[krishnaprasadgg]

I'm so sorry you have to go through such a bad experience that too right at the beginning of your super biking journey.

Now I do hope that Kawasaki India gets you a full fairing set as a replacement and my advice would be post-fix immediately take the bike to a good FNG and get the work redone with everything properly torqued down for your peace of mind. Even though you might have to spend some money on it but in the grand scheme of things this cost is nothing.

One other take away from this to keep in mind is to never write a job sheet on a bike unless it's clean. It can be a tough one to stay put on but it's for our own good. Also always take photos and videos before handing it over. I have had similar issues with my car and have been doing that ever since.

Originally Posted by Meccanico

After a test ride I realised that the fairings were vibrating more than before. I mentioned this to Mr. Venkatesh. What he said was that because the fairings are flexible, they will take some time to settle and the vibrations should be gone after a while.

Nothing tops it. Honestly , I have never heard anything more ridiculous from any place ever. Sets the tone for the competence of the people there. I feel so sorry that you have to deal with nitwits like these.

Anyways, hope you hear good news from KI soon and do keep us in the loop.

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

This is one of the reason i have distanced myself from plonking in my hard earned money on a SBK, I just don't have the courage to do so, for the sole reason- bad support from ASS. The warranty period itself is more than enough to screw up a perfectly running motorcycle.

This just hit me hard man. This is what saddens me. The number of people who have given up their dream to move up the ladder in terms of bikes has been crushed because of people like these working in SVC and other workshops are huge. I really hope you do end up getting the AT Rakesh.

Cheers
Krishna

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by Meccanico

I want the parts (fairings) that have been damaged to be replaced by Kawasaki. As simple as that. After months of anger I was ready to put this all behind me and almost accepted the damaged the paintwork until I saw they had broken off parts of it too. One can only ignore a few shortcomings or errors.

Oh boy!
Such pathetic service for 10+L bike! That too from a Japanese brand!!
I feel for you.
The foam and missing washers are nothing but cheating in my books.

Unsolicited suggestion: Why such low expectations. I would say get hold of a good lawyer, demand completely new bike as well as compensation for disturbed mental health and agony. For good measure, throw in loss of prestige due to rattling and faulty bike.
Do not go gentle into the night. Who knows if you make them pay through their nose, it might be a lesson for other manufacturers who stop giving a damn for their customers as soon as they sign on the dotted line.

[susheel_kainat]

Going by the number of issues reported against multiple brands, this is turning out like a #metoo saga, when one person reported, many people started coming up with similar experience and I feel more will come, now that everyone have started being vocal about their horrible experience. Be it premium or non-premium basic integrity from any business model is expected. The expectation on integrity increases exponentially as the price soars up. Going by after service reviews it looks like only the product is premium while the service provided is no where close to it. The most worst part is the Automobile companies are keeping a blind eye on these and happy giving automated diplomatic response rather than a clear cut solution and all are here to make money when the wave is moving their side rather than proper ethical business.

[Meccanico]

Originally Posted by Odeen12

I don't understand why is it so difficult for top manufacturers to hire better. The absolute apathy shown by the dealer, service guys and eventually Kawasaki India is disgusting.

The catch i feel you'd be in is your warranty. Kawasaki India will hold you to that if not serviced under their umbrella of dealers.

They have a sense of entitlement like no other. Absolutely no care or support once the sale is made.
I can safely say that the warranty part is the sole reason why most owners go to ASC's.

Originally Posted by sujay bhandare

I too had similar experiences with my old gen N650, I guess I had shared with you my horror story too. From that day never went to that kawasaki dealer.

Yes Sujay! I remember vividly. Not providing spares to owners is criminal. Thanks for the support.

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Your thread has been spreading like wildfire on so many of the motorcycling whatsapp groups that I am on. Many big bike dealers and companies still think that they can continue to do what they want and that we customers should be happy with the poor service that they dole out.

Thanks Sir! I gave Kawasaki Pune and India Kawasaki 4 complete months to accept and rectify the damages caused by them before I published my experiences on a public forum. But they did not care; so I had to spread awareness about their unprofessionalism.

Originally Posted by logicalidiot

Did you try reaching out to their toll-free contact number on their website? Try speaking to their customer support and demand that you need to speak to someone of higher authority.

I have tried absolutely every route to get in touch with India Kawasaki Motors. You are better off trying to contact the spirits of the bikes killed by them.

Originally Posted by theredliner

Such a critical body part failing at such an early stage for no reason is absolutely unacceptable.

