking lots of technical questions then they buy elsewhere. Then get this, they come back to us and start asking for advice about it and tell us they came back to us because we were so helpful ! I said to someone recently who did this "why did you not go back to the place you bought everything from?" the customer replied "they did not want to know" We are about mid priced for what we do (not the cheapest) but we have about 80 years experience across 3 sales people.

Don't get me wrong some dealers just want to make too much money but sometimes there are two sides to the story.

 

Its good to have a shop owners perspective on this as well.

Price isnt everything, the service makes up for a lot of it, my dealer doesnt seem to have much in the way of service. Your shop sounds like it has experienced sales people who are willing and able to help.

Somewhere like that, I wouldnt mind paying a slight premium

 

My 40 years experience with motorcycles:
Hard to do in smaller towns, but for anything other than those things that locked to the bikes dealer ( eg. ecu mapping changes), I personally would never get something done by a place that SELLS motorcycles as opposed to just works on them. Modern business practice is to give you as little as possible for as much money as the market will stand. Scheduled services are a good example. They are nearly always done by the apprentice not a proper machanic and in as short a time as possible. I have seen a simple oil change where the 3 litres of oil cost the customer 120 bucks... the filters cost 20% more than from their own spare parts ( which were inflated anyway) and was charged an hours labour for something that takes 20mins including other checks.
Find a workshop only place with a mechanic that you can trust, preferably someone who races or works on other peoples race bikes. EVEN if it costs a little more you will actually get what you pay for plus maybe occasionally a bit extra. Don't take you Chinese cheapy there though...

 

Id love to but my dealer says if I do any work anywhere else he will not support any warranty claims. Tosser? I think so, will I buy another bike form him? Never, so he has done himself out of a long term customer

 

Yeah, sorry, Tim's right... I was feeling a bit sceptic last night and opened my mouth before thinking too much.

However, there's subsidized, and there's subsidized...

Take tyres - my favorite subject! :blink:
Here, it's about $400 for a set of tyres fitted/balanced at the store, or bring your own and pay $150-$180 for fitting... you can't tell me that there's that much profit in a set of tyres!

I think there's a lot of milking/gouging going on too... the only KTM shop in 500km here is pretty bad at it.

 

I agree with Timmy to a point, except that fitting the cam will take more than a can of WD40. I certainly would've given ol' mate dealer the opportunity to match the price, bearing in mind you may need his assistance down the track.

As for tyres Kamikazi, find a tyre changer. Off the shelf I pay another hunjy on top of what you do for a set - fitted. Once you learn the ropes you can find full sets for less than 3-hunjy then fit yourself.

A tyre change in Australia costs $15 no matter where you bought the tyre. Fitting is usually included for nix if you get them fitted where you buy.

 

As for tyres Kamikazi, find a tyre changer. Off the shelf I pay another hunjy on top of what you do for a set - fitted. Once you learn the ropes you can find full sets for less than 3-hunjy then fit yourself.

A tyre change in Australia costs $15 no matter where you bought the tyre. Fitting is usually included for nix if you get them fitted where you buy.

Cheapest I've seen fitting/balancing when you buy tyres in-store is about Y5,000 or say, $50.

When I got the awful Pirellis cos they wouldn't fit the Dunlops I wanted, the reduced the price to be the same as the Dunlops and waved the fitting fee... but that's unusual.

You can buy the gear here to change and balance... but I don't know if I'd have the patience

 

I think you are unfortunately blessed with an unhelpful and over priced dealer in your case. You did right and in theory he should sort out your warranty issues anyway - it's his obligation as a dealer. You can have your bike serviced elsewhere and he has to honor the warranty, you have to ensure it is serviced and maintained in accordance with KTM's instructions using genuine parts but you can get anywhere to carry out the work as long as they do that.

 

That dealer sounds like a major dick face. I see both sides of the story since I work in a automotive shop and we get people buying used **** on ebay or craigslist and bringing it in to us to try and install and its a real nightmare sometimes. On the other hand if you're bringing in new in box parts and an official KTM part and just asking them to install it theres no real reason why they shouldn't. As far as them telling you servicing the bike at another KTM dealer or having the exhaust effect the warranty on anything other than the factory exhaust components they replaced...they're full of crap. Stay far far away from that place.

 

Yep.
still saying they won't fit the parts at all or asking a stupid price is only hurting their reputation & business.

Fitting the exhaust yourself isn't hard but changing the cam is a different matter.

go to another dealer.

I really like my local KTM dealer.
Great service and good prices.
I've bought several bikes, gear & parts from them.

Still buy all my tyres on line from mynetmoto.com and fit them in another store cause it's a lot cheaper.
Season is short and its a small country so I realize local bike shops can't compete with big international tyre wholesale companies that sell through the Internet.

They get their fair share of my busines and nothing wrong with making deals elsewhere too.

 

Can you say what you paid for the kit? I'm looking for the same thing.. Also maybe you dealer was quoting the kit installed? that would make quite a difference if he was going to have to do all the cam stuff.

If he was going to charge you full retail and then hit you with 400 to install he's being pretty anal IMHO.

 

Wow - what an interesting post!

You seem like a reasonable person and your dealer is clearly not someone I would trust or want to have a relationship with.

That said there are some pretty wise folks on here for guidance.

Gregjet's and Boldor's post rings true.....


Hopefully you can find someone local (a fellow biker) to assist you to put the new exhaust on over some cold beverages one afternoon

I bought my bike from the dealer as well as the full exhaust (along with other PP) however I like tinkering so I put everything on myself.. it's good therapy..it's never to late to learn!

 

Sure I paid US$1,350 delivered

My dealer quoted $1,850 delivered and extra for installation

Am gonna see if another place will fit it for me. I would attempt the piping myself but not too confident doing the cam.

I've got a cam in my other bike and had a shop do that as well as I feel I'd probably mess it up

Gonna try next week when I'm home

 

Man,, where did you get that price? Please email info to me if you cant say it on an open forum. I'm not sure if I blame the local dealer as much as KTM themselves for setting a retail price that high.. 1350 is the price that should have been on these the whole time IMHO

 

Hey Hart I actually found the guy on the Malaysian KTM Facebook page. Posted there asking abt an exhaust, exchanged a few messages with someone from that page. He gave me his shops price (also in the dealer network)

I verified he was actually legit and from a KTM dealer by googling his shops no and calling the shop, spoke.to him.and exhaust was with me in 5 days

I can give you details.if you wish.