| Author | Message | ||
     Edmsportster |
Took a ride to the only Buell dealer within 500 miles of me today (demo rides this saturday for the '06 models) and I am drooling over the prospect of asking some questions and discussing the new models with a real person. Enter the shop, look around, get one idiot who makes the sportster / girl comment ( GROW UP I can dust your fat boy) wading through the river of chrome, I spot the ONLY Buell they have stuck in the darkest corner of the shop (an '05 XB12sg). After climbing aboard and playing with the riding position, clutch, gears etc. for about 20 minuets, the sales guy leaves his mid 40's yuppy couple and comes over to me. "thinking about trading down from the sporty". Eye roll...."yes, yes I am" ( figure I'd string him along for a bit) Well we can probably let this one go for $13,000 (tag says $14,500). "That's cause you know you won't be able to sell it next to an '06 with the new changes" NO WORD OF A LIE : "They probably won't change anything for 2006 anyways".... So, I says to the guy: "I bet you have never sold one of these hey?" THE KICKER........ "no, and I just don't know why" This is what I have to work with here.....even if I buy one(which I AM going to do XB12Ss..THATS MINE) who the #^$% am I gonna get to work on it..... | ||
| Ginzero |
That bites.. I hope the 06s will kick some sense into some of these sales people. Doubt it... | ||
| Bigsherm9r |
Get used to it. The dealers that don't totally suck are rare. In fact, I'd say most of the good ones advertise on this site. Sherm | ||
| Imonabuss |
"Trading DOWN from a Sportster?" He really said that??? Good grief! | ||
| Hardcorps |
I had a dealer tell me that the MRSP was also like $13000.00, and they where cutting me a deal on a 04 for 10,500.00. LOL. The truely sad part is they used to have Spidey working at there shop, no one has stepped up to fill his shoes  . P.S. Not that they could Spidey.} Hard Corps | ||
| Blake |
Edm's dollars are a bit different (Canadian).  | ||
| Hardcorps |
Good point Blake, the sad part is I went to the Ann Arbor, MI Harley dealer. They no longer have any one that knows buell there, and the GM was convinced the MRSP was 13 until I showed one of the sales people online. | ||
| Court |
EDM: Please send me the name of that dealership. Thanks, Court | ||
| Cataract2 |
"Trading DOWN from a Sportster?" Dumb@$$ must have not seen how bad Sportster guys get plastered by us in the drags. | ||
| Gearhead998 |
I have noticed that a lot of dealers mark up all of there bikes by about 2K. How stupid are they? Oh well, people still by them. I know this has been mentioned before, but I would love to see an all Buell dealer. Hell I'm working on the plans of starting my own shop specializing in our toys. But that is still a dream for now. | ||
| Whosyodaddy |
After climbing aboard and playing with the riding position, clutch, gears etc. for about 20 minuets, the sales guy leaves his mid 40's yuppy couple and comes over to me. At least you had someone actually come over to talk to you. I was in the Dalla/Ft.Worth area's largest Buell shop (only 2 of 'em) Saturday for almost a half hour and not once did I get acknowledged. I had also left a couple of messages there and as of this morning, nobody has returned my call. | ||
| Edmsportster |
Thanks for the support guys, after I got over the initial shock of my experience, I actually spent almost an hour with the salesman going over the changes for '06 (call me a sucker, I know) but I just can't stand for such ineptitude. at no point EVER should a customer walking in off the street know more about your product than you. If I was on the Buell racing team, then PERHAPS I could understand knowing more than a sales person. Guaranteed WHEN I get my XB12Ss I am gonna sell more Buells in Edmonton than anyone else and not make one penny commission lol Thanks for pointing out the exchange difference too, I forgot to mention that, so the figures I gave probably confused a few folks...eg MSRP for the XB12S USD $10,495 CDN $13,389... | ||
| Daves |
Whosyodaddy, I'll return your calls! How about a nice trip to Wisconsin? | ||
| Dago |
(Whosyodaddy, why don't you ever post within the DFW section of Storm Fronts? We're always trying to get people together for a ride.) | ||
| 2hogs |
All, You guys are way too nice. I only talk to sales people on 2 occasions. 1. I want to test ride a bike. 2. I want to buy a bike. I'm more patient if I just want a test ride. But if I'm getting ready to spend $$$$$ I'll approach a sales person who isn't busy with another customer. It's while I'm talking with them that I decide if I want to spend my money at this dealer. OK I'll admit I have ~ 12 HD/Buell dealers with 100 miles of me. Which has some bearing on things. | ||
| Jugallo94 |
You think motorcity is bad, try motown. At the sportbike event they didnt even have any buell merchandise in the store. | ||
| Wildman4x4nut |
Reminds me of when I was out shopping for a possible trade for my TJ. I was looking at the new Unlimited Rubicon and this sales guys walks up to me and says " This isn't like your normal Jeep you know?" Well he had just watched me climb out of my Jeep and hobble over on my crutches to look at this Ruby. So I look at him and ask so what makes it so different? Well he says it just has a few upgrades. So I look at him and ask him if he thinks I am stupid?? I mean I am driving a modified TJ so why wouldn't I know something about them. I was just funny as hell because then he makes me walk/hobble to the other end of the lot looking for a different Jeep that wasn't even there. | ||
