I've bought some parts from RTM. Brian has always treated me well, to the extent that I even stop in just to say hi from time to time.

The incident involving this motorcycle is clearly something that needs to be addressed by RTM. I do find it a little upsetting that this sort of thing ends up in a public forum before the shop owner has had a fair opportunity to make it right. Transactions don't always go well, and it's when they don't that you truly find out what type of company it is that you're dealing with.

Now it's entirely possible that RTM would have given this guy the bird and told him to be on his way. It's also possible that this work is not representative of what that company considers acceptable and amends would be made. At this point however, the shop has been exposed to a lot of bad publicity right in the middle of their target market (Tampa area motorcyclists). That's a hard pill for them to swallow considering the company wasn't really given an opportunity to make it right before this was made public. This fact will almost certainly play a role in the discussion between the customer and RTM.

The other thing that I find a little off putting is that this thread and it's sister at TSB were started by what appears to be an employee of a competing business (I could be wrong about that, but why else would you have a banner ad in your signature?). Maybe the intention was not to use the internet to sling mud at the competition, but that's certainly how it looks from where I'm sitting.

I won't be using this thread to pass judgment on RTM just yet. My experience with them has been good so far and the way this situation is being handled is not how I'd conduct myself if in a bad situation with a shop. I do all my own work now, but I've been burned in the past (literally 2nd degree burns) due to poor work on a car I had. I was of course pissed off. I called the shop, explained the situation as calmly as I could and they had a flatbed for the car and a rental for me within the hour.

Small local businesses are vulnerable enough as it is, you really need to give the shop at least one chance to make it right before you publicly blast them. That didn't happen here and I think its unfortunate.

EDIT: I've learned that wsideshow is not an employee to Pure Acceleration and that PA is not a service shop at all. The appearance of mud slinging that I mentioned is not based in actual fact, it's just the way things looked before I had the rest of the information. Props to PA for helping out a rider in need.