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  • Report:  #149364

Complaint Review: Callaway Motorsports - Riverside California

Reported By:
- Rancho Cucamonga, California,
Submitted:
Updated:

Callaway Motorsports
1575 University Avenue Riverside, 92507 California, U.S.A.
Phone:
951-6838839
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
The service department and service manager "Jim" at Callaway Motorsports are both incompetent and stupid. Do not take your motorcycle/ATV there for service. Also, their customer service is horrible. The sales manager Jeremy and salesman Thomas were all smiles when I wrote the check for my motorcycle but now that I'm having problems, no one wants to help me.

I purchased a brand new Kawasaki Vulcan 1600 Mean Streak from Callaway on 3/21/2005. A month and a half later on 5/7/2005 the bike broke down on me, due to an electrical problem, leaving me stranded. Jim, the service manager, told me it was a "one-in-a million" defect in the main fuse box.

A couple of weeks ago, 6/25/2005, my bike broke down on me again due to an electrical problem. I immediately called Callaway and told them to come pick it up. They refused and told me it was my responsibility to bring it in. So, I did.

Jim called me a few days later and said there was nothing wrong with my bike. He told me that he removed a fuse and found debris on it. My obvious question was how did "debris" get there? I reminded him that he just had my bike in his shop a little over a month a go. I told him the bike is never ridden in the rain and it's kept inside my garage at night. Jim didn't respond, he simply re-stated there was nothing wrong with my motorcycle.

Realizing Jim was incompetent, I contacted Kawasaki Motors of America. A customer service woman named Ruth contacted Jim and called me back to say there was nothing she could do. Ruth told me as long as Jim said the bike was "ok," her hands were tied. I called Jim again to try and convince him that my bike has an electrical problem. He told me that he wanted to keep it a couple of days and "put some miles on it." I couldn't believe his idiotic response. It took a little over a month for the problem to manifest into a break down. Was he going to keep my bike and ride it for a month?

Last week, I was stopped at a stoplight and my motorcycle stalled out. It took 6 or 7 attempts to re-start it. Just before it stalled, the tachometer dial redlined and both the fuel injection light and oil light flashed. Since then, my motorcycle has stalled out several times and it runs like %*#@.

Earlier today as I was exiting the freeway, I pulled in the clutch and the tachometer needle redlined again and the red lights flashed. The engine died but since I was moving I released the clutch and it fired back up.

Clearly I have an electrical problem with my motorcycle. There is no reason the tachometer dial should redline while the engine is idling. Lights should not be flashing and the bike should not run like *%#@. I've taken care of my motorcycle. I had the bike serviced at 700 miles, by Callaway, and I've made no modifications.

I was sold a lemon by Callaway Motorsports and they don't have the service intelligence to determine the problem. In addition, my complaints to the salesman and sales manager have fallen on deaf ears. I would not recommend Callaway Motorsports to anyone. I hope my experience will discourage at least one person from purchasing from them.

Charles

Rancho Cucamonga, California
U.S.A.


6 Updates & Rebuttals

Horner638

Riverside,
California,
U.S.A.
Three years later and they still have horrible service

#2Consumer Comment

Tue, August 05, 2008

New names and faces but still the same terrible service. We were told the idling problems our new bike had were our fault for not riding it enough. Adam, the service advisor told us we had caused the carbs to clog with old gas because we had let it sit too long without riding it. The bike is three months old and has 23miles on it. They reluctantly rebuilt the "clogged" cards once and when we got the bike back it was idling @ 5000 rpms on choke. When ever we tried to turn the choke off or down the bike died. Turns out after the second trip to the wonderful service dept that the bike had a kinked fuel line that was starving the motor. We did not even get an apology. How is it a shop like this is still in business? They can't be getting repeat business. They sure aren't going to get mine or anyone I know once I share my experiences with them.


Horner638

Riverside,
California,
U.S.A.
Three years later and they still have horrible service

#3Consumer Comment

Tue, August 05, 2008

New names and faces but still the same terrible service. We were told the idling problems our new bike had were our fault for not riding it enough. Adam, the service advisor told us we had caused the carbs to clog with old gas because we had let it sit too long without riding it. The bike is three months old and has 23miles on it. They reluctantly rebuilt the "clogged" cards once and when we got the bike back it was idling @ 5000 rpms on choke. When ever we tried to turn the choke off or down the bike died. Turns out after the second trip to the wonderful service dept that the bike had a kinked fuel line that was starving the motor. We did not even get an apology. How is it a shop like this is still in business? They can't be getting repeat business. They sure aren't going to get mine or anyone I know once I share my experiences with them.


