I post here a copy of a complain I’ve just sent to Harley Davidson. I hope nothing like this ever happens to you.

Happy rides……if you can.
Efrén

Harley-Davidson Customer Service
3700 W. Juneau Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53208
United States

Torrelavega, 1st February 2005

Dear friend:

A few weeks ago I may have started this letter saying “I’m the proud owner of a Harley Davidson motorcycle…” but, sadly, now, all I can say is that I’m the very disappointed owner of a 2004 Sportster Custom 883.

The reasons are maybe too long to go into details, and as I don’t mean to bore you, I’ll try to summarize as much as possible:

- On the 31st October 2004, my bike broke down while driving on A67 highway from Torrelavega to Santander. The very same day the bike was given to the closest Harley dealer to be repaired.
- Until 15th January 2005 the bike was not given back to me repaired. That means 10 weeks without my bike.

What has happened in between?

- Delivery time of some spare parts of up to 3 weeks.
- Mistakes on the delivery of some spare parts.
- Etc.

After the report of the facts, some questions come out:

- What’s the philosophy of Harley Davidson regarding Customer Care? I’m afraid that slogans such as “Stop dreaming, start riding” are just nice posters on the wall, without anything real to support them.

- How can it be that critical spare parts of a 2004 motorcycle are not available in the European central warehouse? What’s this warehouse for? You would better close it and save some money.

- How can it be that some spare parts take up to 3 weeks to come to Spain from the US?

Hardly ever again so much incompetence and lack of professionalism will meet together in an organization.
Maybe you’ll think my letter is too hard or exaggerated, but I can swear you that if I read it back, it seems to me that it doesn’t success by far in forwarding my anger, disillusion and sadness.

For the most part of Harley owners, their bike represents the illusion of a live. In my case Harley Davidson has almost destroyed the most part of that illusion. It’s sad.

Will I ever buy another Harley? It’s crazy, but maybe yes.

Will I ever recommend someone to buy a Harley? No, I won’t. For me, there’s no solution, I have the virus inside.

Last but not least, this letter is not only to complain, but also to ask for some sort of compensation. Nothing can compensate my anger, but you can try. I ask you to evaluate these possibilities:

- Prolonging the guarantee of my bike for 2.5 months, the time it’s stayed at the dealer.
- Paying me 2.5/12 parts of my insurance, 75 euros.

I hope this letter doesn’t end up at your wastepaper bin. That would be the ultimate evidence of Harley Davidson interest on Customer Care.

Yours faithfully,

Efrén Rodríguez

PS: This letter has also been addressed to Harley Davidson Spain, Harley Davidson Europe, Motorcycle Cruiser and all the Spanish motorcycling magazines, as well as the most prestigious association of consumers (OCU). Besides, it has also been posted to the most popular internet forums of the Harley and custom world.

Will I ever buy another Harley? It’s crazy, but maybe yes.
.. ...For me, there’s no solution, I have the virus inside.

and they know it!

Now git yer butt over to intros so we can all say... :welcome aboard.

Sounds like a well thought-out complaint. You have valid points. It probably won't get you anywhere, but one can hope. Best of luck to you.

Estoerp,
Good letter, and your request is reasonable! I hope you get a serious and understandstanding answer. Please give us all a followup as soon as you hear back from H-D. If they don't respond in an understanding fashion to your request, my faith in their customer service will diminish also.

Billy

I would like to think that yours is an isolated incident. Let's all just hope so. I haven't done any research so I can't comment either way. Every once in a while you hear about something that disappoints an owner but quite honestly, it's not that often. I do sincerely hope they somehow make it up to you...and if they do, you'll let us (and the other addressees of your letter) know.

good luck.

...almost forgot,
Welcome aboard. :)

Crap happens...........


In 1993, I drove my 1992 Renault Safrane Quatro from France to London when we moved there. While in London the car broke down, a hydraulic clutch problem. I took the car to Williams Renault, at the time the largest Renault dealer in the UK and owner of the Williams Formula 1 Renault racing team. They ordered the part from Renault in France, because this model of car was not sold in the UK at the time. Three weeks later I was still waiting on the car. The service department said they were still waiting on the part. Now remember, France is only across the channel from the UK. Frustrated, I asked them for the part number and phoned my brother-in-law in France, who went to the nearest dealership, bought the part and shipped it to me. I received it within two days, took it to the dealership, and the car was repaired within a couple hours. Later, whenever williams needed a part they couldn't get, they'd phone me and I would get it through my brother-in-law. Williams paid for the part and shipping, and threw in a 15 % commission on top.


Morale----if HD doesn't come through, work through other channels. Find someone in NY, Milwaukee or whatever large city to get the parts and ship them to you.

Hey Dar,

I'll bet that clutch was corroded with salt from driving it from France to London...same thing happened when I drove from San Francisco to Honolulu in '94! Luckily, a friend brought me over a spare clutch when he came on the train! :)

Will I ever buy another Harley? It’s crazy, but maybe yes.

