Are you sure your bike was truly 100% new, fresh from factory?

[Ghis_imp]

What do you think of this?

When I bought my CB, the muffler had a scratch on it. I noticed it upon inspection on delivery. The dealer said they would take care of it, but didn't want to order a new muffler ($800 MSRP/Less than $600 dealer's cost), and instead would wait until they got another CB1100 in to swap the can with that one. They did get a brand new '14 Black CB1100 in, a couple months after I got mine, and yesterday I went in to have my exhaust swapped. I really thought that was weird, and ask how they could do that to the next customer. They told me that the next customer might not care at all that there is a scratch on the muffler. I took that as "the next customer might never notice as you did". It took them 20 minutes to swap the muffler, and I was on my way with a brand new, scratch free, discoloration free, 2014 muffler on my 1200 miles '13 CB. On the way home, I couldn't stop thinking that a brother who is gonna get that CB, most likely his dream bike, will go home on a brand new '14 CB1100 with a discolored and scratched 2013 muffler. I don't think it's right. It makes me feel dirty, but I'm pretty sure the fault is on the dealer's part and not mine. That's how THEY chose to fix my bike. It happened with my Triumph and my Harley too! I was telling the Triumph sales manager that I liked the chrome mirrors of a floor model better than my black ones. Even though I had bought mine six months earlier, and since he wanted to customize the floor model a little, he decided we should trade mirrors. He came back with a wrench, took the brand new chrome mirrors of the show room bike, and put them on mine, and put my black used ones on the new bike! I was so surprised that I didn't know what to say, and let him do it. I really should have said no thank you, it's not right. On my '14 Harley Seventy Two (which I traded in on the CB), I had noticed that my rear wheel wasn't perfectly centered. I thought it'd be a matter of centering it, but it turned out that the spokes (and the hub) were brought a little too much to one side at the factory, but posed no danger. No being happy with that, the dealer simply swapped my wheel with a brand new 2015 bike off the show room. They didn't bother to take off the tire, and the rotor. I got brand new everything, and the new '15 model in the show room got my '14 wheel sightly offset, with a used tire, and used disc brake.

Is this standard procedure for dealers to save money, when fussy customers like me (rightfully) demand that the bike be up to brand new standards?

It's gonna make me doubt about what kind of goods I'm getting in the future, on any new bike I ever buy, and I'll want to go through every single bolt on the bike... Any of you ever experienced that kind of none sense?

Here is my '13 Red CB, and the '14 Black CB donor.

 

[Novice_imp]

Ethical issues for sure. IMHO it's not on you it's clearly on the dealer, you simply pointed out a legitimate problem. I would have thought they would just file a warranty claim and be reimbursed. I would avoid them in the future for everything...if they're willing to do that to someone, I wonder what they might do to you. You might be left wondering....Did they really put synthetic oil in or just charge me for it.

 

[Guth_imp]

The CB1100 is the only new bike I've ever purchased. Fortunately there were absolutely no issues with it when I picked it up from the dealer.

 

[ChipBeck_imp]

Ghis,

I was a new car dealer for 25 years. I have never heard of such a thing, no it's not normal, and it certainly isn't right. I have swapped wheels between two brand new cars but never between a new car and one with miles on it and I certainly wouldn't put a defective part from a customer vehicle onto a new unit for sale. What that dealer did was insane. Time to find a new dealer and steer clear of that one.

Chip

 

[Pterodactyl_imp]

I wouldn't buy a packet of peanuts from that bloke.

Cheers

 

[Cormanus]

Ghis, you should not go near that dealer again. He has the ethics of an alley cat. If you happened to be overcome with altruism you could write a nice letter to Honda America and let them know the calibre of that dealer.

 

[Ack-CB11_imp]

Never lose money, that's the reasoning. I'm surprised they actually told you the their plan. Don't believe anything they say if it's going to cost them a penny.
The CB was my 1st bike in a long time that I actually saw and sat on before I bought it.
Knowing it's the shop grunts that do the uncrating and prep work, I looked mine over, up down and sideways.
ALWAYS check any work done............. they are always in to much of a hurry.

 

[mininsx_imp]

I don't see what the problem is; you had a complaint and they remedied it.
I had something similar happen when I bought my '08 Concours 14. When I got it home it had a place on one of the ribs on a saddlebag where something had rubbed the bag in shipping, all the way through the paint. I took it back and they swapped my bag cover with another new bike sitting in storage. Now, I don't know if they warrantied the slightly damaged bag cover or not (maybe not) but I didn't really care, my problem was fixed and that was all that mattered to me.

 

[uscgmac_imp]

I wouldn't even have waited. I would have said get me a new muffler now. Have them order it on the spot and give you an invoice. I don't even purchase the bike without looking it over before signing anything. If your buying a bike in the crate or ordering kne before delivery than hard to look over first but I would call out a dealer on shady stuff like that. HD has really good customer support, the dealer actually gets graded after a new sale and the mother moco keeps an eye on them. If you have a problem with the dealer you can call Harley direct. These all in one import dealers and much shadier with their business. I have some dealers that the stories are so bad I avoid them at all costs.

 

[kmoney_imp]

When I bought my new Chevy suburban this happened -- it had a deeply scratched taillight, which they swapped with another new one on the lot. I can see new for new, like in the car dealer example above, but swapping a used disk and tire to a new bike just seems ridiculous. When the front tire has paint marks on it and the rotor still has cross hatching, even a layperson would notice the worn in rear tire and used disk brake and presumably call them out on it. Place sounds sketchy.

