05/04/2026
Not something we ever wanted to have to do, but someone has left a bad google review and so I feel the need to respond in full as Google has a character limit. If anyone could go to Google and report the review that would be much appreciated. If you make it to the end of this very long read you deserve a cookie 🍪 😅
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I’ll start by saying firstly we have tons of screenshots, pictures and the full altercation on CCTV to back up everything we say is 100% truth, also person was not our customer. He owned a quad that his mate was sick of trying to fix for him to which his friend then asked us for advice and later booked in for work. I will refer to the person leaving the review as the owner, and his friend that booked it in for work as the customer.
The customer originally phoned us saying he had got to the end of his tether trying to fix said quad, they had a running issue with the quad where as soon as you revved the quad it cut out, we gave them a few ideas to try and told them we can take a look at this if they want to book it in, I’m sure we’ll be able to fix it no issues AT THIS POINT - the customer was made aware our labour rate is £70+vat per hour, which is both reasonable and on the lower end of average for a sports quad workshop.
Fast forward a couple of months and the customer phoned us again to say they they’ve had snapped an exhaust stud on the old engine and somehow got weld splatter inside the head 🤦🏼and so had bought a replacement engine from eBay, fitted it, potentially overfilled the oil but unsure and still couldn’t get it to run correctly, that is was lacking power and speed and asked if they could fetch it for repair.
This was the first red flag 🚩 customer kept asking to drop it off on a weekend (outside of working hours) we explained we were not open, and would need to be during work hours. The customer went on to nag was there anyway we could meet him anywhere to drop the quad off as he works during our working hours (as if this is my problem, but as always we try to be helpful) so we met with the customer to drop the quad off outside working hours - at the time of drop if we discussed how it’s an undiagnosed issue and therefore we couldn’t give a estimated price however it will be £70+vat per hour +parts, we also discussed some of the common things we would work through - at this he was more than happy.
I then sent over our T/Cs to be read and signed - the customer acknowledged receiving, said he would send them over to his mate/the owner/the person leaving this review, he then returned the viewed and said to be signed T/Cs by the customer.
And so Work began as agreed.
We started out checking the basics, anybody with any basic mechanical sense would do.
•Ultrasonic cleaned the carb - ironically which he claims to be a new carb which was a used VERY DIRTY (Pictures to prove) it’s also with mentioned the throttle cable was dangerously routed OUTSIDE the plastics and carb housing, forcing it past the cable cover etc, leaving the old cable still in place routed the right way.
•We also remove the exhaust which has been forced on as it was wrong for the bike to inspect as they stated this issue originally started when it blew a hole in the exhaust and they replaced it, these quads come with restricted exhaust from new so we wanted to check this wasn’t the case with the replacement since it was packing power.
•We changed the spark plug - Partly to rule it out (common sense) but also to be able to check if the quad was running lean - which test ride and plug chop confirmed it was but for what reason was yet to be determined.
•We then stripped and cleaned the manky fuel pump and air filter
— The customer had been on the phone a few times upto now and kept in the loop with what we had found and suggested next steps and was happy to continue —
—At this point we agreed it was time to start looking into the supposed good replacement engine —
•We then did a compression test, which confirmed compression was on the lower side but not drastically low and not clear indication to start pulling the top end off just yet, customer was made aware of the findings and agreed with our suggestion of next steps. (These engines have Auto Decompression and so read lower anyway)
•We then checked the timing and continued on to check and adjust the valve clearances.
•After this we performed another compression test to see if this had made the difference - compression was still low.
Obviously goes without saying multiple test rides throughout each stage of repairs for testing if successful.
— we then spoke to the customer, discussed that the quad was also breathing heavily from the oil tank which would suggest piston blow by and how the findings upto now suggested 2 things, compression on the lower side and also signs of being lean, we suggested the compression and blow by is likely due to top end/piston rings and could also be contributing the lean mixture but that was potentially due to the brittle air box pipe not sealing great (As you can tell by now, a quad riddled with issues) the custom said his friend (the owner, person leaving the review) has some parts and could he drop them off so we could use them to save him some money.. oh and you guessed it, the would need me to meet them outside of working hours once again. —
When we met the OWNER to get the parts, he said he was unhappy with how much he’d already put into the quad and that I should only contact him once the quad was complete, for any other updates etc continue to communicate with the customer, I explained upto now we had done quite a lot of work to the quad, and as he was worried regarding the price I would send over an current bill to date before going any further.
