What can be done about dealers that don’t seem to give a shit about customers?

I am talking in particular this time about Clearwater Harley Davidson in Johannesburg South Africa.

We ordered a new FLHTK last year and took delivery in January of this year. The bike is stunning and a real step up from the previous FLHTCU, with a much better power band and pull-away from lights and junctions. The 103 motor is a dream for such a big tourer and we both love the bike to bits.

Anyway this is not a road test, it’s a moan at shocking service from those holders of what is (in my opinion) the best franchise in the world.

Back to ordering our Limited; after we ordered her (all bikes are females…not so?), we ordered some accessories including chrome lower fork sliders and a chrome inner primary cover; this was on 11 December 2009. The agreement with the dealer was that the accessories would be fitted prior to delivery or at first service dependent on delivery time from the USA.

We took delivery of the bike in late January 2010 around the 22nd as I recall. The accessories were not fitted but it was promised that they would be fitted at first service. On the same day the dealer was paid for the balance outstanding on the bike together with approximately $6,000 for the accessories we ordered.

I’m not sure about you but I always look forward to the first service, the new exhausts, the re-configuring of the EFI, the increase in power….. I digress again.

This wonderful event happened on 6 March 2010 after we received a call to say our accessories had arrived. A bit of background here….. we live about 200 miles from our nearest dealer and we can only deliver and collect the bike on a Saturday.

The following Saturday we went to collect the bike only to find that there were no chrome front fork sliders and no chrome inner primary cover. On enquiry we were told that the wrong sliders had been delivered and there was a pregnant silence at the mention of an inner primary cover.

The dealer promised to rectify the situation quickly and a series of correspondence ensued.

We went to the Africa bike week in April and we had a chat with Harley Corporate for the EMEA region who promised to have a chat with the dealer and get things moving along. The last e-mail I got from the dealer told me that some more accessories had arrived but not the parts in question, that was on 20 May, some two months ago.

I requested that the dealer provide the list of parts that were paid for and I am still waiting for that information.

So, the dealer has had an order for accessories for some 7 months, he was paid for these parts 6 months ago and now he refuses to answer my calls or respond to my e-mails.

I have felt it necessary to involve the services of a lawyer, but that is wrong on so many levels, why should I have to pay for legal services? Why can’t Harley Corporate do something about it?

Can any employees of Harley explain why this is?

I see that Harley do not have a complaint line or e-mail address to address these issues, so what do we do about it?

Since Harley do not have the facility to listen to complaints and reign in rogue dealers, what I propose is that we boycott such dealers until they either behave professionaly or go out of business.

The problem is to make everyone aware of who these dealers are.

Any ideas?