www.CVOHARLEY.com
CVO Social => Off Topic => Topic started by: VaEagle on January 31, 2007, 10:45:37 AM
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Hi folks,
While reading on a Chevy Avalanche owners website last night there was a thread started about motorcycles. A person was trying to decide which bike to buy and many people had comments to make. One that stood out to me was a very dissatisfied Honda Goldwing owner.
He stated that he had owned three other Hondas and loved the product but has now sworn off of Honda due to poor customer service. His story in short is this:
He bought a new 2002 full dress Goldwing and when he rode it around town at speeds of 12-15mph it would overheat and leak radiator fluid in front of his rear tire. He had a long struggle with Honda and they first said "Stop riding in parades etc. since they were not designed for that purpose." He did not take that for a final answer and later had the problem diagnosed as bad engine castings and had them replaced. That did not cure the problem completely but the overheating did not occur as soon.
Then his major problem occured when he found out there was a frame cracking problem due to the factory changing the welding technique near the swingarm. Honda did not consider the frame cracking as a major problem and sent out letters to owners in certain vin#s to stop riding until the fix could be determined. The Honda fix was to contract out through the local dealers and local welding shops to get a welder to come in and remove pannels and lay the Goldwing on it's side and weld the area again then spray the area with Krylon or Rustoleum instead of powdercoat as original. Then repeat the process on the other side of the bike.
According to that owner ,Honda did not want to do anything until the 17,000 owners threatened a lawsuit. Since that time he still loves the bike but hates Honda customer service and because of that will never buy another Honda.
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Those Honda folks must have been smokin' left-handed Luckies. Farm out welding the frame! No not me. I would not have taken that laying down - ha, ha. Seriously, I can't believe they would hang themselves out there like that in case a welder did a poor job. But I guess the law of averages is on their side - only so many will fail and what's the downside to a few injured/dead cyclists? At least the moco only wanted to farm out buffing the tins on the '06 paint before they finally stepped up to the plate and took care of the problem. I'll stick with them. [smiley=xyxthumbs.gif]
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Those Honda folks must have been smokin' left-handed Luckies. Farm out welding the frame! No not me. I would not have taken that laying down - ha, ha. Seriously, I can't believe they would hang themselves out there like that in case a welder did a poor job. But I guess the law of averages is on their side - only so many will fail and what's the downside to a few injured/dead cyclists? At least the moco only wanted to farm out buffing the tins on the '06 paint before they finally stepped up to the plate and took care of the problem. I'll stick with them. [smiley=xyxthumbs.gif]
You obviously haven't had a "quit while riding" experience with your Harley. I have and it's scary as hell. Hope you never do.
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I think the really sad commentary here is the trend of manufacturers to no longer stand behind the products we buy. The days of "the customer is always right" are long gone. They have been replaced by the days of "the customer must prove we are responsible".
It saddens me greatly that we actually have room to discuss the different experiances we have at Harley dealers because some are just a%#holes and really are no different than the Honda dealer mentioned above.
Rick
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I'm in Warranty claims at a motorcycle dealership and it definately is getting harder to make claims. It's all about saving what they can and stiffing the little guy. I'm fighting with them all the time and you can appreciate how hard it is as we carry over 20 product lines including Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, and so on.
Cheers, Moe [smiley=banana.gif]
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You obviously haven't had a "quit while riding" experience with your Harley. I have and it's scary as hell. Hope you never do.
Since you mention it I did have the problem on my '99 and agree that it is NOT acceptable. Point I was trying to make, however, was that it seemed kind of cavelier on Honda's part to farm out something so important as welding the frame.
Agree that moco was way too slow to issue a recall, campaign, whatever it was on the circuit breakers. Someone should have had their b*lls broken over that!
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Since you mention it I did have the problem on my '99 and agree that it is NOT acceptable. [highlight]Point I was trying to make, however, was that it seemed kind of cavelier on Honda's part to farm out something so important as welding the frame[/highlight].
Agree that moco was way too slow to issue a recall, campaign, whatever it was on the circuit breakers. Someone should have had their b*lls broken over that!
Agreed and a good point. I wonder who chose the welder,... the customer or Honda?? Don't know about anyone else but I'd sure want to have a GREAT degree of confidence in the person doing welding work on my frame. I do believe I'd be selling that bike after the fix. [smiley=nervous.gif] :o
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As CvoMoe stated it is harder and harder to get warranty claims approved by the dealer from the manufacturer whether it's a car, boat, truck, or motorcycle. If you do get approval, you may be lucky to get paid 3 hours for an 8 hour job and diagnosis time is your problem. Doesn't make it right, just another oppinion on the subject. More and more it is get the product to market and let the customer and dealer deal with the problem.
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As CvoMoe stated it is harder and harder to get warranty claims approved by the dealer from the manufacturer whether it's a car, boat, truck, or motorcycle. If you do get approval, you may be lucky to get paid 3 hours for an 8 hour job and diagnosis time is your problem. Doesn't make it right, just another oppinion on the subject. More and more it is get the product to market and let the customer and dealer deal with the problem.
Bad as it is it is better than it was. Case in point - I bought my wife a new 1978 Chevy Monte Carlo from a dealer friend of mine. After she brought it home and I was checking it out there was a gap between the side of the trunk lid and the rear fender that I could put my hand into. Needless to say that one went back and I got another. Back then it REALLY was push it out to the dealer to fix it. Like I said, it is not perfect, but it is better that it was not all that long ago. JMHO