Bad dealers

[Bob Ledford]

We often ventilate our frustrations on bad service from our dealers on the forum. But what constitutes the making of a bad dealer in his/her Sales, Parts and Service departments?


Sales Department:

Being ignored by the Sales force upon entry?
Failure to follow up when promised a follow up call.


Parts Department:

Not greeting you when your at the Parts counter.
Not being able to find your special widget in the parts book.
Not having the part or widget in stock.
Not calling you when the special ordered part arrives at the dealership.


Service Department:

Not greeting you on arrival.
Not giving you a timely answer to our problem.
Not keeping you up to date on what is going on with your Spyder.
Not keeping the Customer Waiting area clean and comfortable.
Not doing what they promised to do in a timely fashion minimizing your down time and stay.
Not test riding your machine and verifying that it is indeed fixed.
Not giving you a heads up on other things noticed during the test ride.
Giving you back your pristine machine in a less then pristine condition.
Not putting everything back in your machine.

[**] Not writing a detailed work order covering the scope of your complaint and the service items you request.

At my previous dealer every interaction for service ended with an apology from the service manager for forgetting to do something. My complaints were regularly dealt with incorrectly because the tech was rarely accurately told what my complaint was. (added to the list)

Feel free to add or subtract improvements

What sparked this was another pot hole that the St Augustine dealer dug for himself this week. Last week on the forum a Jacksonville Spyder driver snatched his machine out of thier hands incompleted and Saturday I ran into a friend from St Augustine that had a batery problem and they jerked him around for over four hours and said it was just a lose battery cable and enjoy the ride. His bike was dirty, wet and not repaired. When he got home and cleaned and dried it off he left it sit over night and went to crank it up Saturday for a ride and it was dead again. He got it cranked and drove it to Daytona Fun Machines in Holly Hill and in less then an hour they had checked the battery (defective) and found both battery cable loose. In less then two hours he was showing me his new floor boards in the drive/parking lot at DFM.

[Magdave]

We often ventilate our frustrations on bad service from our dealers on the forum. But what constitutes the making of a bad dealer in his/her Sales, Parts and Service departments?


Sales Department:

Being ignored by the Sales force upon entry?
Failure to follow up when promised a follow up call.


Parts Department:

Not greeting you when your at the Parts counter.
Not being able to find your special widget in the parts book.
Not having the part or widget in stock.
Not calling you when the special ordered part arrives at the dealership.


Service Department:

Not greeting you on arrival.
Not giving you a timely answer to our problem.
Not keeping you up to date on what is going on with your Spyder.
Not keeping the Customer Waiting area clean and comfortable.
Not doing what they promised to do in a timely fashion minimizing your down time and stay.
Not test riding your machine and verifying that it is indeed fixed.
Not giving you a heads up on other things noticed during the test ride.
Giving you back your pristine machine in a less then pristine condition.
Not putting everything back in your machine.


Feel free to add or subtract improvements

What sparked this was another pot hole that the St Augustine dealer dug for himself this week. Last week on the forum a Jacksonville Spyder driver snatched his machine out of thier hands incompleted and Saturday I ran into a friend from St Augustine that had a batery problem and they jerked him around for over four hours and said it was just a lose battery cable and enjoy the ride. His bike was dirty, wet and not repaired. When he got home and cleaned and dried it off he left it sit over night and went to crank it up Saturday for a ride and it was dead again. He got it cranked and drove it to Daytona Fun Machines in Holly Hill and in less then an hour they had checked the battery (defective) and found both battery cable loose. In less then two hours he was showing me his new floor boards in the drive/parking lot at DFM.

You pretty much covered it and I can click off about 1/2 of what you listed at my dealer. Especially annoying is the less than pristine and failure to reattach all parts properly part.

[ivanlee]

We often ventilate our frustrations on bad service from our dealers on the forum. But what constitutes the making of a bad dealer in his/her Sales, Parts and Service departments?


Sales Department:

Being ignored by the Sales force upon entry?
Failure to follow up when promised a follow up call.


