TOPIC: Inspection nightmare

I'm posting on a horrible experience I had with an independent repair shop in the North Hills, ATC Service.

On Tuesday evening, I dropped off my KLR for a state inspection. On Wednesday morning, I received a voice mail from the counter guy, Mike, saying that I could not pass inspection because my auxiliary driving lights are not wired in accordance with PennDot regulations. According to Mike's message, driving lights can only be used on low beam, and must go off on high. This did not seem right to me, so I checked the PennDot regulations on the DMV website. The published regulations are as follows:

Fog lights can be used only on low beam.
Driving lights can be used only on high beam.

So, Mike had it backwards. I called him back thinking this would be quickly cleared up. Instead, Mike insisted that he was right and the regulations posted on the DMV website are wrong. Even when I cited section and line number from the regulations, he continued to dig in his heels. He said the shop had printed regulations from PennDot that superseded the ones published by the DMV. I told him I would come by after work so that we could go over his printed regulations together to figure out what I had to do to comply.

An hour later, Mike called back. This time, he said he had called PennDot, and was told that it was acceptable for the driving lights to come on on both low and high beam, but that my wiring was still unacceptable, because the lights are wired to dim to a very low level on low beam, and only go full power on high beam. He said I would have to rewire the light circuit without the dimmer. I told him that would not be necessary, since I can adjust the dimmer to give full power on both high and low beams if that is what is required. I can also adjust the dimmer to turn the driving lights off completely on low beam. He insisted neither was acceptable. I told him we would review the regulations when we met face to face.

When I arrived at the shop Wednesday evening, I asked to see the printed regulations that he had claimed supersede the published ones. He did not produce them. Instead, he showed me the same published regulations I had quoted to him on the phone, but this time directed my attention to a requirement that driving lights must be spaced at least 20 inches apart, and he claimed that mine are too close together. When I asked why he had not mentioned that before, he acknowledged that this was not the reason he had failed me. I again asked to see the printed regulations on auxiliary light wiring he had referred to in his morning phone call. Again he failed to produce them, claiming that his phone call to PennDot earlier in the day took precedence over everything else, and I would just have to take his word for what PennDot told him,

At this point, it was clear he would not pass me with the lights on the bike. I spent an hour in the parking lot removing the lights, mounting hardware, and wiring, after which I got the sticker. I then got to spend another hour at home installing the lights again.

So, my advice to you is to steer clear of these guys unless you have a high tolerance for BS and a lot of time to waste.

Frank

Frank -

Sorry to hear of your ordeal ... I can tell you that I would have been a little more then upset myself. Couple questions, have you dealt with these guys in the past? Is this where you normaly take your bike for inspection/service/parts etc?

At this point I would file a complaint ... here is info taken from PA DOT site:

"To file a complaint against an official PennDOT safety inspection station you should contact the Quality Assurance Officer that is assigned to your county. To find the Quality Assurance Officer in your area, please check the Quality Assurance Officers contact list." Allegheny County (724) 742-9500

When I changed the title on my WR450F which is strictly a dirt bike and off road vehicle only I was told it was "next to impossible" by about everybody I spoke with. The bottom line is if the regulations secify XYZ and you follow XYZ to the letter then they have to (in my case) change the title. In your case they have to give you a sticker ... PERIOD.

I would file the complaint and I would follow through with it. If they get their license suspended it will cost them a pile of money. Even if they just get spanked with no suspension (likely) it will at least put the State DOT officer on notice that this shop is sub-par.

Keep us posted and good luck.

Don

Thanks for the tip on filing a complaint, Don.

To answer your questions, my only previous experience with this shop was a state inpspection for my Ural the previous day. That went smoothly. I had not taken the KLR to them previously.

As to whether they were required to give me a sticker, things are a little murky. A picky tech could find legitimate reasons to fail me:
* The aux lights are less than 20 inches apart;
* They are not DOT approved;
* The lights were wired to go dim on low beam, but the regulations require them to go off. (This would have been easy to correct.)
If they had failed me for any of these reasons, I would not have been happy, but I would have nothing to complain about. However, the reason they gave for failing me was BS.

There's a postscript to the story that I didn't mention in my earlier post. I rode my wife's scooter to the shop to collect the KLR, intending to leave it for inspection and ride the KLR home. After I removed the lights and got the sticker for the KLR, Mike refused to inspect the scooter, leaving me with two bikes and only one rider to get them home.

Frank

Frank.....Scrape the Sticker Off And Ride It Like You Stole It !

Frank Beatrous wrote:
Frank -

All I can say to this is WOW ... I will be sure to let anybody I talk with know how they treated you. I certainly would NEVER do any business with them, nasty terrible attitude. I would still follow through with the complaint ... they were at the very least deceptive. Good luck, keep us all posted on results.

Don

Wow! Sounds to me like the bum in charge of that joint is one of those clowns that tries to make money by screwing customers under the notion that they need to have additional work done by the shop. The clown was no doubt hoping you'd tell him to rewire the bike properly, in which case instead of a bill for a state inspection, you'd be hit with a whopping bill for rewiring, etc. That is clearly a joint to steer clear of!!!

Speaking of good places, on the other hand, I've got to tell you about my recent experience at European, where Lee Korczynski spent a bunch of time trying to install a louder horn on my bike after installation of necessary recall items (cam chain follower/battery) under warranty--neither of those things costing me a cent, and though expecting to pay for the time he spent trying to get the horn to fit and was unable to get it in the small space allowed by the OEM horn, when I asked him what I owed him for the time and effort he spent trying, he said, "Nothing". All that extra work and I didn't pay a cent! But then that's a great shop IMHO. I've never had a complaint about them for anything--and they're really nice and accommodating folks, I think.