AWAP

[Jeriatric]

Awaiting parts again.

Unlike other warranty repairs. For the first time in two years of ownership. It is serious enough the spyder is grounded.


But then, I ask myself. Is it that serious, and does it really need to be grounded?


Short answer is....No.


It didn't have to be grounded but, like far to many dealers out there. Seemingly, regardless of size. But fore, those committed to their customers. Many dealers feel it is not cost effective for them to stock parts. So they don't. A decision which may work to their financial benefit. But certainly not to the spyder owners (customers) benefit.


It is understandable some parts would not be readily available at just about any dealer. But, IMHO...not so, when we're talking about parts that have a known history of failure.


Thank goodness for friends who are willing to drive an hour and half plus...spend an extra hour stuck on a freeway parking lot. Then, do it all over again to get home....because the dealer does not loan bikes either.

Then, do it all again...after the repair is complete.


Think about it. All this happened because a dealer is watching their bottom line.


Perhaps I feel this way because in my business life. I never treated customers like this. Nor would I allow a customer to be treated this way. Period.


I'm glad we weren't on the road. Doubly glad for good friends. And sad BRP would allow their dealers to
put operating costs in front of customer satisfaction. But, that's just me. I suppose?

[ARtraveler]

You have a legitimate gripe for sure. Last summer, my dealer had to order a rear tire and headlight lamps because they did not have them in stock. Took two days for the tire and about 2 weeks for the headlight lamps. Fortunately, I was able to schedule my work (oil change service) when the tire came in as opposed to down time. Had to bring it back two weeks later for them to do the bulbs. They ate the labor and replaced the bulbs while I waited.

It is probably going to be that way with the new 2014 RT's also. Time will tell.

[Chupaca]

It's not just you...

[Jeriatric]

The dealer did reach out for the part and of all the dealers between hear and tim buck two. A dealer in Utah was the closest. No one within a reasonsble distance in California had one. Utah! Really?

[SpyderAnn01]

So Jerry what part is it? Throttle Body? My dealer didn't have the o-rings in stock for the 2014 which is scary since they changed the oil on the test Spyder that I had. Or so they said......

[PMK]

It totally is a bummer to need a more common part and it not be in stock.

Years ago, I worked at a large local motorcycle dealership. We were a dealer for the big four Japanese companies, BRP watercraft, and some generators.

We had a huge inventory, but still it seemed that even more common items would sometimes not be stocked. Sometimes it is the dealer holding back on spending the money for inventory. Other times it is the computer program they use, such as Lightspeed that tacks sales history and what to order.

The items below can happen, but was not a done by the shop I worked for.

One common thing that does happen in the industry is that dealers may not order but once a week from a certain supplier. This is so they can get free shipping or some other perk based on the orders total value.

Other times, the dealer may order daily, the sales person will offer you overnight or two day for additional costs. What you don't realize is that if the dealer does a good business, ordering every day or twice a week, they may already be getting priority shipping at not cost to the dealership. So you paid more, but they did not.

You should also be aware of how much an item is listed for as MSRP. Many times, the Lightspeed program is manipulated to have certain margins depending upon some factors. In other words, some oem items may sell at MSRP, other may sell at above MSRP and others could even be below MSRP. As an example, for MX machines, common top end parts which were stocked often sold above MSRP, gaskets, circlips etc. Other large dollar items would sell at MSRP, such as clutch baskets and so forth. Aftermarket items often sold slightly below MSRP.


So how does it effect a BRP Spyder, I recently went to my local dealer. I needed some of the plastic rivets and wanted some extra wire clips that hold the mirror on the RTs. Dealer had to order the clips, I had done some quick homework and knew the MSRP on the items. When the price came up, the dealer was charging almost 30% above MSRP. I threw the BS flag and let the guy know how much above MSRP they were. He adjsuted the price down, but still would not go MSRP. We were talking about it, and it was how this dealer had programmed the Lightspeed program.

It is a crazy business selling toys and parts. But when it comes to a broken machine in for service, sometimes if the part needed is less common it does take a couple of days.

As for not stocking common lightbulbs or tires, we could never do that, to many other shops nearby selling off brands or just accessories would grab that sale. FWIW, sometimes on tires they would, since these were smaller mom and pop shops, they could make a sale easier with smaller no cost perks, this was tough to beat.

In the end though, it should be fair for the customer, dealer and not one sided. In recent years, you may have started seeing customer service in general more visible, sometimes it is the only advantage to making the sale and making a profit.

PK

[gypsy_100]

My dealer orders every day from every manufacturer he carries. At MSRP -- no markup above that. Items from BRP arrive in 2-3 days unless they are backordered. About the same as Honda and Suzuki. No complaints on my part. He keeps a large inventory of needed items. With the model proliferation in all the brands he carries, trying to cover everything is an impossible problem. There are good dealers out there.

[Chupaca]

Was in the import/export/service business too long and know there is no reason that regular maintainance parts are not in stock. Of course there is the human factor but still. All the dealers I worked with and dealt with learned to work on this and did quite well in their parts department. When problems arrouse they would overnight those needed parts and returned any overstock as the problem was corrected. I have always said there is a big problem with the parts availability be it brp, dealer or both. If they could get a grip on it everyones life could be better. I have found searching for my own parts (though I shouldn't have to) helps and I will spend a bit more to get them if it keeps me on the road...

[bruiser]

We kept high use parts on our service trucks. Our inventory was monitored by corporate so anything that had a low usage was either dropped or minimum number was kept. Anything that didn't turn in six months was dropped from inventory. Most inventory is based on "turns". That is, how much the dealer can profit on inventory versus total cost of inventory. Total cost would include cost of part from the manufacturer, cost of shipping from the manufacturer, cost of storing that part, cost of "inventory" taxes on part. This all figures in on dealer profit.

The closest dealer to me doesn't carry much at all for the Spyder except tires and filters. The dealer that I use carries much more. I talked to the parts manager Saturday about Tri Axis handlebars. He said they have both the black and Chrome in stock. I was surprised.