I graduated Wyotech a couple weeks ago (Ducati, BMW, and Triumph certs) and am going to start the job search tomorrow. I'm pretty much looking everywhere in the US with a decent riding season. I heard a place called Eximport in Houston is hiring so I looked at their website and sent in my resume. Then I started googling them... Seemingly every mention of their name is a negative comment but most of them seem to be more "I heard they have a bad reputation" than actual experiences so I figured I'd go ahead and ask. Anyone have first hand experience? This is my first job as a technician and the job market isn't great right now but I don't really want to work somewhere that doesn't treat their customers fairly.
I guess my question is are they a bad dealership or have people just had bad experiences with their techs? Should I stay away from there or give it a shot?
send your resume to KC International in San Antonio.
adding that to my list!
are you a Duc rider also? that will go over well
KC International also has MotoGuzzi.
oh yeah, I love my Monster
(also an expert licensed roadracer, that should help as well)
Was your screenname Dr. Woodrow?
I'm a houston local. Eximports is, well for lack of a better phrase, a pit of hell. The salesmen are the quintessential slimy, sell at any cost, salespeople.
The parts department is decent, the only reason for this is a guy named Juan. He is good.
The service dept. Well, let me give you an anecdote. A friend of mine took his m750 for warranty work. His tank was leaking a bit around one of the welds. It took them close to 4 months to give it back. The irony? he is a welder by profession. He says it would've taken him a whole half hour to do the job. He just didn't want to do it for fear of voiding the warranty.
I bought my 696 there last summer, Houston local as well. The sales folks and parts guys are all nice guys for the most part. The sales guys obviously have to sell bikes, that's why they're there, but they can be pretty decent folks. Juan is a class act, helps run the local ducati rider club. Can't say too much about the service dept since I haven't had to use them for anything yet other than the 600mi service. The showroom looks nice and the owner Fabian really likes ducatis, seems like a decent guy from my limited experience with him. It's a good dealership from my point of view but I have no idea how that translates into a working environment.
Visited everytime I've been down there (4 or so times a year) it's a big shop, seem to not have the greatest reputation. I've never had a problem with anyone in there...it's a pretty cool shop though.
Quote from: El Matador on February 09, 2009, 10:40:23 PM
The service dept. Well, let me give you an anecdote. A friend of mine took his m750 for warranty work. His tank was leaking a bit around one of the welds. It took them close to 4 months to give it back. The irony? he is a welder by profession. He says it would've taken him a whole half hour to do the job. He just didn't want to do it for fear of voiding the warranty.
that's me!! something else that should be noted is the high turn over rate on mechanics there, no one seems to last, have you searched Bob Lunsford Honda in Houston? It's a smaller shop which means less dazzle, but they keep a couple dozen bikes inventoried and there seems to be a charisma at that shop that eximports lacks.
and then there is this place, http://www.metricmotorcycles.com/ I've never spent money there, but they are highly reputed amongst cycle heads around H-town.
congrats on finishing school and good luck w/ the job search
My advice would be to interview the dealership instead of the other way around, then make up your mind. If service is bad, the reason can be the lack of good techs. If you have solid wrenching experience to go with your Wyotech training you may be a valuable asset to them.
Quote from: howie on February 10, 2009, 05:10:36 AM
My advice would be to interview the dealership instead of the other way around, then make up your mind. If service is bad, the reason can be the lack of good techs. If you have solid wrenching experience to go with your Wyotech training you may be a valuable asset to them.
+1 to interviewing the dealerships. If you don't have your heart set on Houston, then also check out KCI in San Antonio. We have better roads here and it's not Houston [thumbsup]. On a side note, we are looking for a tech apprentice at the Porsche dealer in San Antonio. We have a very low employee turn over rate.
Eximports is a revolving door of Ducati techs; first reason their service quality sucks. The main business focus of Eximports is to buy used/wrecked jap crap, slap em back together and ship them to South America; second reason their service quality sucks. Walk into the shop and the rows of bikes up front are not Ducatis.
Lunsford's NW Honda & Ducati, Metric Cycles, & Motorcycles Unlimited all have better service departments.
Metric and Motorcycles unlimited are class act shops. And I personally know that metric is hiring.
