Total Triumph

No iceman, always been great to deal with in my experience

 

Hi Iceman,
I bought a bike from them last year. Hard to haggle with them for any discount. Always be ready to walk out and eventually you should get at least a little off.
Had some work done by the servicing team a couple if years ago. Pricey obviously being a main dealer but I have since found an independent garage with a Triumph trained mechanic that does all my work now, far cheaper. Brummers Bikes if you are interested.
By the way the food van outside is great.

 

Yes, I'm afraid I have had a bad experience with TOTAL Triumph. I will say that it was at least 5 years ago so things MIGHT have changed. It would take far too long to explain but I will say that their after sales support was far less than I would have expected from a solus Triumph dealer.

I swore at the time that I wouldn't go back there and, until very recently, I maintained that promise. I reneged recently because, for some inexplicable reason, TOTAL has, seemingly, become the reseller of choice for early Hinckley (especially T300) parts stocks and I've needed to compromise for practical reasons.

I still and will avoid it where possible but when needs must .......

The recommendation for Brummers is a good one - he used to work at TOTAL ..... guess why he left? (No, actually I don't know the real reason but a conversation with him shortly after he set up at Chelston gave a very strong intimation that there was something not entirely right about TOTAL!)

Iceman - if you're interested in a bike from them and you want me to go look at it, just let me know. They have a 1992 Daytona 750 in for sale ...

https://www.totaltriumph.co.uk/used-motorcycles/triumph/daytona-750/61838.htm

... which looks absolutely great in the pictures, has an amazing history file and is a fairly good price. However ... AHEM .... a friend of mine had expressed an interest and asked me if I'd go take a look. I'm afraid close up and personal it's not quite what it might appear and I, personally, could not recommend it to someone that isn't able/prepared/willing to do a significant amount of work on it.

I wouldn't say 'do NOT go to TOTAL' but I would say that it would be wise to make wider comparisons; ensure you have full knowledge of what you're buying; what they're selling and what the expectations of each are. I guess you could say that of any dealership but I'd, personally, suggest that it's a little bit more important here!

 

Only just saw this. Yeah I had an issue with them at the end of 2020 with regard to a suspension unit for my T312. I thought it was faulty, their boss (Neil?) assured me it wasn't and if I got it fitted and it was still a problem, they'd sort it out for me!. Ha.. cost over £200 to get it fitted by my local garage. It was faulty as I had said. They refused to do anything to help except I had to get it removed at my cost and return it to them before they would ship a replacement unit out..... That was sorting me out was it?... I wasn't happy and ended up traveling to them to get them to swap it out. They wouldn't even squeeze me in I had to wait a couple of months... Service was fine when I got there (took all day for the round trip). I would think twice again about trusting them...

 

Oh dear!

I have to say that the "format" of their response sounds utterly familiar to me.

CAVEAT EMPTOR?

I kind of hope someone comes up with a positive review, just for balance. But I'm not holding my breath while I wait!

 

Please do. I take it there are whees that may still be in motion?

 

i'd take them to the claims as it's almost certain that you’ll get a result.
And, they will have to pay costs too (regardless of what he says)
If then he doesn’t pay (court ordered) i'd send the bailiffs in.
I'd then send him a pic of me smiling.

 

Hi Iceman. WOW - THAT is a story and a half!

You've pretty much confirmed - and more - everything I've suspected of TOTAL and (some) of the staff there and you've re-affirmed my previously self-justified reasons to avoid the place.

In a sense you've been both very unfortunate and fortunate - unfortunate to have gone through all the hassle and expense of a wholly misrepresented and one sided transaction; and fortunate to have got the bulk of your money back. A £200 lesson is a salutary one, for sure; a £5000 lesson would have been an utter disaster!

It would be nice to take them to court for the £200 that they've, effectively, 'stolen' from you .... OK, unlawfully withheld - and, if you've got nothing better to do then I'm pretty sure most people on here would say "DO IT NOW" in an Arnie kind of voice, but the reality is, I reckon, that it will take months, possibly years of your life; involve endless aggravation and you'll have no guarantee that a court would necessarily agree with you. The expression "move on" springs to mind.

With any luck, a number of people on this forum - and perhaps even a wider audience - will read your story, and the one from @Wattie, and make any approach to TOTAL Triumph an exercise of the utmost caution ..... that way, Mr. Mossman's gain of £200 will be very quickly wiped out in lost business. That said, Mr. Mossman and "lost business" seem to be synonymous. None of that helps you any, I know, but it might be a small comfort in a bigger hurt.

What surprises me most of all is not how this business operates but why it continues to do so under the normally prestigious 'solus Triumph' dealer banner.

 

@Iceman have you contacted Triumph HQ with all the above information? From other comments here it seems that your experience is not an isolated case and I would have thought that Triumph if made aware would want to distance themselves from such an operation. You would be doing Triumph, existing and future Triumph owners a service by removing this company from the dealer network.
It looks like that would be £200 well spent.

 

Agree completely with Col...surely triumph need to know about this and they maybe able to help you?

 

I agree, it certainly wouldn't hurt to contact Triumph with the full details and I, too, would recommend that should happen. I wouldn't, though, hold my breath waiting for TOTAL to be beaten with a big stick ... so to speak.

Yes, any report of alleged dealer malfeasance is likely to be looked into but I suspect, if the dealer is returning good sales figures and not having a lot of complaints racked up against his name then Triumph will file it "pending". Last time I was actually in the shop at TOTAL (picking up some phone ordered parts) there were a gazillion Scramblers in there awaiting prep. and PDI. If they're ordering that many stock, they're expecting to sell them. If they sell them and get few complaints then, in my tiny mind, Triumph are unlikely to be taking any proactive steps towards formally reviewing their franchise deal.

