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[Dead_Reckoning]

 

hope you can open this...A friend sent it to me about an hour ago after reading my rant...

....just to add some humor to a very serious subject  

You may have to have Power Point to open it...

  - I do not think the India Harley is quite Sing Song enough.
Probably needs a little more Curry & Chuttney Lubricant

[ultrarider123]

Guess I'll chime in here.  Don't mind purchasing parts from my local dealer as I get 10-20% plus have known the parts guy for years.  It helps to have some connection there but I realize some folks don't have that option.  Seems like turnover is quick in the business and it's rare you see the same folks in a dealership.  Our local dealers, however, attempt to keep their employees.  As for the parts install deal, if it's something I want to tinker with, I'll put the part on myself.  If it's one of those days I want to let somebody else get dirty, I pay the dealer to do it.  I enjoy both ways.....wait, that didn't sound right. 
What I miss is the quality of the parts the MoCo sells.  HD or SE parts were top of the line....that is not the case anymore.  As an example, I recently purchased one of the HD detachable locks and was very unhappy with the product.  Returned it and went to an independent company (Brukus) and very satisfied now.

As for an independent shop, I did utilize a mechanic for years but he's gone from us now.  Grouch old ba---rd but he could wrench like nobody's fool.  Miss him...but learned enough to do it myself for the most part.  If I can't, pay the dealership.

As for the modern dealerships, I still miss the old days when you always looked for the local dealership in the "bad" section of town next to the pawn shops, bails bond and strip joints and the dealership didn't look like a boutique for the rich and famous.  I knew things were changing when a few years ago, a biker on an old shovel was asked to park it somewhere away from the front entrance of K'ville HD as it may drip oil.  Talk about a 180.

[Hog95023]

I saw a guy pay 470.00 for a rear tire And tube for his heritage special last week. He had to leave the bike for the day to get it installed too. Not balanced either

[Spiderman]

Have waited to weigh in on this subject because I wanted to see what other folks had to say and the direction the thread took. My take on the situation is this. It used to be that you could feel good about having your local H-D dealer work on your motorcycle. H-D dealers paid their techs a good wage and benefits. All that changed about 10 years ago when a lot of US business decided to follow the WALMART model and cut employees hours to whatever state standards stipulated was one hour less than full time so as to avoid paying benefits. Better for the bottom to have two people for one job with no benefits. Then there was the flat rate shop model. What that did was establish a flat rate for each job and the techs were paid a % of the H-D Inc established rate. This made each tech self employed and also ensured that no tech would take more time than the rate schedule for any job in order to assure the customer was happy and the job done right. If anything most techs tried to cram 16 hrs of flat rate into an 8hr day to maximize their income since they were buying their own insurance and paying for their own days off. Some of the best techs I personally knew said enough and either went to work at an existing Indy shop or opened their own. While they might have felt they would be able to return to the days of spending the needed time to do a job right and putting the customer first, the dictates of owning one's own business soon reared their ugly head and these newly self employed techs found themselves facing the same issues they had been at their previous jobs with factory dealerships. The bottom line for me is that whether you take your Harley to a factory shop or an Indy shop, the care and quality of the work is dictated by the management of either. If the service manager or Indy shop owner is all about bottom line, you can expect NOT to be happy. If the service manager sees maintenance and repair as facilitating repeat customers and sales of more motorcycles you can expect to be happy. If the Indy shop owner sees a happy customer as one who will return over and over , buying goods and services you can expect to be happy. As to the issues of genuine H-D parts. Anyone can walk in the door of any H-D shop and pay the going rate for parts. H-D isn't going to not sell to an Indy shop owner just not give him any price break.So the Indy shop owner passes the cost of parts along to the customer at no profit. The H-D dealer gets to make a profit on parts. However considering H-D Incs model for a dealership, the profit on those parts shouldl get eaten up in overhead. A factory dealership should have a lot more overhead than an Indy shop so it should even the playing field - - - - in my opinion.  The best solution to this issue is to train yourself to be able to do any repair needed to your Harley. It cost money and time but the level of satisfaction is unmatched.

Just my $0.02

B B

[Trapperdog]

We are lucky out here in Ca. to have Jim (hd-dood) at Metal Dragon work on our bikes. We can drop the bikes off with confidence and just say fix whatever needs fixing, or hang around and watch. Very fair prices and he stands behind his work. If we want something done that's out of the ordinary, he figures out a way to get it done. And never says a problem or noise is "normal".  I would dread having to go back to HD again

[Red Dragon]

Spiderman hit it right on the head (IMO). While I, personally don't feel confident enough to do some of the major stuff on my bike, I do most of the standard maintenance stuff and have gotten ahold of a few factory manuals on DVD & paper. I have also started buying whatever "special" tools I need for some of this stuff (some from H-D, but most others from George's Garage as well as S & S).

