At my local dealer, long-time japanese brands (ex Honda). I'm at the parts counter getting a plug for an XR80. Figured I'd go to specialist shop, rather than guess at Cdn. Tire. Guy says "XR80, what is that, some kind of bike?" :roll:
Unless you walk into any dealer with the exact OEM part number you require, you will be disappointed.
The closest bike shop to me is grand river powersports, a Kawi dealer. I called last month looking for a 1 tooth smaller sprocket for my KDX. Parts guy looks it up for a few minutes, says nope, not available (as I'm looking at one online). I call the Yamaha dealer down the road. No problem sir, I can have one for you tomorrow.
Never had a problem geting parts , service or advice. Sometimes its better to deal with the little guy. < no pun intended Robbie :lol: >
Up here on the island, the closet bike dealer is in Espanola - a Suzuki dealer. I needed a new battery for my KTM. Instead of brushing me off, they found one for me, ordered it, charged up and ready to go in a day and a half. When I came in to pick it up, they thanked my for my business. Trailside Sports http://www.trailsidesports.com/index.htm
Sudbury Boat (Suzuki) requires part numbers, so does Royal. I had someone there tell me that my wife's 92 Phazer had no front shocks. Generally, I go with part numbers everywhere to make it easy for me and them. Northstar (Honda Kawi) always doublechecks my info and I get what I need in a day or two even for my KTM. When I need KTM parts I usually get them from Sturgeon Falls ASM. They do not know bikes very well, mostly quads, but they are good to deal with.
I remember trying to buy valve shims for a Suzuki at one of the large local dealers...one who actually (used to anyways) have a large MX/Off-Road presence in the market. They didn't want to sell me the shims saying it was their policy that their service department had to specify and install them. When I said, "OK, bye" at least the guy at the desk relented and sold me the shims.
The problem with motorcycle dealerships is they just don’t get customer service and/or lack business skills. The smaller ones are usually run by enthusiasts and expect everyone to know how to ‘talk the talk’ when it comes to bikes. They usually lack the business skills/education that is required to be profitable and survive. The larger dealerships seem to have the business skills, but are too focused on the bottom line (which isn’t a bad thing), but not enough focus on their customer. Bad examples of customer service: 1. Expecting the customer to know the part number: Ridiculous. What other business would expect this? 2. Missing out on opportunity's: -A good example is some shops won't install tires unless you buy from them. They just lost the service income and possibly a customer. -Not making the effort to find a part for a bike they don't sell. Again, lost business and possibly a customer. There are many more...
I understand the problem from both sides. As a dealer, do I waste time on a customer who walks into the shop just to try something on that they will buy on the Internet? As a customer, do I actually got to a shop to order a part that the chimp behind the desk takes longer to find than I can on the Internet? And wait longer and pay more for it? I used to be that the dealer was the only who had access to the part fiche. Now I can look up anything sitting naked in my living room in under a minute and get 10 price quotes in a couple more minutes. Another handful of cheesies and a swig of beer later, and click, the part is on the way. Then you get places like Royal Distributing, which are not really a dealer, but offer an increadible selection of stuff IN STOCK at REASONABLE prices. Go figure. I actually like shopping there and so does the wife because its a real store. They also have great customer service and are fully web enabled. They spent alot of money to get where they are, tough for a hobby shop to compete with that. It used to be the local shop was a well of knowledge, a community. But guess what, thats what this place is now and many other websites like this one. It seems places like Apex Cycle are following the same path, go big or go home. Places like Parker Bros, regretfully, not so much. PB used to be cool place to hang out, when they were in the tiny little shop on Dundas. Last year I went in there to buy a new Joe Rocket jacket, cash in hand. They had none in stock (if you know the history of PB, you know the irony in that). I ended up getting it online (and on sale) from Apex.
Most dealers, especially the smaller ones, just simply can't be all things to all people. For every less than satisfactory customer experience, there are probably 10 good experiences that folks don't talk about. I really haven't had very many significant problems with any dealers in the past 6 years. It hasn't been perfect, but it's been pretty good overall. Now, on the other hand with big companies, I've had some interesting ones: Went to insure a new bike this summer, so called company A, who I've dealt with in the past. After about 15-20 minutes on the phone, I get insurance setup for my new bike at a decent price, all is good. 5 days later I come home to a message on my phone; It say so call so and so at Company A. Call him, he says "we can't insure your bike" I ask why? He says "it's a racing bike, we don't insure racing bikes" me " Umm, I'm not racing it and it's licensed for the road & all of the sport bikes out there would fall under the 'racing' classification as you define it.(big ensuing discussion) finally, Him- "sorry we won't insure that bike" Fine, thinking I have no insurance on the bike. I immediately call company B & get insurance set up for about $100/yr more than company A. 2 weeks later I get an invoice from company A for $53.00. I call them and ask "what's this invoice for?" They respond" for insuring your bike & then you canceled it" WTF???? Me "umm I didn't cancel it, you guys did & I'm not paying you for something you didn't provide" Them "well that's what we need to charge in case there had been a claim in that period of time" Me "did you get a claim?" Them "no, but we still need to charge that" Me "As I said, I'm not paying you for something you didn't provide & even so, at over $10/day, that works out to many thousands per year for a policy quoted at about $380/yr (After some increasingly heated discussion & getting nowhere) "F*** you! (huge fight over the phone), ends with a form letter from them stating that there is an outstanding balance on my acct. Morons Almost as good as my experience with the rental water heater company this summer as well...........
Seems that customer service is a sore spot for alot if people. I remember being a young buck trying to order parts for 20 year old bikes that nobody wanted to deal with. I would always get "why don't you look at this new bike we have" well I found a dealer with a solid parts guy who never complained about my countless 10 or 20$ orders for years so when it came time for me to buy that new bike I drove the 40 minutes out of my way to buy it from them rather than the place around the corner that was never there when I needed them.
I wonder if you're looking at Royal through rose coloured goggles, or my experiences have been out of the ordinary. I have had so many problems with their customer service, that when I told one of the owners of my experiences, he flagged my account. Anytime I either place an order over the phone, or go to the checkout and tell them my name, something pops up on their screen telling them to go through my order and verify that everything is correct. I can't recall them ever getting an order correct, or not giving me at least one wrong part at the parts counter. Nonetheless, I still drive the hour to buy there because as bad as they are, they are light years better than anything local, or the other local-ish online dealers. I'll usually go at the beginning and middle of the season with a big list, and stock up. The prices are good, and the selection can be as well. Last time, the parts guy and manager gave me the wrong pads for the KDX. I was sure they looked wrong, but he insisted... several times. It was only after I made him cross reference that he realized that he gave me the wrong ones. I got home that day, and realized that one of the chains I got was wrong.
See my message about walking in to ANY dealer with correct part numbers in hand. Last Xmas, off Royal website, I bought some sexy lady biker boots (for the wife, not me) online at a huge discount, clearance price. She didn't like them (damn!), brought them back, got a store credit no problem that we used to buy her a new helmet a few months later during thier tent sale.
