buying local

[trevormezz]

heres one to think about.
have a customer buy a 2009 d8 out of state because he got a good snowcheck deal! customer had 2 year warranty that ended nov 2010. customer thought he bought a 4 year warranty when he snow checked out of state, turns out he didnt and only bought a 2 year, any way, customer comes to me and needs tope end rebuilt at 2500 hard mtn miles. had engine update kit done at 1200. I also went out of my way and got a clutch warrantied via goodwill warranty last yr for him and didnt charge him a thing. Always been good to the customer, give him discounts etc!!

Now he needs a rebuild at 2500 miles polaris wont warranty it and I refuse to pay for the work to be done out of my own pocket. Offer customer discount on parts, he wont except that.

So now he calls pissing and moaning and threating me with lawsuits and all sorts of things, because i wont cover it. threating to bad mouth me and so on. I would have helped him out but now hes on his own told him to kick rocks and go find parts somewhere else.

So in this rant im trying to say, with all these snow check prices, and better deals, think about your local dealer, think about your local economy, think about when your sled breaks and you need it fixed asap where you are going to need to go to get it fixed quick.
In my shop if you bought from me you get discounts and go to the front of the line always!!
THE BEST DEAL TODAY!! DOESNT ALWAYS HELP YOU DOWN THE ROAD!!

thanks and thats my 2 cents

 

[Avi8tormd]

I agree. A good dealer is worth more money! Carls Cycle is worth it!

 

[smittys800]

Well, if it's outta FACTORY warr. then all bets are off!!
One thing I have a hard time understanding, is a warrantee is good no matter where you bought it, correct? So why does an outta town guy get the cold shoulder when his ride is down.
If we did that in our line of work, would be outta work quick.
I do see your point though ... buy local, support local incomes, yada yada yada
But these days, most are looking for the best bang for the few bucks they have left, and to get put at the bottom of the list cuz you did'nt buy local is not cool, at least to me.
Now your customer needs a wake up call, should have been aware of the warrantee he had, and it is NOT your fault he was ill informed when he bought.
I have seen a lot of sale reps leave some key info out just to make the sale, that in itself is not cool.
Just my copper input,
Smitty

 

[scratley]

I see your point. But there are alot of us that ride in a different part of the country than where we live. I have just switched from Doo to Polaris. I have never had a problem getting my warrenty work done anywhere i took my Doo. I would hope that doesn't change with polaris. I guess if i took my sled to dealer that put me in the back of line just becuase i didn't buy my sled there i would be dissapointed in the way they run there business. Part of the price we pay for a sled is warrenty. And polaris or any builder expects every dealer to treat us all the same. To bad it doesn't happen that way. I would think you would expect the buyer of one of your sleds to be treated well if he was on a trip and needed service.

 

[xc6rider]

I'm snowchecking a '12 from a local dealer. just gotta find one small enough for my liking, and one that's gonna seem willing/wanting my buisness.

Bought a '10 D8 in Nov. at a great price from a large dealer, and both trips I tried to make out west were spoiled due to the bottom of the list theory with local dealers.... (VR and EGT sensor)

The unfortunate part these days, are that you now have to plan ahead for WHEN your sled needs warranty or repair, not IF. The deal I got wasn't worth paying for a sled I couldn't ride at all.

Gonna find myself a local dealer that appreciates my buisness.

 

[trevormezz]

I see your point. But there are alot of us that ride in a different part of the country than where we live. I have just switched from Doo to Polaris. I have never had a problem getting my warrenty work done anywhere i took my Doo. I would hope that doesn't change with polaris. I guess if i took my sled to dealer that put me in the back of line just becuase i didn't buy my sled there i would be dissapointed in the way they run there business. Part of the price we pay for a sled is warrenty. And polaris or any builder expects every dealer to treat us all the same. To bad it doesn't happen that way. I would think you would expect the buyer of one of your sleds to be treated well if he was on a trip and needed service.

im not talking about your out of stater coming to ride and need his sled fixed quick. I have done that for multiple people because i would want the same treatment. Im talking about your local guy who drove 600 miles to save 600 bucks and then wants you to be his best friend and "hook him up". I know lots of dealers put you in the back of the line if you didnt buy from them, but i would help and out of state visitor any day. if anyone is coming to cali to ride let me know ill help u any way i can!

 

[dmkhnr]

Hey trevormezz
You wouldnt happen to have a pro 800 piston on the shelf? Would ya??

 

[rmk727]

seems you can tell the shoppers mind set easily; by god I will buy what I want where ever it's cheapest but it's bad business for the local guy if he then doesn't bend over to take care of me, first if an out of area customer has problems they should be taken care of asap as a jesture of good faith and hoping that my customers are treated like that when they have out of area problems but if you shop price only and don't concider service why do you think you should get service, in our bad business shop the price guy is last infact will stop work to go fix a good customers stuff cuz he is the one putting food on our plate, makes for more loyal customers that way, if it's not warranty the shopper is headed for ebay and Dennis Kirk anyway. not to say that if we are out of say pro rmks we will then try and find them one and if they purchase it we will stand by them just as if it was purchased from us cuz it wasn't their fault we were out.

