Really annoyed... Metropolis servicing

So… I go have my annual MOT and service (willing to have a resonable bill at the end of it as I know I’m on low tyres)…

Deliver my bike on the morning, leave for work. Receive a phone call on the work (new tyres and brake pads required), no estimate of cost though, but I authorise the workn as I’m the kind that knows that bike services are not cheap and would trust a good mechanic

Pick up the bike at the end of the day (a bit rushed as I have to be somewhere). Pay bill on site.

Look at invoice later (no issue with work or parts)… but FOUR hours for labour (FOUR!!!). Labour chage broken down as: service (2 hours), change two sets of tyres (1 hour) and two sets of brake pads (an extra 1 hour charged).

So you wouldn’t blame me if I pass this through a mechanic friend (being a girl - I just take the bike in for service and know I’m leaving it to the experts to do)… but the extra hour labour charge for changing brake pads WHILST the wheels are off???

Obviously rang though and requestioned but got nowhere.

Conclusion - someone is taking the p*ss. Metropolis - quite simply you’ve lost my business.

Anyone else think the labour charge is justified? I think I’ve just paid for someones coffee/ fag break…

ello longtime no see, yeah they prob have charged you an extra hr with the brakes.

I don’t think that’s right (not knowing your bike etc though). should only take a few mins with the wheels off surely?

Hello, hello, hello:) :slight_smile: I’m around - just bought a horse which is near box hill of all plasces which is taking up my time. Will get out on some adventures with you guys soon.

Service - yeh, but an extra hour when the wheels were already off!!! P*ss take…not a happy bunny.

I had both tyres and rear brake bads changed at FWR a while back, they did it while I was waiting… I had just enough time to buy and eat a bag of chips from the chip shop round the corner!

which branch was it

Seems a bit hefty.

I got charged 15 minutes extra for changing the front pads during my last service at In-Moto and they didn’t have to take the wheel out for that service.

Depends what they did . . . simply swapping pads it’s a bit much but perhaps they roughed and cleaned the discs, cleaned the callipers, checked the pistons moved freely, bled the fluid a bit and generally tidied them up as well as swapping pads, it’s not too bad. Takes me about an hour to do mine, cleaning, checking, bleeding etc.

but then that would have been mentioned, no?

I’ve often had breakpads changed while having a new tyre fitted and never ever had to pay any labour, just the cost of the pads. I’ve done this at FWR and Wattling.

It’s a rip-off.

Same here, had mine changed at FWR recently. Metropolis are taking the p***. Tell them you’ve reported your experience on here and give them the opportunity to defend the time they’ve charged you for, bet they won’t though.

:laugh:love it. I think you will find the cost of one hour’s labour on your bike will be dwarfed by the cost of horse ownership :hehe:

next time go to watling tyres in catford they fitted two bt016 tyres for £230.

yeah they shouldnt be charging any labour at all but if any 1 hour at most

Yep - can afford both :)Thanks for the comment, but it’s not about the money… its about the principle of being ripped off… and the unsatisfatory customer service provided when asked what I giot for my four hours labour cost. To be honest, I went in there and paid the bill upfront thinking that I was relying on good value for service. Seems not the case. Seems like I could of done it faster myself with blueprint instructions…

Taking the p**s seems to be their specialty. I bought a Street Triple R from the Triumph franchise . Second day I had it the number plate fell off somewhere. Got a new one made up and they agreed to reimburse me when I had the 500 service. They were quite grumpy when I questioned why they had deducted the VAT from the refund. Did not look at the back of the bike after the service and when I got home I find they had replaced my plate with their own one, with a advert for them half the size of the plate. Got the hacksaw out right away and removed all references to them. They do not pay me to advertise them.

Sorry about my flippant remark, you’re quite right to be peeved about the charging. It’s just that I have horsey relatives so I have fairly close-hand experience of the costs; it wasn’t a dig :slight_smile:

Well if you got a bill, with a break down of the amount and the time, then I would write to them and ask them to justify why you have been billed for an hours worth of labour, when the wheel was off for a tyre change, and if they cannot that you may have to consider taking the matter further.

Don’t ring them, write them a letter. Take your time, write it clearly and efficiently. Perhaps you should contact trading standards first and find out where you stand.

You are a consumer, you are protected by quite a lot of hefty consumer law, a lot of it European law, you should check that.

Once you find out where you stand, write them a letter, don’t back them into a corner, but make it clear that you know your rights and you are pissed off enough to carry the complaint through.

If the law is on your side, as I suspect it is, and your letter is well written, they will likely offer to refund the hour labour.

I recently had tyres and brakes fitted, with braided hoses at Road and Track Dyno in Aylsebury, good guys and once the wheels were off, it took them about 5 minutes to replace the pads, the guy did the front wheel while my bike was on a paddock stand because the proper stands they had were busy doing other jobs. He also greased every bolt and cleaned off a little bit of rush/dirt, so it wasn’t like he did a half-assed job, I was standing there watching and it was pretty good.

I recently had tyres and brakes fitted, with braided hoses at ** Road and Track Dyno in Aylsebury,** good guys and once the wheels were off, it took them about 5 minutes to replace the pads, the guy did the front wheel while my bike was on a paddock stand because the proper stands they had were busy doing other jobs. He also greased every bolt and cleaned off a little bit of rush/dirt, so it wasn’t like he did a half-assed job, I was standing there watching and it was pretty good.
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That’s exactly why I refuse to go anywhere else, these guys are the best!:smiley:

The thing I find with Gavin and Shaun, I can pop in just to chat, I get offered a free coffee, and there’s never any pressure, implied or unspoken, to spend any money. How cool is that?:slight_smile:

Well, thanks guys for the advice - just reassured me that I wasn’t going insane!

Kaos - thanks v much - your points are welcome and I’m going to source other quotes, then write a stern letter that supports what it should have taken time wise to perform the checks/ changes. They have lost my business though, which is a shame as I went through their DA to get licence etc and thought they were okay. Not so though.

If it’s any consolation (and just incase some of you were wondering, the location was Vauxhall, the nbike I have is a Kawi ER6F and the bill came to £825 inc VAT (thats with labour £300 exc VAT) which does include new wheels and brakes and oils and bits - it’s the labour hours I have an issue with… )… my friendly biker neighbour says he’s never spent that much on a bike ever and has pointed me in a few places for the future - which I will be using. All your recommendations have been noted above - didn’t realise that this was going to be such an exercise!!

Eezyrida - no offence taken :slight_smile: - now I’m on the otherside of the road so to speak with my youngster-4-year-old horse, who is definatley getting used to all the bikers from boxhill flying around on nice sunny days (to show you how close I am; we went to the top of box hill with the horses last week)…and I’m impressed with all the bikers who do slow down when asked (shame about those car drivers though who do not) - might have to but praise up on all those bikers who slow down for a mental horse and me as a horsebox driver!!