Horner638

Riverside,
California,
U.S.A.
Three years later and they still have horrible service

#4Consumer Comment

Tue, August 05, 2008

New names and faces but still the same terrible service. We were told the idling problems our new bike had were our fault for not riding it enough. Adam, the service advisor told us we had caused the carbs to clog with old gas because we had let it sit too long without riding it. The bike is three months old and has 23miles on it. They reluctantly rebuilt the "clogged" cards once and when we got the bike back it was idling @ 5000 rpms on choke. When ever we tried to turn the choke off or down the bike died. Turns out after the second trip to the wonderful service dept that the bike had a kinked fuel line that was starving the motor. We did not even get an apology. How is it a shop like this is still in business? They can't be getting repeat business. They sure aren't going to get mine or anyone I know once I share my experiences with them.


Horner638

Riverside,
California,
U.S.A.
Three years later and they still have horrible service

#5Consumer Comment

Tue, August 05, 2008

New names and faces but still the same terrible service. We were told the idling problems our new bike had were our fault for not riding it enough. Adam, the service advisor told us we had caused the carbs to clog with old gas because we had let it sit too long without riding it. The bike is three months old and has 23miles on it. They reluctantly rebuilt the "clogged" cards once and when we got the bike back it was idling @ 5000 rpms on choke. When ever we tried to turn the choke off or down the bike died. Turns out after the second trip to the wonderful service dept that the bike had a kinked fuel line that was starving the motor. We did not even get an apology. How is it a shop like this is still in business? They can't be getting repeat business. They sure aren't going to get mine or anyone I know once I share my experiences with them.


David

San Clemente,
California,
U.S.A.
This sounds a but strange..........

#6Consumer Comment

Wed, July 20, 2005

I was looking for the Callaway Motorsports website when I saw a reference to your post on this website. You should know that your message is getting out. The reason I was looking for their website was that I was looking to purchase 2 new motorcycles for my son. I read your post and found it quite interesting. I feel I must give you background information on myself so that you don't think that I am new to situations such as this. I am a Automotive Service Director for a major automotive dealer group in the Southern California area. With this being stated, I would like to ask you a few questions regarding this unfortunate situation. 1. When you brought your motorcycle in the first time, did you deal with the service manager, or a service advisor? 2. How did the bike get there the first time? 3. When you brought the bike in the second time, were you treated courteously and were your concerns taken seriously? 4. How long was the vehicle in the shop before the diagnostics were performed? 5. Did the service manager really say, "there was debris", in the fuse connection. Or was the statement something like "poor connection"? 6. According to your statement, the service manager wanted to "put some miles" on the vehicle. Did you give him or his staff permission to do this? If you did not, then you were getting in the way of their technician diagnosing this problem. 7. If Kawasaki was contacted, what was their impute as to what might possibly be the problem? 8. Were you of the feeling that the service department did not care about the problems you were having? 9. When you contacted the service manager, did he offer to look at the vehicle again, or was he rude and tell you to go somewhere else? 10. Do you really believe that Callaway Motorsports sold you a lemon? 11. Where is the vehicle now and has the problem been found. 12. If the problem has been found, how long did it take to diagnose? 13. Did you inform the dealer of the previous repairs and what was their feedback? 14. You stated that the service manager said there was nothing wrong with the vehicle. But in the next sentence, you stated that he said, "there was debris on the fuse"? So did he say they found a problem or not? I am sorry that you are having problems with your vehicle. I myself have seen many electrical problems that will come and go. My technicians do the best they can with these types of problems, however sometimes we are not able to repair these problems on the first, or even on the second attempt. I think you post is very harsh and unecessary. After all, the service manager is not a technician, he is a manager. By calling him incompetent and stupid, you are making you argument less valid. I will still go look at motorcycles at Callaway Motorsports if anything just to alert them of this post.


Paul

Anaheim,
California,
U.S.A.
Any Kawasaki dealer will work on your bike. Don't keep going back to callaway if you get poor service.

#7Consumer Suggestion

Tue, July 12, 2005

That's a shame that you had to pay all that money for a motorcycle and it's nothing but a problem. Back in the stone age, I bought a V65 by Honda, and I had zero problems. Of course, the thing had carburetors, not fuel injection. Carbs always work great. I rode the thing everyday. Never had any problems. And, do you know what it cost back then? $3690 out the door, tax, title, everything. I stole it for like $50 over cost. I think it was '84. I remember it was the first year they came out. Anyway, getting back to your problem. I'd say it's electrical. Not even a defective ECM. Just a bad power connection to the ECM. You see, I used to drive a Freightliner truck. The Century model does the exact same thing with the tachometer. Every time you start it up, the tach swings over to the limit, and then comes back to normal. Since your bike is doing that while it's running, that tells me the electrical connection is cutting out and reconnecting while you are riding the bike. The tach thing is like a boot-up check process that the ECM goes through. Of course, it should never happen after the engine is started and running. So, it looks like a clear case of intermittent power. Another thing. It doesn't always have to be the positive power connection. The ground can be faulty too. Tell the next service tech to inspect the ground connections. Check for paint or rust under the screw that makes the ground. With fuel injection, many problems with poor performance can be traced to bad grounds. It takes only a small amount of voltage drop to interfere with the ECM function. Positive lead, or ground circuit. Once you get that straightened out, you might go back to normal usage again. Good luck!

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