[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!

All was well until April 19th 2022. Here is the timeline of events:

Beginning of March 2022: I called the Keerthi Triumph server department to replace my fuel cap assembly as I managed to break it.


April 19th 2022: I give the bike to Keerthi Triumph for general service (this is where life gave me a twist) + my fuel cap replacement.


April 28th 2022: Service completed with a bill amount of 21,343 rupees.


April 28th - May 6th 2022: Bike was not delivered to me and Keerthi Triumph reported that the battery was getting drained out of nowhere. They kept delaying the delivery. (Remember, I gave the bike in perfect working condition with no faults at all)

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.

May 8th 2022 - 6th June: Absolutely no work done on the bike, wiring kit was ordered they said and it was in transit. (this is what I was told)

June 7th 2022: I wrote an email to Triumph Customer Care to register the complaint reporting this huge delay in service and inaccurate service advice that was given to me. By this time the staff had stopped responding to me on the phone
Complaint Number: MT/TR/22/54
No solid resolution was received.

June 10th 2022: Frustrated with the service, I moved the bike to a mechanic outside the showroom to fix the rat-bites temporarily so I can attend some planned rides.

Note: My bike was not assembled back properly, all the wires were hanging under the tank. It didn’t look like rat bites at this point to us.


June 10th - July 10th 2022: My mechanic has performed all the diagnostics and reported it is just not the wiring but ECM is also damaged (this is an expensive component costing over 1 lakh)

July 14th 2022: I escalated the matter to Triumph UK, and sent the bike back to Keerthi to fix the issue, once and for all.

The bike was sent back to Keerthi Triumph as it was determined as “beyond repair” by my mechanic.

July 23rd 2022: Insurance claim process paperwork was signed (I personally visited the service centre and signed)

July 27th 2022: Received a call from the Insurance company, quoted an estimate of 2.5 Lakhs and also informed that only 50% of the amount can be claimed (plastic parts)
And the wait still goes on for the parts which were initially ordered.

Aug 18th 2022: Keerthi confirms the arrival of the parts and work started on the bike.

Aug 23rd 2022: Collected the bike from Keerthi Triumph, with a total bill amount of 2,48,719/-


After 5 months of struggle, I have my bike back. I almost lost a perfectly working Superbike after a service with a financial setback of 1.25 Lakhs (50% of the claimed amount)

My intention here is to warn you about what could also happen to you. Be careful and vigilant:

# When possible, before giving your approval for any part replacement, visit the service centre personally, assess the situation and make sure it is required.
# Try to stay in the shop while your motorcycle is getting serviced.
# Follow up a million times if they seem to miss the delivery dates.
# Go to a place where you have some positive feedback (even if you have to go out of state)
# Understand your insurance and what is covered under the policy.
# Collect all the replaced items after service.
# Be prepared for issues like what I faced and trust me, you won’t get any proper resolution no matter how you escalate the matter.

[shankar.balan]

What a horrible state of affairs.
With such terrible after sales service experiences I wonder is it worth aspiring to and owning these exotic steeds at all in a country like ours.
Why is it that the brands seem unable to lay down the law with these dealers and service centres?

[Turbanator]

An important lesson for you and readers, Do not move un-repaired stuff from the dealership. Had you kept patience, they would not have washed off their hands on the damage of ECU while the bike was with them unless your local mechanic was not competent and is the reason for the ECU going kaput.

[Sman999]

Sorry to hear that. IMO there is such an incident in every service centre out there (2W/4W) unless you have a great rapo with the service team of the particular showroom.

The sales team will not even bother you regardless of how much money you had spent on your bike. Its a pity in India when in comes to warranty claims.

I believe the optional extended service packages are a scam making you want to visit the service centre for an extended period of time so that they can keep charging you for unwanted things as the vehicle age.

I almost wait for the warranty to get over for all of my vehicles ASAP as i dont have to visit them for anymore BS free service. I will be happy as long as i can get spares from them if i order, But most service centres like Triumph, claim they dont sell spares to customers and ask them to bring the vehicle to the showroom.

Dont worry, learn from the experience and move on. Happy riding!

[RiderZone]

Sounds like an absolute nightmare! What do you think happened here exactly? Between April 19th and 28th while the bike was at the Triumph SVC, do you mean that rats bit the wiring harness, which in turn caused the ECM damage? If you were able to ride the bike to Keerthi on 19th, I don't see what other possibility is here. Unless it isn't rat bites but some other form of damage.

