That seat looks terrible. What's up with the gap at the front of it? If the insurance won't do anything to make the situation right (since it is their $) I would drop them too. Would think about suing the shop in small claims court too out of principle, but odds are you will never see anything from them.

 

I understand all the "whip some ***" comments and, believe me, the thought crossed my mind dozens of times over the 6+ months, but the idea of jail and fines don't appeal to me. I left him another voicemail today - no response. Called insurance again to see what they can do, but never very helpful. Called TX Dept of Insurance - they told me small claims court to try and recover money and I can file complaint against insurance for them cutting check directly to shop when I own the bike with no liens. Not sure what a complaint with insurance will accomplish.

The shop was not the HD dealer in New Braunfels - it was an independent. Dammit - I wish Progressive would have just cut me the check and none of this would be happening.

 

Get all your documentation together and go to small claims court. If you don't, then it is going to happen again to somebody else.

Mean City Cycles might be able to help you with the seat.

After this is resolved, I would change insurance companies and go to their office in person to tell them why.

 

This may not be worth anything to you, but I have Progressive and I wrecked my bike; had it reworked from the ground up.

Progressive rep asked me where I wanted my bike towed to. Told him my local HD shop. Rep cut the check to the shop because the bank owned the bike. Told me that is what they had to do since I didn't "own" it.

The speed at which they handled the situation from the initial damage estimate to cutting the check was surprising. Didn't leave much room for error. In hindsight I guess you could have had it towed to your house and then the check would have been cut to you. Valuable lesson for someone that may find themselves in your situation, thanks for sharing.

When I was looking for a custom seat for my bike I was referred to this guy in Texas. Initially what I wanted to do was purchase a HD spring seat and have this guy re-cover it. Well, he tells me that he can make the whole seat and buying the HD product would be a waste. He assured me over and over he could make one that looked "exactly" like the HD seat. I ask him to send me some pics of some seats he had done and none of them came close to looking like the HD product. Decided to go in another direction.

 

Well... after reading through your post, I think you need to make a point. I would file a civil suit and also go up the chain on the insurance company and threaten them as well. Talk words like insurance fraud to Bike Werkz and the insurance company. Something went wrong here and it's not ok to take others possessions and try and hold it hostage like that. I would have been all over this from the get go. Seems like there might be a few missing pieces to the story, but based on what you are saying you should be able to get some recourse for getting treated that way. That's 6months....

I am not big on law suits for every dumb reason, but this one actually fits pretty good and what the civil suits are made for.

Also, they have a website that you can leave feedback. At the end of all this I would leave negative feedback and advise them that you are posting the name of their shop and their business practice all over the net. jmo

 

Mind sharing name of seat shop in TX you thought of using - might help me avoid a mistake. PM me if you don't want to post publicly. Thanks.

As far as missing points or details of story ... only things I left out are more frustrating attempts I made to call and email with no response, more trips I made to shop to check progress only to see bike had not been touched for six months, and shop lies to insurance adjuster that bike was done except for custom work I requested (again bike had not been touched at this point - not even grips and levers). Oh yeah, forgot to mention my ride home on bike and shifter would not shift on my 60+ mile ride home, because shift peg lever was tightened too much. Oh yeah, forgot to mention how timing cover came loose riding down highway after leaving shop and I had to go back and find it, only to find a nice custom chrome cover all scratched up. Oh yeah, marks on new exhaust where they weren't wiped down before first startup.

Not trying to be an a$$, but I see members post about problems and others members write and question whether they are telling the truth. Last 7 months trying to get bike fixed has been horrible and I have no reason
to exaggerate - shop gave me all the fu@! ups I needed. I was going to write this up earlier, but kept hoping shop would fix things - now I just want to let others know to be careful using this place. And now I have to spend more money to file a small claims court petition - ridiculous!

 

I think the whole purpose of small claims court is to keep costs down, so that amount should be very minimal. Depending on your state, your lawsuit can include court costs.

You are more patient than I am. I would not have let it drag on this long before taking action. The first mistake was letting the insurance company write the check. I know it is too late now, but if you would have done something right then, it would have made this all much easier. Let us know how it turns out.