Fowlers Motorcycles
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Service centre FARCE
My partner chose Fowlers in Bristol to have his Kawasaki repaired after he had an accident on it last year. Big mistake! The bike was taken to the workshop on the 30th May, and booked in for an accident damage report to assess the issues and estimate the costs of the repairs needed, which in fairness were extensive. It was booked in for the garage to look at it on the 6th June. My partner didn't hear back from the garage that week, so had to chase this up and received the report and quote for the work needed on the 16th June. He then authorised the work to be done, and the garage confirmed they would be ordering the required parts, and that the guaranteed date he was given for the repairs to be completed was the end of July, which seemed reasonable as there were a few parts to order at that time. He then received no word of what was happening until calling to check if the repairs had been completed at the end of July, when he was told the garage were still waiting on parts to arrive, but they should all arrive by the 21st August, and if the parts were received, they would do the work at the end of August, which was already a month after the '"Guaranteed date" he had been given for the work to be completed. Again no contact from the garage until my partner chased this up again to check if all the parts had been received and the work booked in with the garage on the 30th August, they were unable to tell him anything over the phone and he did not get a promised call back, so he began visiting the garage to try to get a straight answer on when the work may be completed and what was holding up the work. When he talked to the garage in person they then told him that one of the required parts was discontinued for his bike, so they had had to order this from somewhere else, and they were still waiting on fairings as well. At this point he was told that the parts weren't likely to arrive until the start of September, but the work should be able to be completed as soon as they were received. It then took further chasing, and my partner ordering some parts himself to try and get the work sorted out. The parts required to complete the bulk of the work were all at the garage by the 12th September, but when my partner went into the garage to make sure everything was on track, he was told that the calipers that had been ordered were incorrect and wouldn't fit his bike, which was a seller's error. My partner then ordered this part that they had been waiting for for two weeks himself, and it came within 3 working days. He took these parts into the garage, and was then told that the fairings and handlebar replacements needed would not arrive until the 18th September, at which point my partner advised he could fit the fairings himself, as he didn't want something cosmetic to delay the work further. The garage agreed, and set another "guaranteed date" for today (3rd October), even though they had advised that when the parts were available the work could be completed straight away. My partner called the garage today and they have now got an issue with the mechanic meant to do the work, who has injured himself, so now the work is again being pushed back, and there has been no end date given for this. They advised my partner that they could get someone else to do the work (and confirmed that there is an hour and a half left of work to do at this point) but it would take twice as long to get it done. I personally think that at this point they should be getting it done today, and not charging for the extra time as this is a ridiculous amount of time to be waiting even for extensive repairs. At every turn the customer service has been abysmal, and it has had to be my partner every time chasing up work that puts a lot of money in this garage's pocket. I definitely will be recommending to everyone I know not to take vehicles to this garage. I will update this review when the work has finally been completed so everyone is aware exactly how long this has taken.