Complaint Review: 4 + 6 Racing/ Jim Rashid

Brought my Suzuki Bandit 1200 motorcycle to 4 + 6 Racing(formerly in Skokie, Il) to have the rear brake repaired. Left the bike there for 4 or 5 days, when Ed called to say the bike was ready. Showed up near closing, spoke to Ed a few minutes, paid for the work and prepared to leave. But as I was about to ride off I noticed that several of the aluminum cooling fins on the right side of the cylinder head were severely damaged-large chunks of about 5 of the fins were missing! It looked like someone had slammed the fins against something solid or smashed them with a tool of some kind.
My reaction was utter amazement, and I asked Ed what the hell had happened.He(claimed) to have no idea how the damage occurred, that the tech who worked on my bike never said anything about it. This seemed incredible to me because the damage was ridiculously obvious. He said that he was the only one there, but would tell Jim Rashid(the owner) first thing and have him contact me immediately. Ed said that he was an employee and had no authority to do anything( I later found at at trial that this was a lie; Ed is partners with Jim and part owner). Anyway, I waited a few days, and never heard from Jim. After five days I started calling and asking for Jim but was repeatedly told he wasn't in. Finally after about another dozen phone calls, Jim got on the phone, said he was aware of the problem, and that he would "take care of it". After showing Jim the bike he said that this would be a simple welding repair, and had a guy that could easily fix it. He shook my hand and said he would call me very soon to make a time to have the repair done. Shockingly, I never heard from him again.
After three weeks and no call I decided to take the bike to a few places and see what they had to say. The head of the service department at the local Suzuki dealership looked at the bike and laughed at the idea of having it repaired. He said it would look like SXXX, and not to bother.He said the entire cylinder would need to be replaced. He recommended a specialty welding and repair shop to ask about the repair. When I took the bike to the welder he looked at the damage and agreed with the Suzuki dealer-he said that the fins were aluminum, very thin and very close together and therefore the repair would be impossible. He said that he did these types of repairs regularly on bikes with steel engines(like Harleys), but he would not be willing to even attempt it on an aluminum engine. I took the bike to one more welder recommended to me and was told the exact same story.

At this point I decided to get an estimate on having the cylinder replaced by the Suzuki dealer and took 4 + 6 Racing to small claims court. After four! court appearances, none of which Jim Rashid ever attended, (each time Jim's lawyer asked for and received continuances so Jim could be out of town on "important racing business") the court finally insisted upon an arbitration hearing. I won the arbitration hearing and was awarded a $1,300. settlement, only to be told that Jim had paid a $250. fee to have the arbitration award thrown out and the case forced back into court. Five!! court appearances and continuances later, Jim's lawyer asked for and received a jury trial. At this point, my time, faith in the courts, and ability to pursue this matter had evaporated. Fourteen months had elapsed since the date I took the bike to them The attorney I contacted informed me that a jury trial was no simple matter, and that all I could hope for was a judgement that he had no reason to expect 4 + 6 to ever pay.
Needless to say, I wouldn't exactly recommend the fine folks at 4 + 6 Racing. The thing that makes me maddest is that these scumbags were perfectly happy to let me ride out of their shop without ever saying a word about the damage they did. Oh, I almost forgot- they charged me $115 for the original repair of the rear brake but they never did a thing to the brake at all!
Please tell any friends with motorcycles to avoid this place like the plague.

Jake
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.