I returned two HD seatsI bought (overpaid for) and I was told i'd have to pay a 20% restocking fee. Thatadds up to $70... for nothing... just cause they didn't fit. They were still in the plastic and boxes and held up to the bikes for a second and thats it.

I started to get upset and the parts manager said it was because he had to "special order" it. I reminded him that everything is an order (well, they did have 1 seatbolt in stock once). I said i'd pay the restock fee if he refunded me in cash or check because i didn't want to spend what was left in his store anymore. (I bought a gift card for myself when i bought the bike. Big mistake.) I informed him that I could then go to ebay and buy it for more than $70 less and probably still return it ifI wanted. He then waived the fee.

It worked out in the end, but nowI havebad impession of them and i'll go to another dealership as soon as I've spent the remainder. I'm a great customer, i've bought two brand new bikes from them in a year -not to mention all the parts. What's with the BS?

Anyone else have these kind of experiences, or did i just get a bad apple in the bunch. Do these policies come down from corporate? I hope not.

*I've made some good progress on the bike, i'll be posting some pics soon.

 

I believe it is a HD corporate thing. just tonight I was in a dealer and was checking out a Screamin' Eagle riding jacket. I think i need one size larger than what they have in the store. they told me that if they ordered on in and it did not fit, they would hit me with a 20% restocking fee because that's what HD charges them for any type of order outside of their usual inventory orders for stuff stocked in the store....

 

Local dealer will take stuff back with no restocking fee if you have the receipt & it's less than 30 days. Never had a problem with them on this and have never bought a bike from them. They do all my service work - local indy's charge the same hourly rate.

 

Local dealer will take returns with no fee if I spend the money on something else in the store. Don't even need a receipt because the info about what I've bought is in their computer.

 

Sounds like you got a greedy dealer. Seriously, in a world with the internet, ebay, craigslist... I could go on. There is not a reason in the world that shop couldnt offload that seat if it wanted too. bet my *** that those "restock" fees are collected and pooled at the end of the month for a nice monthly bonus.

 

Its the guy you were dealing with more then likely.I had a somewhat similiar issue at a HD store and few weeks later ran into the semi retired owner/DAD of the store.We ate lunch togather and I told him my experience.He was vivid.I think I ruined his lunch.Said his 'boys' needed some life experiences like he had gone through owning a dealer from the 60s to present.

 

I think it's a store thing, my HD shop just put a sign up on the counter stating this too.

If you think about it, it really isn't all that unfair.
If you had to order a part they don't stock,
thenthey now have to stock that part because you returned it,
they feel like it may set there for a while increasing inventory costor else they would have stocked it, if it's an easy/quick seller for them.
Did that make any sense?

It's amazing how much chit get's returned these days.
Just look at a Walmart customer service desk sometime. There is always a line of people retuning stuff.
........and with Harley chit, we can't even see most of the stuff we want unless we order it.

 

restocking fees are just a fee that the dealer will charge if they can...usually you can get them to waive something like that if your "kind" enough. i had my bike for a month and had 1000 miles on it and got them to switch out my exhaust for no charge. granted there were some extenuating circumstances, but they didnt have to do that

 

Call around to some other dealers and see if they have the same policy. I think you may find some variations in return policies but from what I've seen you're never go to get a policy anywhere close to Walmart.

I'm not a business expert but personally I think this is a bad business practice. Anything that alienates a good customer (or cash cow) isn't good imo.Especially if theres a competitor that will treat them better. Any restocking inconvenience or cost to the dealer would be nothing compared to the money you'd spend there over the course of your HD ownership.

I'm looking for a new seat but I'm going to wait till I can find a bike with the seat I'm looking forso I can try it on for size. That way I won't have to worry about restocking fees.