 

[HikerToo_imp]

I don't see what the problem is; you had a complaint and they remedied it.
I had something similar happen when I bought my '08 Concours 14. When I got it home it had a place on one of the ribs on a saddlebag where something had rubbed the bag in shipping, all the way through the paint. I took it back and they swapped my bag cover with another new bike sitting in storage. Now, I don't know if they warrantied the slightly damaged bag cover or not (maybe not) but I didn't really care, my problem was fixed and that was all that mattered to me.

Ha ha...guess how you got that scratched saddlebag.....the other guy before you who "did not really care, his problem was fixed." too.

 

[Motogeezer1949_imp]

I don't think there's an issue with the dealer at all.

 

[Obliviontoad]

Not a motorcycle, but my car, which I bought last year. According to the Monroney and the vehicle manufacturers website, there was a fairly nice cargo cover included in the standard equipment. For some reason, my car was missing it. I asked at the time of purchase and they agreed to get me one, as it costs a couple of hundred dollars.
Fast forward almost a year, still hadn't gotten it after a few casual visits, to the point where my salesperson has never been there. Sick, out of town, boneitis outbreak. So I call the manufacturer and their customer relations department. They took it rather seriously, and for good reason, apparently it is a big deal to have a discrepancy on the window sticker, even for a frivolous item like mine. They called the dealership and things got rather real.
I was advised, by customer relations, to go to the dealership, and they would have the part waiting in about a week. I waited, went, no part was there and they said they never spoke to customer relations. SO I called them up there on the showroom floor, and handed the phone to the manager.

They pulled a cargo cover off a car that said "Sold" on it, handed it too me in an offhand way, and I was able to just leave. Not happy, just, done with it. Somebody with a really nice red turbo wagon is missing a cargo cover, and may never know it is gone.

 

[ClassicVW_imp]

I too, am very surprised they did it right in front of you. This tells me they have zero scruples. And this is the norm for them. Its no biggie if you had been there to pickup your brand new bike and you noticed nicer mirrors on another bike and they did a new-for-new swap.

They could have said, "Leave your bike here a couple of hours. Take this loaner and go for a ride, we have a new muffler in stock in the back but the mechanics are all busy right now. As soon as one gets free, we'll swap yours for the new one."

How can you trust them for anything? Maybe next time you're the one that gets screwed. Did they really give you a new oil filter with that 600 mile service?

 

[Motogeezer1949_imp]

Here's my take: There was an issue with a part. It was replaced with one from a new bike. A comment was made.
That's the extent of what we know. The comment could have been serious or flippant. Regardless, at this point the reasoning behind the comment cannot be truly known. Assuming it was made seriously is indeed, only an assumption.
Also not known? Anything past that. The remaining is conjecture.
Making some assumptions of my own, the next prospective purchaser might not mind the defect and be willing to negotiate a little bit better price because of it. Scratch and dent. Or the dealer might be willing to throw in a slip on at a nice discount, their cost would likely be cheaper than that of replacing the stock can. If represented as a new machine but sold with used parts, scratched or not, then there would be the basis for a complaint.
It seems unreasonable to me, to assume the imagined motives and potential future actions of others are somehow valid before they actually happen.

 

[xNE0x_imp]

I'd never go back personally. Anyone willing to screw over the next customer is not worth doing business with. It could have been you after all.

 

[Toddman_imp]

This kind of 'swap out' thing happens all the time. In 1978, I purchased a new Kawi SR650. About 3 months go by and I decide that I'll take it in this one time to have the first service done (I always do it myself). When I picked my bike up, it had a discolored gas tank. It was a bit orange on the top. I turned around and demanded my original gas tank. The manager 'fessed up' and told me that the mechanic had lost his temper and threw my gas tank. They would not show me my dented tank. That tells me that someone buying a new bike noticed that the tank was off color and they replaced it with my pristine tank.

Never again will my bikes enter a dealership for service.

 

[mininsx_imp]

I don't see what the problem is; you had a complaint and they remedied it.
I had something similar happen when I bought my '08 Concours 14. When I got it home it had a place on one of the ribs on a saddlebag where something had rubbed the bag in shipping, all the way through the paint. I took it back and they swapped my bag cover with another new bike sitting in storage. Now, I don't know if they warrantied the slightly damaged bag cover or not (maybe not) but I didn't really care, my problem was fixed and that was all that mattered to me.

Ha ha...guess how you got that scratched saddlebag.....the other guy before you who "did not really care, his problem was fixed." too.

Ha ha...guess how you got that scratched saddlebag.....the other guy before you who "did not really care, his problem was fixed." too.
Hahaha, that's possible, I guess!

 

[Cormanus]

The point of this story is trust. The dealer gave the purchaser reason to question whether the dealer could be trusted, He/she swapping a part with another bike on the showroom floor. While there's no evidence that the dealer was not going to replace the part on warranty, a reasonable person on an omnibus (which, as I recall, is the legal test) could, in light of what we know, form a view that the dealer hoped to pass the damaged part onto the next customer. That may not be true but the dealer in this story has not acted in a way that imbues his/her customers with trust.

 

[CIP57_imp]

This is why my bike never ever sees a service department, or my cars for that matter.