LoL Dealer indifference

Tourmeister said:

I do hate seeing someone talking to a sales person, asking questions about a bike, and the sales person has no freaking clue what they are talking about when answering the questions!! I REALLY have to bite my tongue. Sadly, that has not been a rare occurrence...

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Sooooo true.

Funny how people's experiences differ. I guess I was spoiled by Robert and Lone Star and being a consultant for a customer service dependent industry may make me a little less tolerant of marginal service.

Daniel Portanova is about the best I know of working today. If I were buying new I would buy from Daniel and not bother talking to any body else. I went in there to talk to him about the R1000S and nearly rode off on a Scrambler he was so enthusiastic. I still may. If he could get parts to get their act together they would be my all around winner.

Wild West is 1 of 4 in handling transactions for me. (On my last parts request they referred me to Momentum, the car dealership.) I'm doing my best to like them, but just am not feeling the love, or even interest from their staff.

BMW Woodlands is a good, quick to service, group of guys. Their prices are about 20 - 40% over what I pay ordering from Max and like Tourmeister says if you have to order...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Gulf Coast. Half the guys in the BMW club love them, but I've been on hold for 20 minutes waiting on Greg, only to find Greg is not in the office and they forgot to tell me. That's one example of more than I like to admit. A couple of times they have tried to get out of their slump, hiring some outside people to turn the dealership around, but each time they end up firing them. Not sure if GSer still works there or not. Sad because they are the only source for Brit Iron parts in South Texas.

Ahh, enough dealer bashing.

jfink said:

I'm still learning. I have ordered some footpegs, because the floor boards are crimpin' my style.

How's things going Rob? 'bout time to do some Friday BBQ rides, isn't it?

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Tomorrow, just posted.

Gulf Coast is one of the one's I had trouble with. To be fair, that was back in 2004. Things may have changed since then.

2004, would doubt that has much to do with today! Hopefully better.

woodsguy said:

2004, would doubt that has much to do with today! Hopefully better.

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I had some work done there when Wild West was moving their shop around and they did quite well. Greg is good - I originally met him when he was at the BMW woodlands that went under. They also are happy to provide demos.

I'll say I have had a good experience with Cycle Center of Denton but I have only been a look loo on bikes. Parts and gear have been good to deal with.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Cycle Shack is "usually " great. however, dealers in general seem to be a mixed bag because they have to deal with tire kickers every minute of every day.

sandman said:

Cycle Shack is "usually " great. however, dealers in general seem to be a mixed bag because they have to deal with tire kickers every minute of every day.

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THIS^^^the TK part. So true you just would not believe it.

woodsguy said:

No offense but you've got to be kidding me, now I haven't been there i a few months but pretty much useless. And price their oil, etc. Geeze, I drive to Conroe instead of paying their prices. Usually some kid that has to run and ask someone for an answer to every question.

Glad you had a good experience, maybe something has changed, I won't be finding out.

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Yeah what Rob said.

I get treated like i am invisible at every dealership I go to. I look like i am 21(really 36) so sales guys don't see $$ when they look at me. I get totally ignored so I have purchased my last 4 bikes off of craigslist...cbr had 26 miles on odo, versys 6xx, drz had 380, and my gsxr750 had 1800...and no idiotic fees either

I am a salesman myself and I would never give my business to any store that completely ignores me

I'm always amazed listening to stories and reading these posts, how, over the years experiences can vary so much. How one dealer maybe fantastic to one Twtex member and be completely awful to another. How a service provider can be flawless with one customer and with another have their dealer/shop mechanic in his/my garage fixing a mistake because they mounted the wheel and tire on backwards.

yep, dealerships are the pits. I stood by to and listened to three parts guys talk about how many girls they met at some rally. All i wanted was some oil filters for an old goldwing. So there I was for about ten minutes, they all would glance in my direction( about 5 feet away)and ignored me. when i turned to leave the old man in the office asked me if I needed help so I told him "No thanks I could get my parts quicker online and cheaper". funny thing, the parts guys started asking if I needed anything, i told them to go on lying about girls, and haven't been back. ALAMO CYCLE PLEX SAN ANTONIO TEXAS.
the best service i ever got was CALIENTE HARLEY DAVIDSON.

kickstand~prophet said:

THIS^^^the TK part. So true you just would not believe it.

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Sure, but tire kicking is part of the buying process for most people. That dude "wasting your time" today may very well be the guy that drops $12k on a bike next week.

I think both buyers and sales people have unrealistic expectations of each other. Many buyers expect the sales people to know exactly the amount of attention they require while browsing, and sales people expect that their assistance be rewarded with a sale.

I'll do weeks of research (both online and in-store) before dropping $50 on a toaster, so you're nuts if you think I'm gonna buy a bike from you the first time I talk to you. Odds are I know more about the bike than the salesman before I ever walk in the door. By the time I go look in person it's really just a matter of fit and the deal. I'm not buying anything that costs as much as a bike without getting multiple quotes.

When I bought my Scout I went to the local Indian dealer (back in NY), already knowing what I wanted, I'd done a demo ride previously, and done a lot of research- so it really was all just about the deal. I had a '15 Z1000 with 10k miles to trade in, perfect condition. This dealer was asking $300 over MSRP on the bike, and only offered me $6000 for the trade in- $1300 less than KBB "trade in" value. When I pointed this out, they said they could raise their offer to $6200 but that was best they could do.

