| Author | Message | ||
     Danny |
Deanna asked me to post this on the boards for her, so.. well.....what a long strange trip it has been. first of all i would like to thank you for all of your support, business and friendship. today was our last day of being a buell dealer. it has been increasingly hard to do business with buell and we do not see any light at the end of the tunnel. we have had so many disappointments and the same is true for our customers and we can not say we are sorry any more times. We will be happy to assist with any service you need but unfortunately we are not able to do any warranty work. we are having a huge closeout sale on all buell parts. any buell specific parts that are in stock are 10% below our cost. i also have 1 xb12s in stock (red) with 500 mi that is marked at $8100.00. the bike is new with a full factory warranty Thanks again from all of us at the old Modesto buell & ducati. now only Modesto ducati. Deanna, Don, Heather, Amanda, Derrick, Brandon, Matt, Danny & Paige.... I guess only working one day a week really throws you out of the loop of goings on at the dealership. You may now begin the "sorry to see you go/ good riddance posts now. Danny 95 S2 02 V-Strom Saturday Only parts, sales & Demo rides; Modesto Ducati &... | ||
| Kevyn |
Sad, very sad. Modesto Buell had a great reputation... It will be interesting to know what kind of difficulties you all encountered with Buell. You have to consider that when the newest model is fitted out with parts bin bling... I wonder what role HD has had in Buell's agonizing demise. | ||
| Kevyn |
...what good is a factory warranty when there are no dealers left to provide service? | ||
| Roc |
Best Buell shop/dealer I have ever been in or done business with. Shame on Buell if the company acted in such a way to lose them. | ||
| Blake |
WHY!!!! | ||
| Thunder |
The best parts experience I ever had!! Modesto was doing everything right in my eyes!! Sorry to hear the sad news!! | ||
| Timbo |
Sad, very sad. By all accounts one of the best Buell dealers...ever. WHY?!?! Is right. | ||
| Bigj |
Shoot. Use it as an excuse to buy that Ducati you have always wanted. Like I said on the Borg, this is the last nail in the coffin for Buell, and an 11 lb sledge is swinging down  | ||
| Blake |
I'll take that bet Bigj. What do you care to wager? Name it. Something doesn't make sense to me. HD Distribution controls deliveries to dealers, not Buell, right? I need to hear the whole story before I come to any conclusion. Plenty of dealers around here still very enthusiastic about Buell. Doesn't make sense. Still, any way you cut it, sad, very sad day. | ||
| Blake |
So much for Modesto Buell/Ducati coming online as a sponsor eh Danny? | ||
| Ironiceberg |
I waited 7 months for a 12 air box cover from Modesto. I finaly gave up and got one from Dave in a few days. Some parts I had ordered before that took 3 months. Deanna is right they had many dissapointments with Buell so and did I. Im not sure why things got so bad. Modesto is a great place with good people, Buell blew it. | ||
| Court |
I went through a similar thing with Topeka HD Buell. They were the Modesto before Modesto. I'd like to know more facts. What a shame and it's the portion of the busines, I think, that appears totally beyond the control of Buell or Buell people. I think there's a solution. I hope there is time. I spoke to a HD exec at MKE yesterday and found out that there will be no printed Buell brochueres this year. All info is CD only. I am installing a laptop in the bathroom. Court | ||
| Kahuna |
deanna & gang, today is a very sad day for buell! i would endure all the pain of shipping, duties and UPS thievery to canada, than walk down the street to the local dealer. maybe buell should pay you guys just to show the other dealers how its done, they dont seem to have a clue!?? like i said, today is a very very sad day for buell... K | ||
| Dave |
Modesto was "THE" reliable source of Buell parts for so long. When local dealerships didn't have the race pipe hanger for the tubers & couldn't understand how I could have broke one, a call to Deanna revealed they had 10, they know they break, & one was shipping immediately to me. Without exception, I always experienced #1 customer service and seemingly always had the parts I needed. What a blow to the Buell community and Buell loosing a Buell savvy dealership. DAve | ||
| Mikej |
When rumors over the last few years or so would surface about the separation of Buell from Modesto Danny would surface to dispute the claims. Sorry to see it come to this. Reality and Life can be a cold mf'r at times. | ||
| Xlcrguy |
Good riddence. If ya can't hang, get out. | ||
| Buckinfubba |
that is a shame, one of the good ones I molded myself after. but then again I got out also. but I will be forth right enuff to call a spade a spade. IT WASN'T BUELL THAT MADE ME WANT TO CHUCK IT ALL. IT WAS THE MOTHER COMPANY. so lets not blame buell, they have it as tough as we the consumers because the mother company has its head up its arse so far it is chocking on it. big deal they know how to market overprice bikes and t-shirts. doesn't mean they know how to market a sportbike, and the ones up there that do, well.......they probably get told to sit down and shut up we know what were doing. I could probably guess the answers to the why's? but I won't do it here | ||
| Cj_xb |
Good riddence. If ya can't hang, get out. Nice to see there are only a few who lack compassion !! I'm sorry to hear it ! CJ | ||
| Daves |
I too am saddened to hear this news. Modesto was my inspiration and I have always tried to live up to the example they set in the Buell world. Ride to the edge! Still in the ring. Dave daves@h-dappleton.com 1-866-757-1651 | ||
| Mikej |
Xlcrguy, There is much history with Modesto going to bat to help Buell owner's get warranty coverage when other dealerships failed. There has been much goodwill generated by their efforts over the years. There is definitely more to the story than we will probably publically ever know. I'll chalk your comment up to your being new to the neighborhood. Have a nice day, and wipe your shoes off the next time you come into the kitchen please, thank you. | ||
