Mad at your dealer??? Check this out.

[Hellgate]

I found this over on a Buell Forum that I visit once in a blue moon.

All of a sudden my local stealership is looking good! :thumbup: Well...not really...

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"Most of you will remember the last little tirade I posted about this place. Well..the plot just thickened. I picked my bike up last Monday, and upon examination discovered that the coolant was almost empty. None in the reservoir and very little was contained in the radiators themselves. I took that as a great opportunity to change over to engine ice. That aside, I called the dealership to inform them of the oversight, and it was promptly swept under the rug, confirmed by a visit over there on wednesday.

Wednesday night, I got a phone call from some lady doing a customer service satisfaction survey. I'm paraphrasing but the conversation went more or less like this:

Lady: How would you rate your service experience at Cajun HD, excellent, fair or poor?

Me: Take the lowest score you have and subtract a few more from it. I'm serious.

Her: laughing her ass off, then she asked me to explain what I meant

Me: explains the whole last rant, and added onto it with this: While my bike was in for the post crash repairs and recall upgrades there were several delays, some arguing, oh, and they put my 5th gear recall on another bike, and thus had to order me a different one. I also mentioned the whole coolant issue.

Her: Are you serious? Tell me, what do you think could be done to improve the service there?

Me: Burn the place down and build a new one and start all over. Just kidding, in all seriousness, some house cleaning needs to be done in the service department. There are a few good employees there, but many of them simply have no business working there. I told her the name of the best one, and suggested that she be allowed to run the place.

There was a bit more conversation, but as I was taking a pit stop during a ride, I had to cut the conversation short.

Fast forward to thursday morning, around 9:30am. I get a phone call from Cajun HD. The guy on the phone advises me that I have been banned from the property and am no longer welcome there, and should I return, I will be escorted off the premises by law enforcement.

Nice.

I've bought 3 bikes there, my parents have also bought several, and a few friends have purchased bikes from them based on my recommendations. The service department sucks, but the bike selection, and the sales guys are TOP NOTCH.

Oh well. I had no plans to go back there for service, but it was nice to go check out the bikes. Shame too, because I work about 1/2 mile away from there.

Oh well. I said it before, and I'll say it again.


F*CK CAJUN HD!"

 

[FZ1inNH]

If I was the guy, I'd file a suit against them just "because" and then see how willing they are to enforce a permaban. They were negligent in his repairs. I hope he's called the corporate HQ for the bike and started actions with them against the dealer as well!

My dealer is ZERO issues!

 

[steveindenmark]

If I was the guy, I'd file a suit against them just \"because\" and then see how willing they are to enforce a permaban. They were negligent in his repairs. I hope he's called the corporate HQ for the bike and started actions with them against the dealer as well!

My dealer is ZERO issues!

Talk to a lawyer and get some advice and then stroll back in. I sure as hell would.

Steve

 

[Hellgate]

Oh I agree.

I've been researching buying a franchise recently and I learned that an HD dealership IS a franchise! That surpised me. So with that in mind Corporate can't really do much. What will happen is if this keeps up the market will take care of that dealer.

 

[OZXJR]

Word of mouth is the best revenge .

 

[Ghost Weim]

Word of mouth is the best revenge .

+1 on that. I tell EVERYONE about terrible service...

 

[wrightme43]

Thats funny. Did he contact the HD area manager and discuss his perma ban from the shop, the threat of law enforcement action, and the fact that he has bought three bikes there? Boy that could just get real ugly real quick. As in no more bikes for them to sell.

 

[Oscar54]

Oh I agree.

I've been researching buying a franchise recently and I learned that an HD dealership IS a franchise! That surpised me. So with that in mind Corporate can't really do much. What will happen is if this keeps up the market will take care of that dealer.

I thought that a franchise gave Corporate more power than a straight retailer? I mean if you don't follow the terms of the franchise agreement they can take it away. I would think running a circus for a service department would violate the franchise agreement?

BTW, your post about the Buell 1125R (I think that was the model) got me to go by the HD dealer near work. Man they are sweet, in a Juliette Lewis sorta way.

 

[Hellgate]

I wonder who called him and if the owner of the shop is aware of the threat? I can't see how any owner worth their salt would tollerate an outburst like that. In order to open an HD franchise the applicant must have personal assets of at least $2 million, that is just to apply. Then you figure in the cost of the amazing buildings, the inventory, the payroll and the whole enterprise is mind boggling. The owner of the shop may be into the whole business for $2 to $3 million. With that kind of cash commitment in a down economy the employee who made that threat has no place in the business.

 

[Hellgate]

I thought that a franchise gave Corporate more power than a straight retailer? I mean if you don't follow the terms of the franchise agreement they can take it away. I would think running a circus for a service department would violate the franchise agreement?

BTW, your post about the Buell 1125R (I think that was the model) got me to go by the HD dealer near work. Man they are sweet, in a Juliette Lewis sorta way.

From what I understand the only way to sell HD is via a franchise. There maybe a few Corp owned shops but I'm not sure in this case, like McDonalds, few. Browser Update Required The FDD, Franchise Disclosure Document is a standard template, items 1 to 23, that describes the franchise terms and conditions. What the franchisor chooses to put into each item is pretty much up to them. I've read a several over the past month and they talk about costs, royalties, what you can and cannot sell, selling your business, length of the franchise, training, and other related subjects. They do not however discuss jackass employees, that would be up to the General Manager and or Owner to deal with.