Called a few other dealers in the area, all were roughly the same or even worse. Note this was in November-, in New York, so riding season had definitely closed, and they weren't going to be selling a lot of bikes for at least 3-4 months. Two dealers had nobody answer the sales phone, and nobody returned my call- literally saying I was ready to buy and wanted a quote on a trade in.

Finally called MOM's Indian in New Hampshire- this was probably a 4 hour drive away. They sold the bike at $500 under MSRP, offered me $8000 for the trade(well over book, and in the off season), and told me about a factory promotion for $500 of accessories that nobody else bothered to mention. The sales woman was friendly, knew about the bike, and actually returned phone calls. When I got there to take delivery, everything was smooth sailing. Easily the best dealer experience I've had, and just because they made a good offer the first time- I didn't even haggle on the price, and the staff was competent.

Down here, the fuel light on the Scout quit working. Brought it to Dream Machines to get it fixed on warranty. That turned into a total snafu. Long story short, they installed a new fuel pump wrong, i "ran out" of gas at 70 miles on the freeway and very nearly had an accident from it, I re-installed the pump myself correctly, the dealer kind of just shrugged their shoulders about it. "Well, what do you want us to do about it?"

I quit buying from dealers in the 1970s. Best to let others eat the depreciation. Last new bike came in a crate, assembled and pre-delivery serviced myself, and saved a few thousand $$$$ compared to buying a similar bike with similar farkles that came with the new one. Only change I felt necessary was swapping the 35W H4 for a 55w 9003, and disconnecting the beauty lights around the headlight. First single I've ever owned I didn't feel new grips were necessary for comfort. Happy, happy, cheap, cheap, fun, fun.

I have only been in one dealer since moving to TX; Freedom in Weatherford. They greeted my wife and I as we walked and and said if we had any questions ask. Otherwise they left us alone to browse the store. I like that. I don't know if they are always like that or if we caught them on a slow day, so I am not trying give the store props. Just sharing my experience.

A couple shops in PA you have to tell them to go away they bother you so badly. Nothing worse than trying to look at bikes with a bs'er salesman breathing down your neck. Once I was looking at a used WR250R supermoto with Shinko 705's. The salesman tried to tell me it had $500 worth of new tires on it and that was why the price was set where it was. I told him you could (at the time) buy them for $50/ea. His response was "Well our prices are no haggle, that makes the process easier for everybody." Needless to say I didn't buy it.

I was with a friend at Stubb's off of Telephone and was interested in an Africa Twin. The sales director was there and I asked him if he would be willing to give me anything for some pristine used dirt bikes as trade-ins. He said that normally his response would be no, but they were moving used dirt bikes and needed more inventory. He turned me over to the sales manager to work with. They said they would be getting the 2017 AT model I wanted in a couple of weeks. 3 weeks go by and I get a phone call asking what went wrong and why the deal didn't happen. I explained I hadn't heard from anyone since talking with the sales manger who was supposed to get back with me. Got a call back from the sales manager who asked me to send in pictures with descriptions of the bikes I wanted to trade in. I went to all of the trouble of preparing a document with all of the info. After about a week, I called to see where we were with things and the sales manager said he needed to see the bikes. So, I loaded up all four bikes, hauled them up to Stubbs, unloaded them, and rode them over to their service department. After waiting around for nearly a half hour longer, the sales manager takes me into his office and proceeds to tell me he'd give me $500 for this one, $400 for that one, and so on. He said he could only do blue book for the bikes. I told him that was fairly insulting as I could have looked up blue book at home without going to any of the effort I just made. Also, any one of the bikes was worth more than he was offering for all 4. I loaded the bikes back up and took them home. I then sold all 4 for $10500 in less than 3 weeks and bought my AT from Honda of Russellville, AR. The discount I got from buying from Russellville paid for the trip up there, the overnight hotel, and for several accessories. Including all taxes, title. and other fees, I saved $2401 over what I would have paid for the same bike at Stubbs. Not to mention, the sales guy I dealt with in Russellville was in constant contact with me about the stage of our deal; let me know when the bike was in and ready to go. NEVER will buy another thing from Stubbs on Telephone and will let everyone I meet know what crooks/clowns they are.

I'm been waiting on a call back on a trade for over week from a dealer I do a LOT of business.Said he would run the numbers and get back to me. I haven't pushed, just waiting to see if he'll do as he stated, lol. Beginning to think no.

Well gave Wild West another try today. Needed to shop across two brands of bikes so they got the nod. They greeted me at the door. Had everything in stock at close to internet prices. All the employees were identifiable in Wild West apparel (a past problem when I was looking for help.) Got me in and out quick. Thanked me on the way out. It was a 56 mile round trip today, but I'll give them a shot again.

m

They do a great job. What bikes are you looking at?

sandman said:

They do a great job. What bikes are you looking at?

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Right now only spares for my X Challenge and KTM 300, but I may be shopping for a Honda Rancher for the wife as soon as I can clear space in the barn.

m