This all makes sense now. I'm not happy about this but its $90 and its all in perspective. I just post my experience here and ask for some contact info to appeal to someone in Milwaukee on this. Here's what happened:

Riding my bike the other day and all is fine. All of a sudden my headlight goes out. Oh sh&t I say and thik its a fuse. Its not. The bike is a 2008 Screamin Eagle Road King with 5,000 miles on it. Never been touched by anyone but the dealer. Once for passing lamp installation and I think I had them do my 1000. Anyway, I bring it in to have it fixed this morning and explain the problem and what happened fully expecting this to be under warranty. I stick around a bit, maybe 45 minutes and Im watching the mechanic work on my bike, hooking it up to test equipment, going to get the SM and when I asked for an update I get "well, this is giving us some problems, we don't know what it is" I say OK , Iam going home and call me. So they call me a couple hours later and I come down to get it and the guy says "well we got almost two hours on this I have to charge you $90" I am like WTF! How is this my problem?...he starts saying about how the light never should have worked because a contact was corroded and not plugged in correctly..............ALL BS ofcourse......I drove it off the lot last year did I ???...Man, Im pissed....its not the money so much but its the fact I am a customer and I dont like being screwed for pennies.... First, how many people have walked in lately and bought $30000 motorcycles from you? I tell him calmly I disagree and ask how this could be my fault.....he has no answer....I say well I will be calling Milwakeee on monday to complain....NOw he satrts sayging ...."well let me talk to the owner on monmday and see if I can get you store credit or something".....That tell me he knows he's wrong but because his mechanic took too long to find the issue I eat it?...I dont think so......If anyone has warranty coverage phone number let me know....I cant let crooked dealers keep screwing their reputation and costing them customers.....over $90???? is that good business...? Sorry for the rant but Im hot...

 

My bet is that if they only took 10 minutes to fix it there would still be a 1 hour charge. That is the flat rate business. They should eat their over charge if they cant make flat rate.

 

Couple three things while you calm down a bit -

Connector might have been installed incorrectly at the factory.

Dealer tech might have disconnected/reconnected the headlight during the passing lamp install.

And, if the connector was not connected properly it would easily allow moisture from washing the bike to enter and corrode. Using even the "high" pressure from a garden hose nozzle can exacerbate this. And over time, the connections will corrode unless dielectric grease is used in them.

These items might indicate that the dealer screwed the pooch to begin with, and that your actions added to the problem. That said, I'd concentrate on two things as they are the root cause - either the factory failed to connect the thing at the build (warrant problem w/no charge to you), or the dealer tech failed to reconnect it properly during the passing lamp install (dealer problem w/no charge to you).

Stay calm when you go back on Monday. Present him with these theories, and see where it lands. Be prepared to eat the $90.

I won't take a store credit for someone else's screw-up. I would find another joint to deal with.

 

Sound advice.

 

Geez, it's only $90. Besides, I would jump at the store credit, that to you at least makes the work free. You think you'll never spend $90 there??? I'm out a minimum of $90 just pulling in the parking lot

 

Something doesn't add up. If the headlight is out, the first thing you check is the fuse. If that's OK, you the headlight to see if it's blown. At that point, you should be able to see if the contacts are corroded and the connector is on correctly. In my opinion not a two hour job. Also the headlight connector is a three prong connector that can only go on one way, if that's the connector they are talking about.

 

All true and thank you all for the sound advice. I'm going to see what happens and will update this post then just so others know how this ends up. Ironically, I just got my mail today and theres a postcard from warranty services trying to get me to extend...."on the top of the card reads''''We got your back"....yea right.

 

welcome to the wonderful world of Harley.. where everything is overpriced.

Many dealers don't pay their employees squat.. they earn their money by getting you to buy more crap.. Basically, they are there to try and get you to buy stuff you don't need. Customer Service is non-existent for the most part because they are just there to pressure you to buy more useless crap or get unnecessary service.

Case in point:
The local dealer has a good price on tires, so I had him replace a back tire recently. When I picked it up he said my front needs to be replaced too.. I had checked this before I brought it in, and this was completely untrue.. I've got about an eighth inch of rubber before the wear bar even shows.
ALSO: I'm very diligent on maintaining proper tire pressure. I live at 7500 ft elevation, and often ride down to visit one of my kids that lives at sea level. I check my tire pressure here, and when I am at sea level. SO, after I got this tire I spoke of, I checked the pressure when I got home. BOTH my tires were severely under inflated. This would cause them to wear faster and with their good prices on tires, I would then return to get the tires replaced.

There are other tricks they pull as well... such as not using anti-seize on anything (even though it specifically says in the service manual to do so). This is particularly problematic on the bolts that hold the derby cover on.. I could go into this, but it would make this message unnecessarily long.

The up side to this is that their poor service opens up the industry for local wrenches.

 

I hope this works out for ya. ---I would NOT be happy either! By the way, you have received some "sound" advice on this thread!

 

Too late for my advice. I'd have "charged" the $90 so I'd be holding the money. Remember the golden rule. He who holds the gold, rules.