BAD DEALERS

[dabreitbach]

I have had it with these bad dealers, PERIOD. There is not a week that goes by on here that you don't read of some problem caused by bad dealers doing shoddy setup or repair work. I had it with the dealer I bought mine from '08 and have'nt been back for 3 years. They are a very big multi-brand dealer that just screws up spyders after the sale because they just don't care. I thought that after all this time they would of improved but no they did't. I live about 90 miles from this dealership. My area is almost 100% harley's. I get alot of static about my ride but I could care less. A little over a year and a half ago a diehard harley rider and popular guy around here had a real bad wreck. A cow stepped out in front of him and that was all she wrote. It was touch and go for a while but he came thru. Some of his mental faculties are not back all the way and his balence and coordination may never come back. So he wanted to start riding and decided to buy a spyder. He talks to me about the spyders reliability and performance ect. He sits on mine looks it over and decides to buy one. He ends up at my old dealer(even thou I warned him) because he had done buisness there. He gets there and looks them over and buys a brand new looking 08 that they took in on trade. It had less than 8000 miles and a few farkles. He gets a good deal and buys it. He trailers it home and tries to ride it. He gets up to speed and the front end starts wobeling all over the place. Luckily nothing bad happened. He calls them and says there is a problem. They get it and tell him there is a recall on it. Guess what recall. The POWER STEERING. They acted like this was a new recall. They could not of hooked it up to buds when they took it in trade or checked it out at all. WTF!!!! If they would have hooked up up and checked they would have known that it did't have the new dps. What a bunch of cheap lazy F====. If this guy would of wrecked on this bike it most likley killed him. At the very least it would of changed his mind about the spyders and cemented about 1-2000 harley riders opinons of the spyder in this area of my state.
BRP HEAR ME.. Sit on these bad dealers fast or you are going to have big problems.:banghead::banghead::banghead:

Oh by the way. They blamed BRP for this. This guy was cursing BRP for this until I told him whose fault it really was. I also told him to bring it by and I will check other things that they should of checked but I'm sure they didn't( like belt tention for starters) UNF---ING BELIEVABLE

 

[kawakii]

We always review our dealers on yelp.com so people can see our good or bad experiences. I encourage everyone to do the same.

 

[Dochands]

I agree.

This is what I worried about as an early buyer and also was naive enough to hope BRP would remedy. There is a surprising group of apologists on this forum who seem to trash posters who voice dealer concerns. Maybe they believe corporations are people too.

I love my Spyder but have not had real faith in it after two dealers, months of down time, and almost two years of service issues. I am still looking for the mythical great dealer and am always briefly hopeful when I read the win win dealer posts. Sadly we do not have a product that can be serviced effectively except by a shoddy dealer network.

So please post good and bad stories. We are a Spyder lovers forum and love cannot be blind.

 

[dave01]

WestCoast Powersports

As many of you know, I had issues with my Spyder that could not be resolved. During all of those, my dealer, WestCoast Powersports in Clearwater Florida, stood by me, kept me informed with updates as to what they had found and tried, and worked with me all of the way. It was enough for me to make another purchase, my 11th, from them with my Wing. I have never had problms with them trying to get stuff done and would recommend them to anyone in the area. They have 2 other stores, Central Powersports and Tampa Powersports that do good work also.

 

[MouthPiece]

Point/CounterPoint

Many good points have been expressed. However, I have no idea, unless I have first hand knowledge or know the person's credentials whether the "gripe" for lack of a better term is with the dealer, BRP or (heaven forbid) the persons themselves.

We only hear one side of the story. As Paul Harvey (for you youngins he was a radio commentator) would say: "And now for the rest of the story".

Chris

 

[wyliec]

May good points have been expressed. However, I have no idea, unless I have first hand knowledge or know the person's credentials whether the "gripe" for lack of a better term is with the dealer, BRP or (heaven forbid) the persons themselves.

