| Author | Message | ||
     Loveall13 |
I stopped by the local dealer (Harley-Davidson of Bowling Green KY) saturday evening with a friend to see about dropping his 05 ultra off for repairs. The subject of my ulysses came up. I told the mechanic that I wish I could have bought it there but coundn't because they no longer carried the buell line. He informed me that they were still FORCED to carry them but were not going to uncrate them or put them out on the floor. He said they still have several 05s, a long and Ulysses still in the box where they will remain. WHAT A DAMN JOKE! I never liked that place and am glad I didn't buy my Ulysses from someone that despised them. Jeremy | ||
| Rubberdown |
That's incredible. Really offensive! | ||
| Skyguy |
I had a female employee of Quaid Harley Davidson in Loma linda go out of her way at a local watering hole to tell me my bike was "A piece of shit and definately no Harley". I do believe that I have not returned to that shop since. I sent several emails to Quaid managment about the incident and how it might not reflect on them well. I recieved no replies........... | ||
| Smcnamara |
Skyguy, did you CC Harley-Davidson corporate on those letters? I can't imagine they'd be thrilled with that kind of activity by people representing their brand. | ||
| Lowflyer |
I'm surprised that someone would go out of their way to tell you that your Buell is not a Harley. The 'POS' part was just the set up for what she probably felt like was her mother of all slams; that your bike is not a HD. That's how brand-loyal nutballs think. It reminds me of some of the folks in here on Buell. | ||
| Chadhargis |
They still have a Uly in the crate! What morons! They should sell it while the bike is hot instead of waiting until demand has lessened and they won't be able to get rid of it without deep discounting it. Do they plan on sending it back to Buell? Daves....any comment on how they can do that? Not uncrate the bike? That shop is about an hour north of me, and I've often thought about stopping in when I'm traveling that direction. Guess I know I don't have to now. | ||
| Cataract2 |
They'll do that and then bitch about how they can't move them. Hmmmm.. Wonder why the f*** you can't move it... | ||
| Skyguy |
Scmcnamara, No but I should have. I get my stuff from Skip Fordyce in Riverside or Glendale HD/Buell. BTW Glendale is the ONLY shop I have found in SoCal (except American in SD) that carries lots of Buell accessories, t-shirts etc. | ||
| Loveall13 |
chad, I am sure we will cross paths one of these days. I bought the first Ulysses in Clarksville TN (60 miles from home). I believe you test rode the second the day before I dropped my bike off for the thousand mile service. I still love my bike and will take it to Clarksville for the warrenty work as it is needed. I will not spend any money in BG(15 miles). Jeremy | ||
| Chris_in_tn |
I got a call from them last Sat. after I emailed them(HD of Bowling Green) inquireing about an 12X. The salesman said they had acouple in stock and a demo bike availble to ride and to come on up for a test. He seemed somewhat enthusiastic about selling me one. After asking about price he quoted me MSRP but he said "we could work on that a bit". I live in the Nashville area so I may take a ride up to check it out, if nothing else for a free ride. Maybe they will cut me a hell of deal just get rid of them. Although my dealer in Murfreesboro, TN seem enthusiastic about Buell, the owner has a couple of his own and rides them often he says. We will see. | ||
| Chadhargis |
Bumpus in Murfeesboro is a nice shop as is Appleton's in Clarksville (not the same as Daves' shop). I looked at both shops and neither of them would deal with me on price. Both claimed to have a waiting list and said they were only getting a few bikes. I hated to go out of state to get mine, but it didn't appear to me that either of the local shops really wanted my business, even when I explained to them that I was an MSF instructor and would have a captive audience of about 240 people a year looking at my Buell and asking questions such as "Where did you buy it?". If they'd have cut me a deal, I'd have given them a plug or two when asked (we are prohibited from schlepping products during class time) and I surely would have talked them up on forums such as this. Some folks are really short sighted. <sigh> Appleton's in Clarksville seemed to be a friendlier shop, and the salesman there kept in good contact with me. If he'd have cut me $600 or $700 off the price, I'd have done business with him, but I got $1500 off from Ocala HD and drove 16 hours round trip to get it. Spent maybe $250 in gas, food, and lodging to get there and back, but saved a lot of dough. I guess I'd be a horrible motorcycle salesman. I sort of have the Sam Walton mentality. I'd rather sell a million for $1 than try to sell 1 for a million dollars. Sell to the masses, live with the classes....sell to the classes and live with the masses. It's a good formula. Treat the customer like they are your only customer. Make them feel special. Give them a deal that is fair to both them and you. Act like it's your priviledge to deal with them, not their privilidge to deal with you. In the "internet age", it's easy to find out what others are paying for their bikes, so I'm always amazed when a dealer demands MSRP. They should do what Daves does. Spend some time online. Develop a rapport with folks. And sell a gazillion bikes a year while being a genuine nice guy. | ||