The ram-air intake failure seems like a distant memory now! The damage they did while fixing it overshadowed it. After my part failed I closely looked at other bikes with ram air intakes. These included Kawasaki's own ZX-10R, the Triumph Daytona 675, BMW S1000RR and a Honda Fireblade.

Their ram air intakes are formed by the main metal chassis itself extending further; unlike the ZX-6R. It might have been a cost cutting measure on the 6R that they decided to make this crucial part out of plastic.

[Neo18]

Very sad state of affairs from almost all the premium bike dealers. Its a known fact that none of the bike dealers are passionate bikers or enthusiasts themselves and the entire operation is run by bean counters with the bottom line being the top priority. This partially explains the caliber of service personnel that they recruit. You pay peanuts, you get :-D

You should have a look at the Bangalore Kawasaki facility for service. It is a very small , very unkept facility where the most expensive bikes are herded together, worst than cattle. Almost always, there are scratches and dings when the bikes come back from service. Any argument with the SAs is useless in these cases. At most, they accept defeat and hang their heads with no other response. All mails to Kawasaki India are met with a standard auto reply and nothing more.

Looking at the horror story coming out with each premium bike dealership, it looks like this will only get normalized and get shrugged with each passing incident with a "Saar, all bike dealerships are like this only!", unless one votes with their wallets.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by Meccanico

They have a sense of entitlement like no other. Absolutely no care or support once the sale is made.

Originally Posted by Meccanico

Thanks Sir! I gave Kawasaki Pune and India Kawasaki 4 complete months to accept and rectify the damages caused by them before I published my experiences on a public forum. But they did not care; so I had to spread awareness about their unprofessionalism.

I have tried absolutely every route to get in touch with India Kawasaki Motors. You are better off trying to contact the spirits of the bikes killed by them.

Unfortunately, this is Kawasaki India 101. To be honest, they really dont care before the sale is made either. A few years ago, I reached out to the company on some concerns that I had with one of their dealers. I wanted to see the company's response and hoped that they would step in and take corrective action. They never bothered to reply to me. As a result, I kept my Rs 16L in my pocket and never stepped foot inside their dealership again.

One would think that they would have learnt something after the whole Kawasaki Mumbai (Paid for Z800, but no bike! Kawasaki uncooperative. EDIT: Bikes delivered (page 11)) fiasco.

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

This is one of the reason i have distanced myself from plonking in my hard earned money on a SBK, I just don't have the courage to do so, for the sole reason- bad support from ASS. The warranty period itself is more than enough to screw up a perfectly running motorcycle. We have not overcome the BMW (bhpian moralfibre) and Triumph (NeilJericho) fisco and now this. I have the African Twin on my radar, but such incidents play spoil sport.

I do not mean to deviate from Meccanico's problems on this thread but I must say this, while we have had three painful experiences shared on the forum in quick succession, there are some companies that seem to take the Indian big bike market a lot more seriously than others. Red Liner is absolutely right. Honda is a clear number 1 and their consistent quality of service combined with dirt cheap spare prices (ask anyone who has had an accident on how expensive parts of the others are in comparison!) make them easy recommendations for trouble free ownership. Ducati's quality of service is also good from what I have heard from owners but the desmo service costs and complexity might put off many buyers.

If you have your heart and head set on the Africa Twin, you should go for it.

[jithin23]

First, it's quite sad to see the dealer attitude towards customers who spend more than a million bucks in owning the bike and another million in maintaining the bike. This just shows that what kind of people are running the dealership
This is outright ill treatment and these guys need to be taken to consumer court. Please don't let this issue slide

I think GoI needs to see the vehicle niggles thread in Team-BHP and pass a law which protects customers like us who are handed over defective machines and these dealers take us for granted. Lawyers on T-BHP please try filing a petition for bringing up this law which will benefit millions of Indians

I was contemplating of getting a used superbike as an upgrade from my 200NS. Looks like I ended up restoring my 200NS and no more thinking of a superbike unless the services are improved or If my wallet encourages me. Still owning and maintaining a superbike looks like a Herculanean task in India

[lionell]

Echo your sentiments about Kawasaki's service. While the bikes are fabulous and I owned one, their service is all but sub-standard. Like you I too was facing horrible service experiences. Ultimately I rode from Jodhpur to Pune and back just to get the bike serviced at Slipstream (Kunal). Just so I could get the bike completely overhauled and ready for the next 2 years of ownership. Post that I knew its not a sustainable thing to do and due to any lack of support in Rajasthan or Gujarat ended up selling the bike.

