Ducati Monster Forum

First off, Im the proud owner of an 07 S4RS. Love the bike!

After researching S4RS for a month it came down to two bikes, one a private owner and one from the dealer. I ended up getting the one from the dealer

After a quick and easy transaction I rode off the lot and straight to the mountains. Huge grin on my face quickly turned to terror as the seat latch let go pulling out of a corner. After cleaning myself off, I re-latched the seat and rode off again, only to have it happen again. Riding home, I get pulled over by the Popo. Tail light was jacked and not working. After writing me a fixit ticket the cop said "beatiful bike" and let me go on my way. A few days later I took the bike to the dealer and they said it was due to the tail chop and said the tail light used was bad, and to tall causing the seat to not latch properly. After replacing the tail light and grinding down the light I was back on my way.
The reason I got the bike from the dealer is the promise of fully servicing their bikes, and checking them out. How do you miss a bad tail light?

The second reason for getting the bike was that it was owned by a personal friend of the sales guy and said the bike was meticuluosly maintained, and he had all the stock parts and will get me those. After a month I have not recieved any parts, and they have no idea where they are. besides this, they cannot track down the service history of the bike, and the service manager does not believe the 7500 service was done, but he is not sure.

So, now I have no rear pegs to take the GF on a ride, I have no idea if the oil was ever changed, and I need to take it in for a 1200.00 dollar service. The bike had 8200 on it when I bought it.

I absolutely love the bike, and not getting the stock parts in writing, I am letting that one go, but the service is a big deal, thats 1200 bucks on a bike I just paid 10 grand for.....Geeeez.

Headed to the dealer tomorow to start pregnant doging, any advise?

thanks

Never trust a seller, be it a private seller or dealer. Always give the bike a once over to make sure everything is working.

If the bike was serviced at the shop, they better have the records.

This is my first Ducati, never even dreamed of a 1200.00 service. On the dealer web site it says all bikes are serviced before selling.

If the seat latch still gives you problems you can add washers under the latch to bring it up a little.  Many of us have had to do that because of changing seats.  Never heard of it it from a taillight.  Although my taillight is very snug under the seat, much more than stock once I did my chop.

As for the stock parts I would keep pushing that.  I mean at least the passenger pegs.  
Always good to change the oil for peace of mind.  It is inexpensive and just too easy not to do yourself.

When you go back make sure they make it really clear on if it had the service. Have them contact the previous owner.  I doubt they do a full service on every bike before selling it. (oil, belts, valves, ect ect)

Never ever buy a used bike from a dealer unless you have no choice. Its not their bike, thye dont care.

If the website says it is, and they dont know if its been serviced, ask nicely for hte 7500 mile service to be performed for free.

if they refuse, then tell them you want the contact info for the orignal owner right then and there so you can ask him if the service was performed. DO NOT LEAVE until you get that information. If they say they;ll call you back, they never will. theres a milliono ther thigns going on, and youre the least of their worries. Maybe the owner did it himself. once you know if the service was performed, then you can either walk away and push for the pegs (i doubt youll get them anyway). Or you request they perform it for free. Let them know if you have to pay $1200 for service that should of been done as their policy states, then you have no problem hireing a lawyer and getting the bike returned and recovering the fees. OR they can just do the service. obviously the dealer did not service the bike.

I dont like playing games with dealers, and a $1200 service is a sizeable chunk of change, for me atleast and really, i would not hire a lawyer over that in real life, but it never hurts to strong arm them a little bit. it doesnt cost them much to service the bike anyway. As long as you dont come off like an asshole, and all you sincerly want is to get your bike serviced like they promised i think they will do you right.

At the end of the day its a buisness deal and there are no such thing as friends when it comes to buying a used bike. Have everything ready at the point of transaction or not. thats it. I would of shown up there with cash ready to buy the bike and if the pegs were not there, it would of been deducted from the sale price right there. or they can just pull it off another bike.

Yeah, I guess I fell for it big time. Ill update this after my trip to talk to the service manager tomorow. I really fell for the "I know the owner personally" routine. I guess thats why the sales guy is no longer there.


did that, still pops out sometimes.

I guess the policy can be left up to interpretation, they claim all bikes are inspected and serviced by their world class service department. We shall see, but missing a breaklight being out doesnt seem to inspected by me.

The tail light "could" have went out after you drove off... you can kiss that one off.

The service is indisputable, they did it or the didn't. If they say they service the bikes and can't prove it was serviced to your satisfaction, then they should do it now for free.  Period. 

Then you make up your mind if they ever see your bike again...  service is the cash cow for dealers, and they shouldn't alienate you as a future service customer.   

