CONSUMER ALERT...!
BEWARE OF AFTERMARKET SHOPS
Please Read...
Over the past few months we have seen some of our customers, in an effort to save money, going to aftermarket shops posing as repair facilities with Harley-Davidson certified technicians. With the yearly changes in technology, Harley-Davidson requires our technicians to be factory certified every 2-5 years to stay current with new models. Our technicians must be certified in chassis, electrical, and diagnostics plus have 5 years of dealership experience at an authorized Harley-Davidson dealership before they can be called a Master of Technologies.
What this means for you is that if your bike was built in the last 2-5 years the person posing as Harley-Davidson Factory Certified Technician doesn’t really know to much about your bike. Beware!! Although these shops may be cheaper, this is not the place to take your $20,000 investment. These shops do not offer factory trained technicians in fact, they are most likely out of the loop, and not currrent on the latest tech tips, service bulletins, recalls, and product updates. These shops do not have access to the computer technology that the motor company sends out exclusively to only authorized dealers.
Aftermarket shops can afford to charge a lower rate to service your bike because they don’t pay to go to the factory to get proper training. These shops are most likely not using genuine Harley-Davidson parts and oils to service your bike. By using cheaper parts increases the likeliness that you are going to have something go wrong - which leads to another issue...WARRANTY. If something should go wrong with your bike while under warranty, and the motor company requests the dealer to provide service history records for your bike, which they can’t because you have had it serviced by an independent shop, Harley-Davidson will have the right to deny your warranty claim.
Although your motorcycle may have a invalid warranty, or may not be under warranty anymore, this does not mean that you can’t get assistance from the motor company. If a dealership thinks something (should) be covered by warranty, and is not, most dealerships are given an allowance from Harley-Davidson for these unusual circumstance repairs - at no cost to the customer.
The reason we have written this article is because we have seen the unacceptable work of these independent "repair" shops. To list a few common problems, we have seen custom handlebar jobs come in because aftermarket shops could do it cheaper, that used butt connectors and electrical tape to wire the handlebars. Also, brake lines and clutch cables that are so tight you could play a pretty good rendition of “Stairway to Heaven” on them. Turn signals that only work part of the time because they chose to use pieces of wire laying around that are not long enough or they don’t have a good connection. Throttle cables that get into a bind when you turn the handlebars all the way to the stop. The last thing you want to happen when you twist the throttle is to have it stick and take off uncontrollably possibly causing an accident. We have also seen a number of bikes come in and the nuts and bolts don’t match because the technician stripped one out and didn’t have the correct one to replace it.
We don’t think your $20,000 investment should look like some inexperienced kid was working on it and used what ever he had laying around to fix it.
Harley-Davidson dealerships have all the specialty tools, manuals, and computers, and knowledge to fix your bike the correct way. Every dealer invests a lot of money into sending their tech’s to school to learn the newest electronics and changes that the factory has made since the previous model year. They also spend a lot of money on specialty tools that are only offered exclusively to dealers and not the general public. For example, one of these tools is called the Digital Technician. It is a laptop computer that the dealers buy from Harley-Davidson that is pre-loaded with different electrical diagnostic tests and troubleshooting guides. These tools help the technicians resolve electrical problems, drivability problems, and they check for any recalls or updates the factory has released.
In short, there are several reasons to take your bike to an authorized Harley-Davidson dealership instead of some guy who has not been Harley-Davidson Factory Certified and doesn’t have the specialty tools needed to fix your bike the correct way. We will bet that he will not guarantee his work like a Harley-Davidson dealer will.