Examples of callous service of even smaller and regular things:
(1) They removed my front wheel to take a look at the fork vibrations and put it back the wrong way.
(2) They overtightened my chain so much that Kunal was surprised how it didn't break and cause any harm.
(3) Air filter was outright dirty right after a major service.
(4) Massive vibrations at the levers and foot pegs that were never daignosed.
(5) No idea how to torque the bolts to factory specs (no torque wrench in the service centre)
(6) No idea how to do a throttle body sync.

Its a real shame that the service standards are so poor in our country and even after paying big bucks you are left to fend for yourselves.

[coriollis]

What an ordeal this has been for you Meccanico..!! With me being witness of the cleanliness obsessed and perfectionist nature of yours, those pictures have disheartened me.
I remember the smile on your face when you first got the ZX6R...

And me being in the same boat, having had the 'experience' of 1st servicing of the Versys 1K, Here is the list of positives and negatives, I experienced at the Kawasaki Pune Workshop.
I bought a Versys 1000 on auspicious Dussehra day, the 25th of October 2020. I rode to Chorla ghat with my biking buddies to complete the running in of the bike. Bike was given to service on 4th November 2020 with 950 kms on the odometer.

Let us start with positives first, as those aren't many.

Positives
1. Registering an appointment was easy.
2. Bike was taken in for service on time.
3. Bike was delivered within 1 hour of starting the service.
4. I was offered a really nice coffee and bottled water.

-------------------------------End of Positives-----------------------

Negatives
1. Workable Area of the workshop is approximately 140 Sq Ft. Out of that, 40 sq ft are covered with accident bikes and scrap parts and waste oils. 15 sq ft is a space which is called customer lounge and 20 sq ft is workshop in-charge cabin. So the workable area for the bikes is approximately 60 sq ft. Only two bikes fit into the work bay. The bikes can't be moved freely, they have to be dragged sideways to be able to fit in the bay. This is un pardonable. It involves high risk of bike damage. Meccanico's bike's paint might have been damaged due to this. I have attached an approximate plan of the workshop below. May be the actual area is a little less too.. IMO this cannot be a workshop work area for a superbike service centre

2. Bike was not pre-washed. Bike was quiet dirty after my long trip. I enquired about the washing setup and was told that they do not wash the bikes as the water available is hard water. No Kawasaki... this is absolutely not acceptable. In my book, a service setup just cannot function without a washing bay. The dirt on my bike or Meccanico's (PK's) bike will cause damage to paint for sure.

3. One of the mechanic tried to clean the bike using a dry soiled cloth. Me watching this, prevented him from touching the bike with that dirty rag.

4. While I was watching the service progress, the mechanics fell short of cotton waste, so they asked the helper boy for it. And the next thing I know was that I was showered with cotton waste... hopefully clean from the heavens. The helper boy had casually thrown the rags from the upper floor. This is sheer lack of any operating system or code of conduct.
Now this can happen with the tools too. Tools being thrown in this manner could potentially damage the bikes. I mean I am just extrapolating the possibilities..

5. Bike was obviously not washed or cleaned post service too.

So my experience of servicing a million rupee motorcycle goes right out of the window.

Routine oil and oil filter change was performed. No special tools or were used. The brake pads were rubbed by sand paper. Bike was connected to a laptop and checked for any errors, and a report was generated.

I mean, I could have done it as well. minus the software part though. I am not saying that the workforce is not trained or cannot do the job.. All I am saying that they are limited by severe lack of interest from the showroom owners and Kawasaki India.
We continue to ' service ' in this shacks due to fear of loosing warranty. This has to stop somewhere. Can Kawasaki give a software membership to the owners and they can scan the bike on their own? Make the web or mobile application chargeable.. these are my two cents on this... All I am saying is that a different approach is needed.
Otherwise we are starting to look as a bunch of fools who spend a fortune on bikes, and are left at the mercy of these service shacks.
Can Kawasaki ensure a basic minimum SOP for workshops and service stations to start with at least?

Cheers,
AB

PS: I was charged around 6.6k for the above service. The bill was 7.8k earlier, which I negotiated and asked them to reconsider the charges such as ' final inspection', which they obliged.

[Govardhansupra]

So, in short, Kawasaki Pune is digging their own grave? All they had to do, and also can do now, is fit the fairings and associated parts properly. Since, this thread is spreading a lot everywhere, loss of customers are guaranteed and a little bit of sales will be increased for Anzen Kawasaki.

