Bad Service And Rip Off Prices At A Big Bike Shop!

[sparticus]

Im writing this for a good friend who has recently had a bad experience at the piston shop near jj market. he wants me to warn other people about this place.

now after getting the work done on his bike he has found out the guy made a 250 baht profit on each spark plug charged double for the air filter. refused to give the left over oil of which he had paid for. and over charged with the labour.

he was recommended this place thats why he went there {bad recommendation !}

he said in general he rips everyone off as much as he can.

[Maejo Man]

Im writing this for a good friend who has recently had a bad experience

What's wrong with your friend voicing his opinion? Where is "jj market"?

[sparticus]

Im writing this for a good friend who has recently had a bad experience

What's wrong with your friend voicing his opinion? Where is "jj market"?

He is voicing his opinion through me as he has no computer and is not computer literate. jj market is the bar area that leads up to the big tesco lotus where there's many car lots . sorry i don't know the name of the road, im sure someone will write it on here.

[gotlost]

JJ market is in back of Tesco Lotus off the supper highway.

[wimpy]

Hmm. This contradicts all my experiences with the Piston Shop. I have always found Nat to be honest and helpful, providing professional work. While certainly not the cheapest in Chiang Mai, considering the quality of the work, I never felt ripped off.

Who said "he said in general he rips everyone off as much as he can"? How does he know that?

Edited October 2, 2009 by wimpy

[Pikey]

No personal experience of Piston Shop but Nat has a good reputation and friends who have used him have been happy. PLUS, his English is excellent so no possibility of overcharging or wrong work being carried out, through misunderstandings of the lingo.

The shop is on Assodhaton (?) Rd on the left between the 1st and 2nd traffic lights heading towards Tesco/Khamtien.

Cheers,

Pikey.

[bucklt]

No personal experience of Piston Shop but Nat has a good reputation and friends who have used him have been happy. PLUS, his English is excellent so no possibility of overcharging or wrong work being carried out, through misunderstandings of the lingo.

The shop is on Assodhaton (?) Rd on the left between the 1st and 2nd traffic lights heading towards Tesco/Khamtien.

Cheers,

Pikey.

I totally AGREE with all your comments Pikey. I have used Nat for over 2 years now, and recommend him to all of my friends.

p.s I wonder who this 'mystery' moaner is....a competitor perhaps?

Can we have his name please...he can use an Internet cafe - can't he?

Bucklt

[davidgtr]

Sparticus

You don't have much credibility with this report. Who is your anonymous mate?

I too have been using Nat at Piston shop for a long time now & find him totally honest & fair, as have many GT Riders.

My guess is it's probably more of a "communication / cultural misunderstanding" if anything. One bad mouthing customer does not make a shop totally bad such that you need to advise everyone

in general he rips everyone off as much as he can.

Sorry but I find your report very hard to believe.

Now I dare quote LivinLOS the Thaivisa motorcycle expert..

I can confirm that not only does Nat speak great english and seem to run a clean and knowledgeable shop but actually advised me against spending too much money on him doing jobs when he could have taken far more from me.

If only Phuket had a shop of the same quality.

[WaiWai]

Seems for some it's the Pist-Off Shop.

(Just a joke. No experience of the place whatsoever.)

[PeaceBlondie]

the guy made a 250 baht profit on each spark plug charged double for the air filter. refused to give the left over oil of which he had paid for. and over charged with the labour.

Aside from this approaching libel/defamation, even if half of it were half true, it doesn't amount to 39 baht.

Looks like the owner has more friends than enemies.

[ChouDoufu]

hi, i don't have a motorcycle yet, planning on purchasing one in the near future, so knowing service costs might be useful.

perhaps you could explain the original post:

what work was done? was this just a standard x,000-km service? if so, what's the normal charge? are you given a firm price beforehand with

everything included, or are you given a fixed labor cost plus parts? or is it just an it'll cost what it costs?

what does a spark plug cost? is 250 baht excessive? how about an air filter? how did you figure charged double?

what was the charge for labor? was it charged by the hour, or for a given service?

i'm used to paying for "up to xx liters of oil" when i have service done. do you have to buy liter jugs of oil for the service here?

how much did he buy, and how much was leftover?

what was the total charge? how does it compare to other shops?

[wjmark]

I don't know why everyone needs to know the identity of to OP's friend. Accept it for what it's worth...

As for my experience, I used to like Piston Shop, but he (Nat) did me a nasty once too.

I gave him a 1000 baht deposit to order a special exhaust for my CBR. I wanted a black Kevlar exhaust, and he told me it would be about a week.

Almost a month later he called me - it was finally in (I don't blame him for the delay - TIT).

I went to his shop only to find that the exhaust was the regular chromed one, not black.

Nat assured me that I ordered the chrome, and when I said I didn't want it, he refused to return my deposit.

Nat may 'have more friends than enemies', but to me that is pretty crappy.

Mark

ps - these days I use Race Shop - not far from Chang Phuak rd (not much English, but good work and reasonably priced. The owner is a racer himself). Also the Honda dealership on Huay Keow - the CBR mechanic there speaks no English, but sure can tune a carb!. The manager is very helpful, knowledgeable, and does speak English.

Edited October 2, 2009 by wjmark

[FarangCravings]

No personal experience of Piston Shop but Nat has a good reputation and friends who have used him have been happy. PLUS, his English is excellent so no possibility of overcharging or wrong work being carried out, through misunderstandings of the lingo.

The shop is on Assodhaton (?) Rd on the left between the 1st and 2nd traffic lights heading towards Tesco/Khamtien.

Cheers,

Pikey.

I totally AGREE with all your comments Pikey. I have used Nat for over 2 years now, and recommend him to all of my friends.

p.s I wonder who this 'mystery' moaner is....a competitor perhaps?

Can we have his name please...he can use an Internet cafe - can't he?

Bucklt

I know the mystery guy and also Pikey knows me I have the Vulcan 900 anyway it is true what my friend is saying as he is a good friend of mine I have never used the Piston shop but did listen to my friends comments with interest and he is a stand up guy who I feel has a legitimate gripe with this shop with the quality of the work and his practices with labor charges etc

it seems to me this piston shop owner is getting more and more farangs coming and he is slowly increasing prices in addition to this my other biker mate just had his ER6 customized new rewired and fabricated front lights new indicators new license plate holder plus a bunch of other mods they kept it in for several days and the labor charges were just 500 baht which was excellent where the Piston shop charged the same fee for less that 2 hours work.

No matter that is only 500 baht when you feel your getting ripped off you most likely are

the mystery guy does not own a computer nor does he use one (I know its crazy but some people just dont use computers)

[brennanstimpy]

I too know someone who uses this shop and I have heard nothing but good things, he is not a paw pieng type of guy. He seems to be a little more expensive because he speaks english and knows more than most, from what I have heard.

[Aussiejon]

Ive always found Nat to be very honest.

OK none of these guys have any formal training like we get back home but he has a better grip on things compared to other Thai mechanics.

I give him thumbs up.

John

[Sojourner]

I've never had work done there so don't know about the capability of his mechanic but I have purchased a number of replacement parts from him. He always came up with what I was looking for where others couldn't. Now I go to him first before making the rounds. Never thought his prices were out of line.

[PeaceBlondie]

Changing the topic slightly, do you think all these legal bikes sold at new franchise dealerships will squeeze out some old big bike repair shops?