Yes, anybody (and everybody) that gets this kind of service from a main dealer should definitely write to Customer Services at Triumph and, with luck, before long a coherent picture and pattern should emerge of the dealership's 'abilities', but that will be weighed against their record of product sales and customer retention. The next nearest Triumph main dealer is not (or at least was not), in my experience, much better than this one so as far as customer choice in THIS area is concerned, there's a touch of Hobson's choice about it!

 

Been happy with servicing and other jobs on my Thruxton R, up until recent experience.

Was booked in for a new front tyre to be fitted but was called advising that front pads also required replacement, which I agreed to.

When I collected the bike I did notice the front brake was very spongy (It had been spot on since servicing in July 2021 and the brake fluid was replaced) but thought this might settle.

It then sat in the garage for 10 days until using it to commute the 20 miles to work. First thing I noticed backing it out of the garage was how the brake was binding. I rode the 20 miles but both front discs were quite hot when I got there despite not using the front brake for the last half of the journey. The brake lever also went from nothing and depressing to the handlebar to immediate engagement second squeeze, itself quite dangerous.

I called at around 5.00 that day when I got home and explained the problem. Cannot recall who I spoke to but they correctly said needed looking at. Saturday 29th would be the earliest I could get the bike back. I was told workshop was fully booked and had to get quite assertive insisting it was looked at since this was a safety issue on work they had only just completed.

Gabby, Craig and the mechanic who sorted the problem were polite and helpful when I collected the bike. I was rather overwhelmed with all the technical explanation the mechanic gave and I am happy he was accurate with his diagnosis. The dirty lanes I drive on about 5 miles of my commute are not good for the Brembos and it seems I need brakes fully serviced each year when doing my annual service and full replacement of entire brake system every two years?

I agreed with Gabby & Craig to 'split the difference' on the bill and paid £108 for the mechanics labour. However on reflection did not feel happy this was reasonable, given the circumstances and replied to the M.D. Neil Mossman's standard email asking whether I was completely satisfied with the work that had been carried out. Message read:



You returned a bike to me that was not safe to ride. The mechanic said 'I would have failed this on MOT for the brake binding', yet whoever did the work and test rode it passed it fit for collection.

If you had advised brake servicing was also required then I would have agreed to it.

Returning an unfit bike was dangerous and also required me giving up my Saturday afternoon to return it and a 60 mile round trip.

This has knocked my confidence in Total Triumph Taunton. I came to you from Bridge on the recommendation of a friend, a former mechanic himself, multiple bike owner and loyal customer of yours who has always spoken highly of you. Up until this incident I have always been happy with your service.

Whilst Gabby and Craig were very reasonable on Saturday, no one said 'sorry' for the mistake and inconvenience. The mechanic looked visibly surprised when I told him this was how the bike had been returned to me.

I think it only reasonable that you refund the £108 I have paid and I will put this down to an unfortunate glitch in your usual standards.



Subsequently had a call from Gary - Salesman, slightly confusing as I had already been delaing with both the Sales and General Manager and wrote to the Managing Director.

Told me I had actually been undercharged on the original job as they had spent two hours cleaning and servicing the brakes then - first I had heard of this. This just means returning the bike to me in the state it was in is even worse than previously thought.

Then tried to claim that the bike was fine when I collected it, implied I was lying and that the subsequent fault the mechanic spent another two hours fixing when I took it back (did a good job) must have occured in the 40 miles I did between picking it up the first time and calling to report the problem. Outrageous!

Accept that mistakes can happen but not at all happy with how what I think is a reasonable claim has been handled.

 

Sounds like Bridge will have a returning customer, I've no experience of Total, my wife bought her used Street 675 from Bridge, everything went fine (supplied with oil & filter change + new rear tyre fitted without issue) but no further experience of them either. I do all my own maintenance on both our bikes so manage to avoid this type of situation. Adding a pad change whilst replacing a front tyre would add less than half an hour for me (including cleaning calipers which would be lose anyway), however to get the problems you experienced I can only assume Total have also taken upon themselves to refresh the brake fluid - which I assume you didn't ask for - good intentions (or apprentice training?) that went wrong it seems.
The comments ref Brembo's and dirty lanes is complete BS, they're fitted to Multistrada's and other off-road capable bikes. Brake fluid should be replaced every two years (is that what they meant by "full replacement of entire brake system"?) and I would expect calipers to be cleaned at that time also.

 

@El Janners sorry to hear that you, too, have suffered from Total Triumph's legendary service.

But, as you and Iceman have both found, Total are VERY good at the "pushback" technique. They appear to have a policy of flat denial of any 'mal-practice' of any kind and this hard line approach seems to scare off or deter most people from pursuing the case. Not surprising, really as it is obviously quite difficult proving the negative.

I still think - as I did in my last message from March of 2021 - that anybody that has a poor experience with Total should send a clear and detailed account of the issue to Customer Services at Triumph HQ. The more complaints they get (and I find it hard to believe that there aren't more of them out there) the more likely it is that something will eventually happen.

Regrettably, the South West is not well served with Triumph dealerships - I haven't set foot in Bridge for about 20 years after an appalling incident that proved to me that they allowed an untrained monkey to service my Trident 900- despite my insistence that it should be serviced only by a fully Triumph trained tech.!