A bit TL;DR, but needed to get it off my chest..
What an absolute ****show trying to get my gearbox repaired under warranty.
I took it into the local dealer last week for them to pull the box to inspect the problem with the 2nd gear, only to be told they can’t find any problem with it despite the oil being a lovely metallic grey colour (full of swarf), and 2nd that was so noisy it drowned out the sound of the exhaust, which at the very least should have given them some clue.
But no, that wasn’t obvious enough for them.
Fast forward to this week when I had to chase them up to find out what was going on, and was told it was all back together and I could collect the (not fixed) bike, as there was no problem.
I know the service guy there as I worked with him for years at a Lexus dealership, so that helped a bit, and I got to talk to the head tech there (on the phone), who (and I wish I was making this up) told me there absolutely nothing at all wrong with it whatsoever.
I then asked if he’d ridden the bike and his reply was he hadn’t and nor would he want to ride that sort of bike, so I asked if the tech who’d pulled the box and inspected it had ridden it, only to be told he had but it was the only ZX10R he’d ridden so he couldn’t tell if there was a problem (this is a Kawasaki main dealer FFS).
Then, and this is where it gets ******* ridiculous, I was told that the noise was probably the front sprocket as it had irregular wear on it, then I was told it may be the rear sprocket, and then maybe the chain because it had tight spots on it.
All of this I said was utter bull**** as the noise was only in 2nd and only when I let off the throttle, so clearly was a gear problem (I’ve worked most of my life as a main dealer tech and rebuilt enough gearbox’s to know what the problem was).
I had the guy on speakerphone and a couple of techs at work (one of which tech’s for a race team) were listening and were staggered at bull**** they were hearing.
So, I thought **** this and drove down to the dealer to find out what the hell was going on.
I took my bike out for a quick ride and no surprise at all the noise was still there, and if anything it was worse.
I got a load more bull**** from the “senior” tech, so asked that if I part exchanged my bike for a new one would he give my bike a clean bill of health for the dealer to sell, to which he replied “yes”.
Now I was getting somewhere, so I asked the guy I know there to get the sales manager to give me a call ref me part exchanging my bike for a brand new ZX6R (I don’t want a new ZX6R, it was just a way of getting some sense out of the dealership), I also asked if it was possible that he ride it first just to confirm that all was ok with my bike as a P/X.
I’m guessing he did, and also realised that my bike would be a nightmare for him to sell in it’s current condition.
Then, Bingo!
Today I got a call saying that they are going to replace 2nd and the drive gear under warranty.
Hurrah!
Now, what really ****’s me off is that if I hadn’t done all this I’d have been left with a bike that was seriously broken and one that was impossible to sell or P/X, and bear in mind my bike is a 2024 model ZX10R which isn’t exactly cheap (not that the value should matter).
What a ******* ridiculous that whole situation was.
There seems to be such little skillset in the motor trade these days, it's sad to see.