I used to take my bikes (CVO WG2 & '03 FLHTCU/I) to H-D dealer exclusively but about 4 or 5 yrs. ago, I started hearing the things that Spiderman is saying from a tech that almost always got assigned to my bikes by the Service Mngr. He sort of confided in me as to what was happening at almost ALL the dealerships service dept's. I could tell that he AND some of the other long time techs were totally frustrated. Big time turnover rates started occurring. This Sr. technician kept telling me that at some point he would not be able to handle it anymore and would be "moving on". He knew H-D's like the back of his hand and many of this dealerships customers (me too) would request the he work on our bikes. He was their dyno guy and just about ALL the other techs would constantly go to him because of his skills and vast knowledge. The service Mngr constantly "bad mouthed" him saying he had "an attitude". I once heard him say, "Well then F-ing fire me" after the S. manager complained that he was "giving so-called special treatment and giving too much technical info to a customer" (the customer was me). I told him that I had heard what the Serv Mngr had said and that I was offended by that. He asked me not to say anything and to "just wait". That was 2 years ago.

I never returned to that dealer as when I would ask for this certain tech to work on my bike when making an appointment for service, I was told he was "tied up" on other work and would not be available. Then when I went by at lunch time and spoke to him personally, he said what I was told is total B. S. and they just wanted the other "newer" guys to get "more work" and sort of get as much "O. J. T." as possible. O J T On MY bike???... I thought he was joking, but then another Sr. tech verified what he said was true. That's all I needed to hear. Never took my bike there again and VERY reluctant to take it to any H-D dealer now, although I've had a pretty decent experience at another dealership that's 54 miles from my home.

Anyway....
The tech finally quit and opened his own shop a while ago (been doing quite well). I just learned about his place a few weeks ago. I recently made an appointment to have him completely "go through" my new (to me) acquisition (My Switchblade). I won't reveal his name yet because he is already being "shunned" by the dealer and doesn't want to cause any more chit than has already happened (the service dept. at the dealer is often like a ghost town as "the word" on this dealership has gotten around & by the way, he knows I'm posting this). He has his customers buy whatever H-D parts "as needed", but usually "suggests" better made (USA made) alternatives if the customer "approves".

I really don't quite understand why the "Suits" at the top of H-D can't see what's wrong with this picture. I am talking about ONE DEALERSHIP! Cannot possibly be the only one that's run like this. It's just a shame.

[Spiderman]

We are lucky out here in Ca. to have Jim (hd-dood) at Metal Dragon work on our bikes. We can drop the bikes off with confidence and just say fix whatever needs fixing, or hang around and watch. Very fair prices and he stands behind his work. If we want something done that's out of the ordinary, he figures out a way to get it done. And never says a problem or noise is "normal".  I would dread having to go back to HD again

Pretty much every major city has a shop or two that have a good reputation. Cycle Visions has an excellent rep here in San Diego as does Moreland Choppers and a couple of other shops . The key is in finding them

What Red Dragon describes is in my opinion unfortunately NOT an anomoly. It's pretty much the standard. I've vented before on San Diego H-D. Since I've not spent a nickle there in three years I see no sense in going on about it other than to note that when I moved from Maine to San Diego in 1998 I thought SD H-D was one of the best H-D shops I'd ever dealt with. By the time I stopped giving them my money, they would have made the top ten worst. Nuff said

As to H-D Inc, like most corporations, they are ruled by the bottom line. They have an obligation to their shareholders to produce profit. So long as they feel they are still producting a quality product and sellng that product, they're not going to get too involved in how a dealership is run. Yes, they do dictate the square footage of the showroom, the products carried, and so forth but stuff like we're talking about here is not within their purview. You're pissing into the wind if you call their customer relations 800 number to complain about the stuff in this thread

B B

[Hog95023]

We are lucky out here in Ca. to have Jim (hd-dood) at Metal Dragon work on our bikes. We can drop the bikes off with confidence and just say fix whatever needs fixing, or hang around and watch. Very fair prices and he stands behind his work. If we want something done that's out of the ordinary, he figures out a way to get it done. And never says a problem or noise is "normal".  I would dread having to go back to HD again

yes you are