Okay I agree with most of what has been said in this thread but...... as a tech in a Franchised shop how am I supposed to handle these complaints when :
1) HD don't pay for a teardown.
2) I have never seen this rider again and if the bike does get fixed somehow will never see him again.
3) Why isn't his selling dealer taking care of him?
4) With all the expertise on this site and others no one seems to have an answer.
I agree about some techs just came from mickey dee's but I get really pissed off when a cheap a-- customer of ours goes to another dealer to get his PowerCommander there and then comes to me and complains about his 103 cranking and starting hard because the other dealer tech shut off the ACR's because that is what you have to do when you install a PCV on a FBW 103. How stupid are these people. A lot if you want my opinion. Sorry had a bad week with dumb customers
What the customer got elsewhere and where is now may be annoying. But it's isolated from the initial questions of the moment. To your four questions I'd suggest:
1) HD don't pay for a teardown.
Do you legitimately think there may be a problem? If yes and if the bike is in warranty the customer is due the effort. Period. Unfortunately for the shop nothing else (should) matter. Just as it is illegitimate for a customer to expect free work out of warranty it is also illegitimate for a shop to expect the customer to bear the cost of diagnosis and repair within the warranty period.2) I have never seen this rider again and if the bike does get fixed somehow will never see him again.
Unfortunately, if the equipment is in warranty, that doesn't matter. If you're a factory dealership you're part of the warranty network. Just as with #1 above, if the machine is out of warranty there's a conversation to be had with the customer. If he's in warranty the franchised dealership of the manufacturer should just deliver. It may not seem fair. But it evens out. As many of your original buying customers will get service at other shops as the buying customers of those other shops come to you for service. So while it may seem annoying on a case by case basis it will even out and you'll never even know when your original purchasers are elsewhere.3) Why isn't his selling dealer taking care of him?
A definite question of curiosity and even concern. But irrelevant to the fact that he's at your door with a warranty problem right now. The more proper context of this question might be: "This guy bought somewhere else and is here now. Maybe he's not happy. So if I serve him well he'll buy here next time."4) With all the expertise on this site and others no one seems to have an answer.
That's a bit of a cop out. All the "experts" here really aren't. We're just a bunch of guys who ride some and have some decent familiarity. More importantly; none of us have the bike in hand. The servicing shop does (or did). That being so who should have the better insight as to what the problem is?Seriously, I don't think it's any more fair for a customer to show up one day out of warranty asking for free service than it would be for a dealer to try to deny warranty service because the warranty only had one day left (or for any other reason). It is a two way street. If, however, the rules of the system allow the man to be at your door (as they do) and there's a chance he's got a problem then work on the bike. Period. That's how the system should work. Do him a good job and you've made a customer. Complain about the fact that he's there and you'll become just another shop not worth coming back to. Those really are (or should be) the choices faced by the shops.
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