We only hear one side of the story. As Paul Harvey (for you youngins he was a radio commentator) would say: "And now for the rest of the story".

Chris

I couldn't agree with you more. :thumbup:

Wait. Does that mean we are in the group of apologists?:dontknow:

 

[spyderrock]

I totally agree with this thread about bad dealers. When I got my 2011 rt we took a trip down to Sanfransisco for us here in Alberta it was about a 2 week round trip. On the way back I had a brake problem and stop in at a dealer in Northern California. Wow what an absolute pathetic dealership this was. After some very serious complaints on FaceBook and to BRP Of all things I was attacked by the owner of this dealership on my FaceBook page, he sent me 3 very nasty messages. Hey you tell me you have no way of telling if my 2011 rt has warranty..this trip was done in August 2011 I think it still has warranty...then its you will have to pay with your visa or we cant fix your bike....then its well we dont have the parts anyway, they didn't even look at the bike. Yes there are some absolute horrible dealers who should not have a rite to sell these machines...period. By the way we drove home 3000km with no parking brake. and yes I love this Roadster

 

[flaggerphil]

There is a surprising group of apologists on this forum who seem to trash posters who voice dealer concerns.

I have to admit, I haven't seen this.

 

[Chupaca]

Just a thought..!!

A survey page..list the dealers from the BRP page, have a scale say 1-5 and rate them. No detail no scathing or glowing reports. Just a score. This would give folks a starting point and dealers a goal...:dontknow:

 

[spydercowboy]

A survey page..list the dealers from the BRP page, have a scale say 1-5 and rate them. No detail no scathing or glowing reports. Just a score. This would give folks a starting point and dealers a goal...:dontknow:

I like that idea. Make it a sticky. But BRP is ultimately the root problem. We have a pretty good dealer and we watched once while they tried to get help from BRP. Nearly 45 minutes on hold. You can't do good service work like that. You want the dealer to charge time for being on hold? I don't think so. It's not surprising some dealers drop it and try something even if it's the absolute wrong thing which will bring the customer back mad. Nope I point the finger squarely at BRP. They got their money so you can just go pound sand. Corporations don't care about end users. Plain and simple.

 

[OldDog]

Two part quality checklist?

I agree.

This is what I worried about as an early buyer and also was naive enough to hope BRP would remedy. There is a surprising group of apologists on this forum who seem to trash posters who voice dealer concerns. Maybe they believe corporations are people too.

I love my Spyder but have not had real faith in it after two dealers, months of down time, and almost two years of service issues. I am still looking for the mythical great dealer and am always briefly hopeful when I read the win win dealer posts. Sadly we do not have a product that can be serviced effectively except by a shoddy dealer network.

So please post good and bad stories. We are a Spyder lovers forum and love cannot be blind.

Why not have a two part dynamic quality checklist. The first part would be hot test/ checks that BRP would do during assembly. If the machine doesn't pass it doesn't leave the factory, period.
The second would be a non deferable assembly and prep list that would be the same for any dealer regardless of the skill level of its technicians that would require correct assembly or the bike simply would not start if all conditions were not met in the proper order.
Is that do-able or is that pie in the sky thinking?

Dealers such as Cowtown and Pitbull set the bar and demonstrate that a trouble free Spyder can be had. Why not require every Can Am Spyder dealer meet a rigid quality standard? It can only benefit them in the end.

 

[ARtraveler]

I agree.

This is what I worried about as an early buyer and also was naive enough to hope BRP would remedy. There is a surprising group of apologists on this forum who seem to trash posters who voice dealer concerns. Maybe they believe corporations are people too.

I love my Spyder but have not had real faith in it after two dealers, months of down time, and almost two years of service issues. I am still looking for the mythical great dealer and am always briefly hopeful when I read the win win dealer posts. Sadly we do not have a product that can be serviced effectively except by a shoddy dealer network.

