Has a dealership ever tried to rip you off?

Theres a lot of overhead, as was discussed above. If you know someone who can order for you wholesale, you can get a good deal on stuff alot of times. But when you have to go to a dealership, who has to pay 18 people + property costs to be open, so that you can go in to be ABLE to buy the part from them, theres a lot of overhead. Add to that their need for a profit margin (otherwise why even be in business?) and its not AS insulting. But it's still a serious annoyance when parts are hard or impossible to get online. Fortunately, that is becoming much easier.

I always check with my local stealership. Sometimes they can get me a decent deal. Other times their prices are outrageous. I'm getting my throttle assembly from them. The can get it for me for $5 cheaper than i've found to order directly to my house, all said and done. My brake switch? Still figuring that out, because they want $59 for a part I've found on various websites for $12.

I guess the biggest issue for those of us spending money as individuals, regularly, on parts like this, is that we _know_ what the parts are worth. Your average joe that takes his car in to the dealer for service doesnt know that he can buy the parts online and do the work himself for 1/10th the cost. Either that, or the cost is reasonable to him that its not worth the work to save the money. Economics at work. Personally, I'm almost unbelievably cheap, so the dealerships dont get much of my money.

That pump you guys produced is probably a very early prototype. I doubt it's something that is advanced enough to risk the legal implications involved with this.

Edit: I forgot, I bought my helmet from the dealership too. I went in to try some on, had no intention of buying from them, just wanted to find out the right size to order. I walked in intending on buying an HJC I had found online for $115. I let the (admittedly rather cute) parts girl talk me into trying on the Icon lid tagged at 159, and loved it. Told her no thanks, handed it back, said I was just gonna order it because I couldnt spend more than 125. She went in the back for a minute, and came back and sold it to me for $125 out the door. Got home and checked, and the cheapest I could find it online was 120, plus shipping. So I have had a few good experiences with the local bike dealer.

I do let the chevy dealer do my oil and spark plug changes on my 98 camaro. They're a pain in the butt to do (spark plugs took me 4 hours to accomplish on my own last time) and the dealer gives me a decent price since it's "routine maintenance." Little do they know popping the hood for the plugs that its gonna take 2 guys under the car to do em. hah.

edit 2: uh so I typed a book. sorry about that. hah.