Hello Everyone
Just wanna run something past you guys...As many of U know I sent the number 3 piston through the case back in July, So after months of waiting and hearing that parts are on back order I finally get the call today that my bike is ready to be picked up but with only one problem....Your battery is dead from not being used since july and U will need a new one. So my question to the forum is shouldn't they have kept my battery on a trickle charger knowing that the bike was laid up waiting for parts? Is this my resposibility to purchase a new battery or the dealerships for neglecting to charge the battery when the bike was in there care? Ofcoarse the bike is ready to get picked up NOW its F N 32 degrees out!!!
Thanks
Snuffy

If you brought them your bike, with a perfectly working battery and they are trying to give you back your bike, with a battery that is no longer working, it's on them. They are the professionals. Even dumbasses, know that a battery left sitting 5-6 months, with out maintanance, will most likely be dead. THEY dropped the ball!

* Last updated by: Cutback on 12/17/2010 @ 5:08 PM *

Shi% man...the world's full of buck passers isn't it?Okay...my advice...DON'T try to retaliate.PROFESSIONALLY tell them THEY had YOUR bike...as CUTBACK said.Legally...they're most likely responsible for maintaining YOUR bike under THEIR control.They should do the right thing here...but may try to battle you about it if you let them-don't get sucked in.You needn't try to get them to give you a new battery...they probably won't.If they won't budge on recharging your battery(which will most likely work fine)...then tell em you're gonna contact the main office in Irvine California(remember....NICELY)and get THEIR recommendation for what to do(you don't want your baby sitting on their shop floor around a bunch of pissed off workers there)Got a camera?Take it with ya.if you know she's gonna be sittin there for longer than a recharge,start taking pics of the bike...bodywork...seat...gauges(with mileage)front end.You know,all the stuff that could be "damaged" by keying your bike.They're already treating you poorly by not offering solutions that THEY will cover.Believe me...they won't want to be on Kawi's shit list for something as "minor" as a dead battery.POOR SERVICE relations...Kawi aint gonna like that one bit.Especially when sales and service things are tightening up.If you have a battery tender...take it down there and hook it up,then get yer sweet new bike outta there...and forget about going back.THEN,contact Kawasaki in Irvine...tell em exactly what happened...even to the point of having to haul YOUR OWN personal charger down there and doing it yourself.They're gonna be pissed,I can tell ya that(the main office).You never know...they may just turn around and SEND you a new battery if ya do this right with restraint.Good luck...post up what happens will ya?

You could if ya wanted get yer bud to go with ya...have him bring some jumper cables...and jump er right there,just so ya can get outta there.I jumped mine with a truck once...no problem...fired right up(dead battery) and didn't hurt a thing. Connect that hot lead to your battery hot lead,the ground to the brake pedal.She'll start right up!

In fact...you can just AVOID all the drama completely by just showin up there to pay whatever you're supposed to...if anything...on the engine deal,and then just push er outside,and go for the jump.Bring your tools to remove your foreman and battery holder...slide er out a tad..hook er up...Voila!She'll recharge okay till ya get er home and on a tender for a while.BTW...it's 10 degrees here...and if I had to do what you're doing...pick up my bike....I'd get there...believe that.Even if it meant trailering her.

* Last updated by: blue07 on 12/17/2010 @ 5:43 PM *

Tell the dealer principal (owner) to read Cutback's post... Nuff said.

Give the bike a walkabout. Nothing you can do but ride it as if new. They don't hand you back an airplane with a weak battery and all the rest of the stale gas an shit you are about to hit 120 and I think Kruz will tell you; at that speed you can fly a plane off the ground. As long as they are replacing a perfectly good part you came in with, look the bike over well. That much time is a lot of pushing bike in and out without bumping into something.

blue, no one wants to key the bike. It will only come back at them. Why blame Snuffy for all this. No, blue, that battery is junk. It has to be charge and it never was. Way too many bikes is one service manager's attitude. The proper setup is to have tagged battery bays for just this issue.

It's that simple and those tenders can handle a shop's downtime bike. I'd have 'Snuffy' tagged and cooking @13.2v or whatever that battery tender levels out at. Snuffy, you walk back at the battery bay and see if they have one. If not, then it's cheaper just to buy a battery when something like this occurs the dealer does not want a high electric bill or whatever cost cutting is, do not get cut because of the tender not present or not used under their care.

An oh boy, watch how they charge that battery! It better cook for 14 hours out the box and not plugged into the bike and off you go. Then if that is the case, have them install it, buy a tender and hook it up for the downtime.

* Last updated by: Hub on 12/17/2010 @ 5:54 PM *

The only issue I thought might possibly be a prob is that your battery is almost 4 years old assuming it was stock battery activated in March of '07. They may say that it was ready for the sh1tcan anyway. I see

I see no reason they shouldn't charge the battery for you...unless they tried and it really is toast. If I were you and if I indeed needed a new battery, i'd look at it as an opportunity to get a lightweight battery. That's another great mod. One of the best things you can do to drop weight. I'd stay away from Speedcells because although they weigh almost nothing, they seem to lose their ability to hold charge after a short time. Ask bg about them. Great for track not so much for every day use.

