[ST] 12k Tune Cost & Dealer Billing Practices

[James Wright <jwright@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ok, so I got the 12k tune on my 2000 ST today at SoCal Triumph (in Brea, 
CA), and it was $600, plus another $100 to replace the air filter and 
rear brake pads (I have no idea how they could've worn out... I don't 
think I've ever worn out a set of rear pads before at least 2 sets of 
fronts on the other bikes I've owned...), bringing the total price to 
$700.  This raises two big questions in my mind.  

First, is that a typical price, or higher than normal for that tune? 
 I've never had any scheduled maintenance, including one with valve 
adjustments, cost more than $3-400 on any Japanese bike, and I have to 
say I was less than pleasantly surprised to see this one run so much 
more.  My dad, a former Ducati and now Moto Guzzi owner, thinks it's not 
that abnormal for Euro bikes, but it seems really high to me, so I just 
want a sanity check...

Secondly, the shop estimated the price of the tune on the basis of 7.5 
hours of labor, and charged me for that, even though the bike was only 
even at the shop location for less than 7 hours, ride-in to ride-out 
(left bike in the shop parking lot at just before 9:30, arrived back at 
shop to pick it up at 4:20).  Even if one assumes that the very second I 
walked out, they started working on it, and worked on it all day, not 
taking lunch, or anything else, the mechanic could not physically have 
worked more than 7 hours on it, and what do you think the likelihood is 
he started instantly when I rode it in and they already had bikes in 
both of the chocks?  Much more likely it sat for an hour before they 
started on it, and sat while the mechanic ate lunch, leaving 5 to 6 
hours at most, not including anything he did on other bikes today.  

I asked both the mechanic and the payment-person directly about the 
hours on the bill, and pointed out that the bike clearly couldn't have 
been worked on for this long (I asked, and only one mechanic worked on 
it, plus mine was obviously not the only bike he worked on today as 
there were other bikes in the lifts both when I showed up and when I 
left).  The response was a claim that this was just the "standard 
charge" which is irrespective of actual hours worked, and just a 
function of their billing system, and that this mechanic was faster than 
others anyway (apparently implying that I would somehow have paid even 
more than the estimate for someone else?), but this does not sit well 
with me.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I've gotten plenty of other estimates on 
vehicle work, and never had someone tell me to my face that they were 
going to charge me for the full cost of an hourly labor based estimate 
even though it obviously included hours that were not actually worked. 
 If there's a "standard price" for the given service which is truly 
irrespective of hours, then I've paid that plenty of times, but I don't 
think I normally get bills that consist primarily of hours worked which 
are clearly and admittedly not - their service "estimate" is apparently 
actually a floor to the price, not an estimate in the conventional 
sense.  Am I crazy here in thinking that it is not an entirely ethical 
business practice to charge for ostensibly hourly labor with posted 
labor rates and then deliberately and systematically charge for hours 
not actually worked?  Is this common practice, and if so, does anyone 
know of shops in the L.A. area that don't do it?

 -- Jim




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