The 1125R is pretty cool isn't it? It's a love hate kind of thing. I like it because it is so unique. They sound really cool too. A mix of a properly tuned HD and a Duc. The '08s had several recalls and for '09 they seem to have their act more better together. < (Don't you just love the English language??? You can slaughter it and people still understand you!)

 

[Bruce McCrary]

The first thing that hit my mind after reading that story was "Wonder what the rest of the story is?"

While I'm not accusing anyone of lying it's a pretty safe bet that the whole story isn't being told OR the actual facts exaggerated a bit. Regardless, whenever there is a dispute of this nature and scope the truth usually lies in the middle of what is told by both parties.

FWIW I'm not aware of any corp owned dealerships. All are franchised operations. Huge amounts of capitol are required to get into and fund even a small operation, but that doesn't insure that the owners and personnel have enough sense to come in out of the rain. Much less have any product knowledge or passion for the industry and sport. With the direction that most O.E.M.'s are forcing the dealers to go it seems that more and more dealer principals are not riders or have much of a background in the sport or industry. They've made their money elsewhere and decided to try their hand at owning a bike shop.

As with any other type business there are some really, really good dealerships and shops out there. But there are some really, REALLY bad ones too.

The cream usually rises to the top though. It's a relatively small industry that requires a good deal of capitol and even more cash flow. It doesn't take long for bad business practices to bite you in the butt.

Bruce

 

[Hellgate]

Dunno Bruce, however I can empathize with him. I spent two plus months trying to get my local Y shop to warrenty my fairing, developed cracks. I won't bore you with details, but bottomline three layers of employees were not empower to make a decision. I was PO'd to say the least. All I wanted was a simple yes or no response. If it was no I was going to buy a new fairing. It took me about 6 trips to the dealer and two calls to Y to make it happen. What a PITA.

 

[Bruce McCrary]

See, that's my point. It wasn't their call to make period. It was/is Yamaha's. It's not the dealerships money being spent, it's the factory's.

Just so you know, it takes about 10 Min's to file a claim with Yamaha and less than an hour to get the answer. It's all done on line and the only time the phone needs to be picked up is if Yamaha denies the claim and the dealer/owner wants to appeal it.

For the last year or so I've found that if the bike is still in the warranty period, the circumstances surrounding the claim reasonable and the amount of the claim $750 or less, they will cover it. Especially and particularly if it's the first claim on the particular VIN.

As much as this may sound like BS, I gotta tell you that buying the Y.E.S. extended warranty can get the consumer places making claims that they might not otherwise get. For example, I had a customer with a 600 Raptor come in a while back with a launched engine. The reason the engine grenaded was because the air filter was torn and that allowed dirt to get in. The ATV was 3 months out of the Y.E.S. contract date but Yamaha covered the cost of all the parts (including a new cylinder and head) and asked the owner to pay for the labor. I told them EXACTLY why the engine failed and was told by the rep that the only reason he was approving it was because the owner bought the Y.E.S. warranty.

I've recently had a similar situation with Kawasaki on my bike concerning an ignition switch and lock set. The switch failed and they originally only covered the switch itself, but when they saw I had the extended warranty they replaced every keyed lock on the bike at no cost to me saying that they didn't want me to have to carry two keys.

Bottom line though, is it's all in how the situation is handled and far too many dealerships make calls they have no business making.

Bruce

 

[Hellgate]

I agree not the shops call, but they lost my phone number twice and had no record that I'd made the request, twice. And what finally closed the issuse was me calling the shop and the rep happened to be there, dumb luck. I dropped what I was doing rode up there and corned him in the parking lot. The dealership should have done all of that, not me.

I have a feeling the guy at the Buell shop had a similar experiance, he was told one thing and another happened. That is what makes people upset.

There is an old saying in business; "To delight the customer, under promise and over deliver." As long as a business sticks to that mantra they will do well and develop a loyal customer base. Without that they will struggle.

What surprises me are the number of businesses that deliver poor customer service and they manage to stick around.

The warrenty on my FZ expires next month and I will never return to that shop again once it is up. They have lost a customer. There are too many other great places, such as my local Cycle Gear, that totally get customer service. They rock!

 

[rent-a-reaper]

arent surveys supposed to be anonymous? you need a lawyer

 

[GConn]

Well I had a similar experience with the local 'dealer' too. Top notch collection and nice prices but he is annoyingly arrogant. When I told him to f*ck off, he told me not to set foot on the premisses ever again. It didn't take a mad scientist to understand that I wouldn't anyway, but he didn't get it...

EDIT: Oh, yes. Word of mouth is the best way to get back on them.

 

[Mattberkshire]

I know my dealer. Head of service dept is a friend of a friend and I've been in a few times recently for warranty work on FZ6 (TPS and RH switchgear) and my CB250RS MoT.

They have a few areas upon which they could improve but I get teated well....hell I didn't even mention the RH switchgear but when I took the fazer in for the TPS replacement he said the ignition switch didn't feel right so they'd ordered a new one under warranty!!

Go Pro-bike Newbury!!:rockon: