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Warning: motowrx is shady

W

Winst2shn

New member
Joined
Aug 19, 2002
Location
Hayward
Moto(s)
zx6r - sold
Just a friendly warning, these fine gentlemen @ Motowrx in Livermore are your typical shady mechanics.

I took my bike to them to swap out front and rear tires. I brought the bike and spare set in, and was quoted an hour labor @ $75 for the job. Reasonable, so I left my bike with them. When I came back to pick up the bike, the guy says the amount due was $150. I question him, saying I was quoted $75, and he says "Oh no, that's per tire. Actually, the job usually takes 2 hours @ $75/hr + mounting fee, but I waived the mounting fee for you." Wow, what a great guy, he only charged me 2 hours of labor for a 45 minute job, and waived some extra bullshit mounting fee :applause

I didn't bother pushing the issue since I thought they had my bike and keys, so they could make things even more difficult for me, not worth any more of my time dealing with clowns.

Besides, apparently they really needed the extra cash if that's how they usually operate to stay in business.

Cross posted in the Garage ;forum to spread the warning.
 
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Interesting. I have heard nothing but good things about the one in Livermore, and I would've expected them to be run pretty similarly...
 
Actually, that's what I meant, Livermore. There isn't another Motowrx anywhere around to my knowledge. Was just editing that when you posted.

Yeah, I did a quick search and found some good reviews too, so it sucks to see them pulling this nonsense.
 
Dude, I've been there a few times and gotten excellent service. Gixxergirl1000 can also give you blindingly good feedback on them. A store can't please every customer every time, but that doesn't mean that they should be publicly denounced for every one of those instances.
 
Dude, on this forum, Gixxergirl1000 seems to be the only one consistently with anything good to say about them.

I'm outright telling you the cold, hard facts I've experienced. They charged 2 hours for a tire mount and balance, and tried to make it out like they're doing me a favor. You can't dispute that that's just wrong, or spin that in any possible way.

I understand your results may vary, but just offering a warning for others that may not have an "in" with them for whatever reason.
 
I don't know anything at all about this shop, but $150 to mount two tires is asinine.

Incidentally, all mechanics owe you a written estimate before doing any work. If they didn't give you one and obtain your signature authorization prior to the work, then it was you could have made life very difficult for them.
 
I went in there once because they're about the only game in town (that I know of, anyway) and I was desperate for a filter that afternoon.

I was in my street clothes, and these guys were on me like hyenas smelling n00b blood, pushing random crap they had there for "sale". Got the feeling their business model was charge 100% markup to those who don't know any better.

Judging by the local demographics, I suspect the bulk of their customers are family-oriented weekend dirt riders (and their kids) who know fuck all about bikes and pricing, and who can be raped indiscriminately.

Paid through the ass for the filter. Certainly would never set foot there again.
 
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dam thats insane, the shop I go to in oakland charges me $60 to change and mount & balance both bike tires.
 
I trust the people at Motowrx, if I need to have
Work done on my bike they would be my
1st choice. They do all my tire mounting, call
Jason the owner.
 
I've dealt with and liked my experiences with Motowrx in Livermore. For me, it was worth paying an extra dollar for a filter rather than driving to pleasanton and spending 30-60 minutes in transit. I liked having a shop in my neighborhood.

They've sold me a few parts that were priced nicely and work great. My rear stand was cheap, tough, and nice, and when I bought spools for the stand (another really good price, months after I bought the rear stand) Jason installed them for free. Yeah, it is easy, but he did it out of kindness (I didn't really ask for help) and he wasn't looking to get anything out of it.

I also talked to Jason about getting on the track. It is something I wanted to do at the time (now, however, I can't afford to wreck my bike, so I don't take it to the track). He had a ton of useful information and they were always really nice.

The other guy, whose name I forget, was also really cool and I've ordered a couple parts here and there with his help. They never tried to sell me crap I didn't need, even when I was new and I came to their store with stupid newbie questions.

I once asked about servicing forks. Their price was higher than I was willing to pay, so I did it myself. No big deal.

If they intentionally misrepresented their prices, then they may actually be "shady". But from my experience, they've always had clear prices and when I thought something wasn't priced right I didn't buy it.

Additionally, look around barf for damaged wheels. Many places have managed to screw up expensive wheels while changing tires. If the shop doesn't want to put itself at risk, it may choose not to do tire changes at all. Or it may charge a lot so that it can handle cases where damage occurs. Ultimately, if the price is wrong you have a lot of options in the bay area.
 
Tire changes should typically only take 30 minutes per wheel or less.

Unless you ride a Buell/Harley or some other cruiser bike with complicating factors.
 
RhythmRider said:
Dude, I've been there a few times and gotten excellent service. Gixxergirl1000 can also give you blindingly good feedback on them. A store can't please every customer every time, but that doesn't mean that they should be publicly denounced for every one of those instances.
Click to expand...

Well if that "one unpleased customer" was you then you too would be telling people about it.

No matter how you look at it, the shop is at fault here because they either failed to clearly explain the charges for thier service to the customer or did not write it up correctly at first and instead of contacting customer to explain thier mistake decided to just wait until customer comes in to double the estimate.

OP, you should talk to the owner and if doesn't work out contact BBB/BAR with your estimate/bill documents.
 
wackyiraqi said:
I don't know anything at all about this shop, but $150 to mount two tires is asinine.
Click to expand...

+1

Cycle Gear will mount 2 tires for $40 if you buy the tires from them, $50 if you didn't... and that includes the spin balancing, etc...

$150 to mount a set of tires!? You don't ride that Viper engine powered 4 tire motorcycle thing do you? :confused

Stefan

*edit* Oops! I noticed that your experience was with "Wheels on the bike" I'm not certain what CG charges for that since I always get tires mounted wheels off the bike...
 
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Hope this doesnt add any additional fuel to the fire, but the Dunlop/Trackside Moto folks at PTT/T-Hill yesterday changed my rear in 10 minutes flat, $25 for labor.
 
Motowrx adjusted my suspension for me when I got my dirtbike. Free

I also brought in my pitbike because for the life of me I couldn't bleed the rear brake. They took it for an hour and called me saying the rear MC seal was leaking. Again, no charge.

Sucks that you had a bad experience with them, and it sucks that i.moto or whatever it's called now is closing down, less competition.

I can also highly, HIGHLY recommend Bernal Racing also in Livermore

Again, their prices on some stuff are a little high, but they're good guys @ Bernal.
 
ReCK1 said:

No matter how you look at it, the shop is at fault
Click to expand...
How can you say that? Were you there?

Here is another possible event:

Shop: We charge $75/hour minimum 2 hours labor.

Client, thinking to himself: $75, oh ok. That is good. I'll give you $75 to do the job.

This is hypothetical, but the point is that communication is a two way street. If you don't understand what you are agreeing to it isn't always the fault of the shop. The shop won't sit you down and explain everything all the time. You need to be aware of what you are agreeing to.

If the shop did intentionally mislead the customer, then they are "shady" and I would be angry too. But from my previous dealing with this particular shop, I haven't found them to be misleading, even though I have found them to be a bit more pricey for some service.
 
I spent 300 dollars once to change my tires. ;)


For 300 I got the tire changer, non-scratching bar, and balancer. Now tire changes only cost me the price of the rubba! Going by CG's prices, I have saved about 120 dollars so far this year just mounting the new sets of street tires I have bought, not to mention the 4 trackdays that required switching from street to track tires. So that's about a 280 dollar savings. So, tonight when I switch back to my street tires, the tools will have already paid for themselves.
 
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