Site on Service are sh*t

paulodd · Crazy Courier Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Karma :

Well thats a bitch!

Got back this afternoon from a good weekend with the TA and thinking, hummm its a nice time to go out for a ride. So i text gareth (Gazdaman) and set up for a nice, gentle, quick ride. Set out and everything is fine, meet up with gareth, everything fine. Going along and i think the bike might not be running properly, but then i put that down to me being tired after a long weekend and that my riding wasn't as good as normal. Ride is fine, am taking it gently as i wasn't as aware as normal.

On the way back i notice i need some petrol soon, so we pull into a petrol garage. I turn the bike off and all of a sudden see smoke coming up, and think 'sh*t whats happening, is the bike on fire? whats wrong?'. I look down and see white stuff all over my engine and liquid dropping off the bike. So i rolled it over to the side and stupidly tried to start it up. It wouldn't start and it backfired. Gareth rang his dad and he reckoned that i had blown the head gasket. Oh great all i need. So i ring home get all my insurance details.

Ring up the company and they put me through to 'Greenflag' the breakdown service i am with. Talk to them, tell them what i think/know is wrong, where i am, where i want to go. OK sir they will be there in no longer than an hour. great only an hour thats ok. sit there and walk into the shop and get a little food and a newspaper. Get a phone call from the breakdown people along the lines of; 'Hi, mr Odd, is that Danbury in Oxford? WTF!!?!?!? i just told you i'm in Essex!. O sorry mr Odd, so thats Danbury, Essex, they will be no longer than an hour, o yes what makes you think its a blown gasket?' i just told them the reason and they said ok. 10 minutes later i get another phone call, 'Hi mr Odd, they will be there shortly, just had to change companys and its in Essex again isn't it?' My god, how many times do i have to say! sit there talking to gareth and eating, then later get another phone call, 'Mr Odd, they are on there way, you're going to Galleywood from Danbury aren't you?' How many times do i have to tell them where i am and are going to?

About two hours later the guy arrives and doesn't say hello and is a complete grump. He know's sod all about bikes and didn't know what was wrong with mine. Then asked if it was a 250cc. He got it loaded then his mate in another SOS (service On Site) van/pickup went past and then pulled into the garage. They chatted for abit and there was also a little trouble with a car about 50m down the road, where a car had mounted a traffic island and my recovery guy left the bike and took a stroll down with his mate to have a look while i was sitting there waiting for over two hours to get home!

He finally came back and we got off back to mine. Gareth followed on his bike behind. While in the car he got a call from his site. They asked him to pick up another bike after me in a town not too far away (about 10ish miles) and he started whining and complaining. We hardly spoke but when we did he said he lived not too far away but was based in Boreham (about 7miles away from me). Then he got a phone call from his mate, and started complaining about me and this other bike that he may have to do. I mean this guy is getting paid for this and he is sitting in front of me complaining about my bike and another bike breaking down! They also told the other biker that the soonest someone could get there was 90mins, even though he could get there in not even 30 mins and there were free people back at the base.

And why did it take him 2 hours to get roughly 7-10 miles? he was blatantly messing around or having a kip. So now i have a bike sitting in my garage that i can't ride. I haven't even had it on the road a month! It seems that i have a leak in the radiator pipe or something, because after having a full bottle on friday, and not riding the bike since, having any empty bottle this afternoon. So now i'm back on the CG till it gets sorted. Crying or Very sad

Thats my little rant over, and a little happier now its out.

Paul
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Paul
1999 Yamaha R6
www.coventrybikers.co.uk / www.norfolkriders.co.uk

Minky_monkey · Traffic Copper Joined: 01 Aug 2004 Karma :

That`s definitely not the way to do business.

I run a recovery firm and would be very pissed off if any of my blokes dealt with you in that way.

I can`t say much about the RTA, but someone else should`ve dealt with that, rather than leaving you standing there like plum!

It has to be said, some recovery drivers are world class moaners!! However, I`ve always worked on the premise that you`re there to help the person your recovering, not whinge to them!! Laughing

I`ve actually been towed by SOS when I the car was in caught fire. The most memorable thing at the time, was that the bloke drove like a nutter! Shocked

bish777 · World Chat Champion Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Karma :

paulodd · Crazy Courier Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Karma :

instigator · Super Spammer Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Karma :

Awwww, bugger mate, it doesn't sound like an expensive fix at all (do it yourself) but I know it's a pain in the arse.

Pick up man sounded like a complete arse.

Minky_monkey · Traffic Copper Joined: 01 Aug 2004 Karma :

We`re based in Surrey, It`s actually not that uncommon for a purely recovery driver, to know nothing about vehicles in the mechanical sense.

As long as they`re trained to load/unload and operate in a safe manner, that just about covers it!

We stopped shifting bikes a couple of years ago after a damage claim which cost us £2000. Things have changed recently with the advent of the dynacycler, which is basically a dolly which holds the bike upright on the transporter.

Gazdaman · I did a trackday!!! Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Karma :

To be fair he did strap the bike down very thoroughly. So suppose he filled his purpose perfectly, and it was within the free recovery distance.

I think Paul just likes to moan a lot, it wasn't terrible service considering it got us home and we would have been f*cked otherwise.

Gaz

kasandrich · Trackday Trickster Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Karma :

Paul is pissed off! you can understand that, its not the recovery guys fault, but when you are in that situation the last thing you need is to be messed about and stuff.
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Richard

CBR1000FM

Gazdaman · I did a trackday!!! Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Karma :

Meh, I know, I was there.

I've never had to use breakdown assistance before, and I suppose on the whole I was quite impressed that the whole theory worked and we both got home, with bike.

although it's knackered at the moment, that was unrelated.

It was a bit off, he'd just loaded the bike onto the trailer, another SOS van came hammering into the petrol station, albeit with a dead BMW on the back. He then got out and had a chat with out bloke...

That was the part that was a bit out of order. The rest was understandable I think.

Gaz

kasandrich · Trackday Trickster Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Karma :

^^^^what you mean not remembering whether you said Essex or Oxford, 2 hours wait when they say under an hour and have to come 7 miles, moaning about him and his broken down bike to someone else, and then you hear them quoting 2 hours to recover someone else when you know they could be there in 30 mins.........all that stuff is OK is it Wink

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Richard

CBR1000FM

Silver · World Chat Champion Joined: 03 Oct 2004 Karma :

Not that you'd want them turning up in Oxford if you were in Banbury (note the B!) as it's a good 25 minutes away.

Gazdaman · I did a trackday!!! Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Karma :

Well, It's not ideal obviously but I think it's understandable.

The time seemed to pass quite quickly, it didn't seem like 2 hours. And them calling us is apparently because they switched companies.

At the end of the day, it all worked and it didn't cost us anything, so I think it's a victory even if it wasn't ideal.

Gaz