Another "what would you do" post

[psycledelic]

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.

Can they give out that kind of info?

[redxblack]

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.

[Preisker]

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.

[He Man]

Can they give out that kind of info?

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.

[Popeye the Sailor]

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?

[Statler]

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.

[duccarlos]

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?

[Statler]

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.

[strat10]

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.

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.

[strat10]

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

[Popeye the Sailor]

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.

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

[duccarlos]

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.

[strat10]

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.

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

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

I've heard nightmare stories about those integrated 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 definitely focus on them at least contacting the previous owner in regards to the service history.

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!

[Statler]

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

[duccarlos]

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   , what is their definition of service.