Things Dealers tell Customers

[High Country Herb]

I'm really surprised at all the bad experiences people have with BMW dealers. Maybe it's just a matter of how many dealerships they have? The closest BMW shop to me (Cycle Specialties in Modesto CA) is just full of great people. Their philosophy seems to be to help everyone with their moto experience, regardless of what brand they currently ride, in hopes that some day they will come shopping for a BMW. They have regular test ride days with free hot dogs and sodas. I even talked with the salesman for 20 minutes about DS helmet brands they don't even carry. He invited me to join their all-brand DS rides.

I gotta say something about tires too. I just don't get these shops that refuse to mount tires bought elsewhere. Why not just raise the price to mount/balance tires, and offer a significant discount for a package deal (tire+mounting)? Those who don't mount their own will just pony up the extra money. Where else are they going to go? I actually prefer to buy stuff at a shop, so I have someone in my corner if anything goes wrong with the purchase/product. If they take an hour to find something on a parts fiche that can be had at 20 different websites, I think they are sourcing their product from the wrong place. Just freekin' buy it from the discounter, and charge me a markup. How hard is that?

OK, here is my story about a lame dealer (which has since gone out of business). When shopping for an adventure bike, I stopped in at the Yamaha dealer in Manteca. I said I needed an adventure bike bigger than 700cc for 2-up riding. He said they didn't make one. When I asked him about the Super Tenere, he said he'd never heard of it or seen it. No brochure, nothing. He didn't even offer to look it up on the Yamaha website (his computer was 10 feet away). Talk about not knowing your product...

[shaddix]

Originally Posted by davevv

If you don't like it, why did you buy it in the first place?

How would I know I didn't like it before I had it!?

[davevv]

Originally Posted by shaddix

How would I know I didn't like it before I had it!?

Research?

Really? If it's something you wear, try it on. Test drive a vehicle. Talk to owners and read reviews, etc, etc. Why should it be a merchant's responsibility to guarantee that you are going to like something that YOU decided to buy. It wasn't his decision, it was the consumer's. Sure, if it's broken, misrepresented, or not fit for the advertised purpose, take it back. But a poor choice by the purchaser is not the merchant's fault.

[High Country Herb]

I thought of a couple more while reading through all the stories:

Back in the 80's, my dad was shopping for a little import pickup. He found just the one he wanted down at the Datsun dealer after work one day; brown, manual trans, radio delete. He struck the deal, and said he would return the following day after work with cash. When he came back with how ever many $1,000's in hand, they had sold the truck out from under him. The salesman asked him "What is your second choice?" To which he replied "Toyota". That still cracks me up, though I can certainly understand the first come, first serve philosophy.

My grandfather was a coal miner. He didn't make a lot of money, but always saved up cash for vehicle purchases. When he was ready for a new car, he purposely went to the dealer straight from work to see how they would react to the average blue collar worker. They wouldn't even talk to him. He pulled out his cash roll, walked across the street, and bought the biggest car on the lot (because he liked big cars, not because he wanted to impress). As he left the second lot, he made sure to honk the horn and wave to the salesmen standing out front. He was an ornery old bastard.

[shaddix]

Originally Posted by davevv

Research?

Really? If it's something you wear, try it on. Test drive a vehicle. Talk to owners and read reviews, etc, etc. Why should it be a merchant's responsibility to guarantee that you are going to like something that YOU decided to buy. It wasn't his decision, it was the consumer's. Sure, if it's broken, misrepresented, or not fit for the advertised purpose, take it back. But a poor choice by the purchaser is not the merchant's fault.

But my point is that the poor choice is factored into the price of the items at that retailer already, the merchant does not pay for the poor choice and subsequent return, we do. You have paid for the ability to return something you do not want by purchasing from a place that has such a return policy. Therefore, if you do not take advantage of that option when you need it and instead do the "right" thing by keeping your poor choice, you are subsidizing the rest of the folks that do take advantage of it and just costing yourself even more $ for no reason.

[steelerider]

Every HD dealership I've walked into has given me reason to never buy a Harley. This has happened twice. Park my bike outside (Triumph Sprint ST) walk in, and get asked "Triumph? are you here to buy a REAL bike?"

I took the same bike to Hermy's (local BMW dealer) who happily took it back in trade after I put 10K miles on it, and walked out with a brand new R1200RT - which I wrote a check for.

I will NEVER own a Harley Davidson product. EVER.

[slartidbartfast]

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

At the risk of sounding like a sexist ****,,,

I doubt that's the case in this instance, but I am appalled by how many otherwise honest and decent women feel that it is 100% morally acceptable to return things that have nothing wrong with them, simply because they have capriciously decided they don't want them, even when it means a small independent store taking a hit. Whether or not the store is prepared to take it is neither here nor there: If something was as described and didn't have any defects, I couldn't return something I shouldn't have bought. At worst, I might ask a vehicle dealer to make an offer to buy something back, but if it was lower than I was prepared to accept, I wouldn't think any worse of them. I think the reason I wouldn't do it is because I know full well that if I was running a shop, I'd be fuming to accept returns for this reason (even if I put on a polite face because it made good business sense to do so).

