BARNEYS SAINT PETE SUCKS

[450rcrazy]

  I alwas thought barneys was a great dealer till this week .For the first time I delt with their service dept. and it was a very disappointing experiance. Long story short I have an extended warranty from honda for my 450r bike was running poorly would shoot 3 foot flame out the back even through the spark arrester, and would smell horrible of gas .I checked the normal stuff such as float level needle and seat debris in carb that was all perfect. the bike would run good for 20 min then run bad until you let it cool completely down .They tell me I will first have to pay 460$ to change the fouled spark plug and the oil due to it smelling like gas and confirm the proper float level.Only after that could they begin fixing the actual problem with the bike (the warranty part of the job).Shouldent the oil and the plug be coverd being that the actual problem was the cause for the plug failure and the contaminated
oil.I told them this and they respond by saying "its hard to get honda to pay for warranty work".If thats the case why push the extended warranty on people ,if your not going to honor it anyway. Brought it to another shop they had it for 30 min and told me the spark pulse generator was definatly the problem and would cost 255.00 for parts and 110 labor .Barneys wanted 460$ just to change oil spark plug and adjust the float.I will never suggest barneys as a primo dealer again nor will I ever buy from there again.

                  thanks for listening
             matt

[UncleRico]

Dude:

Sounds like you're getting hosed. How did you get an extended warranty on an R though? I didn't think Honda was allowed to sell extended warranties on race bikes?

Anyway, $460.00 bucks sounds a bit steep to change a plug and the oil.

But, I'm no mechanic.


Hope you get it worked out though.

[450rcrazy]

barneys offered it to me at time of sale .At the time it sounded like a good idea apparently it was 580 dollars wasted.

[UncleRico]

I could be way off base here, but you might want to check if they are allowed to offer the extended warranty on the R. I mean check with another dealer, or if Honda Corporate not Barney's.

Because, they might have sold you an invalid warranty, in which case you should be able to get that money back.

I'd check that out, don't take my word for it, but I remember being told by the dealer that they don't offer the warranty on the Race bikes...of course, he may have meant the hop up kit which I have installed on my bike. 

Might pay to research it though.


Good luck though, I hate to see such a cool sport become frustrating by some unscrupulous dealers.

Just the fact that they told you that THEY would have trouble getting paid by HONDA sounds fishy to me.

What was your sales rep's name who told you that?


Good luck.

Uncle Rico

[450rcrazy]

thanks for the advice .I think I will write hondas corporate office find out the scoop .rachel was the service reps name,jeff was the original salesmen
thanks dude

[Kawa3]

I gave up on all Barneys shops a while ago. Won't ever go back!

[4wheel4life]

Ya i was about to buy one just like matts from there, but i am hearing so many crappy things about their service that i wont give them my business nor any of my friends. sux to be them, i cant stand when companies cant take care of their customers.

Steve-O

[Fox17]

you can get jiffy lube to change the oil for 20 bucks. i think you got hosed. if that is an invalid warranty i would at least get ur money back. if you can sue them (i doubt you can but it sounds like a good idea).

[eldiablo64]

I went to barneys in st.pete when i was lookin to buy a quad.none of the sales people would even offer to help me.they just looked at me like what are doin here.i wanted to buy a 350 raptor and i had the cash in my pocket.so after bein in there 1/2hr.to 45minutes.i said the hell with it and left.  went to action honda in hudson and got a great deal on a 300ex.so screw barneys

[450rcrazy]

did I mention barneys sucks.I bought a honda service manual and read it front to back and will be doing all my own repairs from now on

[MOTOCROSS MAVERICK]

thats nothing they charged me $160 for a kill switch and to install it on my 350!

[trx#9]

E-mail Fox 13 news along with the other media whores. You never know you might get it on the news, that would be funny.    bustin balls!!!!!

