It happened again at another Harley Dealer

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Social Distortion · Fri Apr 21, 2006 5:38 am

hi everyone
i must have a facination w/ Harley dealerships or something.

Went to a local Harley shop here in Chicago and i was pretty excited to see all of the new bikes and clothing and such that Harley has.
Well, after about 20 minutes of looking at leather jackets, i looked at the 883 Sportsters. The Custom was pretty neat.

The salesman welcomed me and asked if i needed any support and we started talking about the Sportster.

I told him that i probably had under 50 hours of motorcycle riding under my belt and that i thought if i didnt get my V Star 650, i'd get a Sportster.
He quickly steered me to the 1200 and told me that it would be a really good fit. I continued to tell him that i didnt want to spend that much on a bike and only needed it for occassional rides on the weekends. He gave me the "you'll get bored quickly and want to move up".

Why dont they listen?
I have practically narrowed down my choices to two bikes and i like the 883....yeah, i know about commission and all, but it still made no sense to me....i'd figure that he'd just work w/ me to answer my questions and see about financing options..but instead he wants to upgrade me to a larger bike.......ohh the humanity!

On an unrelated note, i overheard a women talking to a salesman and she said that she rode a Honda, but likes the Harley leather jackets. The salesman told her that if she had a metric bike and wore a Harley jacket, she would " be looked down upon" and would be made fun of......

WOW....next time i wear my nike running shorts, i better not wear my new balance running shoes or some distance runner may poke fun of me!

Fri Apr 21, 2006 9:12 am

That salesman could use some more training. He blew a potential sale. When I was looking for a bike, a lot of salesguys blew potential sales because of how they treated me.

grymlocke · Fri Apr 21, 2006 12:08 pm

Ditto here,
I went in to look at something pretty basic to get a feel for size and fit on my 6'6" 34"+ inseam frame, (with just few miles under my belt) and they kept pushing me to decked out road kings and glides....

aark!! I just wanted to look at dyna's or soft tail standards....

the buel dealer left me alone to look at the ulysese (i like that bike because of that..)

BigChickenStrips · Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:50 pm

i have had that experiance 2 times.

me- im looking for a low hp starter bike

sales jerk- we have this katana 600

me- doesnt that have 90+ hp?

sales jerk- yea, but its what everyone starts on

Shiv · #5 Unread post by **Shiv** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:19 pm

Hm...I really haven't noticed that in the dealerships I go into.

In fact, in the local one here (I have a 180 mile trip to go home and stop at various dealers along the way) I was looking at a helmet and the sales guy goes "Dude, you gotta buy way more gear than that" (I was wearing shorts and sandals at the time).

That's all he said. He didn't direct me to their clothing section or anything, just informed me that I was gonna need more gear (which I already knew). I thought that was pretty cool.

And in every dealership I've been in so far they've never tried to tell me that I should upgrade. I'd walk in, a dealer would lunge for me, and I'd tell them I was only interested in looking and I'm only interested in a GS 500 or EX500 or a similarily sized bike. They've never tried to sell me a bigger bike than a 500. In fact the one in Conroe showed me over to a Ninja 250 instead of the ZXR sitting next to it (and I'm pretty sure he didn't make a mistake in his directions lol).

Anyways I still await the pushy salesperson with baited breath. I'm gonna have fun with that one.

Myself002 · #6 Unread post by **Myself002** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 3:14 pm

I went the other day to a dealership and everyone just left me alone. No one to talk to... I felt lonely.

Fri Apr 21, 2006 3:22 pm

Myself002 wrote:I went the other day to a dealership and everyone just left me alone. No one to talk to... I felt lonely.

That happened to me at three Honda dealerships. Which is why I have a Yamaha. I got terrific help from Pacific Yamaha/BMW. I not only bought my bike there, but quite a few assorted other things as well.

I was in there last week to pick up something and was ogling a bigger bike. One of the salesmen (they recognize me now) asked me if I was sure I was ready to move up. They are good people there.

Myself002 · #8 Unread post by **Myself002** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 3:36 pm

blues2cruise wrote:
Myself002 wrote:I went the other day to a dealership and everyone just left me alone. No one to talk to... I felt lonely.
That happened to me at three Honda dealerships. Which is why I have a Yamaha. I got terrific help from Pacific Yamaha/BMW. I not only bought my bike there, but quite a few assorted other things as well.

I was in there last week to pick up something and was ogling a bigger bike. One of the salesmen (they recognize me now) asked me if I was sure I was ready to move up. They are good people there.

Unfortunaly this happened at the only Suzuki Dealership within my area that I'm aware of. I really dont want to go into Boston to get a bike.

Fri Apr 21, 2006 3:48 pm

Are you far away from Boston? Maybe you can plan a daytrip one time and take the whole day to visit bikestores.

Yes, that blue bike you want is pretty.

Myself002 · Fri Apr 21, 2006 4:16 pm

I'm only about 30-40 minutes away. I wouldnt know were to shop in Boston either lol