Will I ever recommend someone to buy a Harley? No, I won’t. For me, there’s no solution, I have the virus inside.
[/I]

Too late! Evry time you ride down the road you will be recomending to others that they too should be a part of the the dream.

As for the rest of your complaint, I have never heard of anyone in the world ever having a good experiance with any dealership when it comes to warenty maintenence! Maybe it's diffrent in Europe, I don't know!

But, my point is, what did you expect, doughnuts and coffie (tea and crumpets) while you wait in the lobby?

But, my point is, what did you expect, doughnuts and coffie (tea and crumpets) while you wait in the lobby?

heh, dont laugh, There are some real nice waiting rooms down around the Austin area dealerships.


but to the point, I hope it is resolved one way or another.

Hey Dar,

I'll bet that clutch was corroded with salt from driving it from France to London...same thing happened when I drove from San Francisco to Honolulu in '94! Luckily, a friend brought me over a spare clutch when he came on the train! :)
Other than the clutch, the biggest problem was getting the fish outta the air filter.........;)

Crap happens...........
In 1993, I drove my 1992 Renault Safrane Quatro from France to London...

Did you have to install widshield wipers on your helmet (goggles)?

Efrén first off welcome to the forum. Your letter was well written and to the point therefore you'll get little response from customer service :laugh

Yes 1st off welcome to XLF...secondly no one company on the planet is phisically able to "completely"satisfy every one of its customers 100% of the time...hence the phrase....DOO-DOO OCCURS....real sorry to hear of your bad experience w/ H D in Spain, but remember there's alot of logistics and individual "humans" between you in Spain and the moco in USA...I'm confident the moco will remedy the unfortunate situation that you find yourself stuck in...but please don't let one set of bad circumstances ruin your dream!!!!!!....I'm sure you can hear many similar stories from Harley owners (myself incl) who still ride Harley's and would buy a new one....this aint a perfect world, they are not a perfect company, and they are not perfect motorcycles......but I personally would'nt ride anything else.....Mike 74xlh

hey Efrén. sometime in the next 6 months or so which will probably be the minimum you'll be waiting for a response they actually get back to you and tell you what and if they will do. let us know i am curious on what they will try to do for you if anything other than a sorry to hear about your problem but we can't do anything about it.

Too late! Evry time you ride down the road you will be recomending to others that they too should be a part of the the dream.

As for the rest of your complaint, I have never heard of anyone in the world ever having a good experiance with any dealership when it comes to warenty maintenence! Maybe it's diffrent in Europe, I don't know!

But, my point is, what did you expect, doughnuts and coffie (tea and crumpets) while you wait in the lobby?

No, I don't think the man was interested in having coffee in the lobby. I bet he expected to get his bike back in a reasonable amount of time. They could have rebuilt the bike in less than half that time. This is yet another example of piss poor quality service that pervades all levels of industry in our world. Alot of dealers don't provide good service because they know they don't have to. There is always somebody in line waiting for their poor treatment. Unfortunately, when your new bike goes down and its on warranty, you have little choice but to ride it out. My bike is 10 years old so I don't have to go to the dealer to get raped. I'll do the work myself or take it to a reputable Indy.

No, I don't think the man was interested in having coffee in the lobby.

I know that, and I totaly agree with you, too! My point was did he expect anything diffrent. The way stealers treat people is nothing new. I'm 26 years old and have a profound understanding of how bad it sucks to have to go to the stealer for anything - much less warentee maintenence. I don't know. Maybe he didn't know what to expect. Maybe this is the first time he has ever had to take a vehicle to the dealer, but at least now he knows what to expect.

Besides, I respect the guy for dooing what we all should, which is write a letter to the company. If we all did that all the time and "made" them change it maybe we all could expect doughnuts and coffie (tea and crumpets) while we wait in the lobby!

Efrén

Sorry to hear about your Problem, Hopefully the MoCo will do something about it!!

I think that if more of us would take a bit of time and right a letter such as Efrén's maybe just maybe the MoCo will open their eyes!!!! :rolleyes:

Hello again,

First of all: I’ve already received a quick, but also quite strange and disappointing, answer from the after sales service of HD Spain. They tell me something I already knew and that I’ve already written in my letter: that the main problem had been a 3 weeks delivery time of the ignition module and a mistake on the delivery of the pistons. OK, but I already knew that, the dealer had told me. What I want to know is why and if they’ll do anything but apologize. HD Spain told me they’ll ask the different departments and they’ll tell me. I keep on waiting.

It’s nice to know that the version of HD Spain is the same that the dealer’s one. That makes me think, that at least this time, the dealer is not to blame for what has happened. It seems not a dealer issue. Anyway, I’m not 100% happy about the dealer work, but I guess no one is.

