[McLaren_P1]

Originally Posted by shan_ned

Keerthi Triumph in Bangalore is notorious for messing up motorcycles which are in good working condition. Many fear going any where near to that service Center.

Yes, it is painful and frustrating to be in this situation. Contacting Triumph India is useless as they have proved to be impotent on multiple occasions.

You raise a very important point - there seems to be good knowledge in our community of which service centers are good. Why can’t we consolidate our understanding to build a robust view of which brands and which locations have the best/worst service experience?

[Zinda]

Brother, I am sorry to know about this ordeal, and I have sympathy for your loss of money and trust!

Personally, I have only 1 ground rule for getting my cars and bikes serviced - be physically present no matter what.

We are living in an era when sometimes a screw can also cost Rs. 200, hardly anyone is reliable, no one works with passion, almost always the intent of A$$ is to replace the parts and machines comes with ever increasing complexities. It has become almost compulsory to know basics of the vehicles you own, or be ready to be duped (except for a few brands maybe).

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by Madan Devaiah

May 7th 2022: I get a call from the service center reporting multiple rat-bites in the wiring system that is causing the battery to drain (short-circuits)

May 8th 2022: I was asked to replace the entire wiring kit under insurance for which I agreed initially since I wanted my bike soon.

Any pictures you can share of the wiring damage? ECU failure is very rare, unless someone really messes up there are enough failsafe mechanism that will protect and ECU. This definitely seems to have more to it I feel.

As far a Keerthi, well I have had a love hate relation when I owned the bike and had created a thread on the issues owners faces while owning Triumph bikes. (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super...ing-brand.html (Triumph Motorcycles India : Is after-sales service killing this brand?)). Since then I have moved on from the brand. But seems like the fundamental issues still persists and Triumph seems to be favouring the dealers more than the customers.

[Madan Devaiah]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Any pictures you can share of the wiring damage? ECU failure is very rare, unless someone really messes up there are enough failsafe mechanism that will protect and ECU. This definitely seems to have more to it I feel.

As far a Keerthi, well I have had a love hate relation when I owned the bike and had created a thread on the issues owners faces while owning Triumph bikes. (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super...ing-brand.html (Triumph Motorcycles India : Is after-sales service killing this brand?)). Since then I have moved on from the brand. But seems like the fundamental issues still persists and Triumph seems to be favouring the dealers more than the customers.

Attached the rat-bites images shared by Keerthi.

Attaching some images that I missed earlier.

Originally Posted by deltasierra

Regarding the ECU failure, was the bike in warranty?

No my vehicle was not under warranty, ECU was the major contributor for this fat bill.

Originally Posted by mac187

Sad state of affairs. I wonder how the ECM got damaged! Also, why did you foot the bill? Since the issue was cropped up at the service center you should have pushed them to fix is without any cost to you.

Were you able to identify the root cause of the issue?

My queries were unanswered even after several rounds of follow-up and escalations, I had to drop several planned rides since the bike was held up in the service centre. After spending months without answers and the root cause, the only way to get my bike back was to settle the bill, unfortunately. I was not ready to cancel some more important rides I had planned.

[FalconRed]

Man

Here I was under the assumption that only Indian manufacturers and their SC has this kind of audacity to loot the the customers

Even the premium bikes and SC has the same story.
Looks like these things can happen only in india. If it would have been anywhere in west they would have been sued.

[chef-de-jeep]

It's such a shame that such a big service centre does something like this. Simply scares a whole lot of us who at some point of time look to upgrade. It took me a decade to get myself an upgrade ( since the thought first came up)to a 390 adv. I had it somewhere in sight to get myself a triumph tiger someday.

Going by these stories I would possibly have to calm myself everytime I get excited about a bike. No way in hell would I ever be able to fork put the kind of sum mentioned in this thread. I guess it is simply not for me.Wonder when would these service centres ever realise that such episodes definitely deter the next 10 buyers. It may just be the only conversation with a triumpn owner or a potential one. Shame on Triumph India for such a brilliant display of spine.

[VinsWagen]

Originally Posted by Madan Devaiah

My queries were unanswered even after several rounds of follow-up and escalations, I had to drop several planned rides since the bike was held up in the service centre. After spending months without answers and the root cause, the only way to get my bike back was to settle the bill, unfortunately. I was not ready to cancel some more important rides I had planned.

It is really painful to see the chats. Such callousness and disrespect of the customer. You are too soft in your words and approach - I believe it is the hallmark of a good man but unfortunately, it does not work here.

The only thing I can say is that I wished you were more patient. We need to be extra patient when mess up happens. Rides are important but maybe you could have hired or rented another until this one got settled instead of taking this out. Not sure if there was such an option for you but then yes, who would have imagined it would have cost you so much.

[bravo82in]

My two rules of getting bike or car serviced
1. Always be physically present when the priced possession is getting serviced.
2. If in doubt, refer to rule number one.

The dealer and service industry runs on incentives. Once an executive told me his initial salary (2021) with Tata Motors dealer was a mere 6500 INR, and rest was incentive from the sales.

If you can't be physically present and have even the slightest doubt, first file a complaint with the manufacturer that you are being cheated. This will ensure you are not conned further.

