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[Twolanerider]

This stuff is just unbelievable to me.  Or it would be if I didn't see it first hand.

An older gentleman that lives several hours south of me has a Road King.  He took it to his local dealer for a problem whose description was "the bike just shuts off."  Not that it would stop running.  It would shut off completely.

I know this is the description he gave the service writer as I wrote the note he gave them when the bike was dropped off.  This guy used to ride 20-25k miles a year.  He's in his 70s now and still does about half that.  The bike has just over a 100k miles.

First time the bike went in it came back ten days later with a new crank position sensor.  Totally unrelated to the problem description.  Parts and labor down the drain. 

I called the shop for him for a next service attempt and spoke to the service writer myself.  Explained it wasn't an engine shut down problem.  Everything was shutting off.  Bike goes back in.

Two weeks go by and "we can't find it."  They were asked what they did to make the attempt.  They let it sit and idle for 15 minutes several different times and let it sit with the switch on until the battery went dead to see if anything would shut off.  That was the extent of the diagnostic attempt.  Three hours labor and directions to take it home and ride it more.

The owner does.

On the ride home the bike shuts off.  In traffic on I-40. 

Bike goes back to the shop.  Remember that the engine has always run fine.

He gets a call back after this attempt explaining that the engine is "just shot" because of all the miles.  That's why it's shutting off.  The guy calls me after this and asks me to call them. 

In the ensuing chat the tech gets livid when very politely asked to justify the diagnosis and explain it.  Says he "doesn't have to explain chit to" someone that "doesn't even own the bike" and doesn't "have a clue."

A call to the service manager is only met with repeated queries of why was I calling instead of the bike owner.  Wouldn't address the diagnosis or the prior service attempts even though the bike's owner had told him I was his point of contact now.  Finally moved up to the GM and at least got a conversation.

It was explained to me that "when they get that many miles things like this get more normal."  It was further explained that "most bikes don't make it that many miles" so this is an "unusual service problem."  No, he wasn't smart enough to recognize the contradiction between it becoming "more normal" and "unusual" both at the same time.

I just about lost it.  Didn't. Would have been counterproductive.  But wanted to.  Were it a cleak dealing with my own bike rather than trying to gain something for a friend.....

Anyway, asked the guy exactly how many places in the system could cause the type of shut down that was described, if they'd actually checked those few places?  Response was "well, uh...."   

Then asked when he'd get it looked at again.  This was about a month ago.  Hadn't heard any more since then.  Got a call early today from my friend.  The bike was done.  He was picking it up shortly.  Didn't know what they'd done but this bill was another $780.  All tolled he was in about $1300 for the various service attempts.

They'd replaced the ECM this time.  Not a chance that was the problem.  It shut off on him again as he had only the switch on and bounced out of his trailer in to his garage.  It started back up, he pulled back in to the trailer and headed this way. 

Has just left on his way home.  Fixed.  Took about an hour, including a trip to the parts store.

Corroded and mostly eaten away socket around the maxi fuse.  Quick trip to a local parts store for another socket.  He was done for ten bucks.  Everything around the fuse panel and maxi fuse had a normal patina of dust.  Not a finger print or other mark.  No one had ever looked inside the left side cover. 

He's not even calling the shop back to complain.  Simply beaten down by the episode.  They wouldn't do anything anyway.  That's a given based on their reactions so far.  Hubris and narcissisum run amok.  Crap like this is enough to make me think about selling the other two bikes and finally riding something else.  It's not enough to simply no longer patronize the MoCo as response to what they've become.  Don't even want to represent them with nice bikes of my own.  Public at large wouldn't understand the difference and might still be interested in Harley just because they see cool bikes.

[1sharprdkg]

So very sad but unfortunately true. The really sad part is it is not limited to just one dealership.

[LincolnUSA]

Wow...I feel really bad for that guy.  Are you inclined to follow-up with that GM and try to get him a credit?  that is immoral. 

[martys]

Don... do you think that a copy of this letter and maybe a few other well phrased lines , to Mother Harley's customer service dep' at HQ would help at least get this gentleman's money back?  It really saddens me that they would treat him with such disregard. 

[Ironhorse]

Sorry to hear that. Please tell us the dealer and the names of the service people so we can avoid them. Does the dealership have a Facbook Page? There is nothing worse than bad PR on an open forum.

[RayG]

In all honesty do you really think that this is unbelievable?  I'm not in any way shocked or even surprised.  You & Jerry have given us all an education in the MOCO's lack of attention to even the most rational situation.  I really feel bad for your friend.  Just think of how many are lied to and just charged whatever they want and the dealers just continue to get away with it.  I won't say never but it is unlikely that I will ever purchase another Harley.  It seems they really hit you below the belt this time,  I'm getting used to being told BS when ever I have to go to the dealership.  I went through a bunch of crap today due to some poor workmanship for my last bit of warranteed work but I'll save that for another day.  It was good of you to help a friend, and that is some piece of mind for him.   