— I was then away camping for the weekend and was going to send the bill across the next working day, in the meantime the OWNER (and customer later on) began to message and phone to kick off stating he had just been told of the hourly (despite me telling the customer on multiple occasions and them both viewing and signing the T/Cs which states it) the owner kept going on complaining and claiming he wasn’t aware of the hourly rate (irrelevant anyway considering he is not the customer) and said if he knew he would never have had me work on it. I then pointed out the fact he had signed the T/Cs prior, to which he then claimed he had never agreed and wants his quad back, at this point I made it clear to the owner the quad had an outstanding bill to be paid and under no circumstances would it leave our workshop until it was paid, I also suggested if as he is now trying to claim his friend has indeed taken his quad without his consent, dropped it off for work and fraudulently signed the T/Cs on his behalf then he should contact the police and report his friend (the customer) for TWOC and FRAUD.
It was then he tried to claim we hadn’t even done any work to the quad, we didn’t have permission to do so etc etc (Just bare in mind we had already met him at this point for him to drop parts off to continue the work 🤦♂️) The conversation went back and forth for hours going round in circles to around 1am, the owner demanded he will be collecting his quad on X day at X time which I had no problem with aslong as the bill was paid now being around 1am on my weekend away I told the owner I will not be replying to any more messages until the next working day. (They continued to send disgruntled messaged all weekend) - the cheek of it also that it was even asked if I could do it any cheaper or if I could knock of the VAT for cash 😅
— COLLECTION DAY —
When the owner was on the way to collect the customer messaged to ask if the quad had “been put back, is it ready to go” .. beggars belief I know… to which I said NO, worked on the quad seized making progress the moment the owner/customer refused to pay the bill, why would I sink further hours
Into putting it back together? I don’t know, I’d consider that common sense but maybe that’s me..
They finally turned up, 3 people, the owner, the customer and the friend. IN A SMALL CAR may I add, to take away a quad bike in bits.. interesting I thought.
I invited them all into the workshop, to come and collect the quad and discuss the situation, the friend was polite from the get go, seemed to have common sense and agreed there was clearly a miscommunication between the owner and customer and that they need to pay the bill and sort it between them, the customer was as happy and wanted to question why we had done certain things, to which I explained clearly why and at what point we do certain bits, when the owner kicked off that we had cleaned a carb that we supposedly shouldn’t have (the first thing anyone would do when a quads lacking power) the customer even admitted himself when I mentioned they should have never fitted a dirty carb, that yes he did in fact fit a dirty carb as they had multiple carbs they were swapping over to try get it to run .. this is the very same carb that the owner has tried to state was a “NEW” carb in his review, we have pictures so show how it was disgusted dirty and fitted wrong.
THE OWNER came in high rate, argumentative and aggressive from the start, and was warmed to lower his tone or he will be asked to leave (a few times) he also argued about various things that he has no clue about and has to keep asking the customer (to which we had very reasonable answers for each time) he then began to get high rate, threatening and aggressive again to which he was told to leave the premises, he refused and said he was going anywhere without his quad, he was told he isn’t even the customer he has no standing to be here, leave now or the police will be called, he again refused. At this point I phoned the police. We don’t run a business to have to deal with argumentative, aggressive people that are absolutely mechanically clueless and yet trying to question the people that they have fetched it to for repair.
At this point when they realised this was not a bluff, the customer and the friend told the owner of the quad to leave - the owner also carried on sulking about how “he’s going to leave tons of bad reviews”
Meanwhile whilst all this was happened the customer tried stating they wouldn’t have minded even if the bill was £1500 if they were collecting a fixed quad, at this point I had to call out absolute rubbish, the quad would have been fully fixed and working.. except they kicked off and refused to pay the hourly rate before we even got it fixed 🙃
Once he left a civil conversation was had, the customer and friend apologised for there friend (the owner) and said he simply didn’t have the money to put into the quad - as if this makes his behaviour acceptable or that it’s my problem they’ve had this work done, knowing the hourly rate that they now can’t afford.
The customer again tried to ask me to finish of the repairs on the quad - Now makes sense why they turned up in a car and not a van to collect - asif coming in hot heading and aggressive was going to make me agree to lower the bill 😅 anyway to which at this point I point blank refused to do anymore work, and explained what kind of idiot would I be to continue to work and put more hours into a quad for people that have kicked off this much over, the customer agreed he can understand and asked for advice on how to fix it going forward as he’d be stuck with it.