| Cataract2 |
You guys are way too nice. I only talk to sales people on 2 occasions. 1. I want to test ride a bike. 2. I want to buy a bike. Have to agree to this. Otherwise I prefer to just be left alone unless there's someone there I want to talk to. | ||
| Davefla |
I was in Perry's last week to pick up some parts. Though I didn't look closely, it seems they've stopped carrying the clothing & gear. It's probably one side of a display rack, if anything. I've never talked business with anyone but the owner (maybe the sales folks are all family anyway) and I've never been offered a test ride. That may change now that I've bought two bikes in four years from them. OTOH, they've usually got at least five new Buells on the floor. When they get the Ulysses in, they're going to be sick of the sight of me!  | ||
| Nadz |
So, I says to the guy: "I bet you have never sold one of these hey?" I'd bet anything he's never ridden one either. 'Nuff said. | ||
| Bruceclay |
At least you had someone actually come over to talk to you. I was in the Dalla/Ft.Worth area's largest Buell shop go to the shop in Corinth. It's the better shop in the Dallas area for our bikes. The sales manager's name is Junior. Feel free to tell him I sent you if you like. I bought both my Firebolts there. | ||
| Buellin_ri |
Don't get me started with HD/buell dealers! I wish buell had its own dealership. Keep it separate from the harley dealership. Most of those guys think the bike is isn't worthy of there time. Case in point "trading down from a sporty". Come on. I think I would have punched him (maybe not but would feel real good).  | ||
| Skyguy |
I really dislike the Harley dealers in my area (SoCal) they are rude and don't know or care squat about, or for Buells. One parts guy even called me "that Buell guy" when he handed my parts order to someone with more time (I guess my $27.00 worth of parts was unworthy of his efforts). Does anyone out there know ANY decent Buell/Harley dealers in the SoCal area? Oh, one tech at Skip Fordyce Harley in Riverside rides and loves Buell. His name is Sharky and no one at any other dealer will touch my bike besides him (If I cant do it myself). Good guy, has a mohawk with a shark tattoed on his skull. | ||
| Ginzero |
I could not find the 05XB9SX in the LA area so I bought my bike at Ventura HD in Moorepark, excellent sales staff. If you go there ask for either Andy or Dave, tell'em Gino referred you. I just got my bike serviced at California HD in Harbor City, the service people were really cool, adjusted my suspension and made sure everything was perfect on the bike, even changed my broken license plate frame! A sales person told me they had two 06 XBRs and an XB12 crated at their warehouse and should be on the floor pretty soon. | ||
| Wedge |
having similar problems of unknowledgeble salesmen here in VA, but I'm getting 11,400 out the door prices, so I guess thats better than you guys, for a XB12S | ||
| Willryu |
Is there anything the little guy can do to help change the bad Buell dealership situation? I've read complaints again and again on this board and hate to say it but posting here isn't going to help much. Any way to get the word out to those who can/will do something? -w | ||
| Cwby8383 |
davefla, there is an older guy there who answered a lot of questions for me when i was in the exploratory stages of purchasing my buell. not terribly knowledgeable on the tiny details, but was at least enthusiastic about buell and came over quickly as soon as i was looking at the buell bikes. | ||
| Paint_shaker |
I have seen good prices on Buells at 3 Buell Dealers in Fl.... Gainesville, Ocala and Crystal River... all have very reasonable (if not below msrp) prices on 04's and 05's.... I saw an XB9R or an XB9S for 7800 and change... As for Buell knowledge, service and parts I know of 3 Dealers... Gainesville Buell in Fl (ask for Paul (in parts), Appleton Buell in Wisconsin ask for Dave S), and Stone Mountain Buell in Ga (home of the 3%ers).... | ||
| Metalstorm |
"even changed my broken license plate frame!" Buells come with license plate frames? I did not know this. Mine didn't even have screws for mounting the plate. I had to buy some at a hardware store. | ||
| Kootenay |
Edmsportster, I feel for ya--I finally bought my Bolt in Kamloops, BC, where I got a similar kind of reception. As for service, I do all my own--if I need something done that's beyond me, it'll probably go to Vancouver, because I just don't trust the guys in Kamloops to touch it (I won't offend them by saying this, I don't think they know this site exists). I'd say it's a Canadian thing, except lots of guys here make similar complaints about their American dealerships. As for knowing more about the product than the sales crew, I'm used to it--I'm a bit of a "gear nerd," and I usually do a lot of research on any product I'm looking at--but the lack of Buell knowledge at Kamloops H-D was surprising. Yeah, their service manager rides one (a '97 Lightning tuber, I think) but I still don't trust their crew... |
