Shame-Metropolis Motorcycles, Vauxhall

Help & Advice Praise or Shame
61

Are you speaking for Metropolis? I’m sure your manager would love to hear that you are telling a customer and to be honest you are telling everybody that Metropolis does not need customers to come into Metropolis, this sounds like fighting talk mate. Next with a little bit of help we could have protest and civil action against your beloved company… You really should watch what you say, you are alienating YOUR customers, YOUR job is only their when you have bikes to fix/sell…

Sadly I have heard about Metropolis and its bad reputation also and with these comments you are not doing much to correct this image.

62

cant delete this extra post

63

Only been in there a couple of times last year when the other half did her CBT/DAS with them.

The guys that run that side and the instructors were all friendly enough. Also had a good experience with the guys in the clothing department when V was getting kitted out very helpful.

Must say the sales guys were a bit hit and miss, but maybe the 2 out of the 5 I met who acted like asses were just having a bad day

Can’t comment on the parts counter or service side because I don’t use them.

64

i agree, whilst nobody ever wants a bike to break down (who wants screaming customers) these things do happen, i always think the measure of a good business (regardless of industry) is how it reponds to a problem- and certainly offering a nice new fazer would have eased my pain !, as somebody who has massive experience in this industry i can tell you that if my customers have issues, a conversation speaks a lot louder than “verbal abuse in front of other customers” - it also make you more inclined to help in order to retain that customer., this is a great website and i enjoy and learn form the majority of comments, but there are a few people on here that are just hysterical and seem to await a complaint against a vendor purely to add “their dig” .

I agree bad service cannot be tollerated,but bad customers cannot either, i for one just do not want people who feel its their god given right to abuse staff purely because the product they have has issues (that we are willing to solve quickly and with as least problems as possible) none of us get paid enough for that,

imagine what you would do in your own industry if a client walked in to your office,cafe,nail bar,plumbers merchants,IT support desk etc etc etc and behaved in this way ? honestly and be really honest … you wouldn’t tolerate it and you wouldn’t be that helpful

My message is clear, when things go wrong ,most of the time it is beyond anyones foreseeing, but if they manage to manage the situation and do their best - i call that GOOD SERVICE out of a bad situation of no ones making ,

if you don’t get looked after then, yes vote with your £££’s and don’t come back

hope your bikes better now and you can enjoy the summer !!!yeah right !

65

Great reply Clinton. Keep up the good work fella!

I thinnk some of that text copy@righted LOL!

66

For info My name is Mark, working at a dealership in west london -nothing to do with Metropolis but just wanted to add comment !

67

hi all,

i had a recent experience with metropolis vauxhall, me and a pal were out and about, he wanted a new lid and i d set my mind on a new r1,

after the sales guy sat chatting on the phone infront of me, 5mins mins later he paid me some attention, talking about the bike etc, sat on it again, having test ridden one previously. Couldnt decide on the colour, liked the blue but had never seen a black one, and he said he would be having a black one in a few days later…so i wanted a side by side comparison with the blue and black.

Another customer comes in and stood around awkwardly for a few minutes so i said to the sales guy help him out and i ll come back to give you my details in a few minutes. Few minutes later, i wander over and the sale guy said to me, your ll have to hang on

‘this gentleman is actually putting some money down’- now the way the pr*ck said it, he clearly insinuated i was in there for shits and giggles, i was slightly shocked, felt like slapping him, my pal couldnt believe it either… how rude is that, felt like saying to him, my watch cost more than you make in 6months *****ucker.

The pressure to put money down i felt was immense, put money down on what exactly? i dont know what i want yet!

So infinity in clapham for me, deals are similar all over, but when your treated well its priceless.

my only regret was not pulling him up on it, and as for the second hand bikes outside, we looked at a repsol blade on a 05plate, state of it, filthy, not looked after and they wanted top dollar for it!

Wont be returning

james.

68

Haven’t read all this thread, but just to echo at least one person here, their training people all seem like decent sorts. I passed my test with them and would recommend that side of the operation. That said, I don’t think I would buy a bike from them, given the comments here.

69

I was in their Vauxhall showroom the other day for some parts, while i was waiting to be served im standing next to one salesman and a youngish brazilian guy who was after a new Vespa or something and was trying to negotiate some money off a lid/gear, I cant remember what exactly was said but the salesman was piping him full of bullshit (we are the biggest dealer in the UK, you can go elsewhere but who knows what you will end up with)… I assume were talking about a 2k Vespa here they were offering him £60 quid off gear for it, He ended up walking away very politely saying, ill have a think about it, as soon as he was out of earshot they proceeded to slag him off, infront of me. Time waster etc etc…

I’ll Use them for parts but i wouldent buy a bike from them if you twisted my arm.

70

I bought a bike from Metroplis and it’s been OKish - the saleman was OK - wouldn’t say he went out of his way to be helpful but did enough. I knew what I was after so it was almost in and out. I bought at the end of the month when they were trying to hit targets so got a reasonable deal (slightly better than what what P&H were offering).

