Usually, one glance at the price tag is enough to make my old bikes take on a whole new beauty in my eyes.

 

The sales force works at the direction of the management. If the management's philosophy is to treat customers like chumps and try to rip off every dollar they can, then that's what the salesmen will do.

And lets not even mention the incompetent, dishonest, and expensive service departments out there.

 

I hate when the interactions are so obviously scripted.
"Hey man, what brings you in today? Did you ride in?"
"What are you riding these days? How do you like it?"
"What do you do for work?"
They're qualifying you for a purchase to determine how much time they want to spend on you. As soon as they ask me what I do for work, I'm out.

 

And then you think same rider, same rubber contact patch with the road.. I get it too.

 

The last HD salesman that I talked with told me why he was there and what cards life had dealt him, including his family's business, his recent divorce, and the fact that he had never owned a motorcycle. I wasted about 45 minutes of my day in a trivial conversation leading up to me being given an inflated price on a new non-current Road King that I had inquired about, and a low-ball trade in offer on my Road King. When I walked out the door, I was angry at myself for getting sucked into that conversation.

 

a few of my dealers use the term "fitment specialist" and these people have zero say on pricing and won't even give you a hint. then comes the sales manager of which they are very few who can provide numbers and even that person has to go ask when pushed.

 

Come on Maxxym you can't come into the General Chat forum and tout the new Harley models, let alone the CVO ST model! I thought we all hated the new models and Harley can't do anything right? Lol

I kid of course . . . those new CVO and especially the STs look very cool indeed. I think for all Harley does wrong, they do have the "Get'em to drool, trade their low mileage bike in, and get on the new bike" sales model dialed in. My local dealer has the parts counter in the back of the dealership so you have to walk past all the new floor models just like the Grocery stores that put milk and eggs in the back of the store. lol

 

I agree. My local HD has a sales guy that has worked there (and the sister dealerships) forever. Nice guy remembers my name and what I ride every time I come in.
I'm willing to bet being a HD sales guy is a tough job. For every 15-20 customers you have to interact with, maybe 1 buys on a given day if that.

 

Amen brother. Once I’ve got something that A) works and runs correctly B) tweaked the way I want - it stays. I don’t get the new bike every couple years thing. 1991 Chevy truck, 2003 Ford Escape, 2018 Road King. The price tags are bad enough then the hassle of starting over fussing with a new ride, no thanks!

 

Funny you say, when I was walking out, I stopped by the 24 Road Glide they had by the door. I started to talk to another sales dude. He was lot cooler. Didn't try to sell me anything, probably because I was already out the door lol. But we talked about all the improvements they did to the bike, how nice it looked. I told him that I really don't understand some hate on those bikes. They improved and dropped the price. Strange lol. He said "Yeah, they are old timers... they were not happy then, they will not be happy now". It seems like a younger generation is more appreciative of the brand and what they put out there. Sweet baby Jesus, please don't make me grumpy like that when I am the "new boomer" lol Is that really what happens?

This dealership is setup the same. You walk past the bikes, 5 dudes saying "Hey man, did you ride in?" and finally reaching the clothes and parts zone.

I did have nice experience at the dealers before. When I went to NC, we went to Tilly's (I believe). That was nice. They were awesome there. To give you an idea...I had an oil cooler fan installed on my bike, but the ECU needed to be programed for it to turn on. My local dealer (the one I posted about originally) wanted $160 to do that. Tilly's charged me $40, because all it was just plug it in and done. They took me in without any problems, nobody bugged us, we had a nice chat with people there. It was just different experience.