Metric is owned by this badass british ex/racer that is considered a ducati guru who does all the work on Ducati race bikes in houston
Bought my bike from Eximport last summer. The place has a bit of a cold feel to it because it's a really large, high volume type of dealership. However, I don't know if I'd go so far as "pit of hell." [laugh]
In addition to Juan, Alex in parts is great - really looked out for me. I have limited experience with the service dept. as I live in Louisiana. They weren't very personable, but the work was done right and was finished when they said it would be.
+1 for Juan is an outstanding gentleman. I rode with him on his weekly organize cruise around H-town. I bought parts from him there and that was about it. I like cruising the floor looking at bikes, cause I like looking at bikes, and when the salesman comes around, I point out to my S4RS, and they leave me alone, and just talk about pulling wheelies.... :-\, I don't even consider doing wheelies on my bike.. so... Juan took me on a tour of the service area and it looks nice, plenty of bikes in the back...that could mean good...
maybe you can turn that bad reputation around.... I think you should give it a chance and see it for yourself...
Roads outside Houston is better to ride though.
Good luck
ive bought parts from them back in 05 and when i picked them up everything seemed to be great, they were the best deal on the parts (i own a shop) and everyone was friendly, but i dont know how they may have changed since then.
I bet juan's ears are burning with all the man crushes on him. I emailed him a link to this thread and to the OP you should PM him. jcsanchez68
I went in there once. The few employees I interacted with were friendly and not pushy. They were selling a 1098 to a Houston Rocket. new rider. That probably turned out real great [roll] on another note, they had a Stoner t-shirt, I asked price... $110. wtf was up with that???
i doubt the price on that shirt is just eximport. ive been shopping at ducati austin before and saw a handful of shirts that were real expensive.
Quote from: ROME on February 10, 2009, 05:02:53 PM
I bet juan's ears are burning with all the man crushes on him. I emailed him a link to this thread and to the OP you should PM him. jcsanchez68
Thank you Rome, let's see if we can go on a ride, Brian should get his Desmosedici this Saturday so we should do something this Sunday, or Thursday night, you have to come out.
what up juan ,for me the jury's still out on the shop. seems everybody you deal with has much respect.i bought a used ducati that had been worked on at your eximport in feb 08.oil change air filter fuel filter chain and sprocket gaskets carbs cleaned pretty much the works. two months later previous owner brings it back and says it wouldnt start.she had the air fuel mixture adjusted and i guess that worked.only 200 miles and a year later i bought it.i rode three days and 250 miles without incident.suddenly anytime i hit 65 or more it died.at first it would start up again now it wont.i changed the plugs(which were left at 0.20,should have been gapped to .60-.70,and were in severly bad shape)drained fuel tank and changed fuel filter,still no haps.i dont know if this problem is from the work or the bike not being used often.im also not saying that you did all the work on it either.cant judge you cuz i havent met you.well its been in another shop for over a week and im waiting too see what the damage is.but still for everybody out there its hard to judge without taking your bike there or personally knowing someone who did.but because of everything i read online there was no way i was going there unless i had no other option.and by the way nobody mentioned or knocked juan in anything i read.i sense a serious man crush ;D
Juan is cool as ice. 8)
Quote from: championmvp on May 10, 2009, 11:07:19 AM
what up juan ,for me the jury's still out on the shop. seems everybody you deal with has much respect.i bought a used ducati that had been worked on at your eximport in feb 08.oil change air filter fuel filter chain and sprocket gaskets carbs cleaned pretty much the works. two months later previous owner brings it back and says it wouldnt start.she had the air fuel mixture adjusted and i guess that worked.only 200 miles and a year later i bought it.i rode three days and 250 miles without incident.suddenly anytime i hit 65 or more it died.at first it would start up again now it wont.i changed the plugs(which were left at 0.20,should have been gapped to .60-.70,and were in severly bad shape)drained fuel tank and changed fuel filter,still no haps.i dont know if this problem is from the work or the bike not being used often.im also not saying that you did all the work on it either.cant judge you cuz i havent met you.well its been in another shop for over a week and im waiting too see what the damage is.but still for everybody out there its hard to judge without taking your bike there or personally knowing someone who did.but because of everything i read online there was no way i was going there unless i had no other option.and by the way nobody mentioned or knocked juan in anything i read.i sense a serious man crush ;D
Sounds like a fuel supply issue. Could definetly be caused by bad fuel or filter. Not likely the shops fault.