So please post good and bad stories. We are a Spyder lovers forum and love cannot be blind.

I also agree. Both the good and the bad should be posted and let each one decide the facts for themselves.

 

[daveinva]

As I've written before, the problem with rendering a verdict on dealer performance is that dealer performance often depends on too many variables to be accurately measured:

1. Dealer makes an error... or did BRP make an error? Or did the owner make an error? And were any of these errors malicious/negligent or accidental/ignorant? How does an owner know? How do *we* know?

2. Dealer does great by 4 owners, you never hear of it. Dealer screws up with the 5th owner, you get a dozen posts about that screw-up.

3. Dealer does great by you 4 times, you're happy. Dealer screws up that 5th time, do you suddenly hate that dealer? Or did they earn any goodwill from the previous 4 times you used them?

etc., etc.

Me, I'm in Camp #3. I can't say I hate my local dealer, but anyone who's read my recent posting on the matter knows I sure ain't happy with them right now. But I've had perfectly fine service from them plenty of other times, and they've fixed problems I've had with no issues. So, tell me how to score THAT: do I warn people away from that dealer because of the times I've had trouble, or do I recommend them remembering the times I got what I paid for?

I honestly don't know how to approach that kind of situation. It'd be easier if I had a perfect dealer who everyone loved, or an awful dealer that everyone hated. Both exist, but it's important to remember that there's a distribution curve going on-- MOST Spyder dealers are going to be closer to average than either wonderful or awful.

Likewise: how do we measure dealer performance? What's an unreasonable amount of time to wait for service, or parts? What's an unreasonable amount of money to pay for said service? We all come to this with our own expectations-- based on other vehicles, other motorcycles, other examples of customer service-- but I'll be the first to acknowledge that I have no idea whether my expectations, or anyone else's, is realistic when it comes to the Spyder. I just don't know if I've got it good, or if I've got it bad, and I'd say most of us are in that same boat.

That said, anything we can do to improve BRP's relationship with the dealers would be great. I just don't know what that course of action is. :dontknow:

 

[Jeriatric]

Who to report a bad dealer to. imo

Email and/or call BRP to report your specific dealer problem.

Have your facts straight before you do so. 'BE RIGHT ABOUT THEM BEING WRONG OR BAD'

Be courteous but firm in showing your discontent, and request for corrective action.

Ask for an update on BRP's corrective action.

Until enough valid complaints about a specific dealer are brought to BRP's attention. Don't expect much to change.

Posting here is good for a potential buyer, or someone seeking a dealer who provides good service, but the only way to 'WHIP' the BAD DEALER problem is by bringing the problem to BRP's attention and firmly insisting they do something about the offending dealer.

Once they have a dealer complaint pattern from the end users, if the complaints are viable.

They will have solid info to act on.

tol

 

[Oldmanzues]

I believe there is two parts to the good/bad dealer agenda.
One is does the dealer have the ability, skills and time to do the proper work. First two are kind in the open. The Third may not be. Whiz Motorsports ( I hope this is not a real one.) is great in the first two, but 10 units waiting in line to be worked on or appointment made for.

The other part is the customer. Actual cases. a guy got very mad at a dealer because it was unable to get his tires changed in a reasonable manner. He "informed" everybody he knew about that ****** Dealer. The "rest of the story" He came in on Friday at around noon. Wanted both tires changed before closing and a oil change. He was to go on a trip the next morning. Maybe he could planned ahead a little.
The other, brand changed for obivious reasons. I think it was in TN. Two HD's came in a Honda Dealers lot. One in a trailer, one being ridden. A guy came in and asked if anybody there could help. His was in the trailer, dead as a doornail. He was riding the one , the other was hauling. He said, I will even listen to all the jokes about HD breaking down. We are both far from home. The tech, said, I will try. The dealer offered him a soft drink (free). It was middle of summer. Pushed the dead HD around to the shop after the dealer said, we do all we can to help this guy. Maybe ten minutes went bye, here rumbles the HD around front. The tech said, the problem was something loose (told what) which blows a fuse. Bike will not start, but will run. HD has a "fix" for it, but I do not have the fix. It is okay for now. Go to a parts store and stock up fuses, does again, check this, put a new fuse in. onThe owner of the bike had told us, he had visions of a dead and expensive bike. He asked the dealer how much. the dealer said, nothing. Glad to help a fellow rider. He thanked everybody and left. I was on the road and had just stopped in, same free drink.
Are there really bad dealers, yes, of course. But I would do some checking before running down a dealer on somebody else word. Just my thoughts
Oldmanzues

