I went to my local Honda dealers today and asked the parts department for a clutch cover gasket for my 57 reg... To be told... About 4 days as its not a stock item... Hello mr parts dept. !!! The 2007 'Blade doesn't have a clutch cover gasket !! Shouldn't that have been the reply the Honda chap should've uttered !!! That's it... All faith gone now. 30 years of mechanics background should have told me that a fresh faced youth with a computer and no real world knowledge would try to sell me a product that doesn't exist !!!
Somewhat confused as to why you are asking for the part in the first place, when you know it does not exist? Fresh faced kid will not have the knowledge that you have?? What point are you trying to prove here?
Just curious why you have gone into your dealer asking for something you know didn't exist and did you challenge the fresh faced youth about it ? He wouldn't have been able to sell it anyway as he would need a part number and if the part doesn't exist then neither does the part number so no order could be placed and no money would be taken. Unless of course an incorrect bike was looked up on their system.
Ahh you see I didn't know the part didn't exist till I came home and read it on here. I happened to be passing the Honda place and knowing I had the clutch task coming up I thought I would get all the bits I needed, in fact the gasket, (if it existed), would have been the last bit. However that doesn't detract from the fact that mr parts dept, after looking it up on his computer and then telling me "we don't have one in stock, it'll be Wednesday before it comes in" !! There is a reason it not in stock The 08 onward bikes have a gasket, £6.95 with free delivery on eBay, A lot of it is down to my local dealers having a severe case of snobbery and attitude, judging people on appearance as they walk through the door. Just because I was wearing Wellington boots, scruffy trackkie bottoms and a top with holes in and just got out of my scruffy white transit I think they assumed I was some gypsy casing the place, rather than someone who had just been walking his dogs that were in the van after finishing a 12hr nightshift in a £32k a year job and had considered buying a £6k bike from them paying cash for it 3 months previously until the salesman reaction put me off. It's not just the Honda dept, they are dealers for all 4 major manufacturers. I got the same attitude from their Suzuki people !!
Maybe that was the OP's point. You go in to what should be a specialist knowledge center for said make of Bike and the peeps in there can't even work their own IT kit properly. It's just as bad if the part he looked was incorrect and what the customer was asking for did exist as then the poor customer would've returned 4 days later, collected said part, gone home, stripped the bike and then found the part to be incorrect, then had to start the process all over again!
Now I see where you are coming from. Great thing words, although can always be read in two ways. Sorry to hear you have had a bad experience(s) with dealers. I am lucky as my local Honda dealer (Chells in Stafford) are superb and cannot praise them highly enough. Perhaps the kind people on here can guide you to a better dealer in your area? Hope so
