Harley warranty worthless

[Ronin1]

I recently brought my XB12Scg in for a replacement tire under my road hazard coverage. While there I asked the service guy to put in a warranty claim for the airbox cover that had cracked when I spilled fuel on it. (adjacent to fuel cap) Its actually splitting and its VERY obvious that it isn't from an impact of any sort. The black plastic 1/32 away has no marks on it!

Its more like splitting in the center of the plastic almost separating like a flaky pastry?

The report comes back from the head clowns in WI saying "I've never seen this before" Not covered.
Right, I've never seen air but I'm pretty sure it exists!
Then the technician manages to hack my rear pulley and the belt up taking off or putting on the wheel.

The belts edges are frayed up.
So....I bring it back today, explain to the service guy what I've found and the first words out of his mouth are "well you've had the bike back over two weeks" I replied that I just washed it and discovered the damages. He looks at it and makes the bullshit excuse that a rock got between the pulley and the belt guard. Wrong, I took the guard off, no marks on it whatsoever. Either the belt was pried off/on or the tire dude used a large bar against it.

I had not owned an HD product since the 1989 POS I bought and sold 8 months old after three months of it was spent in the shop and HD was always trying to screw off on warranty work. I am hacked off right now!
[mad][mad]
Unless I can figure out how to get HD to man up I'm back to Triumph's this year.
I'm open to ideas.

Jim

 

[strmvt]

been there done that my taillight came loose where the 2 screws that hold the taillight in are screwed into brass "ferrules" that are pressed into the under-tail. They actually vibrated loose, actually came out of the plastic the screws were tight taillight flopping in the wind went to the dealer after a call to HD comes back not covered under warranty I'm like WTF how the F*#$ that not covered. so I went home all pissed off and said screw it I got some 2part plastic epoxy in the garage, used that to "install" the ferrules and I'm golden just a little miffed that something stupid like that wasn't covered

 

[acepilot79]

wow man thats bull shit about them not wanting to warranty it. mine cracked at the front boltholes and they swapped it out. here are some pics of mine.

 

[RT Performance]

try another dealer my brother in law had a crack factory never installed the washer on it.
he got the same bs.
it seems dealers are so hit and miss with buell's really sucks

 

[Baal]

I'm open to ideas.

State Attorney General's consumer protection division. Generally makes people leap to attention.

 

[upthemaiden]

If warranty issues are you main concern I wouldn't bother going back to Triumph. My last bike was a triumph and I had nothing buy warranty hassles with them too. My chain kept eating through the swingarm guide, and eventually started on the swingarm itself, and they gave me a hard time about it every single time I went back in. I told them several times what needed done to fix it, and they just kept saying it was the way I rode it. That in itself was a bullshit excuse because common sense tells you that accelerating on a bike will compress the rear suspension, lifting the wheel up in comparison to the rest of the bike, and would only lift the chain away from the swingarm. The problem was that triumph put a gear combo on the bike that was too small both front and back. I kept telling them it needed larger gears and they kept blowing me off. Well the next year's model shows up on their showroom floor and what do you know.... larger gears. They finally had to just replace my drive train, but the whole point here is that if you don't like the hassles, stick with something Japanese, because the Triumph warranty dept. is in no way the solution to HD's warranty department.

 

[Bolt]

Yes , they are totally hit or miss(some are good!)sorry to hear about you being jerked around,it kinds comes with the territory&indeed is a part of the bad deal hd treats the Pegasus .....

[sad]

I take mine to a local outfit that knows how to work on a buell, I personally wrote off the warranty on my girls 09scg when I rode off the lot.I've been taking my 0512r there for years& they're good folk.I hope you can find this for yourself RONIN-I know the warranty is part of the deal,and no it's not right...[down]
Nevertheless I love my buells more than any triumph[smirk]

 

[skizzy]

I bought an 06 xb9sx and the cover was the same way and it was replaced under warranty, I think they told them it was delamination, the service writer said they usually don't replace them if they say they are cracked. It is all what they call it, I bought my bike at Southern Tier Harley in Binghamton NY, They don't do Buells any more but maybe they can help, talk to Gaye shes really helpful. Try sthd.com

 

[vroom]

common sense tells you that accelerating on a bike will compress the rear suspension, lifting the wheel up in comparison to the rest of the bike, and would only lift the chain away from the swingarm.

Common sense in this case, is wrong. The rear shock does not compress on acceleration for most* bikes, but actually should expand. You "feel" it compressing, but what you are feeling is the front end lift more than the rear. Think of it as the rear wheel is trying to force itself under the motorcycle. The two wheels come closer together when you accelerate, lifting the whole bike.
If this were not true, I don't think wheelies would be possibly, as accelerating would force the front end of the swingarm down, not up, thus increasing downward pressure on the front wheel.

*most...this may not be true of motorcycles where the front of the swing arm is lower than the rear. I haven't thought about it, but I don't know of any motorcycles that are designed like that off-hand.

 

[Ronin1]

I guess that the cover is delaminated. Even after painting cars for twenty years I missed that!
The belt and pulley damage is directly this dealerships's (Brandon HD in Tampa, FL)fault.
The service writer must think that I'm a complete idiot trying to state that a piece of gravel did that! I've been riding (and crashing) since 1980 and know dam well what different types of damage look like.
And upthemaiden, I never had any trouble getting my Triumph repaired under warranty. Even getting a loaner any time I needed it, and I live 225 miles from the dealer that I used! I would routinely bring a loaner back with 6 or 7 hundred additional miles on it![up]

Jim

 

[Ronin1]

**An update**
On Saturday the general manager at the local do-rag sales cented (HD dealer) called me back. I had sent a pretty detailed email to him Friday night. He is going to call a meeting with the service writer, and an HD corporate lackey on the phone on Monday and will call me for iformation or to sit in on the call, three on one, my kinda party! I love when they try that. Just in case I already have my state of Florida attorney General consumer complaint form filled out and ready to go. (thanks Baal) We'll see what transpires.

Jim

 

[guinnkyle]

Best of luck. So far I've had no problems with my XB12R. Good to know about the AG consumer complaint forms. I do security in the building where the AG offices are in Seattle. I know exactly where to get mine if I were to ever have to file a complaint. lol.

 

[driftingswiftly]

Sorry to hear dude. I think the biggest problem is that HD isn't a motorcycle company. Its a clothing line that accidentally took on a motorcycle company, then got confused and pulled out. Mine is great, but a lot of the dealers just don't want to deal.

 

[kokomochandler]

my dealer is cool also. i went today with my 1125cr for the recall and i asked if i could have the harness so i could do it myself. i dont like other people working on my bike. they said cool since im a ford mechanic i can handle a little harness. then i bought my oil filter and a kick ass grenade rotor lock and off i went.