I hope you can work it out.  Just be polite but firm and tell them what needs to be done--that always works for me!  Good luck.

what dealer is this anyway?

print this out and take it to them.  If they don't fess-up then send a complaint letter to the State Attorney General ASAP but do mention that to them - watch how fast they jump, if they care of course.

And BBB

AFAIK, BBB doesnt have the power to do anything on them. the Attorney general though. bazing.

but dont be an asshole agressive nature guy while you do this.

play the "i want to work with you guys and get this settled, but youre leaving me no choice" act.

the BBB is a joke.  companies pay to become members, hence the outcome is never bite the hand that feeds you.  Attorney General and the licensing division should be your route.  I'm already an asshole so the above post was meant for me I guess.  ;D

i have found that my tail chop makes the bike more prone to having the tail light/break light bulb burn out. I suspect it has something to do with the vibrations, and the way the seat rests in the lilght.

and +1 on the washers. if its still not working, try a few more. usually, by raising the latch mechanism a bit higher, you can get it into the right position after a tail chop.

Thanks so much everyone. I am going into the dealer tomorow, and bringing my nice guy hat. I usually am to a fault anyway. I'll wait and see what they say. I would be very happy if I walk out with a tune, rear pegs and the service history.

is this a Ducati dealer? is there another dealer nearby? once you get them to do the service IF they do the service, have another Ducati dealer give it a once over.

Can they give out that kind of info?

Sales guy was acting like the previous owner was his BFF, so I suppose he could get in touch with the guy if he wanted.

Regardless, the shadiness of this transaction would keep me from being a repeat customer. Good luck.

I don't see anything shady going on.   Taillight?  Big deal, about .50 cents for a bulb, oh wait, $15.00 for a Ducati bulb, but they will probably give it to you for free.   My little grey Duc had some wiring issues when i bought it, rode it about 10 minutes before it ate the fuel pump wiring,  the dealer was 90 miles away, they came and got it, I picked it up the first time, it did it again, pretty quick, they fixed it again, then it started cutting out real bad on the freeway, that turned out to be the sidestand safety switch.   They also fixed that, all gratis.    They could have hung me out to dry, I didn't have a leg to stand on, it was a used bike, as is, no warranty, but with that kind of response to any problems I had, I'll definitely buy another bike from them. 

See what their reaction is.    Instead of getting all fired up about maybe being ripped off, going in there and demanding stuff from them, go talk to them.   I've never gotten any kind of good service by going and demanding stuff, threatening to report them to BBB or anyone else.   I'm pretty sure they would like you to buy another bike from them, or some parts, or maybe even service your bikes for you.   It is in their best interest to help you get your bike straight, any maybe even pay for the fix-it ticket, since they aren't freebies any more, at least here in CA.

But then again, maybe they saw you coming and ripped you off.

I dont think they can, but they have the info, which means they can call for you. which is why im saying dont leave until you get confirmation about the status of the bike.

You can get them to dial it, and leave the guy a msg with the new owners contact info. And if he doesnt  call back or if the dealer doesnt get back to you, then it becomes mroe and mroe serious.

I play nice submissive guy the first few times i ask for something, i understand that the dealer is busy and there are lower thigns on their priority list. however it doesnt mean you can ignore the problem, you can take a bit longer though.

If you start to show me you ignore it, then yea, im going to be an asshole no doubt. and if you dont like it, fine we can do this the hard way.

That how you got your new tank so quick?

I think the stock parts are the most likely solvable issue.

By "service their bikes" before selling it could just be an oil change and checking the tire pressure.  Unless the 7,500 service was specifically included or promised it was done with documentation, that's likely out as a reason to pregnant dog.  (unless they assured it was done and records would be provided).

If they promised service history docs and now can't find them, well..... perhaps pressure to have them take the bike back as not having them significantly lowers the value of the bike.

Since they promised stock parts and now can't find them, they can purchase new versions of the missing stock parts and give them to you....or take the bike back.

Look over all the documents you signed when buying the bike.  See what you agreed to that was different than what the guy said verbally.

I always live by the mantra "if it's not written, it wasn't said". I'm sure that the dealer would not document something like providing all stock parts in their usual agreements. Other than losing a customer, would there be any legal recourse here?

There's some possible recourse, but it's never what the buyer realy wants.

If it were me I'd be pushing stock parts and service history since those were to be provided.  If neither of those are going to happen you have some decisions.

I'd personally settle for stock parts and a very heavily discounted 7,500 service figuring the service records don't exist... but that's just me.  Everyone's time value is different for fighting these things.

make the beast with two backsing with the tailight doesn't help the argument to negate the sale..if it's heading that way stop riding it and don't work on it/modify it anymore.