At this point we explained the 2 things left to do after the repair and diagnosing that had already been done would be to change the airbox tube and failing that it would be a top end rebuild, he also asked could I recommend any to do the work to which I politely said I would recommend this situation to an enemy nevermind a allied quad workshop.
The customer then paid the bill, as the owner couldn’t afford it, again apologised multiple times for the way his friend the owner had behaved and began asking if I could supply parts for another quad he had, the following days the customer sent various messages asking if I can supply parts to which I ignored, whilst things were left civil between ourselves and the customer and friend (not owner) we do not do business with anyone associated to this sort of situation - but it clearly shows, the customer, the person who we was actually dealing with and fetched the quad to us for repair was happy with the service and wanted to continue doing business.
To summarise;
•the person leaving the review has never been and never will even be a customer to us.
•He apparently has an issue with the fact we don’t have a magic crystal ball and can’t get repair an undiagnosed issue without first diagnosing and repairing obvious issues we are faced with - such as he expected us not to clean a filthy carb, but still find a lack of power issue 🙃
•he also kicked off because he shouldn’t have to pay the bill because we haven’t fixed it.. considering HE pulled the plug on the repair and refused to pay the bill, not us. Apparently at that we should write off all the labour and parts we’ve put into it because he can’t afford it 🥲
•it should also be noted as the owner kicked off at the fact we didn’t fit a new piston before cleaning the carb etc… can you imagine the backlash of charging a customer for top end rebuild an then it turns out it only need a carb clean? 👀 as we explained to them, when a quad is faced with multiple issues, you use COMMON SENSE and MECHANICAL KNOWLEDGE to rectify the most likely and cheaper causes before stinging with a top end rebuild that may or may not be needed, either way the dirty carb etc needs addressing, the low compression could have been a timing/valve clearance issue etc hence they get checked and rectified first.
•and the he irony to top it all off, as we said after diagnosing and repairing issues, the remaining issue is due to low compression / piston blow by / top end engine work needed.. which he even confirmed in his own review 🤦♂️ Which we told him multiple times via message, in person and even wrote it on the invoice, the remaining issue with the quad is it has low compression.
•did I forget to mention - the owner when he refers to us not providing proof we had sent over many pictures along the way, he expected us to sit through the full X amount of hours of CCTV with him of us working on the quad.. 😂
… now imagine if he don’t spit his dummy out, try using aggression to lower the bill and could actually afford the hourly rate of the place they used to repair there quad, the quad would have been fixed a long time ago since all they had to do to get it working was the remaining work we stated it needed.
I’ll finish by saying we have thousands of good genuine customers around the world, but due to the demographic of quads from time to time we have to deal with people
like this. We live tough world and I completely and whole heartedly sympathise with people struggle to make ends meet but let’s be real here, this is a sports quad, a toy, a luxury to own, it is not our problem if you cannot afford to have it repaired, simply DO NOT BOOK IT IN FOR REPAIR. What a 1st world problem, ey? 🙃🙃
I’ll let and past, current future or potential customers make there own minds up on this review, however again we have all the message throughout, pictures of work being done, issues found etc and the whole collection altercation on CCTV to confirm we are being 100% truthful and factual.
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Evidence attached;
Pic 1-2 - Review left
Pic 3-4 - The claimed “new” carb
Pic 5 - clearly shows owner knew the customer was dropping it off for repair
Pic 6 - Me stating, right before them kicking off about me cleaning the carb instead of rebuild an engine first, them asking me to try another carb despite me saying its engine related. 🥲
Pic 7-12 - Shows conversation of owner kicking off about the bill, also shows proof he knew it was being dropped off work work despite him later claiming he didn’t know or agree to it.
Pic 13- just shows exactly the sort of thing we were dealing with, them kicking off over changing a £8 spark plug, after dropping a quad off to be diagnosed and repaired 🙃🤦♂️
Pic 14-15 - show the customer after the fact still sending messages wanting to purchase parts, so quite clearly he didn’t have an issue with us and agrees his mate, the owner is the problem 🥲
We have many many more pics, vids and cctv to support the truth, now go get your cookie 🍪 🍪🍪