[jujulo700R]

I went to barneys in st.pete when i was lookin to buy a quad.none of the sales people would even offer to help me.they just looked at me like what are doin here.i wanted to buy a 350 raptor and i had the cash in my pocket.so after bein in there 1/2hr.to 45minutes.i said the hell with it and left.  went to action honda in hudson and got a great deal on a 300ex.so screw barneys

I agree with you. I went to Barney's to buy two bikes, a z400 and raptor700. Man they were acting like they didn't want my business with their "come back when you are ready to buy" attitude. I could't be more disappointed with them. Not to mention there weren't cutting me any type of breaks (Freight, assembly,etc). I said screw them and drove all the way down to Sarasota to Granny's Motorsports. Those people there rock and they will do just about anything to earn your business. The guy that sold me the bikes even stayed an hour and a half after the shop had closed to make sure I got my bikes and walk me through everything. He was the only person left in the parking lot with the two bikes waiting on me and he even helped me load up the bikes! THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE!

[FOREMANRON]

THERE SALES DEPT. AINT WORTH A DARN. I CALLED THEM LAST YEAR WHEN I BOUGHT MY NEW FOREMAN TOLD I HAD CASH AND WANTED THERE BEST PRICE THEY  QUOTED ME BOOK PLUS EVERYTHING ELSE. I ENDED UP AT MOTORSPORTS OF TAMPA AND THEY WERE GREAT. BOUGHT THREE MORE BIKES FROM THEM SINCE THEN

[Drt_Boy]

I would like to introduce myself.  My name is Jack Lambert and I am Service Manager at Barney's St. Pete. 

I'd like to thank the person who emailed me a link to this thread, I don't know who you are but I apriciate the "heads up" about this discussion.

As I don't know any of you by your forum names I can't address these specific complaints at this time.  However, I can tell you that I am always open to comments and complaints from our customers.  I'm usually here 5 1/2 to 6 days a week.  You can call me at 727-576-1148, email to Jlambert@barneys.net or just ask to speak with me while you are here.

We are not perfect. 

Sometimes we are wrong in our diagnossis.

However, our goals are to treat our customers fair and produce quality work; we work very hard toward those goals.  There is a reason our Service Department has grown to 20 Tech's ......... that reason is thousands of satisified customers.  We wouldn't be one of the largest Service Departments of our kind in the country if we didn't to things right (at least most of the time).

I invite anyone who feels they've been treated unfairly in our Service Department to contact me with specific details.  I promiss a full review of customer complaints and an explination of my findings.

Please don't try to contact me through ATVFlorida.com but contact me directly and report the results here.

Jack Lambert
Service Manager
Barney's Motorcycle & Marine
St. Petersburg, FL 

[UncleRico]

I emailed the internet service manager who apparently fowarded this to the head man in charge of customer service (SEE ABOVE POST)

Hopefully, this will put you guys on terms to get your problems addressed.


- Peace Out
Uncle Rico

[Alba450]

Yea BARNEYS will stick it to you if you dont keep your eyes OPEN.......

[450rcrazy]

I have recieved my refund on the extended warranty from honda (431.62 $) a mear loss of 148.38 $. That was for the period of coverage over the 6 month standard warranty .That equates to 37.10 per month for a useless piece of paper.It's funny to me how they only take a complaint seriously after they realize that customers treated poorly have a forum such as this to spread the word of warning to others and that it might cost them money in the long run.It appears to me that barneys like dealing with people with unlimited budgets that do not care what it cost to purchase or repair things. they thrive on people who don't price shop and have no mechanical skill so they can take advantage of their money and lack of knowledge.However the majority of us live on a budget and have basic mechanical skills and don't take kindly to being ripped off .I run a shop that builds high performance racing parts for the drag market .We have a saying ,DO RIGHT BY A CUSTOMER AND HE MAY TELL A FRIEND OR TWO ,DO A CUSTOMER WRONG AND HE'LL TELL EVERYBODYthe group of 18 people I ride with  will never do buisness with barneys again for anything !their loss and ARS's gain and for assessories will be mail order riding gear will be cycle gear.THANKS AGAIN ATV FLORIDA FOR THE VALUEBLE SPACE YOU PROVIDE FOR COMPLAINT'S TO PROTECT US THE MEMBERS FROM BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF BY MONEY HUNGRY RIP OFF SPECIALISTS.If us members stick together we can help keep unscrupulus dealers in check.

