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Pikes Peak HD and Colorado Springs HD seem to thrive on poor service, lack of parts and sales people that are less than knowlegble. I gave them both three chances and they failed every time.
Now that the BMW and Duc shop is also owned by them I have seen similar stories from my fellow Duc riders.
I forsee one of those shops closing, many people being laid off and perhaps the end of a HD in Colorado Springs.
I have been riding motorcycles for most of my long 62 year life. My first bike was a 305 Honda Superhawk. My last Harley was a 1977 Low Rider shovelhead (bought new) that blew a piston 2,000 miles from home because H-D wanted to save 10 cents using a cheaper gasket. It had just gotten it's 10,000 mile service before I left on that trip. Except for a really nice Sportster that I had briefly when I took it in trade for a motor I had for sale, I have not owned a Harley since. The old Harleys, as most of you my age or older know, were not exactly a paragon of quality.
For the past 13 years I have been riding a Big Dog that I had custom built and one of the design requirements was: No Harley parts! It's served me well and still runs fine today. I also have a 2007 Suzuki C90-T that's a nice, reliable $10,000 bike.
I had a GF who had a 1999 Dyna low rider and I have to say that I have a lot of respect for the amount of punishment that bike took. Very few problems with it even though it now has nearly 60,000 miles on it.
Long story but I start thinking that maybe a Harley with this "new" 96 CI motor might actually be worth looking at. So I go by Paradise Harley Davidson in Tigard, Oregon and I might as well have been in a used car dealership. The free coffee was great but these guys weren't even remotely interested in doing anything except getting all the $$$ they possibly could from me. To be honest, I wasn't angry or even surprised the guy there was clearly lying through his teeth.... it's a dealership so I suppose I expected to be lied to. I did not, however, expect them to be quite so "in my face" about it though.
At the end of the day, I wound up consuming a couple of hours of their time and they didn't make a sale so I wonder whether that was the best use of their time. I saw a bike that I liked enough to buy and probably would have if they hadn't been so darned greedy. I may be old but I still don't ride bitch and I don't take it up the butt.
Had Paradise been even half way reasonable with me, they probably would have sold me a bike and come out of it with a nice profit and a few years of oil change and tire replacement business. Even the Mafia knows better than to try to kill a mark on the first meeting. But what the heck... the economy is great and there's lots of buyers coming into the place with pockets bulging with cash, right?
I never rode down to actually talk to them, but the Harley place in Albany, Oregon wasn't interested in dealing either. And the dealership in Vancouver, Washington has it right on their web site that they don't deal so I didn't even bother talking to them.
So that leaves the place in Salem, Oregon and Latus Harley in Portland. I happen to know George Latus, the owner, from my work when I was Executive Director of BikePAC of Oregon so I am hopeful that there may be a deal in my future. If things work out, I'll post a follow-up.
But I just have to say that the quality of a dealership has absolutely nothing to do with how friendly they are when you come by to buy something. The measure of any business is how helpful they are when it's the right thing to do. In this, Paradise Harley Davidson failed miserably.
Reading about these hundreds of bad experiences, I wonder how some of these dealerships manage to stay in business.
They undercharged me for a serivce then almost 6 months later i get a phone call telling me I need to pay the rest. I had paperwork telling me what I paid was the correct amount. After arguing with the service dept for a while, got it resolved, dont have to pay the bill, but i will not be returning to them in the future.
Bought a FLHP 2007 and have had nothing but horrible service and problem with the dealer since. As soon as the bike was sold the service went to sh-t, and the attitude was your stuck with it. Several problems , including bald tires the state wouldnt let me register it untill they were replaced, the service dept stripped out bolts and refused to replace them, they provided the wrong parts several times, I now go to hammond harley and am well satisfied with them, If only i could get slidell to refund the service contract price. looks like attorney time....
I would pay money to see a National map with the dealerships plotted on it, with markers of different colors for the level of service provided, averaged out with all these comments.
ZEPKA'S IN JOHNSTOWN PA. they really need to screen the people they hire as salesmen better, before they put them on the pay roll & they need to work on memory skills !! if i sold you 4 BRAND NEW BIKES , I WOULD STILL KNOW YOUR NAME !!!! other than that they aren't to bad , just buy your bike somewhere else.
The service techs at the NYC Harley Davidson on Long Island City sent me out on my brand new bike with NO OIL IN THE PRIMARY. When the clutch flamed out after a mere 50 miles, they tried to blame it on me ("rider error," they said) and threatened to charge me for the repairs. The MoCo came to the rescue and paid for parts and labor; but even then the techs refused to come clean. Rather than admitting what had happened, they filled my head with nonsensical riding advice. E.g., "don't use clutch control techniques," "don't cover the clutch when you're riding at all," etc.--advice that's basically very, very dangerous to new riders. These assholes put saving their own skins above my personal safety, and that doesn't sit well with me at all. Avoid them at all costs. For a full discussion of the incident, click here.
i bought a 06 wide glide it was not what i wanted the sales man told me to take the bike and pay for it for a year and bring it back and trade for what i wanted i went back to trade they told me i owed 19000 and would not tell me what the trade in value was and then told me harley didnt what the bike back so now iam stuck with a 06 fxwgi that i dont even what that cost 19000 what do i do
Trust Me on this.