[DaveL]

So sad for sure, hoping someone in forum has the right contact in Mothership customer service t o forward this to.....and that the dealerships name is shared to pray can prevent some other soul going in there! 

Hear too many poor service groups over the years for sure.   I feel fortunate I've never experienced any less than a favorable service experience on multiple bikes with my local shop, Columbia Harley. 

[Ironhorse]

Thank God for Metal Dragon and all the other decent, honest independent shops run by intelligent people.

[King Glide]

And it was you that was giving me a hard time for allowing the stealer service manager to put me off tightening my steering head. Your buddy should have been as lucky as I have. These kind of things will happen forever unless we the customer find a way to make it stop. I wish I knew a way.....

[porthole]

Don - is this a shop you regularly deal with? Why not bring the old parts back on a busy day and "edumacate" them a bit 

[Twolanerider]

Don - is this a shop you regularly deal with? Why not bring the old parts back on a busy day and "edumacate" them a bit 

It's not.  He's quite a ways south of me toward central Arkansas.  The shop has no inclination to speak with me as I'm not their customer and, so far as they're concerned, they're done with their customer.

We've learned before here that writing or calling the MoCo on another's behalf only makes them dig in their heels.  It happened a long time ago with Mrs. We and can remember it happening a couple of times since.  So there's probably nothing gained and perhaps something lost here as, while he's not going back to the dealership, he is going to contact Mother Harley.

We took pics of the actual problem today and documented the simple repair.  He'll use that as he can to contact whomever he gets passed to.  Neither of us is expecting much.  Just wish he lived closer.  We would've sorted it out to begin with.

I asked if he wanted to yell the service writer and dealership's names on high.  Venting was ok but he doesn't want to get too specific until he's taken his shot with Mother Harley.  As for me I just couldn't believe they missed something that wasn't just so simple but so easily obvious.  The bike couldn't tell them what was wrong and they were too stupid and/or lazy to actually try to diagnose a problem.  Wouldn't surprise if the oldest guy in the shop turned out to be 25 and thought different sized USB ports were as important as a set of wrenches.

[Sklywag]

Unfortunately this is the really more the norm than we would like to admit.  I truely believe we need to name these dealers, we need to where ever we can publize these true stories.

In your case with your friend I would take every action available, huge pressure on the dealer, pressure on HD Customer service & I would take it to your Bureau of Automotive Repair, this just verges on complete incompentence and criminal intent.

We are all to complacent about accepting this, just like your friend.  This is what the dealers count on, we will pay the bill & go away.

Not to steal the thread but I had a similiar experience recently & I think I posted about it.  I took my 06 CVO Ultra in to Scottsdale Harley Davidson in Scottsdale AZ.  I had a bad stator, I have a 7 yr extended warranty, I had already checked the stator & one of the phases only put out 6vac max.  I took it in & told them I had a charging problem.

I fought with them for an entire week, they said no problem it charges fine, you just turn on too many accessories at one time.  Now bear in mind this is a 50 amp system, the CVO came with heated grips, heated seat and such.  Their answer was it stops charging because there is too much load.

So I asked them how they calculated too much load, well by turning everything on and it stopped charging, thus too much load on the system.

I offered to teach them how to calculate loads and current against what the alternator was rated at.  Well you can guess there answer, our techs know how to do that.

At least 10 times I asked them if they performed the simple stator test, nope never, not required because it was charging when there wasn't too much load.

However they wanted despertly to open up the cam chest becasue of the noise (Gear Drive Cams) and fix the problems in there.  Money vs Warranty and stupidity, I suspect they thought it was the old cam chain tensioners.

I went & picked the bike up, no work done, and took it 125 miles to Steve at GMR, well you know the rest of the story.  New Stator & regulator, under warranty, and replaced with a Cycle Electric Stator, quick, easy, professional.

I complained bitterly to Scottsdale HD but they were in the middle of the sale of the business & no one cared.

Oh, sorry... rant off.

PUBLISH THE DEALERS THAT DO POOR WORK, we can impact their business!

[cvobiker]

Don... do you think that a copy of this letter and maybe a few other well phrased lines , to Mother Harley's customer service dep' at HQ would help at least get this gentleman's money back?  It really saddens me that they would treat him with such disregard.  

Good suggestion !!  or at best, wait a couple more weeks so more of us can vent on topic and then send everyone at the dealership a link to this thread. That dealer is worthless and anyone that would shop or buy from them would be fooled for sure.  They owe this gentleman all the labor money spent for mis-diagnosing his problems and TwoLane a $100 shop fee for getting it right..   or maybe they should offer TwoLand a Job    

[hogasm]

Don you trying to get me riled up about the NAPPY HAIRED PIECE OF chit so called service writer at BAYSIDE

[Twolanerider]

Spoke with my friend on the phone an hour ago.  He was so happy to have the bike fixed he's riding today no place in particular.  Said he'd smelled rain but missed and wouldn't have cared anyway.  Out just because he can.  Says he's calling Harley customer service on Monday to start whatever rolling of the ball might begin.