[CABLEGUY1]

Sorry you had a bad interaction and by no means am I defending what you say they did to you "HOWEVER" I give the Service manager props for replying and admiting that they do make mistakes and are not perfect. He could have dealt with you only and hoped that this thread would die but instead he openly replied and gave his contact name and number which is a hell of alot more than some buisnesses. As for them ripping people off by charging to much. I don't get it? They give an estimate and the customer says yes or no. If you think it's to high go some where else. If someone says yes to an estimate then says it was to much afterwards then shame on that person for being stupid in the first place and not doing their home work. I had work done by Barneys before and got what I was promised at the price I was quoted. Did I think it was expensive? yes but I payed for the knowledge. No one made me leave it there. Long story short at least the Manager had the decency to reply and left the door open for disgruntled customers in the future. Give him some credit. Oh yeah " Uncle Rico" good idea and a nice gesture on your part for sending the email that got the ball rolling.

[UncleRico]

Hey, that's what Uncle Rico is here for, to get things done...now how about some FREE CABLE?

But on a serious note..in a perfect world the customer would always be right. "However this ain't no perfect world, capiche?"

Props to the service manager for taking an email, researching it, and making the effort to appease the unsatisfied customers.

Hopefully, the door for dialogue is now open and you will be able to recieve some sort of resolution to your problem.

Good luck!

[450rcrazy]

Believe me I know everyone makes mistakes.But the problem I have is that I had an extended warranty that should have paid to fix the bike and they acted like lack of maintinance was the cause ,however I change my oil (crankcase and gear oil )every ten hours max.along with cleaning air filter and oiling chain before every ride.They said the oil was black and smelled like gas so this must be lack of maintainance ,the plug was gas fouled this was also lack of maintainance.Oil was changed less than 2hrs of running time befor bringing the bike in and plug had been replaced twice once thirty min. of run time before bringing it in .This "lack of maintainance" is what they wanted to charge     460$ for before they would fix the actual problem with the bike.I asked the mechanic if he knows what causes oil to turn black and smell like gas ,He would not answer me .So I explained gas works like a solvent and when gas is not burned off ,compression will force the excess gas by the rings taking carbon from the top of the piston and chamber with it and yes normal wear will produce small particals causing darkening of oil after a period of time.The mechanics reply was "IF YOUR SO SMART WHY DON'T YOU FIX THE BIKE YOURSELF" AT THIS POINT I HAD TO HOLD MYSELF BACK BECOUSE I FELT LIKE DECKING HIM.I explained that I should not have to thats why a bought a warranty.The real sad thing is we told them what was wrong when I brought it to them (spark pulse generator would ground out when up to temp and would then misfire resulting in 3 foot flames out the pipe ).gee that amount of unburnt fuel couldn't possibly foul out a plug or wash the cylinders down causing black oil that smells like gas could it?.at this point I wanted to take my bike with me and was told it would cost 138.00 to get the bike back ,for what telling me the plug was fouled and oil looked bad !no kidding !!!I asked to speak with the service manager ,the girl walked away for a minute came back and said he was to busy and they would only charge me 69.00 to get my bike back.So I paid the 69.00 B.S. fee just to be done with it . the bike now runs great thanks to a friends repair shop it only cost me 365.00 to fix the generator change fluids and plug .Would have done it myself but was in the middle of busy season at work and had no time but wanted to ride on the weekend .and like I said the service manager did "not have time to talk to me to busy" but now he acts like he is so concerned with customer satisfaction ,of coarse there's been over three hundred veiws of this thread.and shows he did not do his job.
thanks again
sorry to go on and on but this situation had me so pi$$ed ive got to vent.

[450rcrazy]

Sorry you had a bad interaction and by no means am I defending what you say they did to you "HOWEVER" I give the Service manager props for replying and admiting that they do make mistakes and are not perfect. He could have dealt with you only and hoped that this thread would die but instead he openly replied and gave his contact name and number which is a hell of alot more than some buisnesses. As for them ripping people off by charging to much. I don't get it? They give an estimate and the customer says yes or no. If you think it's to high go some where else. If someone says yes to an estimate then says it was to much afterwards then shame on that person for being stupid in the first place and not doing their home work. I had work done by Barneys before and got what I was promised at the price I was quoted. Did I think it was expensive? yes but I payed for the knowledge. No one made me leave it there. Long story short at least the Manager had the decency to reply and left the door open for disgruntled customers in the future. Give him some credit. Oh yeah " Uncle Rico" good idea and a nice gesture on your part for sending the email that got the ball rolling

I think its great he left his e-mail and phone number but its to little to late .there should have been no estimate it was a warranty job that they decided to try and make some bonus money on and once they told me I would be charged 460$ dollars (3 weeks later) I did take the bike out and was still forced to pay 69.00 for something I already knew.
  And thanks uncle rico for sending the thread It makes me feel good that they now know treating customers with little respect can backfire and cost them .They now have some cleanup work to do and may prevent future customers from being taken advantage of.

