Sym Fiddle 2 electrical and exhaust issues after maintenance
Hello everyone, I live in the Netherlands and I really need some help figuring out if I'm being ripped off by a local scooter shop. I don't know that much about mechanics, but the whole experience has been so bizarre that I would really appreciate your opinion.
I took my Sym Fiddle II (a few years old, 35,000km) in for a major service at a shop I hadn't visited before. I paid around €500 for a major maintenance, two new Michelin tires, a left brake cable repair, and a headlight bulb change. The price felt fair, but the very day I picked it up, the battery went completely empty. I could turn on the display and lights, but it was too weak to start the engine. I charged it, but it emptied again two days later. I even bought a brand new battery, but the exact same thing happened. After charging it one more time, the scooter suddenly died with a "click" while I was riding, and I couldn't even get the display to turn on after that.
Strangely, a few days after I first picked up the scooter, the shop randomly called me out of the blue to offer to sell me a new scooter. I had casually mentioned considering buying a new one in the future during drop-off, but I was surprised by the sudden sales pitch. The caller seemed shocked when I rejected it. At that point, I hadn't even mentioned the battery problem to them yet because I assumed it was just a faulty battery on my end.
Once the scooter died completely, I called them. They immediately became incredibly defensive before I even accused them of anything, snapping: "I told you it is an old scooter, you need to buy a new one." Since they had changed the light bulb and done major service, I asked if something could have happened to the electrical cables. They were very dismissive, firmly rejecting any responsibility and claiming they never went near the cables or electricity at all, blaming it strictly on the age of the scooter (which has a regular service history and never had major problems).
I brought the scooter back, and they later told me the voltage regulator was fried. They replaced it and charged me €125, claiming the faulty regulator was the sole cause of the battery draining. But guess what? The exact same day I picked it up, the battery went completely empty again.
Frustrated, I started doing some research and decided to check the headlight bulb they had installed. I noticed it said "12V 60/55W H4" on it (photo attached). Everywhere online, I found that this scooter is strictly supposed to use a 35W HS1 bulb. Multiple resources stated that putting a car bulb like that into a small scooter system would cause the exact problems I had: draining the battery and frying the voltage regulator.
I went back and confronted the shop owner about the car bulb. He basically laughed it off. He claimed that a scooter system cannot physically drain more than 35W from a battery, so even if you put a 60W or 100W bulb in there, it will still only pull 35W and won't cause any harm. He even dragged me to the back of the shop to show me another scooter where they had installed the same car bulb to "prove" it's just what they do. Hilariously, after a 20-minute conversation of me pushing back, the owner suddenly crackled and admitted that they had indeed worked near the cables, reversing his firm stance from earlier.
A few days later, they called to say it was fixed. They put in another new battery, claiming my other two were dead. This time, they claimed the real issue was just some rust on the dynamo stator preventing it from charging, which they cleaned off. They didn't charge me anything for this, saying "this is how it should be," but warned it might happen again in a few weeks or never. Later, I checked the headlight and noticed they had secretly swapped the bulb back to the proper 35W one without mentioning a single word to me about it.
I was just happy it was working, but exactly two hours after picking it up, the exhaust pipe snapped off completely at the header while I was riding. Fortunately, I was going slow, so there was no accident, but it terrified me. I texted the shop, and they promised to pick up the scooter in a van that same day. They never showed up, and they have now completely stopped reacting to my messages for over 48 hours. I find it highly suspicious that the exhaust snapped right after a repair where they claimed to be working on the dynamo/stator, which I assume is right next to the exhaust area.
Does the shop's explanation about the lightbulb make any sense? Can a 60W bulb actually damage a 35W system and fry a regulator, or is the owner right? And is the snapped exhaust right after they worked on the engine just a crazy coincidence, or does it sound like negligence? What shoud I do further? Thank you so much for any advice.