Whoa whoa whoa Hubster....I NEVER implied anything about this being Snuffy's fault.Where'd that come from?The jump is the way to go with this.No muss,no fuss.And KEYING unfortunately IS a reality in today's younger minded tards.How ya gonna "prove" someone keyed yer bike?By sayin so?.Shit,they'd just deny it.They're already tryin to get em to buy a new battery.Pretty shady if ya ask me.Who knows what they might try.I'd get MY bike outta there as soon as I could if she was runable.I meant their behavior AFTER you said you were gonna contact Mother Kaw...and then possibly leaving it there for THEM to recharge.(which could be another day).

* Last updated by: blue07 on 12/17/2010 @ 5:58 PM *

Rook, again, I'd match speedcell for speedcell you let it sit and not cook that little guy on the downtime hours. In other words-Forever plugged in the wall.

blue, snotty kids would think like that, I agree. So it will haunt them someone wants to hire a key fob fumbler? If there is a scratch, the key slice can revert back to the bike being pushed and banged. It happens. I do it all the time but you could not find those tiny catches before they do tangle with a scratch the dealer eats... Hey, they eat parts from 'the back.' It's a rough business you do not have a good crew to catch what Cut obviously pointed out.

I think folks misunderstood about those speedcells.They're SUPPOSED to be low volts at first.Then climb to starting voltage by recranking a few times.All the charging in the world IS NOT GOING TO RAISE the cranking volts.I had one...and thought"this is just wrong...wrong" .But it wasn't.It was doing exactly what it was designed to do.It'll start with a click click.Then...five or ten seconds later...you hit it again.This time....crank,crank.Nothin.Wait another ten seconds....crank crank...better,but still too low.Wait again...crank crank...fire!WoHooo.Now who wants to go through THAT EVERY STARTUP!...not to mention...resetting your now dead clock time!

Ya...moving bikes around...nice excuse actually.That is...if worst came to worst.

Personally,IMO,snuff just needs to recharge his battery.I had my stock battery hooked up for the first year(in my bike)...sitting for 4 months at least in the freezing garage.Went out to start er at the Spring thaw...dead baby.Got the needles to sweep...but that was it.I jump started...and rode er for the whole season after that without any problems.Got my batterytender at the end of that season,and used it partway through to the next.Battery held a charge fine UNTIL I cracked one of the terminals accidently inside the case by overtightening.Then...it was totally fooked.Would go dead overnite.

* Last updated by: blue07 on 12/17/2010 @ 6:15 PM *

Mine is an 08 bought in April--doubt it sat long before it was juiced up and sold to me. Almost 3 years old. Acts like new sat a couple months more than once and stared the bike easily. Always wintered on a charger.

I almost hate to mention this, but it's quite possible that they're hiding an alterior motive? Perhaps they fubar'ed something on the bike and the only way they know to avoid responsibility is by preventing the bike from being started there at their shop. My advice would be to bring another motorcycle battery with you and start it before you leave or, as blue said, jump it off, but the point I'm trying to make here is, make sure you have it checked out. And DEFINITELY make Kawai corporate aware of these dastardly deeds. That ought to put the dealersihp on the sh&t list with the quickness. Just my buck fitty.

* Last updated by: loadedmind on 12/17/2010 @ 6:51 PM *

""""FUCK THAT"" SNUFFY TELL THEM thiers thousands of us that want to know who the "BAD Business Name" is!!!! we want to warn and poison bad @#$%@#% off!!!!! that dont do the "RIGHT THING" so "EveRYone" no's for just a few $$$$$ they can get the WORST Advertising around the USA !You will have something to win with this non IDLE "THREAT" LET THEM KNOW ABOUT THIS THREAD FROM ALL OF US WILL HAVE THIER 'NAME' SOON TO BE SPREAD AROUND WE ARE ALL KEEN TO KNOW
WHO THEY ARE!!!!!

* Last updated by: bean07 on 12/17/2010 @ 8:14 PM *

Shit like that is what got me to start turnin' wrenches for myself whenever possible. The stealerships just don't take enough care with our precious toys. Last time I had one of my bikes in the shop was for a rebuild. Got that bike back with a tear in my Corbin seat. If I had to do it again, they'd just get the motor.

It's rediculous that they expect you to take your bike with a dead battery. But will your battery take a charge? If not, at minimum they owe you a new battery at their cost. Only reason I don't think they owe you a new one outright is that it was not a new battery when they took possession.

It is curious, however, that they didn't put it on a charger atleast the night before they finished the rebuild. Things that make ya go hmmm.

* Last updated by: DogoZX on 12/17/2010 @ 9:34 PM *

Who did you talk to? If you got a call from the shop flunky, he can't do jack. Talk to the manager, and politely tell him the battery was fine when you dropped off. Maybe he'll work with you. My dealer bent over backward for me a couple times. Be polite, and talk to the man.

