I bought my new 07 at Wisconsin Harley in oconomowoc Wi. I was only there one time! They sucked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!My new bike color looked funny to me. Salesman said if you can't live with the color call me monday morn, well I broke down 27 miles after leaving the dealer because they didn't tighten the clutch cables! Came and got my new bike to repair and smashed the tourpak light bar!Give me a break. I'm color blind is why the salesperson had saif=d what he did. well monday I call and he says I never told you that. So there I sat with a new bike wrong color and no help. I wrote two letters to Wisconsin Harley and NO answers. Harley davidson replied to me with, what can we do to make you happy. Hats off to harley not the worthless dealer. I told Kathy in warranty that asking was enough for me. It wasn't harley, it was the worthless dealer!!!!!! They are all independent, so when you find a good one, spend your money there!

 

You are just passing through. Why should you expect a shop to have techs standing by waiting for you or to drop everything to accommodate you?
Most dealers will try and fit travelers in but that is the best they can do. Their business depends on steady work. But they can not be expected to pull techs off of a job in progress to open an unknown can of worms.

Call ahead. Be flexible. But don't expect to move to the front of the line. You will be there once. The locals are their bread and butter.

 

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I'd have to agree with this.&nbsp\\; Service is rarely completed on time and there is somewhat of an elitist attitude at this store.&nbsp\\; I've had to fix loose ends after repairs myself more than once.&nbsp\\; Oil changes always leak afterward, etc.&nbsp\\; There are a few great people there but not enough to make it worth the hassle.&nbsp\\; May be due to it being in a moderate to high income area where the local residents/customers may not know what else to expect.&nbsp\\;
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Odd thing is I was contacted a year after the initial sale and told them what I really thought.&nbsp\\; They made the problem that I had right then gave me a 100.00 dollar gift certificate.&nbsp\\; All was well so I traded my bike in on another there and it's been downhill since.&nbsp\\; Once my add-on warranty expires I doubt that I'll go back.

 

chopperstuff on line
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chopperstuff should be renamed robbersnstuff
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got to be one of the worst
'paid for part never got it

 

Redline in Saskatoon , sask.&nbsp\\; has&nbsp\\; a&nbsp\\; terrible rep. I have a few Harleys and I'm really not sure I want to take them there. I've been lucky and haven't until this point , but I'm sure the time will come.

A&nbsp\\; buddy of mine has a Decker that was acting up a little , loss of power&nbsp\\; sputtering. He took it there they said it needs a carb rebuild .........&nbsp\\;&nbsp\\; he took it to a car mechanic we know who rides a little ,&nbsp\\; with one look at it&nbsp\\; he&nbsp\\; noticed an exhaust manifold leak..........&nbsp\\; and well the rest is history........&nbsp\\;&nbsp\\; no more problem.

Sad&nbsp\\; when a dealer&nbsp\\; tries to rape you.............&nbsp\\; we need&nbsp\\; more&nbsp\\; shops in saskatchewan........

 

Wow, I read some of these posts and are just amazed at how some people are treated. I have only been riding for about 6 years but have had a couple major experiences. First, my first bike (used) lost the engine. I had one place tell me that I wasn't the type of customer they were interested in having?!?!?! My $3k isn't good enough for you. The sad part is that my father is friends with the owner and he was dumb-struck when I told him that. He said come on down and he would take care of it. Sorry, I couldn't do it. I gave my $3k to my local H-D shop.

Second, I had what amounted to a failed oil pump on my 07 Heritage. What saved my a&# was that on each and every service (27k miles now) I made sure to have them type in that I thought the engine was making a strange sound. (It actually was but since I haven't been riding all my life, that was about as good as I could get) I tried to describe it but everytime service came back stating that everything is fine. When the oil pump went out, it was the result of an engine issue, new crate motor, no charge, shipped from WI and installed by local dealer (not dealer I bought from) and back to me in 6 days.

I have noticed a few things. I have worked retail for quite a few years and (obviously) I am a customer as well. Dealers will never make everyone happy. Someone will always think that they should be doing more. They can't stay in business unless they make a profit, plain and simple. On the other side, dealers need customers. If you have a staff that doesn't know what they are doing, doesn't have the proper training or just don't care, customers will notice and business will suffer.

I am a member of our local HOG chapter (actually and officer) so I visit my dealer regularly. They know me and I know them. I know who I should go to for what questions and who I should avoid like the plague. I also know that (since associating with officers of other HOG chapters) that there are dealers of every type out there. Some dealers get it and some don't. Luckily, our dealer gets it. He supports us, we support him. Other shops in the area might have a better deal but in the long run, something sours the buyer and turns them off of the dealer that sold them the bike.

