A lesson learnt... At the cost of my 'Berg!

A long read guys but worth reading!

I took my bike up to Taffy for a rebuild a while back, I had a budget of £1500 and made that clear! We chatted about what we we're going to do and my words were do the rebuild and what ever money is left over spend on tuning!
I was well excited! I had found Taffy on this site and heard how good he was! Good enough to warrant the 5 hour each way drive!
He said the estimate for the rebuild was £800 but thats an estimate! the rest of the money will be spent on putting everything on the new frame and if the budget allows a cam and some head work! Remember... £1500 budget!
Over the next month or so we share some calls saying things like, you need a new steering bearing and swingarm bearing! Ok I said... just stay in the budget!
He came across a few problems but a wrong piston and wrong rings are the suppliers fault... Not mine!
By the time The bike was ready (4 or 5 months) we had shared a few phone calls about what I 'need' and things like that... I was getting very excited at this point! All I wanted was to get my beloved 'Berg back and ride it!
Now here is where things get interesting!
The bike is done! I want to pick it up on this date I say! All is ok! Can i have the final bill so I can get the money ready? He hadn't written up the bill yet but it is within my budget!
Ok so I'm leaving tomorrow to get my bike and still no bill! Phone calls are made! I will have a bill for you by the end of the night Ben! Ok stop worrying! 10 o'clock comes and a call comes in... I have done the bill... £2600
Hang on.....
£2600?!?!?!?
****!
Not only can I not pick my bike up I can't actually afford it! And now I can't even afford my holiday 2 weeks down the line!
I take out a small loan to pay for the bike and my mum, bless her, pays for my holiday!
Smiles are back even though I'm paying £1100 over my budget!!
At least it will be amazing!
I come to pick it up and Taffy says he will meet me halfway as he is on his way out in this direction! Brilliant!
We meet in a layby and chat for a bit... He shows me my bike which I think, hang on... it's a bit filthy! But I say nothing! I'm a quiet guy so I didn't even say anything about the price! I keep saying to myself it will be amazing to ride!
He goes to start it and really struggles... It might need a slightly bigger choke jet! Hang on.... Haven't I paid you to jet it!? It even says on my receipt about the jetting!
I take it anyway and he will post me a new choke jet!
I put this in and NO CHANGE!
I'm not hugely mechanical so I'm not to happy messing about with this and very not happy as it was meant to be done!!
I took the bike out for a ride only to find it was completlry un rideable! It had lots of nice bits on it but nothing worked together!
I had wasted £2600
The result after then losing my job and not being able to afford to keep messing around was to break my beloved bike and individually sell these 'nice' parts!
Which fitted properly would be amazing!
I have nearly finished selling all the parts and so far have raised £1600... that's £1000 short of what I spent on it! let alone buying the bike in the first place!
The one part I can't sell... The engine! Probably because I wrote in the advert that it was built by Taffy!
This is wrong! I spent £2600 on my bike and got it back not running! Not running even close to well!
The reason I am coming out and saying all this now is because I was recently told I am not the first person he's done this to! And there's quite a long que of victims before me!
Surley people like this should not deserve the business?
I have lost my bike because of this but more importantly I have lost interest in Husabergs! Which is devastating as I really loved my bike!
Make what you will of this post but if you are looking to get your bike rebuilt please please go to DCR! I used them the first time round and they are fantastic, fast, easy to talk to and very well priced!

That's it for my Husaberg experience.

Ben

RE: A lesson learnt... At the cost of my

very sorry to hear about your problems Ben and i have a story very similar to this aswell as other people that i have been contacted by, trading standards were very helpfull to me btw.

i will have a post up soon about my story but ill let this fuel the fire for now. Please wait for a sarcastic comment using words totally out of context as thats alll i seem to of got!

RE: A lesson learnt... At the cost of my

The guy even 'polished' my swing arm for me when I didn't even ask him to and charged me £100 for doing it!

Why didn't I know of all of these problems before I went to him! Everyone I asked said he was great!

I could understand a bit over budget even if he didn't realise... but £1100 over budget? Either he can't add up or he's a plain and simple scammer!!

Ben

RE: A lesson learnt... At the cost of my

i would go with the latter.

RE: A lesson learnt... At the cost of my

nobody else say a word.

i'll deal with this in the morning.

i refute this completely but seeing it at 11.16pm isn't a good time to reply.

for some reason ben has been very agreeable lately, i wasn't sure why, indeed i have agreed to buy his registered blue frame but he has done this this evening.

i won't ask the moderators to stop this this time. they have proven so inept in the past that i expect it to take them what? 15 days of this before they even think of what's happening.

so i'll go native.

i'm telling people to just sit back and watch this space. the fact that the moderators will take 14 days should give me plenty of time to deal with this.

until the morning then...

regards

Taffy

RE: A lesson learnt... At the cost of my

Taffy... What I have written is not refutable! It is the plain truth!
It has nothing to do with grasstrackpete, and you are very wrong to bring that up as it is a completley different case and nothing to do with me!
You are a high end poster on here so I though it best your 'future' customers are warned so that you do your job properly!
The frame I was going to sell you... To be honest I will still sell it to you... for £2600!

Ben

RE: A lesson learnt... At the cost of my

can i ask why the moderators should be doing anything, the post is quite clearly not to damage a reputation that you talk of but to warn other people of problems that some have had with you.

I dont see anything wrong with this as i know from first hand experience you do work that people dont ask you to do, to ouline my situation, i asked to do fork seals and sort why no spark (turned out to be ignition £100), when i collected the bike i had a bill for £560 ish?

more than double i was quoted and a long list of parts that were not requested.

ill start my own thread so you can reply in your own special way in there though, have a good night sleep !

Graeme

RE: A lesson learnt... At the cost of my

Gentlemen, be assured that I am watching this thread. Everyone has a right to share opinions and experiences, but the line gets drawn when insults and libelous comments enter the picture.

Ben, you've had your say. Taffy, you've had your response. Anything more should be handled off the board...