| Budo |
"Good riddence. If ya can't hang, get out." Charming sentiment. Modesto gave me far better service from 1500 miles away than my local dealer (Bumpas HD/Buell of memphis) who blows. This may very well have been the ultimate Buell dealership. Their customer service is or was legendary. The fact that they are getting out of the Buell business is grim news indeed. For those of you who don't appreciate that, well you never deserved them anyway. | ||
| Dhutty |
Terrible! I'm very troubled to hear this. Just from reading this board I've had the highest respect for Modesto and I wish Modesto future success but am dissapointed it won't be with Buell. Question: Modesto carried Buell and Ducati. Is this the only example of a dealer in the US selling Buell along side a non-MotorCo. brand? There is another thread exploring the possibility of Buell being sold in multiple-marquee dealers. Was Modesto the only such example? Is this bad portents for Buell's future? (shiver) David | ||
| Henrik |
I wasn't concerned before this ... *now* I am. Henrik | ||
| Budo |
I gotta wonder who let Modesto go. Not that I know anything about this business except as a cutomer but when you have a dealership with the reputation of Modesto wouldn't you do everything you could to keep them as a dealer? | ||
| Daves |
No reason for any of you to run around the barnyard yelling "The sky is falling,the sky is falling"! We, I'm sure, will never know the whole story, if there even is one. The owner of the dealership decided to bail. That doesn't mean the fall of Buell! Yes, they were a great Buell dealer and I wish them all the luck with Ducati. Let's just not blow this out of proportion. Ride to the edge! Still in the ring. Dave | ||
| Budo |
I don't think that any of use believes or is suggesting that Modesto getting out of the Buell business indicates that Buell is going out of business. However it does indicate something to me when Buell loses possibley the best dealership they have had. Modesto not only did a great job as a Buell dealership they spread a great deal of Buell goodwill. From what little I remember from business school you can't put a price on goodwill. If it had not been for Modesto I would have gotten ride of my bike long before I actually did. I guess my point is, what does this say about Buell or more accurately the MoFocompany? | ||
| Daves |
Umm, Budo, did you read the posts above? Kevyn,BigJ,Dhutty and even Henrik made comments to that effect. Is this a good thing for Buell? NO. Is it the end of the world? NO. They(Modesto) say themselves that sales have gone down the last few years for them. I don't know why, maybe they don't either. When it no longer pays to carry a brand, for whatever reasons then the owner has to make a decision. They did. That's it. Dave | ||
| Al_lighton |
As Dave said, it shouldn't be blown out of proportion. I very much lament their decision, but it is very understandable given: 1) Buell sales in California aren't as good as elsewhere (combination of many things, including insurance issues and the fact that this is the land of excess, and Buells don't have excess, they only have enough). 2) The sheer number of Buell Dealers in California makes it hard for each dealer to make numbers 3) Modesto isn't exactly centered in a major metropolitan area. Many of the Modesto loyal drove 1.5 hours to get to there, a tribute to their excellent service. I'm bummed, it was Modesto that send parts Fedex Saturday delivery after my Mt Evans CO getoff in 2001, and Modesto that brought me throttle cables to Laguna Seca, and they are a damed good referral source for American Sport Bike business to boot. Thanks Danny, Deanna, Don, Heather, Amanda, et al for the years of FANTASTIC customer service! Al | ||
| Reepicheep |
Another factor I have observed is what I will call "consumption of change agents". I have seen it in companies, churches, even families. You name it. Insider "Person P" has a bug up their ••• (rightly or wrongly) about "topic T". "Company C" has a serious problem with "topic T" that they are taking *zero* ownership of. Person P forces the issue, which needs to be forced. Company C fights it, but can't really deny it. It gets ugly until Person P finally makes a big enough pest of themselves that the issue starts to get addressed. Problem is, Person P now has a reputation as being an absolute and total pain in the •••, so they will be the *last* person on the planet that will be involved in "the revolution" at company C. The people in Company C were dragged kicking and screaming to face the issue, and are still pissed off about it, even if they decide to face the issue. So they bring in some total new outsider, who may or may not fix the problem, thats a whole 'nother topic. But the original person P is now ticked that after all their work, after they were effectively proved right, they were totally shut out of the process, and indeed have reached a complete and total organizational dead end. They did the right thing for the right reason and were the key factor in making the right change, but they were totally "consumed" in the process. They are toast. Not saying this is the only issue here, and I have no information besides intuition, but it might be a factor. In example, I seem to remember bearing problems with PM wheels that basically only ONE Buell dealer on the planet would "approve" warranty work for. Somebody at Harley is sitting there looking at the stats and seeing that some tiny Buell dealer in Podunk California has had 1000 times more warranty claims for PM wheels then all other Buell dealers on the planet combined. Each of these claims cost Harley $1500 a pop, and the Harley person thinks "what the hell?". Not slamming Buell, not slamming Modesto, not even slamming Harley, just making observation that change (or even maintaining the status quo) can be painful. edited by reepicheep on July 23, 2004 | ||
| Mikej |
In the Prairie the dog with it's head up is often the first one shot. |