Parts Department:

Not greeting you when your at the Parts counter.
Not being able to find your special widget in the parts book.
Not having the part or widget in stock.
Not calling you when the special ordered part arrives at the dealership.


Service Department:

Not greeting you on arrival.
Not giving you a timely answer to our problem.
Not keeping you up to date on what is going on with your Spyder.
Not keeping the Customer Waiting area clean and comfortable.
Not doing what they promised to do in a timely fashion minimizing your down time and stay.
Not test riding your machine and verifying that it is indeed fixed.
Not giving you a heads up on other things noticed during the test ride.
Giving you back your pristine machine in a less then pristine condition.
Not putting everything back in your machine.


Feel free to add or subtract improvements

What sparked this was another pot hole that the St Augustine dealer dug for himself this week. Last week on the forum a Jacksonville Spyder driver snatched his machine out of thier hands incompleted and Saturday I ran into a friend from St Augustine that had a batery problem and they jerked him around for over four hours and said it was just a lose battery cable and enjoy the ride. His bike was dirty, wet and not repaired. When he got home and cleaned and dried it off he left it sit over night and went to crank it up Saturday for a ride and it was dead again. He got it cranked and drove it to Daytona Fun Machines in Holly Hill and in less then an hour they had checked the battery (defective) and found both battery cable loose. In less then two hours he was showing me his new floor boards in the drive/parking lot at DFM.

over charging for labor and work they never done.

[billybovine]

May I add to service complaint.
Not writing a detailed work order covering the scope of your complaint and the service items you request.

At my previous dealer every interaction for service ended with an apology from the service manager for forgetting to do something. My complaints were regularly dealt with incorrectly because the tech was rarely accurately told what my complaint was.

[Bob Denman]

Communication :shocked:... How tough can it be? :dontknow:
It appears that we have more than our fair share of War Stories to explain this. :gaah:

[Chupaca]

you covered it well. I'm sure we could all add specifics but you have the ground work done. Sadly many are in mixed dealerships and few if any are spyder ryders. We fall to the wayside....great discription of the problems....:2thumbs:

[Dan_Ashley]

I had a dealer that charged me for an oil change but did not do it. I always make a pencil mark on the oil filter, so I can double check. I've done this since 1977 when a local Texaco did not do the oil change. I noticed it then because the oil in the car was very dirty. So now I do it all the time.

So, I took the spyder to the dealer I bought it from for the 600 mile service. When I got home I checked the pencil mark. It was still there, the dealer did not replace the filter. I sent a letter to the owner of the dealership. I never received a response.

I now go someplace else for service.

So, to your list, Bob, I would like to add, "Not doing work that was contracted for."

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I'll go easy on you all, I'm only going to address the SERVICE DEPT.....:gaah:....:roflblack:.....at Land Air in Essex Jct Vt...this is a joke ....NO it's more of a CRIME because ( speaking from personal experience ) ...they have LIED to me, done things to my Spyder that I have specifically told them not to do, then refused to remove the charges, actually sabotaged my Spyder ( because I caught them at something ), and they refused to re-place my parking brake which was on a re-call . On the whole they are just plain RUDE. .....Now you may be thinking well Stupid why do you keep bringing your Spyder there.....Well I don't ...this all occurred in THREE visits and One of them was for the DPS re-call..............I love my Spyders both of them , but it is beyond my comprehension how and or why BRP still has them as a Dealer..........................Oh yea I did buy my first Spyder from them ....and they later denied it because I bought it from a nearby company that they owned and later closed...............End of Rant :thumbup: Mike

[ARtraveler]

I know there are a lot more nightmare stories out there. A sad state of affairs when it comes to customer service. Our :spyder2:'s are no cheap toys either. My dealer has not been perfect, but compared to some, they are certainly one of the best. If they go down, my :spyder2: days would be over.

[Jeriatric]

There's a cure for it. :popcorn:

[Dan_Ashley]

There's a cure for it. :popcorn:
Is this too Subtile?
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpCXwS6iAlmi4eUOfOlAuPoru14Kirl nZQE-icEZxB47VgpPNR

[NancysToy]

My additions...

