Was I scammed out of my bike???

another member

Has anyone been shocked to have had their bike written off for minor damage then found it for sale on Donedeal shortly after???

knucklehead6

written off as Beyond Economical Repair?

Esel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058374538/was-i-scammed-out-of-my-bike

The insurance presumably gave you the option of accepting a smaller amount and keeping the bike?

Whatwicklow

The motor industry had been buying insurance write offs, buttering them up and selling them dice the dawn of time 😉

Where is the scam?

another member

I prefer not to say too many details at this point because I'm looking into taking it further. The bike was not stolen. Ignition/immobilizer was tampered with outside my house but they were spooked and fled. Independent assessor rated it at 5500 market value. Initially from the get go,the guy in the garage is already telling me on the phone how I probably won't get my bike back as "it could cost up to a couple of grand" to put it right. I said,ok generate the quote and I'll go through insurance. He then tells me they won't fix it as it would be more than half the value of the bike. All this before he even sees the bike. I told him it was worth 6 grand or there abouts and he got all awkward on the phone. Cut to receiving the quote......I received by email ten mins before the shop shut on a Friday 5,500 euro😵‍💫 the bike was otherwise immaculate. What's bothering me is,to take my bike back I would have to pay the shop 320 euro "transport" 1 hour round trip. Almost 400 euro"storage" and 100 euro for doing the quote. 800 quid to get my bike back without any work done

another member

Yes

CliffHangeroner

Sounds like a scam alright. You could get a couple of keys and a new ecu for most bikes for well under 1k euro.

another member

The quote from the garage consisted of

Set receiver unit 204

Key set. 738

FRAME. 1728

Unit comp pgmfi. 470

Labour. 2000

Towing. 300

Photograph. 80

Which I presume is the charge for the estimate.

Because I got a fair market evaluation,I decided to take the payout as it was probably the safest option as that quote scared me a bit to be honest. As I said,if I wasn't going to go through insurance I would have had to pay the garage a grand for their charges. Turns out,after I got paid out,the total value of the claim was over 7500. This meant the garage got over 2 grand for collecting the bike to their garage and not doing anything to it.....There I think lies the scam

bladespin

If you got paid and accepted a fair value then there's no scam.

Did the garage actually do any work? Collection, assessment, research, storage and answering phonecalls/emails would count as work.

another member

Yes. Absolutely. Collection and estimate of course takes time and time is money.No mechanical or repair work done.

My point is,and only because 80%of the people I spoke to about this have heard of similar. That,the extent of the repairs estimated seems completely excessive. As I said the bike was not stolen.The ignition was tampered with. Bike was still outside my house,not knocked over and I'm quoted for a frame??? On top of fuel injected system etc. of course I'm not a mechanic so I wouldn't know,hence being on here for feedback from lads with much greater knowledge and experience which is greatly appreciated.

Going back a bit. I'm told garages have been known to over estimate repairs knowing insurance won't pay,then owners claim payout and garage gets over 2 grand charges having not lifted a spanner.Handy money in my opinion.

bladespin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122725190#Comment_122725190

TBH You weren't scammed though your Insurance probably might have been kinda etcetc, it's an old trick, quote high but not beyond the realms of possinbility nad the Insurers will just fork out and sell as a category XYZ write off (depends on costs etc), garage buys it from them and repairs at a fraction of the cost then sells on.

It's transactional and the more time it takes the higher the potential cost to the insurers, the cost of getting legal is astronomical so makes sense kindof.

BTW I read Frame, if a new frame or substantial frame repair was involved then the quote's pretty cheap labour wise, that's a complete strip and reassembly.

knucklehead6

If it went through insurance then they are in essence buying the bike from you. If they then sell it on to someone with the skill set and knowledge to fix it, that’s their business. Your involvement with that bike ended when they paid out.

It can be a pain, I had a Crosstourer damaged BER around this time last year. I’d be reasonably certain that bike has been repaired and is back on the road somewhere. If I had the money and time and technical skills I would have done it myself

goblin59

By the sounds of it the thieves snapped the handlebar lock and this damaged the main frame.
Once insurance hears about a damaged main or sub frame they just automatically go to insurance write off.

Esel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122725722#Comment_122725722

Probably just snapped a small lug off the headstock. In that scenario, I think a write-off is crazy!

New frame means new VIN. This would require a change to the registration.

another member

Thanks for feedback guys.

There was no obvious damage to the frame As I said,bike was still outside the house.

@ knucklehead6

Absolutely I get your point. I did get a fair payout but I would have preferred to have my bike quoted for the work required and fixed and returned to me.

Just a bit miffed when I randomly spot it on Donedeal. Felt like catching a girlfriend with another bloke😂😂🤦🏼‍♂️

In hindsight, I'll never take anything to the shop with big windows ever again. Bad vibes from the first phonecall.

Since then have read some horrendous reviews of them.

knucklehead6

I got a quote from the garage, that also went to the insurers.

All told it came to a little short of 7k. Biggest single cost was a new frame. Tiny break in the frame as Goblin59 said, at the steering lock receiver bit.

another member

Yeah. I would have presumed a complete frame replacement and all the other bits to be replaced would have been way more in labour. Which leads me to think they knew they wouldn't be doing the work. Funny how Assess Ireland said pre incident market value was 5500 ant the quote landed at 5500🤔

Screenshot_2024-10-16-14-53-48-067_com.whatsapp-edit.jpg

goblin59

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122725757#Comment_122725757

yeah a mate of mines 1 year old motoguzzi got written off for this reason.
If I'd have known I would have told him to not tell anyone and we'd have gotten a patch welded on.
Was just a case of dropping the front end and being able to fix it.

Esel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122726307#Comment_122726307

I would not be surprised at all if that's what happened to the OP's bike, rather than having been stripped down, rebuilt on the new frame, registration cert changed etc before going for sale.

Be interesting to compare the current reg cert with the VIN on the frame....

Edit: and see if the cert still bears OP's name/address…

GSBellew

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122726426#Comment_122726426

Which there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing, the OP could have had this done just not through insurance, same as you can not use secondhand parts through insurance but you can if you repair it yourself.

What the OP should have done was buy the bike at the salvage value off the insurance company and repaired it with the leftover money.

Esel

Which I said in post #3 😃

The insurance presumably gave you the option of accepting a smaller amount and keeping the bike?

another member

Yeah but they didn't inform me the amount. I was afraid I'd get lumbered with the majority of the cost as I'm not experienced enough to take on the repairs myself seeing what was involved in the quote. It seemed the safer bet to take the payout at the time.

The frame definitely hasn't been changed as I can see on the ad on Donedeal the dealers sticker from Offaly still on it where I purchased it from 2 years ago

Luna84

If I owned a bike I'd park in the downstairs hallway. An inconvenience alright but I'd sleep better that way.

galwaytt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122725757#Comment_122725757

the last new Honda frame I bought (from Dave Silver Spares) came blank - no VIN on it.

galwaytt

I know from my own experience that if there is ANY frame damage they write it off. Doesn't matter what.

I had a rear pannier frame - which is a bolt on part to carry the panniers on my bike bent, and the assessor told if the area of the frame that it was bolted to was bent at all, then they'd write the whole bike off.

Madness.

blackbox

You definitely were not scammed as you received the market value of the bike.

It is, however, possible that the insurance company was scammed.