I bought a Nightster in spring (April) of ’08 and then traded it in under the Ride Free program on December 24, 2008. So, I have all this time been anticipating that my warranty would be expired as of last week. 2 year warranty.

Well, the place I bought it from just called me and told me they noticed it had been 2 years since I bought my bike and they would give me a $25 gift card if I wanted to bring it in for a ‘safety inspection.’

I’m like, really? You know, if you had offered to do that last month before the warranty expired I would have considered that great customer service, but when you wait until my warranty expires to have me to bring my bike in so you can tell me how much you’d like to shaft me in your service department to get it back to spec – that’s bullshit. (not in so many words, but you catch my drift)

She tried to convince me that she didn’t know my warranty expired…..LOL…..Right? She knew it had been exactly two years since I bought the bike and she works at Harley Davidson, but it never dawned upon her that Harley Davidson issues a two year warranty on all of their motorcycles? LOL I told her I saw through that an I didn’t think I would be taking them up on their offer.

About five minutes later she calls back to tell me that my warranty doesn’t expire until April 1st. She just looked it up. Her words were that because I purchased in the winter that Harley Davidson will sometimes not begin the warranty period until spring. I call bullshit on that.

Now, does anybody know if for any reason my Nightster purchase would have anything to do with it?

Hell, if they’ll give me a $25 gift card and look my bike over for free before the warranty expires – I’m on that, but I suppose I better get it in writing that my warranty is still good.

 

At their labor rate $25.00 ought to cover them checking your oil level on your dipstick.

 

sounds to me like you just jumped all over her chit for no real reason. even if it is a vast conspiracy like you imagined, they can't do any work without your approval and just having your bike looked at isn't gonna hurt anything. at worst, they tell you x needs replaced, you thank them and check it out when you get home. at best, they find something that you missed.

i have heard that hd will sometimes 'extend' some warranties because of winter, never experienced that though. maybe it has to do with when you bought it and where?

 

Maybe it is just me but when a big ticket item is purchased shouldn't the owner know when it is over?

If it affects me I don't leave it up to someone else to take care of my business.

 

Bought my 2009 RKC November 22 of 2008. Warranty expires April 1 2011.

 

Is that normal then? I wrote this response before you posted that....

Are you all serious? Calling your customers two days after the warranty would be believed by any reasonable person to be expired and hitting them up to have your bike looked over to see if it needs fixin is what you consider to be some top quality customer service? You must be the sort of, um person, that they are trying to sucker in to coming in to have xyz found to be defective on your scooter two days after the warranty has expired.

ih4x4, I believe most reasonable people would consider that a two year warranty expires in – 2 years from the date of purchase and not 2 years and 3 months later……or they would call it a 2 year and 3 month warranty. Any other suggestion would be a great variation from the norm and this would be why I am asking here – not to be given **** about how I should know when my warranty expires because I’m some kind of moron as you have insinuated.

I can’t believe that anyone would be an apologist for this kind of stunt……it’s not as if the passing of my warranty period wasn’t already a sore point with me to some degree – knowing that anything that happens now is all on me if I want the thing to keep running and it hasn’t exactly had the best track record so far with repairs off the showroom floor that would have run into the thousands if they had been out of my pocket – 3 days+ of a wiring harness issue, rear bearing failure and entire rear wheel replacement and some other random starter parts replaced.

Now on the other hand if this does have anything to do with me being ‘paranoid’ or not and the MoCo was just absorbing the DVD that I was making for a friend over the weekend and decided to have my dealer make a goodwill gesture to me that was ill-conceived then maybe it would be excusable, but what is the more likely of the two scenarios?

 

I bought my 08 in Feb and the warranty didn't expire till May '10. Caught me by surprise too.

 

yeah, you're right. it is a conspiracy. if i were you, i would sell that bike before 'big brother' can do any more damage. it may already be too late, they've probably already infected your computer, microwave, and even your blender too.....

 

waiting for the warrenty to expire wouldnt benifit the dealership any. they want the waranty money from the factory.. if anything they want to get you in there before it expires..take them up on it..they cant charge you for anything with out a authorization..if something needs fixed that isnt covered,thank them and take it home to fix..

 

Well, with the revelation from other board members that the warranty does indeed extend beyond two years from the date of purchase if the purchase is made in winter – I have never heard of this and I’ve poured over this board for countless hours in the past…… Then I suppose that this is indeed a customer service offer done with no ulterior motive to pull me in to pay out of pocket for repairs and is to be appreciated.

She apparently didn’t have a clue when she called me that my warranty could have been expired and that certainly didn’t help my impression of this being a scam to get me in the shop to find something wrong and pay their outrageous labor to have it fixed.

The shops may not care if the MoCo is picking up the bill or if it’s the customer, but I might be inclined to believe that they have a tendency to get away with shafting the customers easier than they get away with shafting the MoCo on repairs.

Regardless – I would advise any dealerships that are making a similar offer to be certain that their customer’s warranty is valid and not having expired two days prior to calling them up to give them a ‘free inspection’ to see if their bike is ****ed up so they can pay out of pocket to have it fixed.