Ga Blue Knight
New member
It's not that we are too critical as being critical has it's place but the nature of the forum process create an impression that all is bad as you only see negative comments and hardly ever positive. If someone has an issue with a dealer they can still start a thread and bash away as they do now. I don't approve of this but I know it won't stop anyway. I used to have a small Motorcycle shop in a small town in Iowa many years ago. I tried really hard to help my neighbors and friends and was very well received in the town by many but bashed continuously by one individual who felt I cheated him by not selling back to him a bike he sold me a year earlier at the same price he sold it to me for even though I fixed it and had it repainted. He convinced those in the surrounding towns that I was unreliable and a tightwad! This is the power of one negative source of comments with an audience.
This is why I suggested that the positive write up be in the form of a PM to the judging panel so it would not be voted on in the threads by public opinion and swayed by negative comments by a few disgruntled individuals. There are many dealers that have had 100's of happy satisfied customers and 3-4 problem ones. This is more likely the norm unfortunately. I am sure even Len at Cowntown would admit a few failures to satisfy, it's just part of life's journey. As far as who the judges should be how about a mixture of two or three of the Top Dealers as selected by the Forum Members. Two or three of the top most respected Forum Members as selected by Lamont and two or three of the top Vendors as selected by everyone. This would give more diversity, experience in business and fairness to the group than just forum members. The prize would be just bragging rights and getting the word out on what a great thing Dealer "A" did for his customer. It would really have to be heroic, above and beyond the call and significantly notable. An example would be as follows; Spyderlover Joe's RT goes into limp mode 700 miles from home on the way to Spyderfest. The nearest dealer is 75 miles away and it's 5:45 on a Thursday. The dealer closes at 6:00. After being called the dealer sends a tech to the stranded Ryder to pick him and his bike up. The dealer stays open to diagnose the problem and finds that the throttle bodies are toast. He has no spares in stock. He orders a new part under the warrenntee to replace his stock but to help Spyderlover Joe takes the part out of a new unassembled RT and has the Tech stay late to install it in Joe' RT so he can continue to Spyderfest in the morning.
Sounds really heroic, right? Well I have seen this type of thing with Harley Davidson, and BMW Dealers and this is the type of dedication and dealer loyalty that creates brand loyalty. This would be a Silver Star Award. Of course the payback for the dealer would be to 10,000 rabid Spyderlover shouting your virtue nationwide (why should Len be alone!)