[Ride1Rob]

This thread is not suprising to me at all. I've heard some bad things about Barney's from some guys I used to ride streetbikes with. I've been told by MANY that their service dept sucks.

MAV... $160 to hook up a killswitch is crazy, but I believe you.

450RCRAZY, Over $400 to change the oil and plug... CRAZY and wayyyy overpriced. If I were to change my oil and plug it would take around 1hr 30mins (And I don't have those fancy tools they have   ). Even if labor was $80 an hour that would only be $120. Guess your oil and plug was almost $300  . You seem to be mechanically inclined and you may know more about your bike than their techs.

Like stated b/f, I'm more than sure the Service manager replied b/c he doesn't want to lose business. So of course he's going to reply. What he should have done was take care of the problem when Crazyr450 first wanted to speak with him. That would have shown outstanding customer service .

[Drt_Boy]

Okay 450Crazy,

"The mechanics reply was "IF YOUR SO SMART WHY DON'T YOU FIX THE BIKE YOURSELF""

That's a pretty strong accusation and after posting something like that in this open forum you have an obligation to contact me with your name so I can follow through.  I will not tollerate our customers being treated with disrespect, even when they disrespect us.  I can't take action if I only think I know who you are and who the Tech is.  I will notify this open forum that you contacted me but won't divulge any personal information.  I will, however, present our side of the story.  Failure to contact me will remove any credibility of your complaint.

Yes, sometimes I'm busy and can't see a customer right away.  If you had wanted to wait until I was through with whatever business I was attending to, then we could have talked.

Let me explain about warranty work.  Warranties protect you from defects in materal or workmanship, they exclude abuse, neglect or normal wear.  We get paid the same to do warranty work as we do to collect from the customer.  The big problem most dealers have with warranty work is the back-end effort it requries.  We need to keep the parts for 90 days (in case the factory recalls them for inspection), that means we need to keep track of them and store them (this takes time and money).  We also need to file paperwork on each claim and follow through to make sure we did get paid.  Many dealers just don't want to go through the trouble of doing warranty and discourage warranty work in their Service Departments.  Here at Barney's we are set up to do warranties.  We have two rooms filled with parts waiting to be recalled.  We have an office person who's only job is to process the warranties, keep track of the return parts, and make sure we get compensation.  We LOVE WARRANTY WORK!  We get paid the same and the customer is much happier.  If there was any way we could have gotten your problem covered by warranty we would have.

One of our staffers you mention had already been transfered to a non-customer contact job within the company.

I will take further action once you've validated your complaint with the necessairy information.

Jack

[450rcrazy]

