Ducati Monster Forum

had my ducati for a year so i'm not sure if this is the shops ignorance or if it's ducati's laziness.

story: i took my bike apart and of course break various pieces along the way. first thing i broke was my handlebar clap screw (snapped it in half, don't ask) so i figure i go order one from the local ducati shop, no biggie. i wait 3 weeks and no call or nothing from them.  so i stop in there and dude says "woh that's wierd, it's not showing backorder and it doesn't say a shipping date". after him not being able to tell me why or how or when he says "it should be here within 2 weeks". which led me to beleive he JUST ordered it right then. 35 days from when i ordered it i got it.

month later i break the brake stop switch and figure i try one more time from these jokers. place the order 4/22 and i was in there on 5/25 looking at bikes and figure i check the status. dude told me "delivery date says 5/26 which is tomorrow we'll call you tomorrow". well, that "tomorrow" came and went and about a week after that i get a postcard (not even a damn phone call) "your piece you ordered is on backorder, eta of 7/1/09". now, does it REALLY take 40 days just to learn of a piece being on backorder?!?! piece came in on 6/18 (almost 2 months from ordered date) when i went to get it the dude there looks at my reciept and says "damn, you ordered this a long time ago" to my reply of "that's seems to be normal from you guys". the guy get his panties in a bunch and says "oh thats why....it's YOUR OWN FAULT....you bought a ducati". he had no answers to why they would tell me it would be in on 5/26 and never came in and was speakless when i told him a person could walk to chicago quicker than they can get a part shiipped from there. now mind you, never no apologies and never any explanations, just a bunch a dumb people going "i really don't know why".

so, is this a ducati issue or a CHICAGO CYCLE issue?

p.s. come to think about it they are pricks/ignorant there and are boycotted reguardless

far from the norm! 
Maybe try MCC in Villa Park, great guys and true enthusiasts or give us a shout....  we have those parts on hand 95% of the time. 

Not normal but...

just so you know, you can get a screw anywhere, you don't have to go back to a Duc dealer, where you were being screwed.  ;)

Don't know about a brake switch though. They would have to be fairly common.  ???

not matter what, their guy should not be telling you the situation is your fault.. that's just crappy customer service.  Yeah, there can be delays in getting ducati parts... I know that Ducati won't ship orders below a certain value - so if you've got some inexpensive part on order through your shop, you might be on a wait list until they pass a dollar value... but the shop should let you know.

But, don't break anything in late july through august - or you will be waiting no matter what shop.

once again, retailers forget that it is ALL ABOUT THE CUSTOMER. even if they cant do anything about the shipping time, dealers/retailers need to insure that the customer understands, is kept informed, and that they (they customers) order/concern/question is of importance. it doesnt take much effort to do this, maybe even less effort than pissing the customer off.

remember that as the customer, you have the ability to take your business somewhere else.

consider ordering parts through some of the larger ducati dealers (Ducati Seattle, etc....) as they are more likely to have a part in stock, or at least to hit the minimum order # faster than the small places.

I had an issue like that about 8 years ago. My electrical system failed and it took 6 weeks to get a new rectifier. Dealer said it was all Ducati's fault. They had problems getting parts to the U.S.. I have been told, that the problem no longer exists. So I would believe that parts are readily available.

Ducati stock parts is a waiting game for the most part unfortunately. 

I would boycott that shop just like I boycott wal-mart  >:(

I'd be happy to help you out with both the bolt and the switch.

Switch: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160321205802&sellerpreview=true&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160321205802&sellerpreview=true&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT)

Not sure what bolt it is, but I've got a ton of stock bolts in my organizer.  Measure it and let me know...I can toss it in with the switch.

NOT defending the shop, in any way, and Gregg at MCC is the man, but I have been doing the duc things for more than 15years and quite often, parts are on backorder...

The should have told you when you ordered it. It takes a minute to look it up.

What I have found is that if they are a multi line dealer, then they really dont know or care about Ducati's, they just have a business. A duc only shop is more money, but more service oriented...

Good, Fast, Cheap, pick TWO. There is no other way.

You DO see the real solution here, right? Buy a TORQUE WRENCH and quit breakimg stuff! Gentle hands mate! nothing on your bike need to go THAT tight!

Idk-he didn't mention prices but even assuming the duc shop was cheap, he didn't get fast or good.


Maybe it should read "Take a blind stab at one and kinda hope the customer doesn't notice"?




Local bike bar has one on the back of their shirts


"Fast

Friendly

Service

(Pick one)"

I ordered a rear brake switch for my 620 on Wednesday. My shop will have it on Tuesday.
And, they'll re-ship it to my home address at no charge.