[no_fear]

Those are not rat bite marks on wiring. And no rat can get to those places and make such bites. There are a few points to clear here and you should challenge Keerthi.

1. Why did Keerthi charge you 21k to change a gas cap and for general servicing? That is outrageous pricing. What exactly did they do? I service my Ducatis with the dealer and I have never paid more than 10k for general servicing.

2. The blue / white wire in your picture has a kink and due to that bend, the rubber-plastic sleeve has torn out. That is not a rat bite mark. The wire beside also has a bend and you can see the sleeve tearing a bit. This is very common in wiring, especially for bikes.

3. The yellow wire is showing internal burn / melting / scorch marks. Again, that is not a rate bite. That burn happens when the circuit is shorted.

Without knowing the full details and observation, I can take a guess here.

The Keerthi technician while changing your gas cap, removed the battery from its terminal. He did it to remove the connection to the fuel pump to reduce any chance of sparks or static electricity.

When replacing back the battery, he connected the battery with reverse polarity to the terminals.

When you do that and turn on the ignition, the current flows in the opposite direction and fries your ECU. That is why your ECU is now damaged. However the fuses don't blow. But due to a fried ECU, the connection is shorted and some of the wires will show internal burn or scorch marks.

This is a very poor job done by the service center. They very well know what they did. They covered up by coming up with an excuse of "rats chewing wiring".

When you posted dead ECU and chewed wire in your post, I wanted to comment immediately but waited in case it was something different. Your pictures have showed me that my initial thoughts were correct.

If I were to give benefit to rats chewing wires - rats will chew through the entire plastic casing and the wires also. Not just a small bit of plastic casing. And in your pictures, I can see the wires are still intact. This is a case of battery installed with wrong polarity, bike ignition turned on, ECU fried, wires shorted.

Ask Keerthi to fix your bike free of cost.

If there are "rats" at a workshop - call the Bangalore municipal body and notify them. Rats chewing wires is a safety hazard and can cause electrical fires.

Keerthi is liable for this.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Madan Devaiah

Attached the rat-bites images shared by Keerthi.

Attaching some images that I missed earlier.

Originally Posted by no_fear

Those are not rat bite marks on wiring. And no rat can get to those places and make such bites.

@Madan Devaiah, those are not rat bite marks. Rat bites are neither as clean nor as precise.

[am1m]

So shocking! You pay premium prices for these bikes and get treated worse than at a local garage. What sort of service are these premium brand service centers providing for all that money?!

Thanks for posting. Thank god for independent forums like ours so issues like this don't get hidden.

[LazyGunner]

Originally Posted by Madan Devaiah

I am Madan Devaiah, riding all kinds of bikes since 2013. Owner of a Royal Enfield Classic 350, a Yamaha RX100, a Royal Enfield Himalayan 411 (sold) and now a Triumph Tiger 800 XCX. My dream of owning a capable superbike is fulfilled with my last buy, what an amazing machine this is!

Good to see you on the forum Madan! But it is really sad to read the post. Even though I knew everything that happened in real time, reading it once again makes me realize how much of a goof-up it is by Keerthi Triumph. And the lackadaisical attitude of Triumph toward its customers is just unbelievable. I guess this reason alone is enough to discourage a lot of us from upgrading to premium motorcycles.

I know you hated missing all those rides with us while your bike was sitting in a corner of the service center and waiting for the parts. I hope the worst is over and we can start riding together again soon.

[VijayAnand1]

Originally Posted by Madan Devaiah

Attached the rat-bites images shared by Keerthi.

Madan, the issue isn't a rodent, that's for sure. The issue can perhaps be something sinister with the wiring itself. From what I can observe, this image that you've posted had the answer, at least from the looks of it. I've rounded the part where you see, burnt remnants, i.e. the wire around the burn nicked area is blackened and bubbled up, a wire bubbles and blackens when you have short.

Now, a short can happen when a particular set of wires are twisted and untwisted repeatedly compromising the outer sheath of both the source and the rubbed wire, which in turn causes a short when they both touch.

Now, can these nicks purport-fully be done voluntarily to milk the customer, owing to a fault? There is a high probability for it. My suspicion is perhaps it indeed might have been slowly started to arc and short, but lo and behold the issue cropped up during the visit or just as simply they might have messed up the battery polarity which is instant death to the wires either prior or now, is anyone's guess.

But then there are other questions to be answered, why was the battery required a removal when all you wanted was to replace a fuel tank cap. So many ifs and buts. Only a thorough investigation can and will yield the correct analysis.

Sadly, Keerthi has caught you off-guard and call it bad luck or bad management, you've been the scapegoat of a botched up job, unfortunately. Keerthi could have been more courteous and professional.

Good luck to you gentleman.

Cheers!
VJ

[SulemanP]

Looks like the rat bite took place in the service center and not anywhere else. Sad to see how poorly the customer is getting treated by these companies. The customer invests his hard-earned money to buy the product just to make his life miserable and the OEM does not even blink an eye.

[Madan Devaiah]

Originally Posted by LazyGunner

I know you hated missing all those rides with us while your bike was sitting in a corner of the service center and waiting for the parts. I hope the worst is over and we can start riding together again soon.

Fore sure, need a good old road trip to get over this.