Check your bike

[Brother 52]

I had my GS into Balderstons for its 18,000 mile service the other week, when I went to pick it up I was told by a very apologetic service manager that they had lost my pillion seat on the test ride.
Balderstons to their credit sorted it out witha new seat supplied the next morning (50 mile round trip to get it mind).
But not having my pillion seat I opened my tool kit to put the toolkit lid locking piece in place, on checking my tools I noticed the packing foam was missing and also a couple of tools.
The guys from Balderstons were again great and found the missing items, but if my seat was not missing I might not have looked into my tool kit for weeks which might have been too late .

Check your tools after service before you ride away

Ride safe
Brother 52

 

[Taff]

To save all round aggro, it might be an idea to take the tool kit with you while it's left for a service.

 

[sparkplug]

Good of them to sort you out though. I always think its when things go wrong that you really get an idea of how good the service really is.

I have to say that Balderstons have always been really good with me and the one time I had trouble with my Autocom lead, they just replaced it. The whole thing took less than a minute! (or it would have done if I hadn't got nattering with Adrian)

 

[Cheesy Mike]

Just to add to this.....

If your bike is 2003 or later and has linked servo brakes plus permanently wired headlights, be aware that during the brake function test the service technician will disconnect the headlight. Make sure when you pick the bike up that the dipped beam headlight has been reconnected - just a 2 second glance past the handlebars will tell you that.

Mike

 

[Brother 52]

Good of them to sort you out though. I always think its when things go wrong that you really get an idea of how good the service really is.

I have to say that Balderstons have always been really good with me and the one time I had trouble with my Autocom lead, they just replaced it. The whole thing took less than a minute! (or it would have done if I hadn't got nattering with Adrian)

Yeh, Ive had no problems with Balderstons its just one of those things that could happen and catch us out

Although I did feel insulted when they quoted me a trade in price for my GS against another bike. When you see the avarage price for mine ( 2000 1150 GS) The price they offered was about £900 short of the mark, now I know they have to make a profit but looking at the price of the bikes in the showroom Balderstons would have made an stupid amount of profit. Ah well, it cost them a sale.

 

[Cheesy Mike]

£900 difference?

While not jumping to defend BMW dealers, they do - as you say - have to make a profit. If they buy in a used bike they then have to potentially service it, do a full safety check replacing any marginal bits such as tyres or brakes and provide a 1 year BMW warranty. Then they have a few thousand pounds worth of machine in stock that is sat on their books costing them money until it is sold. Then they have to make a profit on top of that. So the £900 amount you quote doesn't seem too drastic.

Mike

 

[Brother 52]

The £900 was below the trade in price listed in the Ride magazine price guide plus the bike I was after was well above top book price
I think it was a lucky escape anyhow, the more I ride my GS the better it gets and I well happy with it.