 

[spydercowboy]

Who to report a bad dealer to. imo

Email and/or call BRP to report your specific dealer problem.

Have your facts straight before you do so. 'BE RIGHT ABOUT THEM BEING WRONG OR BAD'

Be courteous but firm in showing your discontent, and request for corrective action.

Ask for an update on BRP's corrective action.

Until enough valid complaints about a specific dealer are brought to BRP's attention. Don't expect much to change.

Posting here is good for a potential buyer, or someone seeking a dealer who provides good service, but the only way to 'WHIP' the BAD DEALER problem is by bringing the problem to BRP's attention and firmly insisting they do something about the offending dealer.

Once they have a dealer complaint pattern from the end users, if the complaints are viable.

They will have solid info to act on.

tol

That's fine but like I said in my previous post, BRP is causing some of this. Who you going to complain about them? Big corporations just don't care about end users. Maybe when BRP gets enough of these problems documented into an easy to look up form for dealers, the dealer won't have waist 45 minutes or more to get some things answered so they can fix those things right the first. If I had not seen our dealer on hold for 45 minutes I honestly would never have believed it. But I did so I know that is part of the problem.

 

[Jeriatric]

That's fine but like I said in my previous post, BRP is causing some of this. Who you going to complain about them? Big corporations just don't care about end users. Maybe when BRP gets enough of these problems documented into an easy to look up form for dealers, the dealer won't have waist 45 minutes or more to get some things answered so they can fix those things right the first. If I had not seen our dealer on hold for 45 minutes I honestly would never have believed it. But I did so I know that is part of the problem.

Not sticking up for BRP or your dealer but, have you ever had a really busy day where you simply couldn't handle everything coming your way in the timely manner you would like to?

Stuff happens. One time.....does not mean every time. Lots of scenarios could have caused the delay you speak of.

Sure, when it's you....it's bad. But, like I said. Stuff happens.

 

[Edsts]

Motorcycle mall , Belleville New Jersey !

BAD DEALER ! should be called out .

I mention this before this particular dealer customer service is really bad they don't return phone calls and when I spoke to 2 different techs bout my sts shock or sway bar clicking noise I got 3 different answers after two techs checked my unit , had many problems with this dealer from the first service ?

Found a new dealer hope all goes well !

 

[Flight Risk]

I would be happy if my dealer would return phone calls!!! How lame is that?

I would be happy if receipts had correct information on them. I have all my maintenance done on time. I check my last receipt to see what the miles on my bike were on my last oil change. It said 700 miles listed. I had over 7,200 miles on it at least. Maybe a typo, computer error?? Check another receipt on my recent rear tire replacement....miles listed....700, again.

now I need to take my bike in again for Limp Mode and DPS, hell, I just wish they would pretend to care.

(2011 RTS SE5):bdh:

 

[spydercowboy]

Not sticking up for BRP or your dealer but, have you ever had a really busy day where you simply couldn't handle everything coming your way in the timely manner you would like to?

Stuff happens. One time.....does not mean every time. Lots of scenarios could have caused the delay you speak of.

Sure, when it's you....it's bad. But, like I said. Stuff happens.

I thought that too so asked. Mechanic said it was typical. Rarely less than 20 minutes. I just think BRP itself is understaffed.