Ive had a months long claim against Anderwerks BMW in Calgary regarding a repair on my 1988 R100RT final drive.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> The drive leaked and was found to not have been shimmed nor sealed correctly.<o></o> Despite emails, letters, pictures, and phone calls, the owner, Dave Anderson, has refused to deal with it.<o></o> so Ive initiated formal proceedings to get a refund.<o></o> <o> </o> While Im aware every issue has two sides, Id suggest Western Canadian airheads might want to be careful dealing with this company.<o></o> <o> </o> My apologies if this type of mail is not allowed on the List<o></o> <o> </o> Jim
First post and you are trashing a well respected BMW repair shop? Dave can be tough to deal with sometimes (if he isn't German, he should be) but I have always found him to be honest and he looks after his clients. His mechanics are competent (unusual in this day and age) and thorough. Did you give him a chance to make it right? He has also saved a lot of travelers during their trips when they have limped into town and I recommend his shop all the time to people in trouble and always get good feedback. This is your first post here, so you had better provide more info. Like, who found the FD to be improperly set up? AFAIK, there is nobody else in town who can set up an airhead FD. Unless you sent it to Anton or one of the other US based experts, I can't see who could have rendered that opinion.
I've been a member of Adve ture Ruders for some time but as you have corectly stated I have not posted before. I am an active member of the Airheads List. I live in Qualicum Beac BC and am retired. I have a 1988 R100RT and a 1995 Ducati 900 SP both with collector plates. My R100RT had some lateral play and as I was restoring it I wanted the drive fixed. I looked at a number of shops but chose Dave at Anderwerks as I was aware he had an excellent reputation and he told he he could do the job right. Dave charged me 10.05 hours of labour. When I got the drive back and installed I took a test ride and found oil on my rear tire and drips coming from the final drive. I removed the rear wheel and could see the leak coming from the crown gear cover. I emailed Dave about the leak. No reply from Dave. I took another test ride - same leak problem. This time I emailed Dave with lots of pictures. No reply from Dave. I emailed Dave agian asking if the problem could be a simple gasket leak and asked if I could fix it myself. No reply from Dave I took the problem to the Airhead list and the consensus was the drive needed to be opened up to see what the problem was. I resent all of my emails to Dave in case he had missed them. No reply from Dave I then wrote Dave a letter on June 28 th saying that after no response from him about my problem I was sending the final drive to Tom Cutter in Pennsylvania for repair and asked for a refund of his invoice. On july 16 th I got an email from Mike, Dave's technician who did the work. He said they wanted to fix the problem which was good but I told Mike they had left it too long, the drive was gone and I wanted a refund. Mike said Dave would contect me. No reply from Dave Tom Cutter found the final drive to be incorrectly shimmed and not sealed according to the latest BMW tech bulletin. Tom reshimmed and sealed the drive correctly and charged me just over 1/3 the hours Dave charged. After numerous emails from me with no reply I finallly got Dave on the phone. He could have aplogized right then and offered to stnad behind the problem but instead he told me he wanted to check with some other BMW techs about repairs and would get back to me. No reply from Dave. I called Dave again, he was not available, I left a message to call me back No call back or email from Dave. Last week I requested Dave clarify whether he would refund my money by the end of week. No reply from Dave. I've never been treated this poorly by anyone in the motorcycle business. Something is worng at Anderwerks but I can't fix that, I just want my refund. I appreciate your comments supporting Dave, and I realize Dave surely has his side of the story but his handling of this matter is way below reasonable standards Jim
Maybe I'm old-fashioned... but why would you send 1/2 dozen emails instead of simply picking up the phone and calling him straight away? It's quite possible your explanation of the issue got lost in translation with email - something that could have been avoided with a live conversation with Dave. If I had an issue as serious as that, I'd be getting the guy on the phone pronto instead of relying on my email getting through to him. Sorry to hear of your woes - hope you get satisfaction.
I've dealt with Dave and the staff at Anderwerks several times over the years. I always found their work to be very good, not cheap or especially fast, but competent and thorough. Obviously something went wrong here and I can only suggest fewer emails and more phone calls might have speeded up communications, but maybe not. There aren't a lot of dates in your account of the story but I know that shop gets busy in the spring and Dave is in the shop more than at his computer.
I have all the dates of each of my attempts to correspond but I was not wanting to go into as much detail as I already have. I agree with you on the phone calls and if you can easily reach someone by phone it's usually faster and better. Some people however are busy and I think Dave is one of them so rather than leave messages I thought email would be better to explain a problem and email can be read easily outside of business hours. That said I'm sure I could have done a better job on trying to use the phone. I do believe though at some point in dealing with one of these issues you know that it's going to be better to have a written record of communications rather than trying to remember what was said on the phone. However I do think there is a responsibilty on a business owner to initiate contact with his customer where there is clearly something amiss and Dave has not made a single attempt to call or email me through this whole period. It's the stonewalling that has esclated the issue. Jim
Hmmm, I think it would have been better to just pick up the phone and give Dave a call. I am sure that if you got him on the phone and discussed the issue that he would take proper care of you and your problem. At this time of year, a lot of shops are pretty busy. Possibly he just isn't all that comfortable with email and maybe leaves it on the back burner to get to when he has more time. Who knows? Spend the few pennies and make the call. I also question sending the unit all that way to begin with. You have a very respectable BMW trained technician much closer that always stands behind his work. Shail's Motorcycles has always done me right. He was factory trained on Airheads when they were new. Some of his mechanics were also trained that way. If he can't fix something, it just can't be fixed. His shop is in Langley BC, which is a whole lot closer. He has worked on all of my airheads over the years, starting back in 1979 when I bought my very first one.
