Last week while at Bike Week in Daytona I stopped at the Custom Dynamics booth to talk to them about the problem I'd been having with my Mini Beast horn (they bought the line not too long ago). The thing had been rattling like a coffee can with bolts in it and actually broke the stock horn mounting bracket (which I replaced). When I started telling them what the problem was the first words out of the girl's mouth were "don't tell me, it broke the mounting bracket right?". She went on to say they were aware that the mounting mechanism was an issue, that they expected to get quite a few of them back when they bought the line, and that they had redesigned it since they took it over. They also said they will stand behind the warranty on the product even if it was before they bought it out. All great, or so I thought.

When I said that I wanted the horn exchanged, they said no problem and proceeded to give me the contact info for their office. They said call them, explain the issue. They will tell you to take the horn off, send it back to them, and they will send a replacement. I looked at her funny and said you're here now, can't you just swap it out while I'm here and save me the trouble of having to do all that? She then explained that they were instructed specifically not to do returns at the show because they only stock they had on the horns is what they brought to sell. She said the company is looking to make money off the show and if they used their stock for warranty swaps they wouldn't have horns to sell, so they were handling it back at the main office.

Let me say I have dealt with Custom Dynamics before on several occasions and have always been very pleased with their products and customer service. All the lights on my bike with the exception of my headlight and fog lights are their LEDs. This time, however, I think they came up a bit short. I understand they pay a lot for that display space and need to make money to make it worth their while, and I also appreciate that they were at least honest and didn't give some lame excuse. I just think that inconveniencing a customer when they had the product right there isn't the right thing to do. If you are expecting returns why not load up some extra stock to handle it? Maybe its just me and I am over reacting, but I think they could have done better.

 

I had an issue with a heat shield on my pipes. I waited till bike week when I knew Rinehart would be there with their truck. They said no problem and swapped my heat shield on the spot for free. I don't understand why CD couldn't do the same.

 

You can't compare all dealers/products the same.
Different products.
Too bad she couldn't take care of you at the show.
If it was last day and then maybe she could have swapped the part as they would be leaving and she might have an extra then.
I have CD rear turn signals and they work great but never had to acually deal with them.
Nice they would still stand behind a product they didn't make.
Nice too know.

 

Obviously they didn't come to the show to do warranty repairs. Why is this a surprise to, or worse yet, expected by you?

 

Completely agree, that part is impressive. Think of how much better it would have been if they had brought extra stock and said "yea we anticipated people would have issues, we will swap that out right away for you". They would have looked like heros.

 

Since the girl knew immediately what the problem was, they should have brought enough extras to cover it. As you say, they had a chance to be the hero and blew it. Oh, well. At least they'll eventually take care of it. That's something.

Ride Safe

David

 

Why? Because like the poster with the Rhinehart issue I've had other vendors do it.

 

Show or no show they need to step up and solve the issue, if they didn't want to do it on the spot they should have taken your info, verified the issue and called the home office to have the replacement shipped out that same day.

I would have pressed the issue with them at the Rally until they'd arrived at a reasonable solution such as I've noted above. Customer service sole purpose is to make things easy for the customer.....not make someone go through hoops when a simple and easy fix is at hand.

 

I guess you can't get everything all the time. I'm glad they are makign good...one way or another.

 

In my opinion this statement is wrong and totally off base..

The sole purpose Vendors attend Rally's is to promote their "Goods and Services". Investigating & resolving a warranty issue for an existing customer should fall right into their wheelhouse.

Over the years I've had several warranty or quality issues arise and addressed them all successfully on the spot at the Rally's with the Supplier or Manufacturer and have never but turned away. Usually they want to see the issue first hand so they can verify the problem and prevent future occurrences in upcoming production runs.

I think at this Daytona event the girl who responded to the OP either wasn't properly trained or empowered to make such a decision on their behalf. They are a known and respected vendor on this forum so hopefully they will see this thread and weigh in to set the record straight.