What broke down? It’s a long story. First there was no spark, so the first diagnostic was a problem with the ignition module. This piece took 3 weeks to come to Spain from the US, as it was not available in Belgium, where HD has a warehouse. Sadly, the problem was not there. After checking the whole electronics, they found no solution, so they went into the engine. There was a lot of some sort of carbon dust in the chambers, so compression was very low and the valves didn’t close properly. It seemed that mixing was misworking. They asked for 2 pistons and, at first, only arrived 1. The final diagnostic was a problem with distribution, a pinion before pushing rods had moved. Hope that answers your question and that you all have now details enough.

I know I’ve been unlucky and I know these things don’t happen very often on a new HD bike, or at least not more than with any other bikes, cars or washing machines…But I also think that for what I have paid, I deserve more that what I’ve received, that’s it, a more efficient and quick solution.

3 weeks time for an overseas delivery is not normal at all. I’m a mining engineer for a multinational group (Solvay) and I’ve bought much expensive, much bigger and much heavier spare parts for our P&H Shovel and once the order was done, delivery has been much less than 3 weeks…..So I sincerely think I have a lot to complain about. Besides, HD has a European central warehouse in Belgium, quite close to Spain, but there was no ignition module there.

I never meant to change anybody’s mind, not even mine. I’ll never ride anything but a Harley. But I insist, for what we pay, we deserve more than what we receive. Maybe the beginning of the problem is that the MoCo knows we’ll never ride another bike….

The bike seems to work fine now. Its being a hard winter here, so I’ve only ridden 100 km, without problems. We’ve agreed to re-check at 500 km, looking at plugs colour to see if mixing is OK.

Thanks to all of you who supported, understood me and helped me.

Happy rides,
Efrén

it happens all the time here in the States also. I wrote a letter to H-D "Customer Care" (should be Customer Could-Care-Less) regarding my recent experience with an SE Ignition Control Module (posted elsewhere here on the Forum).

Just two days ago I received a wonderful response that, for the most part, critiqued my letter by pointing out that I had not included my VIN, the model and part number of the ICM nor the name and address of the Stealer who sold me the part. So much for "Thank you for your letter and for bringing this matter to our attention, we are sorry you had a bad experience...." which is all I really wanted, the acknowledgement and validation of my complaint. In my letter, I pointed out that the installation instructions that come with the ICM are wrong when they direct you to the owners manual for the password learning procedure (they meant shop manual).

I once heard someone say that the best that a company can hope to do in customer satisfaction is 99.9%. It seems tha H-D has set their sights far lower....

Too bad you didn't live in the US. If your new bike was down for more than 30 days, you would have a lemon law complaint and could get all your money back, less a deduction for mileage. I would add though that a lot of people do get some type of satisfaction from HD customer relations. Stay on them. That much of a wait should deserve at least a gift certificate or something.

shooter

Hmmm ... and after such a frustration you may buy another Harley .... :frownthre :frownthre :frownthre

The Renault incident ... the fastest way to get the right parts in case of a breakdown ... call Renault Assistance directly ... they should ship the parts (if on stock) asap. Even your road assurance RAC,TCS,ADAC can do that .... :rolleyes:

Almost sounds like more of a dealer problem to me. I can't imagine that there would be that many mistakes and long-waits for parts on one customer unless there was someone else in the chain ordering the wrong thingsk or forgetting order - I know our parts guy will pick up the phone to get parts for a 1962 Chevy, but say "1967 Chevy" to the guy on the other end. You tell him he said the wrong year, and he just replies "They're all the same", and then blames the parts supplier when the stuff doesn't fit. In any event, the complaint is valid, but I don't think you'll get anywhere. They'll tell you to pursue it with your dealer, which should have offered a loaner bike anyways.

It's also possible that HD Spain, and the warehouse in Belgium are as frustrated with the head office in the U.S. as you are with your dealer, they'll just never admit it to the customer. I can't believe in this world of overnight express deliveries and highly competitive courier companies, that anything should take more than a couple of days to ship anywhere in the world, except maybe Antarctica or some remote village in a third world country, but they probably don't have Harleys in those places.
Like you said in your letter, you'd buy another Harley. Oncethey hear that, they really don't have to car howe long it takes, they've got you hooked.

On the other hand I'm sitting in San Juan Puerto Rico right now trying to finish out a job. The concept of immediacy is different in different parts of the world.

But, my point is, what did you expect, doughnuts and coffie (tea and crumpets) while you wait in the lobby?

Actually, yes I do.

(it's my money, last time I checked....)

joe

estoerp,
Sorry for the trouble with your bike. Hope it all turns out. Thanks for your commitment. Keep us advised...

Actually, yes I do.
(it's my money, last time I checked....)
joe
Never seen the inside of my dealer's shop.
I agree that coffee would be nice...

[QUOTE=gearhead]heh, dont laugh, There are some real nice waiting rooms down around the Austin area dealerships.


^^^^the local one here has a pool table...

They've got free coffee at my stealer. And everybody in the place remembers your name after you buy a bike! its... its.. madness!! :smoke