I guess what I am trying to say is, in my experience, you get out of it what you put in to it. If all you are looking for is the bottom line best deal you can get and you don't care where you go to get it, good for you. If you want a place you can trust and that knows you, find your local shop and stick with it. Get to know them and let them get to know you. It is amazing how you can help each other. Before you know it, you won't be having some of these problems I hear people complain about.

And BTW, yes, I have been screwed by my own dealer. Sales manager sold a bike out from under us while we were working on getting financing arranged at our local bank. The bike was for my wife and boy was she pissed. She wrote and email to the owner via the dealer website and he replied offering to "make it right." It wasn't until about the third email conversation with us and staff that he realized who we were. He offered solutions to fix the problem before he realized we were officers of his chapter. And before anybody says BS, trust me, this guy is wonderful but when it comes to names and faces, he can be as dumb as a brick.

Oh, well, just my $.02.

 

Well my take on all this is way different. Seems to me that some of the so-called HD dealers have had to too good for too long! What HD dealer really takes care of you? I know of only one within 70 miles of me!
Why would I ned to spend thousands of dollars to get good service? when you buy a 20+ grand bike, the service should come with it!
The two local dealers were so hard to deal with, it was impossible to buy a bike from, unless I wanted to spend 6-12 grand more for the same bike. Try to schedule service is the same thing. get the run around as too when to come in! E-mailed wausau HD last week for a service and NO reply, so I just did it myself, no big deal but I tried to patronize and no response, must have had a full service bay I guess.
When my bike was pinging as new, took it to two HD dealers and they said it was within spec's and then tried to sell me 2 grand worth of SE tuner and pipes.WTF! Should be running right without spending more money. I work hard for my money and won't just give it away blindly.
Appleton Harley has been very good with me, thats one out of 5, yep HD has a great dealer network!

 

Caliente Harley-Davidson
here in San Antonio TX. was one of the worse exp. i had ever had. they treated my wife and kids with attitude. and the sales men talked him out of a deal as fast as he could so he could go do somethign he thought was more importaint
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I hope enjoyed his pressign matters when we left he was sitting there looking stupid.
I thoguht it would be nice and conveinet considering they are like 8 blocks from the house.
Instead i drove over 200. miles to get the bike i wanted from a deal in College station TX. was treated like gold!!

 

Just a heads up about ordering online from Harley Davidson of Dothan AL\\; don't unless you want frustration and to be called a liar when they ship a damaged part.
I ordered a set of 12" black ape hangers from them and when they arrived they looked like they had been skipped across the parking lot before they were boxed. I called them and told them, they said to return them and they would look at them and in the mean time order a new set so they would have them in stock when mine arrived to them. I thought great\\; this is going to be an easy fix. Adam the gentleman in charge of online consumer services called me this afternoon to tell me they weren't going to replace them because they look like they had been kicked down the road. I said "no **** that's what I told you." He switched me over to the manager Jeff who said "How long do you think we would be in business if I replaced every part that a customer damaged and sent back." I was furious by this point and told him to box them up and send them back and I would take it up with Harley. At this point he calls the general manager, who calls the owner and now they are in a closed door meeting over a $57 set of handle bars The entire time he keeps telling me I can file a claim with UPS and I keep telling him since there is no damage to the box UPS won't do anything because they weren't damaged in shipping. They were sent like screwed up. How long does he think UPS would be in business if they payed for every broken part a merchant sent out and refused to make good on?
All of this took place at 4p.m. today and after spending 15-20 minutes on hold while they were in the closed door meeting and a total of about 30-45 minutes on the phone\\; I was told they would call me as soon as they got out of the meeting and let me know what they were going to do. It's 6:30pm now and they have been closed for 30 minutes, I guess I got my answer since they didn't call me back. I chose them because I had heard good things. Screw'em, even though they are only about an hour from the house\\; I wouldn't drive there if they had a 99% off sale on all bikes.
If you order online from Harley be aware that Harley of Dothan isnt worth your time. As of now, they lost a customer because of their ridiculous attitude that their is no way they could mess up and ship out a bad part. Question my integrity over a low dollar part, that I didn't even ask for money back on, or anything extra. I simply asked them to exchange it with a part that wasn't tore up. If they ship the messed up bars back expect a follow up post with pictures. I'm going to make it my number one priority for the rest of the year to make sure everyone I know and everyone on the internet knows that Harley of Dothan can kiss my rear, not on the left, not on the right, but right in the middle.
I will say that Adam didn't seem to like the fact that they weren't going to replace them, but he was the one that had to make the phone call.

 

Problem all dealers seem to have is you can never ask a question, (regardless of the Dept.) and expect to get the kind of answers you find here, everything's by the bible...you know which is fine most of the time but..."I can read", if I'm askin it's because there may be a possibility the manual is either unclear or contains an all out misprint