I've dealt with Shail's for years and before I sent the drive to Anderwerks I took it in to Shail in Langley and discussed the lateral play issue. Shail told me to ignore it which I didn't want to do because of the cost of a failure. That sent me looking for someone who I thought could do it properly and I felt Anderwerks would do that. If I call someone and they are busy I'll leave a message but I'll also email them as to what I wanted to talk about. I don't think a customer is totally responsible for initiating all communication or spending a great deal of time trying to call someone on the phone if they aren't readily available. That's where email is so useful as you can get a detailed message in writing to be read once you're in the office. For example Dave emailed me to tell me he opened a work order on my final drive and emailed me an invoice for payment. so I assumed email was part of the way Anderwerks did business. If a business offers email and does business by email then shouldn't they should have someone reading the mail and responding to it. How is a customer to know otherwise? In any event I am hopeful Anderwerks will refund my money $600 is a big deal when you're retired on a pension. Jim
since we are airing some laundry, imho, you should of just called the store told them your woes, told them your bringing the bike back. i hAve been in the service industry forever, with out a doubt, i feel he can't help you if you don't bring it back, give him a chance to make it right. since you got it fix else where, thats on you. if your just asking for your money back without letting him look at the bike, i wouldn't give your money back either... sorry if some judge gives you the award, he'd be on some cheap drugs...
I don't think you realize I live on Vancouver Island and we're talking about a final drive which was mailed to Calgary. and then mailed back to BC. I couldn't just mail it back without some assurance Dave would agree to redo it. Otherwise Dave would have my drive and I nothing but more shipping costs back and forth. If Dave had looked at the pictures I sent, saw there was a problem, offered to redo it, this issue would never have risen. Dave never offered. In any event I can see your point of view and understand your support of Dave. Jim
After reading & rereading all post here, I must say that JIM has a real founded complaint. Email is a common media to send & receive data. I hate to hear of a good shop going bad but this issue sounds like something is not working on DAVE's end. If this was a complaint coming in from a inmate of thousands of postings, would it be more believable? Or should JIM be only asking about tire PSI in his off road travels? You supporters of DAVE should be calling DAVE & asking what happen. Or better yet email him & see if you get one back. I would have taken the bike to the shop on an appointment. This needed to be more of a hands on for both parties. This thread may be important to anyone thinking of having tech work done at DAVE's shop. The DAVE supporters are good to hear from as well. This may take some of the sting out of the OP but should also tell DAVE to work closer at this level to ensure this does not happen again. But to ignore a customer for all those emails is just not good business. I would bet DAVE is now rethinking his earlier handling of this FD issue. Jim, good luck to you on your R100. Dave good to hear from your supporters. Can we hear from you?
I'm going to go against the theme of the responses here, and agree with you that Anderwerks has clearly dropped the ball here. Just like in my business,,,,you are only as good as your last job,,,until it's fixed. It should seem fairly obvious to everyone here scrambling to cover Anderwerks' ass that the owner here of the R100Rt could not have done anything by installing the unit to the bike that could have compromised any work done by Anderwerks. Until Anderwerks bucks up and actually responds to any one of your e-mails, he's got to waer this. E-mails are not a new way of communicating in this second decade of the 21st century. Infact,,,the customer here actually is giving Anderwerks time to look into the situation, think out an appropriate response, and recify the situation. Phoning a retail shop,,,from EVERYONE's experience, can often get a shop owner/representative who is quite busy, rattled, with other lines on hold, and often not up to the task regarding the particular customers questions. If Anderwerks had responded to even ONE of your e-mails, you probably would not have entered this thread. I say, Anderwerks wears this particular dirty shirt until they fix the situation. Steve
Check your geography. He lives on Vancouver Island, B.C. Anderwerks is in Calgary, Alberta. Hard to bring the bike back when it's in pieces in another province.
Ten hours?! Did you hide it somewhere and make them find it first? Should be three or four for a pro and seven or eight for us noobs. Agree that maybe a phone call or two may have helped.
An e-mail given to the vendor actually is giving the vendor a chance to look into the problem. You are completely wrong. You clearly do not make a living greeting the public, where the first thing that happens is you are put on hold. Anderwerks needs to step up now,,,after the 1st e-mail, not 0% response after 6 e-mails.
All you fan boys swinging from Anderworks nuts are crazy. Stop telling him he should have called, he made more than reasonable attempts to make contact. Notice the part where the tech Mike contacted him on July 16th? Obviously the shop is well aware there's an issue to fix, it seems they've chosen to ignore it instead. After going on for well beyond 2 months I think Jim has the patience of a Saint. I can't belive some of these replies. Reading comprehension FAIL.
What am I completely wrong about? That MAYBE a call MIGHT have helped? Are you saying that a call would definitely not have helped? How do you know this? It is true that I do not make a living greeting the public, not sure what that has to do with anything. I didn't say call only instead of email; email is great for providing a record of the interaction. For what it's worth, from the OP's account, I also think Anderworks has dropped the ball. Oh wait, are you saying I am completely wrong about the time it takes a noob to reshim a final drive?
I need to correct a statement I made about the number of hours Anderwerks charged me for the work done on my final drive. I stated I was charged for 10.05 hours That is incorrect. I misread the invoice I was charged for 4.25 hours not 10.05 hours No, I wasn't advised of this mistake by anyone at Anderwerks I reread the invoice and noted my error. Sorry for misleading the readers. Jim
Helped how exactly? They contacted him on the 16th which to me is a strong indicator they were reading emails and aware of the issue. It would be cool to know both sides before we light the torches and hunt him down.
So,,, you are saying that this whole incident now rests at the hands of the customer, basically it's his fault because he didn't call??? Clearly they do business way different in Ottawa fucking Ontario than anywhere else in this galaxy. I say sic-em boy, go after this company to rectify or refund. Very simple.