 
This is a copy of the email I sent MR.Lambert


I FEEL I OWE YOU NOTHING ,BUT AT THE SAME TIME YOU CAN'T IMPROVE YOUR DEPARTMENT WITHOUT ALL THE INFORMATION.My name is ------------I origenally purchased the bike after making a deal with jeff but the salesman who handled the purchase was arron and I was happy with the way I was treated .I since had sent 3 other people who ended up purchasing bikes from there.I am a very busy person during the week and dont have alot of time to make repairs on my bike so when the extended warranty was offered I took advantage of it,I want to enjoy riding it in my spare time not just fixing it.That's not to say I dont maintain it I am a maintainance freak I would change oil before almost every ride and clean air filter along with cheking valve adjustment both decompresion and intake /exhaust.I have even made repairs that where not warranty work due to a root catching the shift lever and bending it under the bike (purchased all parts thru barneys)I did not expect warranty to cover this.But however when the bike begins running horrible and spitting three foot flames out the exhaust I expect this to be covered along with any other problems this condition may have caused.The time when the bike started to run bad was during my vacation,myself and ten other friends camped at croom .The day before we left we had a maintainance party and prepared all the bikes for a week of fun.half way thru the second day my bike started running bad .First thing we tried was checking the spark plug it was gas fouled (the whole bike stunk of gas so this was no surprise .Drove to performance honda in wesley chaple and bought a new plug on the way back picked up a fresh 5 gal of gas.Changed the plug pulled the carb off cleaned it thuroghly found nothing checked float level it was fine and changed out the gas in the tank just to be sure.Bike ran great for 20 min. then did the same thing .Next thing  we checked was valve clearences ,if anything exhaust was tight by about .0005 of an inch .so we began checking ignition system ,changed the cdi with friends bike mine ran the same good for 20 bad after that .checked the pulse generator cold and then after it ran badly cold was a steady reading hot it would read voltage and then none reading was erratic .at this point my vacation was over no one had the parts in stock that I had phone numbers to .So i decided to call it a week and brought my bike to you for repair WHY NOT I PAID FOR THE EXTENDED WARRANTY FOR THIS REASON.Brought the bike in talked to Rachel told her what we knew, she said it would be a coulple weeks and as soon as she new something they would call .Three and a half weeks later I was contacted and was asked for approval to remove carb,This confused me becouse if honda is paying why ask me for approval she said well if there is trash in there they wont cover it ,me knowing that it was clean said ok take it off.The next day she calls and whants approval to do 460$ worth of work change oil check valves replace the spark plug.This is when I knew I was in trouble I said this stuff you whant to do is all due to the actual problem not the cause of it .She said well that may be but we have to do this before honda will let us fix the rest,I said the valves are good so you whant me to pay 460$ for an oil change and a spark plug .She said that they feel becouse the oil smells like gas and the plug is fouled that proper maintainance was not performed and honda is hard to get paid by for warranty work.I told her I would be down there in a half hour and would like to speak with her and the mechanic and the manager.I show up there and she brings me in the back where I see all of three mechanics NOT THE TWENTY YOU DESCRIBE (this would explain the three and a half weeks).My bike is outside not even in the shop and she introduces me to the mechanic (approxmatly a twenty year old guy) .He starts off by saying he has never seen oil so black and that shows poor maintainance .And then tells me my valves are way out of adjustment (something i had checked before bringing it in) I ask how far off he said 1 tenth of a millimeter thats .0039 of an inch .the total clearance is supposed to be .006 cold how did I fit a .0055 fealer gage easily thru there if my total clearance now was only .0021.At this time I knew he was full of BS .For one I never"approved for the valves to be checked " plus the bike was still together and outside.That is when I asked the question about the oil and was givin no reply except the comment about if you are so smart why dont you fix it youself .thats when I said I paid 560 $ so I shouldent have to .And  by the way he said it in front of rachel.This is when I said I just want my bike out of here i'll do it myself .I whent up front and then was told it would be like 148.00 for what was done .I said what did you actually do she replied "you agreed to an hour for diagnostic when you droped it off and agreed on the phone to have the carb removed"I replied was anything found in the carb she replied"no"I said and why should I pay for diagnosis you didn't find anything that I already did'nt know.I ask to see the manager,She walks away and returns moments later and said he is to busy but we'll only charge you 69.00$.I was just over the whole situation and wanted to take my bike and go.So I paid the 69.00 and swore that was the last dime barneys would ever get from me IF IT MENT DRIVING ACROSS TWO STATES TO GET WHAT I NEED .Dropped my bike off at a buddies shop he aquired the parts (SPARK PULSE GENERATOR )changed the oil and plug and the bike has never ran better for only 365.00 .I then contacted I think it's mary in the finance dept.(she is very nice)and got me the papers for a refund on the extended warranty.I also would like to tell you of my mechanic background I run a large machine shop that builds parts for the drag race industry the parts range from valve train components to disc brakes we have built many turn key dragsters that ride out at over 200mph in the quarter mile .The other division of the company do aerospace work and have done parts for the space station hand control parts for the shuttle and parts for the patriot missle systems,What I am saying is I know how to measure very accuratly and also know what it takes to make an engine perform.O and as an after thought your mechanic asked me how many hours where on the bike I replied"60 hours " he than said well now I know you didn't do your maint. becouse you should have had a hole new top end after 20 hrs and every twenty past that.I then said o im supposed to change the piston and rings every time I change oil? he said yeah I'll show you in the book but unforunately he could'nt find that in the book.I then said it's a four stroke they dont eat pistons like a two stroke.
   thank you I hope thats enough information for you