Scorch
0
Summary: Monday my V-Strom is 200 miles shy of 70,000 miles and darned if it refused to start, first time in 40 years a Suzuki left me stranded away from home. So I called a local MC repair shop and they sent a guy to get me and the bike. He dropped me off at work and said it would be a week before they could start on the bike. I said that was ok. I planned to pick it up and repair it myself. I had replaced the battery a few days earlier and the voltage when at high idle was 12.9v, so I assumed the stator went out.
I did not get to the shop the next day (Tues), but I did go the day after (Weds) at lunch with my trailer. They told me they had the bike partially torn down and had diagnosed the problem as the stator. So they added $50 labor to the $75 bike pickup charge, which I was fine with since I didn't call the shop Monday and explicitly explain NOT to work on it (remember the guy told me there was a week backup). Actually, I think the shop started on my bike promptly as a favor to me, so that was pretty cool.
Here's the crazy part: As the mechanic was telling the owner what the charges were, they told me something like, "You won't believe what a new stator is going to run you." I said, Oh? How much? They said $510....
....Monday evening I had already scoped out the parts on Babbit's Suzuki Parthouse and Bike Bandit, an OEM stator is $221. So what gives? Is this common, for a shop to pad the parts prices? That much? Were they obligated to buy the parts from some supplier that charges them double what they can be bought for? Were they mistaken?
I did not get to the shop the next day (Tues), but I did go the day after (Weds) at lunch with my trailer. They told me they had the bike partially torn down and had diagnosed the problem as the stator. So they added $50 labor to the $75 bike pickup charge, which I was fine with since I didn't call the shop Monday and explicitly explain NOT to work on it (remember the guy told me there was a week backup). Actually, I think the shop started on my bike promptly as a favor to me, so that was pretty cool.
Here's the crazy part: As the mechanic was telling the owner what the charges were, they told me something like, "You won't believe what a new stator is going to run you." I said, Oh? How much? They said $510....
....Monday evening I had already scoped out the parts on Babbit's Suzuki Parthouse and Bike Bandit, an OEM stator is $221. So what gives? Is this common, for a shop to pad the parts prices? That much? Were they obligated to buy the parts from some supplier that charges them double what they can be bought for? Were they mistaken?