Triumph service used to be one big horror story a while back, but I'd thought things had become a bit better recently. Apparently that's not the case. I'm quite interested in picking up a Striple, but living with a Triumph maybe too much for one's sanity.

[Madan Devaiah]

Originally Posted by RiderZone

Sounds like an absolute nightmare! What do you think happened here exactly? Between April 19th and 28th while the bike was at the Triumph SVC, do you mean that rats bit the wiring harness, which in turn caused the ECM damage? If you were able to ride the bike to Keerthi on 19th, I don't see what other possibility is here. Unless it isn't rat bites but some other form of damage.

Triumph service used to be one big horror story a while back, but I'd thought things had become a bit better recently. Apparently that's not the case. I'm quite interested in picking up a Striple, but living with a Triumph maybe too much for one's sanity.

This must be the inexperienced technicians performing "Trials and Error" methods to sort it and my next bet is on the advisors attempting to generate a fat bill for their monthly reports?

[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.

[iamahunter]

This is horrible and scary.

Owning a bigger bike is a dream for many, thanks to the easily available loan and tempting videos and posts on Instagram, many take the plunge without conducting deeper research. But most are not aware of the post-purchase experiences.

Thankyou for sharing buddy.

I own a Versys 650 and have never gathered a guts to leave the bike with the service center even for a day. If I am going to the service center for any work, even if it is a regular service I never give into blindly believing it. At times if its a small issue, I would prefer to live with it than to keep the bike overnight at the service center.

I follow a very basic thing while servicing my vehicles - I come and go on the same bike/car and on the same day.

[Emvi]

@Madan Devaiah
It's absolutely shocking to know about your ordeal.
You buy something premium and in return you are made to pay the price for none of your fault, ghastly!

Originally Posted by iamahunter

This is horrible and scary.

Owning a bigger bike is a dream for many, thanks to the easily available loan and tempting videos and posts on Instagram, many take the plunge without conducting deeper research. But most are not aware of the post-purchase experiences.

I second your opinion, absolutely.

[SnS_12]

Service centre messing up a perfectly running motorcycle is the last thing a owner wants to hear. Which year model is your motorcycle as you mentioned you footed 50% of the parts cost so you have a normal insurance cover without zero depreciation add on.

This is one financial aspect one needs to take in consideration when buying expensive cars or motorcycles as such uncalled for incidents can create a big financial dent when you least expect it.

Hope your motorcycle is performing normally now.

[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?

[shobhit.shri]

Crazy that this post came at the same time as SIP vs Mercedes.

Actually, such service and maintenance are the reasons why many who can afford it don't buy the "luxury" stuff. Anyone pretending otherwise is not helping the industry.

[Chimera]

This is nothing new ,just on this forum many people have suffered from this service centre. With any bike I have a simple policy, if it needs work to be done I stand next to it as the work is being done and also read up on what work is being done so that I can be sure it's being done in the right way. This applies to cars or bikes regardless of how expensive or inexpensive they are. I remember one time my father's suzuki heat needed an oil change and when I went to the service centre they did not allow me to hang around with the bike and I had to leave it and come back in the evening. When I got the bike back and rode it home it had leaked almost quarter of the oil on its way home. The service centre response was non chalant, "come back sir we will fix it".
That was the last time any of the vehicles in my house got serviced without my presence , it's been 8 years and not a single issue so far. In fact I would suggest every vehicle owner to brush up on diagnosing and fixing most common issues and regular servicing of their vehicles. The cost of tools can be recovered in a single service especially when you consider on most bikes just labour and taxes are to the tune of 5/10,000 , maybe more if it's a Ducati.

[the_skyliner]

Sorry to hear your plight, Madan Devaiah. Looks like a clear case of some kind of screw up at the service center. And then followed a cover-up which didn't work.

Some trial and error seems to be the cause of ECM failure but this is just a guess. I am more concerned about the delays. BTW, I would have done the same - taking bike to a 3rd party mechanic for cross verifying their claims.

1.25L is a hefty sum to pay especially when you gave them a perfectly working bike. Anyhow, move on and enjoy your rides.

[deltasierra]

That's a harrowing ordeal and a personal nightmare of mine of having to deal with so called technicians in authorised workshops.

I have heard many horror stories of Keerthi Triumph. I believe your mistake was to move the bike out to your repair guy in between.

Regarding the ECU failure, was the bike in warranty? Similar thing has happened to me when Triumph people bricked my Street Triple's console while doing an update. Since the bike was in warranty it was changed no fuss. Just had to wait for the part to arrive. This would have otherwise left a hole of 1L + in my pocket.