| Loveall13 |
I would go in and make an offer. They will probably take what they can get. My experience was all negative. (they don't even keep them in the showroom) I believe they don't like them because they can't mark them up and sell them like they do the harleys. Then I would have my service work done at a dealer that likes Buells like Appletons or Bumpus. The Ulysses is a good bike no matter where you buy it. Jeremy | ||
| Daves |
But,I don't give them away like Ocala does(because they think they need to). They are buying their Buell business(by discounting) I am earning mine(by working my A$$ off) Big difference and in the end I will sell more than they do. I will also have happier customers. They are the scourge of the Buell business. | ||
| Bomber |
I can think of a couple of manufacturer's who thought deep discounts would be a great way of bolstering their bottom lines . . . . anyone want to buy a Ford or Chevy today? deep discounts might make your quarter, but they'll kill your year, or your business | ||
| Daves |
I guess they will buy you a Pegasus award too. I feel that is going to change soon. | ||
| Blasterd |
Daves, I wish I could have bought my CityX from you instead of Ocala. I have some very rude comments about them for you offline. Unhappy is an understatement. Ken | ||
| Cataract2 |
Blasterd, kind of the reason I went through my local dealer. The sales man I went through has been really good to me. I did pay MSRP, but for the treatment I got I had no problems with it. | ||
| 2old2bfast |
I would have paid retail in a heartbeat based on my enthusiasm for the product, and would have loved to deal with an enthusiastic, local dealer. Unfortunately none existed that shared my enthusiasm, and none existed that didn't also want to bump me an additional $800 in garbage fees. I ended up dealing with Ocala as well (and agree they stunk in terms of follow-up etc.), but only because I hadn't found my way to someone like Daves. I guess the good news and irony is that I did save $1,500 on the bike and the folks from Ocala were the ones that mentioned this board to me! So I guess it wasn't all bad... Just my 2 cents! | ||
| Chadhargis |
I didn't know about Daves when I put the deposit down on my bike, but the folks at Ocala were very pleasant to deal with. My only issue was getting a copy of the buyers order since I feared the deal was too good to be true and didn't want to drive all the way down there only to have the deal change. They kept up their end, and I could care less if they followed up with me or not. They got my money, I got their bike and I'm a happy guy. I won't use them for service since they are 8 hours away. I really wish one of my local shops would have made me a deal on the bike, but they didn't. I guess they live by the old W.C. Fields mantra, "There's a sucker born every day". I'm simply not going to pay MSRP for a recreational vehicle. I've done it once, and I'll never do it again. It's sickening to see the same bike you paid MSRP selling brand new a year later for thousands less. Not that it will happen with the Uly, but it did with my FJR and it was a special order bike. It was also a budget thing for me. With a new baby in the house, and my wife quitting her job, I simply didn't have the extra cash to pay MSRP. So I either would have had to wait several months to save up the money to pay MSRP, or go searching for a deal. While I like doing my business face to face with local folks, and I'm willing to pay a bit more to do so, I'm not going to shell out big dollars for the privledge of doing business with them. Not when there are folks like Daves who take the time to be a source of information for use on this forum. I don't see any of my local dealers hanging out here or anywhere else on the net. Evidently the shops around here have customers waiting in line and don't need to discount their product to make sales and don't feel compelled to offer their expertise on forums such as this. | ||
| 2old2bfast |
The lack of follow-through I mentioned was actually on service appointments that I tried to make with them to facilitate my first trip on the Uly (actually 2 Uly's as my best friend bought his from them at the same time, and this was a trip we did together), as well as installation of bags that were purchased when the bikes were to make that same trip possible. To make a long story longer, the bags never showed until a week after I got back to Florida, and I paid a different dealer for the service work instead of Ocala. In the end we ended up trailering the bikes up to North Georgia, cloverleafed our way all over the Smokies and ended up getting first service work done at the HD shop in Maryville, TN, rather than having ridden up from Florida as intended. Like I said, the bad news is that we didn't get to work with an enthusiast like Daves, and we didn't get to work with a local dealer based on our unwillingness to pay their bump fees over and above MSRP, but the good news is that we got a couple GREAT bikes for way below retail! Sounds like we ended up in the same place, and it worked out well either way... |
