Why?

[bigjohnsd]

When I was a dealer our precept was that "We wanted to be easy to do business with"

Worked for us.

As an aside, the current owner also just dropped the Yamaha Motorcycle line.

Just wasn't selling enough Yamaha/Star Motorcycles to make it worth the investment in New bikes Yamaha wanted him to buy each year.

Thankfully there are two other Yamaha dealers within 50 miles, and because he iscstill a Yamaha A TV dealer he can order parts for me when needed.

 

[HotRodZilla]

My Yamaha dealership has a great parts counter and an even greater service dept. I am genuinely thankful and lucky.

NOW, the parts and service guys at Power Ford? OMFG, I needed a bleeder screw for my wife's Expedition's front left brake. "Someone" broke it off. I'm assuming Power Ford, but she had Brake Masters do work one time also, so I don't honestly know. However, I caught PF in a huge lie a couple years ago, so I know, in my heart, it was PF clowns. Either way, I needed the part. I called around Albuquerque and no one knew what size it was. Except their little parts computer should have shown them.

So, after some phone calls, I ordered the part from PF. Of course, they didn't have any in stock. Idiots. A week later, I showed up to pick up my part. It was some bolt lever chrome configured thing. When I tried to explain what I needed, what it was and where it went, they looked at me like I was stupid. That led to the following conversation:

Me: "It's a bleeder screw. Haven't you ever bled the brakes on a car?"

Parts Guy (PG): With a dumb look on three of their faces says, "No, we have guys that do that for us."

Me: "YOUR guys are the ones that broke the FUCKING screw in the first place and didn't say shit, because it would have taken 5 days to get one in. No wonder they didn't tell anyone. You guys are supposed to order parts for cars, but don't know shit about cars. You're fucking stupid."

Now, I can be an asshole, but usually keep it in check. I'm a "more flies with honey than vinegar" kind of guy, but holy Hell. I let those guys have it with a lobby full of people. As I walked out, a guy in like told me, "You're right, they are fucking stupid." Hahaha...

I HATE those clowns. I'll never go back.

 

[Birdman2010]

Well, out here in BFE northern California, the closest Yamaha dealer (where I bought my 2014 A) is 45 minutes away. And they deal mostly with boats, dirt bikes and ATVs. The street bikes are a tiny percentage of their biz. So, for me, it is Bike Bandit or Ron Ayers.
Dan

I think that I went to that dealer! Are you near Shasta, CA? That dealer wanted to charge me $120 for a standard oil change for my 2015 FJR and $160 for a synthetic oil change. No thanks! I was out there getting a Day-Long custom seat. I was almost at 4,000 miles. I decided to go a little over the mileage and do the oil change myself for MUCH less!

 

[Bill Lumberg]

The pimply faced kid who couldn't find a part or a screw in a fiche to save his life, and isn't very motivated to do so in the first place, actually sold me my bike. When I was getting ready to buy an FJR, I purposely waited until winter, to cull the buyer herd. The dealership had cut staff to the point that, besides mechanics, there was no one in the shop besides the sales manager, and the mouth breather (bless his heart) at the parts counter. The sales manager knew that he couldn't be the salesman, no room for back and forth and all if there's no one to "go to", so he sent G*** to help me as I perused the sales floor. G*** opened with a price that was just below what my bottom line was for the bike OTD, and opened with a figure that was over $1,000 over blue book for my BMW trade-in. So G*** "sold" a bike. The next day I rode to the dealer on my trusty RT (it wasn't trusty, but I do remember it fondly), and left on a rather oddly handling FJR (remember, it came with bonus racing setup- 20PSI front, and 20PSI rear, which is what all the cook kids use).