But I'm special.

Personally i've never had a problem ordering parts ( albeit small trinkets) from either dealer i frequent ( SoCal Ducati and ProItalia).. Give Chicago Cycles the FINGER and go somewhere else.

Try DMF sponsors or forum members first [thumbsup]

I have had similar problems ordering smaller parts from local shops. Both times (two different shops) I waited well longer than the estimated delivery time before calling the shop and both times they hadn't got the part. In each of these instances, I got the impression that the part had not been ordered yet. One of the parts that I am currently waiting for was ordered back in March and I called the other day and still nothing. I finally called up Ducati Omaha who has a realy nice system for ordering OEM parts. They checked and sure enough, the parts are in stock and ready to ship from Italy. I have no idea why the other shop can't seem to get the part. Ducati Omaha has the parts on order and they should be here pretty quick.

Listen to Dave.


After a couple of experiences with my local dealerships, I gave Ducati Seattle a shot.

Very professional, very knowledgeable, extremely friendly, fast shipping, and it comes right to my door, saving me a 40 minute drive to the dealer.

Plus with the DMF discount, and no sales tax if you're out of state, the cost of shipping is offset.

When I need a dealer only part, Ducati Seattle are my go-to guys.

I used to be a Parts Manager for a Ducati Dealer, they went out of business because of piss poor management, but that's another Story, I just thought I would give you some insight from the other side of the fence, I'm not defending the poor service of the above dealer, they need a good swift boot in the Ass!

1. Ducati markup's are piss poor (I'm referring to Australia, I don't know the situation of Ducati NA) but there is very little margin to play with, Classic case, If we sold a Termi kit, we only had a small margin allowed by Ducati Australia and out of that we had to pay a 10% GST on the whole sale, so you were often left with less than 10% to live on, pay wages, bills, Etc. Not enough to run a business on!

2. Ducati Warranty parts had to purchased, installed and then claimed back, meaning if we had to purchase a part to fix your bike, the Dealer bought it (at full price) fitted it, and then had to claim the amount back, normally not an issue, but I had warranty claims stretching back up to 120 days, so I know at one stage we had a parts credit limit of $30000, we had near $20000 worth of warranty claims tying up 2/3 rd's of my parts credit, leaving me with $10000 worth of credit for a whole month of ordering parts, accessories and apparel.

3. Warranty labour payouts are crap, I watched as job after job went through the system, the best labour we ever got back was $30 for one job, the worst was $3, didn't matter that the job may have taken 3 hours, Labour content for each job was fixed. and decided by someone who I can only assume was a super-tech, or never worked on a bike, because the time allocated was just unachievable.
If you needed oil or other consumables, that was the dealers job to pay for those.

4. The longest delay I saw for parts was 2 weeks, if they didn't have in stock, I would mark the parts as VOR (Vehicle off road) and it was air freighted in, and parts that were not urgent, still were never delayed longer than 4 weeks.
And to let you in on another secret, The whole summer shut down thing (meaning no parts during that time) is a Myth, Ducati Italy still run a staff in it's Spare parts Department, I spoke to the National Parts Manager here in Australia about when I first took over, They still order parts as normal from Italy, still ship at normal intervals from Italy, the worst delay he ever saw was 2 weeks because a particular part supplier to Ducati was down to a skeleton staff for the summer break.

So again, I'm not defending the above mentioned dealer, but I will say that in my short time working within the confines of a Ducati Dealer, it has opened my eyes, I think a lot of people think that a being a Ducati dealer is all Tits and Champagne and a license to print money, but unfortunately, it's a tough market, it's very competitive, very demanding customers (sometimes to the point of being ridiculous with there demands) with very average returns.

I find that consumable or maintenance parts are in stock or received very quickly.  But crash repair parts, take forever.  I lowsided about 2 years ago and it took 6 weeks for a new kickstand.  I won't go into the shenanigans of the gas tank replacement.

But yeah, bolts are bolts, screws are screws.  Might take some scrounging around or cutting things to length, but totally do-able.  Unless it's something really special, like a kickstand bolt which I've replaced once (blue loctite ftw), but it was cheap and in stock.

off topic kind of, i bent the bolt holding my napolean mirror together and trying to figure out what replaces it.  Scouring home depot and lowes is a hassle but cheap.

thanks guys! all the commments are pretty much what i figured. MCC was always perfered (i've got other pieces there that they had IN stock) but further away. sevice was better and seemed to be more knowledgeable there  but i just got lazy and went to the closer shop and paid for that in waiting time and nothing but bad attitudes. it's not even about the time because i wasn't really in a hurry, it's the not knowing and or lying about the answers to ANY question and always blaming someone else. if the piece takes 2 months tell me that. if you screwed up and didn't order my piece the first time i came in tell me that. if my piece don't cost enough to get solo shipping for tell me that........don't lie and say "shouldn't have bought a ducati it's your own fault" or "i don't know becuase our system isn't showing anything"....which happens to be the same system that told me my piece would be there the next day and then sent a postcard a week later telling me another month. should've known what i was dealing with when 7 workers and 30 minutes later noone could tell me what type or fork oil my ducati takes (but that's a whole nuther story). i can tell you this much.....NEVER AGAIN.

is Mikey back over there?