I would say, turn the showroom upside down or bring the roofs down until they fix the problem upto your satisfaction. All superbike owners can pitch in and help.

[Red Liner]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumeet-bhalla-3635791a

And

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hdpatil

These guys are supposedly in charge of dealer management in Kawasaki. This is publicly available information hence i am sharing it here.

I suggest those aggrieved please hit the connect button to his linked in profile and send him this entire thread. You have to be necessarily blind and maybe even deaf and mute if you think team bhp is not bad publicity (or good). Maybe even post the entire article in linked in and tag this guy! I think things will move once employees understand that bad publicity involving their linked in profile is akin to corporate suicide.

If i were you, i would go straight to their corporate office and not leave until i get an appointment with this guy and do a face to face meeting. Maybe even take the local kawasaki group along.

[TheVaas]

Originally Posted by coriollis

1. Workable Area of the workshop is approximately 140 Sq Ft. Out of that, 40 sq ft are covered with accident bikes and scrap parts and waste oils. 15 sq ft is a space which is called customer lounge and 20 sq ft is workshop in-charge cabin. So the workable area for the bikes is approximately 60 sq ft. Only two bikes fit into the work bay. The bikes can't be moved freely, they have to be dragged sideways to be able to fit in the bay. This is un pardonable. It involves high risk of bike damage. Meccanico's bike's paint might have been damaged due to this. I have attached an approximate plan of the workshop below. May be the actual area is a little less too.. IMO this cannot be a workshop work area for a superbike service centre

Those suggesting Anzen Kawasaki, I'm sure you'll might have visited the showroom and/or their service center to recommend them. But, if observed carefully, the above 'negative' that Coriollis has posted holds true for Anzen as well. They do not have a 'separate' customer lounge, so if you want to wait till your bike is serviced - roam around the showroom space since the service center is in the same space as the showroom. I think 2 bikes can be serviced at one time (there is a 3rd bay also if im not mistaken) but yes, there is a washing bay.

The Thane dealership has two service bay, no washing bay and no separate customer lounge. I haven't been to the Navi Mumbai one - so cannot comment on the space there.

My point was to highlight Kawasaki's 'lack of superbike servicing space' in Mumbai as well. But, from my personal experience, their service (Anzen and Motosaki) has been exceptional.

[shan_ned]

For Triumph bike owners, we have a whatsup group dedicated only for discussing service related issues. The objective of the group is to help fellow riders in resolving any technical issues. More importantly riders do also consult the group in case of dealer trying to mislead them and taking them for granted. It ensures the individial owners are well infiormed when talking with the dealers. It is strictly moderated such that only service or technical related issues are discussed.

I suggest the same for Kawasaki bike owners (irrespetive of the bike category) to form a strictly moderated group meant only for highlighting service related to issues. At least the fellow riders can double check with others in the group. Of course there may be one or two sidekicks of the dealer in the group who may keep relaying information and also try to indulge in character assasination of a rider when he/she complains about the dealer. Any way, with mature adults in the group, it can be well handled. If there is already a dedicated group present, then it is small stepping stone for riders to help each other.

[dr_davis97]

I am incredibly upset to see the state for affairs and the treatment meted out to customers shelling out more than 1 million rupees for a premium motorcycle.

Your post and the experience posted by a fellow Team BHPian with regard to his Triumph Street Triple has sealed the deal for me. As someone who was on the fence about going for my first superbike in the near future, i am now on the safe side of the fence.

I will go for an out of warranty, pre-worshipped example which i can get serviced at my FNG. That way my OCD doesn't get triggered by every single scratch my bike accumulates. The new big bike itch can be scratched when i eventually move abroad after a couple of years.

P.S. We definitely need to add a 'sad' smiley option for posts just like these.

[VijayAnand1]

I am appalled beyond words! I totally hear you when you mentioned scars etched in memory for life. A professionally thorough shoddy work carried over by Kawasaki. How in the world can they break the interlocking tabs and the audacity to use crappy foam as sealers between the fairing. Preposterous!!

What gets my nerve is the callous attitude saying, saar it's vibrating because it's flexible and will settle in. Would be qualified for a scoundrelish answer! (Pardon my strong words here) Superbikes take a special place in one's heart and it's a passion that is relished for a life time. Experiences like this utterly dissolve the pleasure of owning a superbike and moreover, once bitten, twice shy.

I hope the wounds your little 6R incurred gets healed in the process. One word, do not let the hook off Kawasaki. Their doormat treatment attitude seems to be tricked down to almost most of the showrooms. Shame on you Kawasaki!

Cheers!
VJ