From: bethd@netcom.com (Beth Dixon)
Subject: Re: Problem with Grand Prix Maintenance Shop
Keywords: grand prix maintainance fraud
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 19:15:18 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.013650.20656@wdl.loral.com> csk@wdl50.wdl.loral.com (Chuck Kuczaj) writes:
>I would also appreciate it if any other people who have had problems
>with this shop would get in touch with me.  Perhaps we could work
>something out together.
>Thanks in advance for any advise/information.

I was surprised to hear of your problem.  Tom and I have used Grand
Prix for a long time.  He rides a Concours (not purchased there), I
have an old SR250, and we both crew for an FRZ400.  While I agree
that the salesmen are total slime and the parts department iffy,
Pete has been nothing but helpful and informative.

I've found that if one is willing to be a little patient and work 
with the parts guys (check the microfiche with them to make sure they
order the right thing, etc.), it all usually comes out okay in the end.
They do have one woman part person with short dark hair who must
be there for decoration.  She's complete useless and I simply refuse
to deal with her.

Tom's had excellent service performed on his Concours at Grand Prix.
Pete really worked with Tom to find and fix the carb stumble Tom
hadn't been able to find.  The problem was caused by a mistake made
during an earlier servicing at another dealer (Hayward Kawi, I think),
but Pete never said so.  Tom drew that conclusion when he learned
the cause of the problem.

My Yamaha is rather old and had been sitting for a while when I 
bought it.  Last winter I did some extensive servicing.  I couldn't
get the bearings out of one of the wheels, so took it down to Pete.
He knocked them out for me for free, and showed me how to work with
the existing sleeve so I didn't have to buy a new one.  He also
spent about 20 minutes digging around in a box of hardware trying 
to find a screw I needed for the old filter cover.  Found a few that
might work and gave them to me.

I was hot to buy a YSR50 they had on the showroom floor one day.
The salesmen were circling, even.  Pete talked me _out_ of 
buying the bike.  He said he didn't think I'd be happy with one, 
but if I decided later I really did want one I could always buy
one another day.

Pete doesn't get much business from the race bike, either, as Tom
and Roger do all the work on that themselves.  We've ordered a few
parts for it, but that's all.

My suggestion is to go down there again.  Talk to Pete.  Remind
him what he told you and tell him what you discovered when you
checked it out himself.  See what he says/how he acts.  If you
don't like the outcome, do what you feel best.

I have a hard time believing Tom and I are the only people who
get good service out of Pete at Grand Prix, especially since we
hardly ever drop money for anything other than parts.

Beth

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Beth E. Dixon               DoD #0384            bethd@netcom.com
1981 Yamaha SR250 "Excitable Girl"                    AMA #631903
"I can keep a handle on anything just this side of deranged."
                                                        -- ZZ Top
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