It's strange as women are often a lot worse at getting value out of stores (read: more reluctant to haggle down below the list price on vehicles, etc) when buying goods. Yet they seem really good (or just have fewer qualms about) returning things they bought on a whim and then decided they didn't like the colour of.

I don't think it's just women by any means but it reminds of a sales girl in a clothing store telling me that she had many, many female customers who would "buy" five or six outfits on a Friday or Saturday and then bring them all back on Monday. One of them would stink of smoke and/or perfume, having presumably been worn out on Saturday night. I was flabbergasted to learn that they (she and the Store management) would give these customers full refunds without argument. She just shrugged when I asked her why they didn't refuse to refund for any "soiled" garments (or ban the so-called customers from the store - which would have been my stance.)

I was shopping for a jacket at the time and told the sales girl that I would not be purchasing it there. I pointed out that I was now uncomfortable buying from them because I would be endorsing, not to mention subsidizing the ongoing fraud/theft. She didn't seem to care!

Trying to think of a related car/bike shopping experience but I don't have one - Except to note that we've already heard the strong and perfectly reasonable position that returning a car after a weekend of use is not acceptable. Of course, the really sneaky fake "buyer" will finance through the dealership, then call the finance company and tell THEM that they don't want the car and won't be paying for it. The financing will then unravel and the buyer can simply refuse to sign any other documents to set it up elsewhere. I wonder how many times when you see a car at the dealer with 250 "delivery" miles on it, this is really what happened. Doing this deliberately would be fraud but I expect most dealers would simply be happy to get the car back in one piece and without too many miles (unlike when the purchaser fails to make the first payment or the downpayment check bounces and the dealer then has to wait for the repo man to get the car back)

[DAKEZ]

Originally Posted by steelerider

Every HD dealership I've walked into has given me reason to never buy a Harley. This has happened twice. Park my bike outside (Triumph Sprint ST) walk in, and get asked "Triumph? are you here to buy a REAL bike?"

I will NEVER own a Harley Davidson product. EVER.

Then why did you go to a Harley Store?

[Dave in Wi]

Originally Posted by steelerider

Every HD dealership I've walked into has given me reason to never buy a Harley. This has happened twice. Park my bike outside (Triumph Sprint ST) walk in, and get asked "Triumph? are you here to buy a REAL bike?"

I took the same bike to Hermy's (local BMW dealer) who happily took it back in trade after I put 10K miles on it, and walked out with a brand new R1200RT - which I wrote a check for.

I will NEVER own a Harley Davidson product. EVER.

If I really wanted to buy a Harley I wouldn't let that stop me. I'd just say "No, I'm not here to buy a REAL bike. I'm here to buy a Harley." :-)

[DaveBall]

But, Harley Davidson admits they don't sell bikes. They sell "A Life Style".

[DAKEZ]

You say that like it is a bad thing.

You don't have to be an image sheep to ride... But riding is (or can be) a lifestyle no matter what brand you ride.

Don't hate just because the MoCo has been successful at marketing theirs.

[bwalsh]

Originally Posted by steelerider

"Triumph? are you here to buy a REAL bike?"

No, I need a pirate costume for Halloween...

[C/1/509]

Originally Posted by steelerider

Every HD dealership I've walked into has given me reason to never buy a Harley. This has happened twice. Park my bike outside (Triumph Sprint ST) walk in, and get asked "Triumph? are you here to buy a REAL bike?"

I took the same bike to Hermy's (local BMW dealer) who happily took it back in trade after I put 10K miles on it, and walked out with a brand new R1200RT - which I wrote a check for.

I will NEVER own a Harley Davidson product. EVER.

Interesting. I went to a HD dealer to test ride a Buell, and rode there on my KTM 950 SM. I had three guys that worked there outside looking at my bike, and they were very complimentary about it. I guess it depends on the dealership and the people there.

[KX50002]

Originally Posted by bwalsh

No, I need a pirate costume for Halloween...

[DAKEZ]

Originally Posted by C/1/509

Interesting. I went to a HD dealer to test ride a Buell, and rode there on my KTM 950 SM. I had three guys that worked there outside looking at my bike, and they were very complimentary about it. I guess it depends on the dealership and the people there.

All the Non-Harley brands that ride into The Harley dealerships around here (many of them sheepinshly parking around the corner) when they walk in after being greated they get asked:

"What did you ride in on?"
No matter what their reply is it is usually followed by "Cool!... Where did you park? Let's go check it out"

Last week I had a beautful 2011 Concours prominently displayed in our showroom. Some ignorant fool loudly asked: "WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT JAP CRAP IN A HARLEY STORE?"

He did not care for the reply he got or the laughter from the other patrons and his own friends when I asked him (just as loudly) "DO YOU OFTEN GO OUT IN PUBLIC AND SPOUT OFF NEGATIVE THINGS ABOUT SOMETHING YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT?" Followed by "Would you like to ride it?"

His friend piped in: "He couldn't handle a bike like that!"