Sales - Lying to customer
Sales - Bait and switch
Sales - Hidden fees
Service - "They all do that."
Service - Failure to contact BRP dealer tech support for sticky problems
Service - Inexperienced or non-technical service advisor
Service - Poorly trained techs

[Daisyjoe]

My additions...

Sales - Lying to customer
Sales - Bait and switch
Sales - Hidden fees"
Service - "They all do that."
Service - Failure to contact BRP dealer tech support for sticky problems
Service - Inexperienced or non-technical service advisService - "
Service - Poorly trained techs

My favorite: THEY ALL DO THAT.

[bruiser]

My dealer has done all of the above and then some.
Taking days or weeks to work on/fix the Spyder.
Putting you last in line so they can work on their other products first. That one really gets me.
Charging you shipping for parts they don't have in stock and need.
There's more but I'll stop now.

[Bob Denman]

I wonder if BRP has noticed this thread? :dontknow:
I also wonder if other brands have had smiliar reports about their own dealer networks? :dontknow:

:roflblack: :roflblack: :roflblack: "They all do that." :roflblack: :roflblack: :roflblack:

[Magdave]

I wonder if BRP has noticed this thread? :dontknow:
I also wonder if other brands have had smiliar reports about their own dealer networks? :dontknow:

:roflblack: :roflblack: :roflblack: "They all do that." :roflblack: :roflblack: :roflblack:

I hope so bike problems don't bother me as much as taking it somewhere where they tell you " They are all like that" and blow you off. I got that when I complained about the heat before the recall.

[cyclelover63]

I wonder if BRP has noticed this thread? :dontknow:
I also wonder if other brands have had smiliar reports about their own dealer networks? :dontknow:

:roflblack: :roflblack: :roflblack: "They all do that." :roflblack: :roflblack: :roflblack:

I don't know if they read these threads..But,at the owners event in Maggie Valley,my wife and I had a long talk about the dealer we purchased ours from..we told them about the rebate we didn't get,and they were very interested...Enough that one of them approached us the next day and asked for the name of the dealer again..They said they had other complaints about the same dealer for the same thing..

[flaggerphil]

If you read the "Tech Matters" column in the January 2014 issue of Motorcycle Cruiser magazine, titled "The Song Remains The Same," you'll find that the problem seems to be endemic in the motorcycle world. In this particular case it was a Yamaha dealer (I used to ride Yamaha motorcycles almost exclusively) and the complaint was very much like what we've heard of some Can Am dealers on this forum.

I agree, though...a bad dealer can ruin the entire experience. I have a fantastic dealer now, but I fired a bad dealer before I found my good one. If there hadn't been a good dealer for me to find after the bad one, I may not have kept my Spyder.

[Jeriatric]

One of BRP's objectives for 2013 was to increase their dealer network.

Couple of general questions.

Any new dealers near you?

Any used to be dealers?

[bruiser]

No and no.

[bruiser]

Phil, you do have a point. There is a well known national brand motorcycle dealer here in town. This dealer has another store 30 minutes west and another 90 minutes west. I will say that all of the guys who ride this particular brand in our RC will not go to them for service or sales. They would drive up to three hours away to get their bikes serviced.

[cyclelover63]

I think a lot of the problems stem from dealers that have other major brands that are carrying the load (profits)..If they can make a little money or at least break even to keep competition away,they don't really care about Spyder owners..In the car business,the manufacturers require a commitment from the dealers by making them have separate buildings for sales and service for their product....This way,the dealer has to make money and worry about customer satisfaction to justify their investment..The solution for BRP might be is to have fewer,but more committed dealers,something Volvo did in the St Louis area about 15 years ago...

[flaggerphil]

One of BRP's objectives for 2013 was to increase their dealer network.

Couple of general questions.

Any new dealers near you?

Any used to be dealers?

Nope. Nope.