Your screwed, go get a new battery put a full charge on it( overnight) take it to the shop hand it to them and have them Install it. Then opp's check the bike and look it over REAL GOOD ( bring a friend to help inspect) you need to find some thing you dont like the look or sound of or better yet some thing left loose or not put back just the way the factory had it. Then break the whole job off in there ass. They will start makeing concessions!

Whats strange is they did a rebuild on you're engine, yet they haven't even test started it yet because they claim your batteries bad? Thats some weak ass crap right there. Any reputable shop would have a rebuild test fired and ready to run before they even called you, even if that meant "borrowing" another battery to get the bike fired up. These guys sound like your typical incompetent dealership service dudes. Be SURE that motor is started and they and you both test ride it before you take it off the lot. Make sure it runs for a good long time as well and gets up to operating temp, fan cycling on and off. I wouldn't trust these guys as far as I could throw a full stand up roll-away tool box. And yep a good shop should have pulled your battery and put it on a charger. We had all the shop bikes batteries charging in series so every bike would be ready to go.
Good luck Snuffy. I hope your bike runs like a raped ape for you for a long, long time

Any reputable shop would have a rebuild test fired and ready to run before they even called you,

Heck, yeah.....would you expect anything less for an oil change or a spark plug change? We all tend to get a little alarmed when things look funny. Hopefully you just talked to a parts jockey who was busy and didn't know the whole story. i would def heed BnB's advice and make sure the bike runs a long time before you take it away. Also buck20's suggestion of insisting that they install the new battery is good. Don't do ANY work yourself, no matter how simple, while the bike is under the care of that shop. They might blame you if something is in fact wrong.

Hope you come back and tell us the battery holds a charge and it was all a false alarm.

WOW Guys Thanks For All the GOOD ADVICE!!!

According to the shop guy he said that the bike was tested and that the battery would not hold a charge and would not take a charge. So I think he expected me to say I would buy a new one from them (and get raped) but I tossed them a curve and told them I have my own connection for batteries and that I would order it. So after I checked with my battery guy and was told its not an easy battery to come by and that it will be delivered this wed. I called back the dealer to let them know I would have the battery on wed. he asked how much I was paying so I told him $40 bucks and he was like thats a good price...and I said I know thats why im buying it there.

During all this waiting I purchased a new exhaust (Brocks CTS Titanium Duals) and asked them to install it instead of my roaring toys megaphone since everything was already apart and they said no problem they wouldn't charge me to change it up but they would have to charge me for the Dyno($350). So I explained that it came with a map and they said every bike is different and the dyno was the only was to get everything working 100%.

As far as checking for damage I plan on going over the bike with a fine tooth comb. I aslo plan on going down there with pictures that I took the day I had the bike delivered to them which clearly show that there was no damage other than the engine and show the oil splatted all over the right side of the bike so they cant say these are old pictures. I even took pics with the bike being loaded on the motor transport on the way to the dealer.

When I went down to see how they where coming along with my bike I took a picture of my bike with no motor and later noticed that my right side mirror looked like it had a scrape on it so I mentioned it to a guy I know that runs another shop and his advice was dont say anything until U go to pick up the bike and then make a fuss over it.
I will upload the pics Im taking about in a minute.

Thanks For All Your Help and Advice Guys its Much Appreciated.
Snuffy

Here is the picture of the scuffed mirror

he asked how much I was paying so I told him $40 bucks and he was like thats a good price...and I said I know thats why im buying it there.

Looks like you have chromed mirrors. Good luck on the possible scratch. That is the thing that normally gets scuffed when moving bikes about in close quarters. If you see scratches on the bottom of the mirror, better have a look at you lower and footpeg on the right too.

Congrats on the hot new Exhaust. I have always been told that one of the main reasons to go with brock's was the superb maps they offer their customers. I would contact Brock's and ask them how necessary they feel it is to have a dyno tune. The dyno tune would be something I might consider after you try the maps Brock has. Have to be a tuner with a good reputation or might run less good than a map. Does it make sense to tune an engine before it is broke in? IDK? Think I'd ask the shop if you can bring it back for the tune unless other riders tell you otherwise. Never had a tune myself. JMHO.

Shi* man..that aint scuffed...that's ruined!Geez.Someone here also mentioned that's why they did all their work themselves.Gotta say....ya...me too.After a couple of tard episodes with mine from a "mechanic"...I said"no way am I takin her back there again".I hated to do it...you know...cause the guy who sold me my bike was very cool...and he's the owner of the dealership...but still.....I can't have an inexperienced guy workin on my sportbike.Geez.If it's gonna be damaged...I'M the one gonna damage her!

As it stands...when I take my baby to my personal mechanic....has his own shop...I REMOVE everything that might have to be removed BEFORE I take er over there.He doesn't get pissed...I'm actually helpin him out.It's just easier for both of us that way.Shit happens...scratches and such happen.NOBODY takes care of your bike like YOU DO.

Bet you were crossin yer fingers while she was being lifted onto that truck there! I know I would have been!

* Last updated by: blue07 on 12/18/2010 @ 2:33 PM *