The service department cocked up my 600 mile service a bit - they were supposed to fit crash bungs when I picked it up as part of the deal but forgot - but got it in quickly and didn’t charge me for the bungs as it was their cockup.

Clothing departments pretty good IMHO. Helpful guys sorted me out with some decent textiles and when I went in to get a new helmet last week the guy spent 45 mins with me going through them (ended up with a Shoei XR1000).

I’d say as dealer they were pretty middle of the road and could improve a lot. But it’s 2 mins from my office and it’s not been too emotional so far.

71

Just seen this,

He was a next door neighbours friend and know him through my profession.

72

Lets not forget things like the service people calling customers liars.

Oh and do they have a fully ducati trained mechanic? Or do Ducati get waranty bikes taken to other dealers?

73

Next time i’ve got pmt i’ll pay them a visit :smiley: they’ll find out the hard way Q

74

The more I have to deal with Metropolis at Greenwich, the more angry and frustrated I get. I bought a brand new Vespa from them, it was without a tax-disk and it took them about 4 to 6 weeks to get it and meanwhile they told me that it was ok to ride without one (may be I don’t know smth), may be my expectations are too high but I think it could’ve been done while the bike was still in the shop.
I skidded and took the bike there for repairs as it needed to be re-painted though the damage was minor. Then the interesting part begins: it took them more than a month to do the estimate and though they had the approval for repairs from the insurance company in early September the bike is still with them and every time I try to find out what’s happening they tell me that somebody just been on the phone with or will call the paint and body shop straight away and will call me back soon, that the bike will be back to them “next week”… but it never happens.
Mark there is a nice chap but the whole system is hopeless and he seems to be unable or unwilling, though I don’t want to think so, to do anything about it, I’m fed up with promises, fed up with having to ring them again and again and again without any visible effect and ready to return the bike to them, ask for compensation and buy one from the dealer who actually values it’s clients.

75

I’ve no comments about metroplolis in vauxhall but I would like to mention not all their stores are bad, I worked in the barnet branch (when they had the large shop on the high road) for a couple of months only but always kept intouch with them even when they shut down and just had the small honda n service shop round the corner, never had a problem with them and always been treated with respect even when making (and i say this honestly) stupid requests for parts prices for mates who never followed through. but definitley agree i’ve heard plenty of bad stories about the vauxhall branch.

76

I love to jump in and slate bad customer service because Im proud of giving good customer service at our store but when ever I have called the parts department at the Greenwich branch or the Vauxhall branch they have been friendly, helpful and and gone out of their way to sort me out so I have to say my experience has been good. With every massive dealership your gonna have a big customer base, if you have a big customer base your potentially gonna have a larger amount of people to p*** off so its natural for people to jump in and have a go at a big dealer but I cant help thinking Metropolis are doing something wrong.

Sales on the the other hand, PISH, my other half worked in the sales department at the Vauxhall branch, she quit after 12 weeks, Ill say no more but I would NEVER buy a bike from one of their sales men.

77

Only bought a pair of gloves from Metropolis (Vx) and clothing guys were perfectly nice. However, I went to arrange a test ride of Monster 696 in June and the guy (Chino or something similar) would not even speak to me. Wanted me to email a test ride request and would not book one(not for the same day of course) there and then.

I waited a bit and tried again about a month ago and the same guy did it on the spot and was more than helpful.(one of the rare benefits of the Credit Crunch, eh) As I was trying to decide between the monster and Street Triple R I walked over to the Triumph bit and they were fantastic. Finally arranged a ride with Bob a couple of weeks later when they had received their test machine and they were great.

In the end ended up ordering from On Yer Triumph as they could deliver one much sooner and gave me a much better price. However, based on the service I received from the Triumph guys, I would have been happy to buy from there.

Having said that, I’ll think twice before I take my baby there for service.

78

I have to say I had the exact same problem, I went inside with my missus and we were looking around, I was looking to trade in my bike for a new one, basically she tunrned around and said “we been waiting for 15 minutes and that guy has been chatting on the phone … can we go now???” and yes there is no need to say more, we had a look around and we were off.

I went to Harpers and Hein Gericke, both talked to me, gave me their opinion and guess what, I ended spending about £00s in there, gow some gear and all my lubes, cleanings and parts come from them.

I saw that advert on TV about Argos… the one the woman get really really pampered with all the music and all that attention… and you know what??? I bloody like it, my missus would love to get treated like that, no I don’t like walking into a shop where I browse a catalogue, can’t see the goods, stay in queue no smile nothing…

Anyhow I think you get my point…

79

+1
That’s the worst advert in the world. It basically says “don’t go to Argos, they don’t care about pampering their customers”.
I, too, like to be thanked for my custom and made feel like the shopkeeper is grateful. I hate the cornershops and petrol stations where shopkeepers will be chatting to a mate on the phone or watching TV and not say a word, they just stick out their hand as if to expect money. I hate that and never go back to a shop that happens.

80

I’m having a similar experience with Vauxhall Metropolis in trying to sort running issues with my Suzuki INTRUDER.
Can you suggest a better garage?