[flaggerphil]

Phil, you do have a point. There is a well known national brand motorcycle dealer here in town. This dealer has another store 30 minutes west and another 90 minutes west. I will say that all of the guys who ride this particular brand in our RC will not go to them for service or sales. They would drive up to three hours away to get their bikes serviced.

Yup.

When I lived in the St Louis area I rode a Yamaha V-Star 1300T. I had two dealers north of me that I went to once each and never returned. I had a dealer to the south of me, and further away (about a 45 minute ride) that basically fell over themselves to give me good service. They were absolutely fantastic! For six of the seven and a half years I lived there I'd go to them, not only for my bike, but to look at or test ride other makes, almost exclusively. But some dealers just can't seem to get it through their heads...

:dontknow:

That's why these days I ride 65 miles to get my Spyder worked on, instead of the 15 miles to the bad dealer.

Get a clue, bad dealer!

:lecturef_smilie:

[Jeriatric]

The solution for BRP might be is to have fewer,but more committed dealers,something Volvo did in the St Louis area about 15 years ago...

BMW motorcycle division likes stand alone dealerships too. As established as they are as a company. Some of their dealers really struggle to keep their doors open. BRP has little choice but to do what they are doing. That said, and based on a few years of observing complaints here. It appears they may need to tighten the reigns a bit. jmo

[belowme29]

I think a lot of the problems stem from dealers that have other major brands that are carrying the load (profits)..If they can make a little money or at least break even to keep competition away,they don't really care about Spyder owners..In the car business,the manufacturers require a commitment from the dealers by making them have separate buildings for sales and service for their product....This way,the dealer has to make money and worry about customer satisfaction to justify their investment..The solution for BRP might be is to have fewer,but more committed dealers,something Volvo did in the St Louis area about 15 years ago...

I just had my Spyder at a new dealer, and walking in to this dealer I was TOTALLY impressed. All he had was Can Am toys!:yes: He was actually trying to sell me a side by side when I picked up my bike after it was looked at, and hopefully fixed. Plus he only charged me $60 to align my wheels and reset my steering position (I think that is what they called it). I know they did something to the computer because it reset my clock to 24 hour mode. I hope that he is a good dealer and repair shop, as he is 45 minutes from my house. Others are well over 1.5 hours and all deal with other brands - so having one closer and being a Can Am only dealer should be good. :bowdown:

[murphybrown]

It is a 4 hr ryde over two mountain passes to get to him.dang don't know how id handle being within an hr or 2..but no reason to waste any energy on that thought cause it ain't going to happen:banghead:...but he wasn't able to compete with Pitbull for purchase of 2014...several $$$ more....:yikes:...

[Bob Denman]

I've got FIVE dealers within 90 minutes of me... :ohyea:
Active experieince with three of them tells me that they're "keepers" :thumbup:
I guess that I'm just one of the luckier ones... :dontknow:

[hotglue]

We take FB's spyder 300 miles one way for quality service. Pretty much a bummer.

[Bob Denman]

But it's a GREAT excuse for a ride! ;)
Did the new plugwires help out the situation?

[hotglue]

But it's a GREAT excuse for a ride! ;)
Did the new plugwires help out the situation?
Haven't had a chance to put the new wires on yet. ..but the tape on the plug wire seemed to fix the surging from 900 to 2200 rpm at idle. Hoping things will slow down so I can tear into her bike, but am sure it will not happen until after Thanksgiving. We try to do all we can, and be sure the dealer has parts and solutions before we go the distance for service.

[Bob Denman]

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_33_15.gif I hope that you guys have a Happy Thanksgiving! http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_5_21.gif

[hotglue]

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_33_15.gif I hope that you guys have a Happy Thanksgiving! http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_5_21.gifThanks Bob... same to you and your family!

[Bob Ledford]

One of BRP's objectives for 2013 was to increase their dealer network.

Couple of general questions.

Any new dealers near you?

Any used to be dealers?

In the Greater Daytona Beach area we have two new independent repair shops and four independents that have folded and closed the doors.b