I've been waiting since Memorial Day for 4 O rings for my oil cooler lines. If I didn't need to replace my tires, I'd be really upset that $2 worth of rubber bands would be keeping me from doing a track day.

The orings are the kind fo part you can source through Grainger or your local hose supply house. There isnt a part fo the country I have been to that didnt have a Hose man or something similar.

I tend to replace all the nuts and bolts type stuff with ARP or Poggipollini fasteners, cost about twice the OE Ducati stuff, but WELL worth it. (ok maybe 6x more if you get Ti)

You guys werent around this game back in 1995 when the reg/rec's were on world wide back order while Ducati siorted out a new vendor, while in recievership. I knew guys whose bikes were down for 4 MONTHS waitig on that one part, under warranty. Yes, some lemon law'd them. Things have changed for the better, a BUNCH.

There are a ton of dealers in the LA area, at least 2 more than we need, but a couple of them are OUTSTANDING, but they are therefore expensive. There are others that are part of a multi line dealership, and you dont get the service ideal people expect when they buy a Duc. There is at least one dealer, near to hollywood and it might be the worst in the country.. you couldnt belive the horror stories I hear out of that place! pretty scary really.

All that being said, Ducati has come a long way, and in dealing with the typical Ducati owner, thats saying alot! We all want it better, quicker, and cheaper...

Will

Just to clarify a little bit, hopefully without sounding confrontational.  Bolts are not bolts and HD and Lowes bolts might be fine for mirror  bolts  but handlebar risers and other critical parts are not a place for Chinese bolts.  A good industrial fastener supply place and motorcycle specialty shops will have real bolts made from proper materials and heat treat.

I was under the impression Home Depot and Lowes also sold grade 8 bolts. That should be more than enough. Do they not carry them?

Absolutely.  There is a major difference between high quality grade 8.8, or better bolts from a reputable place like Grainger or McMaster Carr, they also carry the o-rings mentioned above, and suppliers like MetricScrew-toolco.com, and Aarons metric screws.  Those guys carry all the various strength fasteners.  I've noticed some guys mentioned stainless screws.   Some of the Chinese ones are about half the strength of a standard Socket Head Cap Screw.  Be careful when replacing screws with stainless replacements.  Not all of them are high strength, after all, your barbeque requires quite a bit less strength than your 160 MPH bike. 

Ahhh McMaster. [thumbsup]


Bolts are also avail from Yoyodyne. ;)

you're right, I over generalized.  I wouldn't replace a mission critical fastener with something from HD/Lowes.

Me either, I just use zip-ties.

i wouldn't expect anything better from the 2 shops here in SD.

i carry 2 part JB weld with me every where i go, that and a ice cream stick so i can mix and apply

Sorry to take so long responding.  I happened to be in a HD yesterday and yes, they had some Allen socket head metric bolts "Made in the USA" that I would actually use on a motorcycle.  Not much of a selection but they did have some.  The rest of their fasteners were in my opinion a hodgepodge that I wouldn't trust.

I personally don't like HD and I admit to having a knee-jerk reaction against them, but they've put everyone else out of business here so sometimes I don't have much of a choice.   One of my concerns about their fasteners and other products is their purchasing program is high volume and very attractive to vendors and in order to get the HD account, suppliers go to extreme lengths to be the low bidder.  Not good for quality products.  Husky hand tools used to be good US made tools until they went offshore in order to get the HD account.  Anyway, I'll spare you the rest of my patented HD rant  [bang]   :)

If you go to an Orchard Supply and Hardware (OSH), it might be a CA regional thing, they will sell you 2 SHCS metric grade 8.8 screws, say 6mm 1.0 x 20mm length for about a buck, maybe $1.25.   Last time I checked, you can get a box of 100 for about $8.25.  Of course, you don't always need 100 metric cap screws of the same size. 

But you could buy a nice drill and tap set and just make everything on the bike the same size. Think of the weight savings when your tool kit is one allen wrench!  ;D

I like it!