The big deal about the tail light is not that it was a .50 cent bulb. (Actually it was a $100.00 LED and they did fix it) What bothers me is that they will sell a bike that has a bad tail light. It tells me that they did not even look at the bike.

After paying them a visit, the Service manager says he is not familiar with the bike at all, and has no idea how this one got past the service. Calling the general manager tomorow. Who knows, maybe I will get somewhere.

I seem to be stuck in the middle here. My sales guy no longer works there, the service department has no idea about this bike, and nobody seems to have the time to deal with it. The only thing I have going for me is that they do know who owns the bike, and the service manager is going to hunt down the history. It has been confirmed that the 7500 mile service was not done.

Im not going to beat a dead horse here, but they put their "World Class Service department" in my face as a reason to buy this bike, and in reality they didnt even touch it. No oil change, no saftey check, nothing. I have purposely left out the name of this dealer, but I can assure you  that it is a well known Ducati dealer. I can tell you that if things go south this week, you will know the name. Thanks for all your tips, and I really apreciate the support of the Ducati crowd. I got a lot of advise form the local boys up at the top of the mountain yesterday.  Together we can really make these dealers responsible for what they do.

Even through all of this, Whats most important is this Motorcycle makes me grin form ear to ear.

(https://lh5.ggpht.com/_j9_bS1NavEU/TGAyPpxy2FI/AAAAAAAADgk/Kso21bSRmtE/s720/duc1.jpg)

Not to be difficult, but, did you check to see if it worked before you left?

I've heard nightmare stories about those integreated tail lights. I see you point Strat about at least looking at the bike before selling it, but to their defense, that is not a stock part. I think you should defnitely focus on them at least contacting the previous owner in regards to the service history.

This post is not to slam the dealer. (not yet anyway) Its to get advise on how to procede. Its my first Ducati, and as I see from this board, you guys are the experts. :)

I didn't. The way I found out it wasn't working was when I got pulled over the same day.

Just to be clear, I really don't care about the tail light. I agree about it being an aftermarket part and not reliable. In fact, they fixed it for free. I own a Mitsubishi Evo, and have modded it to high heaven and totally understand that if somethin breaks its my issue. My point is that they didn't check it. The service history is the most important thing. I have a good feeling that they will be able to provide it.

Quote from their site In big bold letters!
All of our pre-owned bikes are safety inspected and serviced by our industry leading service department. So you can buy with confidence knowing that our team stands behind our products all the way!

What's  the time frame here?  When did you buy the bike?

So lets hope they stand behind their product in this case.

Now on to the definition of service. I would think that the most basic service provided to any vehicle would be change of oil/filter, fluids and testing that brakes and other important systems work properly. If they performed any of these on that bike, they should have a record of it. So basically you should ask the manager, in a nice way  ;D , what is their definition of service.

Ive been dealing with this for 2 months. Its a little hard for me, I work in Seattle, but live in Orange County CA. They dont seem to be the best at returning calls, and its allways me calling back.


The service manager admits "I never even looked at that bike"

Just thought I would update this thread, needless to say its been a nightmare, but its over now. The dealership finally gave in to my harrasment and gave me the full 15,000 mile service for 200 bucks, took it and ran. The spare parts are gone, nothing they can do about that. Registration was finally given to me, and they saftey checked the bike (fixed the turn signal and brakes) and fixed the seat. I do feel good, and the bike runs awesome! They said they found some tight valves, so its good I had it done.



Now off to find a better dealer! Thanks for all your help.

I think I would have put up with all that shit for a $200 valve job at 15k miles.  obviously there's a dealer north of you pretty easy to get to but you get to take the 405 or the 5 [bang] [bang] [bang] [bang]

I think I might know the dealer of which you speak!  I had a bad service experience at a OC dealer and they seemed okay with losing my business after I explained my dissatisfaction.

Are you still looking for passenger pegs?  What do those go for?

Joel

Not sure I've ever seen a used bike at a dealership that wasn't owned by the sales guy's good friend.  [roll]

Im thinking Newport Beach Ducati, they seem like a good group.


Brand new they wanted like 400 bucks! I got a set from a member of this board for much cheaper, they fit great off of a S2R



I know, a sucker is born everyday.

Glad you got most of that straightened out. I guess it's inevitable there will be some not so good dealers. I have an uneasy relationship with my local dealer even though I buy parts and accessories from him...I just won't buy a bike. Besides it was nice to ride 100 miles back home in the rain KNOWING it's on a Duc. Hope you have many more ear to ear grins with your S4RS!