Job Discussion Forums

[pest2]

This is something a friend sent me about her misadventure trying to get her scooter fixed..... I find it interesting.


1) I took my scooter to a shop to get an oil change on April 14th.

2) 1 day later, it started making funny noises so I took it back to the oil change shop

2a) oil change shop worker showed me a diagram of some part in the engine that wasnt working (seemed pretty sure about it). To me it seemed strange that this all happend THE VERY NEXT DAY after I took it to get the oil changed.

3) 1.5 more days later (on the 17th), it stopped running

4) we (Thai speaking boyfriend) took it back to the oil change shop... they said they were not at fault because doing the oil change wouldnt have affected whatever caused the problem. They said they would fix it for "2100 baht +" and allow me to rent a scooter from them.

5) We took it to the Honda shop, they spent many hours taking it apart and putting it together again at least twice. Finally 2 days later, on the 19th of April, they called to say they found the problem. They could not provide a definite time for it to be finished. Since I need the scooter for work, we told them NOT TO FIX IT OR DO ANYTHING...

6) Went back to the shop, they had not put it back together yet to get it out of the shop (2 days, on the 19th of April, at 1050am). They said "they needed time to put it back together and would not have it ready until around 5pm" (however, we should note here that it only took one hour for them to put it together before; not 6 hours plus 2 days).

7) I went to the oil change shop and we spoke with that lady again. She said they could still fix it and they said "they would write everything down about what they would do, about the cost of fixing it, and make an agreement about that before going further." She said she would allow me to rent a scooter from them, with no charge. And she said I should go with them in a truck at around 1 PM pick up the scooter from the Honda place; the assumption being that the Honda would still be in pieces since it would only be 1 pm.

Apparently the oil change lady called my bf again at around 1pm to say that the truck would arrive at 2pm and she agreed again to write everything down about what they would do for me and the fees involved; including time fixing the scooter, parts, etc.

9) I arrived at the oil change place and they called you to talk to me for some unknown reason. Then an oil change place mechanic and I drove to the Honda place together and got the scooter.
10) At the Honda place, they told me I should pay 300 baht for ????. I couldnt understand why I should pay 300 baht for anything since they hadnt fixed it; and the reason they hadnt fixed it was because they could not promise any time or charge for fixing it, which caused me to choose not to let them do it (why agree to bad service??).
10a) No discussion of any charge of 300 baht before that. We didnt agree to that before.
11) After I refused to pay the 300, the oil change mechanic paid it.... I did not ask him to pay it.
12) The scooter started up and ran just fine just before we -- oil change mechanic and I -- took it to the truck to haul it back to the oil change shop. This left me scratching my head about whether or not it was even still broken or not. Actually it left me scratching my head about the whole thing.
13) We got it back to the Oil change shop. The oil change shop lady (manager?) now changed her story to say that, "she could not give me an exact price, in writing, about what was wrong with the scooter, but she expected it to be at least 3000 baht". Before she seems so sure about it, but now she is vague
14) Having lost complete faith in both the Honda shop and oil change shop because they both seemed dishonest and like they might possibly be trying to cheat me, I paid the oil change shop lady back the 300 baht + 10 baht -- since i didnt want to wait for change -- the oil change mechanic had paid to the Honda shop and left,....

[roguegrafix]

Oil changes cost between 80-100 baht and take 10 minutes with most scooters. They are not that hard to do yourself (and I'm very unmechanical -- just need a couple of spanners and something to drain the oil into). The thing to watch is that you don't put in too much new oil which will cause your bike to run poorly (and even stop). That may have been what was wrong with your bike.

The trick with mechanics is to find one that is reliable and fair. Ask around -- the locals will soon recommend one or two. Then try them out yourself -- I must have been lucky, I've always found good mechanics.

3000 baht is a huge job. Recently, my piston rings broke which required new rings and a re-bore of the cylinder--that is, a big job. It took a week (my guy is good but slow) and it only cost 1,800 baht. Another time, the 2 u-shaped parts of the exhaust pipe coming out from the cylinder needed replacing. Since my bike was an old model, there were no spare parts. They had to make new ones -- took them a month but only cost 1,000 baht each. What I'm saying is that anything over 1,000 baht for work on the engine is really something serious.

Good luck.

[pest2]

Well, I took it to another place to have it checked out, and they are saying it runs fine. What appears to be the case is that the 2 repair places may actually be working together to cheat oil change customers into spending 1000s of baht on repairs for damage they cause on-purpose during the oil changes. The facts that it happened after the oil change occurred, no one will tell me exactly what caused the noise and breakdown, the scooter now has no problems, and after all was said and done thier plan should have concluded with me paying 3000 baht for (nothing?), I instead ended up more or less telling them to f-off and leaving at the last minute unexpectedly, makes me pretty sure it was a huge scam. Amazing Thailand. I should be so surprised.... Anyway, maybe its good advice to get oil changes from trusted mechanics with whom you have a relationship rather than random -- though appearingly reputable, competent, and honest -- mechanics...

[NigerianWhisper]

Amazing Thailand.

Like that never happens in Europe or the America's right?

[KnockoutNed]

" the 2 repair places may actually be working together to cheat oil change customers into spending 1000s of baht on repairs for damage they cause on-purpose during the oil changes."

MOD EDIT


I went to get my oil changed today and it took the guy 3 minutes. He did everything right in front of me. What were you doing when your oil was being changed? What exactly do you think they are doing to all of these motorbikes you speak of?

MOD EDIT