 

[scratley]

I snowchecked my new pro from a dealer 7 miles from my door. I live in MN 9 months out the year. And in Utah 3 months a year. My local dealer will never see the sled after i buy it. But in all fairness i did check prices in my riding area. They were close to 2 grand higher. So it was a no brainer. Tri-city will get all my aftermarket business though, and all warrenty work will be done with them. I am sure you guys treat everyone fair. But i have heard of dealers not treating customers well for the reason mentioned. Hope that is all in the past. But i do see it here in MN with local dealers. My buds have brought there sleds to a rival dealers.... And been told to go back to where they bought it. Crazy i know but it does happen.

 

[PJ-Hunter]

I see it both ways. Shopping local just landed me a great deal and customer service. But I got lucky.

I think that if local business want local support, then they should match or at least compete with pricing. I'm assuming that this fellow went to Rexburg and ended up saving a ton of money on the sled. Heck, I'd travel to save 2500-3500 on a $12000 sled, IN A HEARTBEAT!

That being said, that fellow is dead wrong by threatening you because you won't fix his sled for free. Warranty is exhausted, that is pretty damn simple. The cost is now put on his shoulders. IMO, a top end rebuild isn't that expensive either. He needs to stop being a whiner.

 

[aebsledder]

Buy Local

I am a huge proponent of buying local. I hate Wal-Mart. On sleds...Unfortunately where I live in Bozeman, the Polaris dealer was the Ryan Leaf of the snowmobile world. Epic Failures. I do all my business in West Yellowstone, which is about a 2 hour drive. Low and behold, they are now tats up. Why can't we all have Carl's Cycles? I was pretty impressed with their outfit when I was in Boise this summer.

 

[veritascs]

I am a huge proponent of buying local. I hate Wal-Mart. On sleds...Unfortunately where I live in Bozeman, the Polaris dealer was the Ryan Leaf of the snowmobile world. Epic Failures. I do all my business in West Yellowstone, which is about a 2 hour drive. Low and behold, they are now tats up. Why can't we all have Carl's Cycles? I was pretty impressed with their outfit when I was in Boise this summer.

I try to buy local as well...however, I'm in Bozeman too. I ended up snowchecking in Butte as it's the closest and they gave me a decent deal.

 

[ProRmKaren]

Some customers think they deserve everything for nothing. Trevmezz has earned our business wether it is in warrenty or out. That customer is a putz. Me and my husband are always treated fair and appreciated for our business. We even get an occasional call asking how everything is going with our sleds.

 

[AndrettiDog]

PJ is right about the amount.

I tried to buy local last year. The dealer told me he wanted MSRP on a Pro. I told him I would snow check two if he would work with me on it. He told me to put down the $1000 and we would discuss the price in the fall, when the sleds came in. Seriously?

So I bought through a connection out of state. Not far from my parents house so it wasn't a big deal to travel there once. For two sleds we saved $3000 (we didn't have to pay tax). I know all dealers are not like this. In fact another dealer in another county did try to get our business by dealing with us. In fact, I will probably go to him in the future for all the reasons trevormezz stated.

I think it's tough because dealers don't stand to make a ton on new sleds. They make their money on accessories, mods and warranty work. I will tell you, sledders are among the cheapest people I know. They will buy a $10000+ machine but not join a club or some don't even register their sleds.

 

[PalousePoo]

This customer does sound a little crazy. Does he think you are lying to him saying he has no warranty? He really expects YOU to fix it out of your pocket? He must have another side to this story that we are missing, or, he is a BIG JERK.

 

[beamslayer]

It sounds like this customer is not used to Poo's way of doing business spend $10,000 or better and than expect it to last more than 2000 miles. What was he thinking???Maybe had this engine been built to spec the first time it would not need rebuilding every 1200 miles.Not your fault not his either but he is the one who dished out the mula and it does say polaris on the side of it.

My wife and I are in the people business also and have been for most of are adult life [ you can not please everyone all you can do is treat them the best you can and drink heavily ]So quit your whinning and go put on your big boy panties and gives us a smoking deal on a new Pro [retro 163 for me]

 

[scratley]

Lmao! You Polaris guys are all right. Maybe it won't be such a hard transition after all. Whew! Glad i never did any brand bashing. Lol!

 

[TIM]

the funny thing about warranty work is this. you don't get paid for it. you get a credit against futre purchases. and that credit, if you get it is weeks out. so the dealer does the job and submits it, the manufacturer has to decide if they will honor it or not. so the dealer has done work and won't get any reimubrsement for about a month.

also with the economy more customers are trying to pull fast ones and the manufacturers are catching on.

one thing to thing about, if you don't buy local, who is going to sponsor your kids ball teams, or donate to the charity raffle to benefit something. Who is going to employ people in your hometown, who is going to pay the taxes for the street repairs. etc, etc, etc,

 

[skibreeze]

PJ is right about the amount.

I tried to buy local last year. The dealer told me he wanted MSRP on a Pro. I told him I would snow check two if he would work with me on it. He told me to put down the $1000 and we would discuss the price in the fall, when the sleds came in. Seriously?

So I bought through a connection out of state. Not far from my parents house so it wasn't a big deal to travel there once. For two sleds we saved $3000 (we didn't have to pay tax). I know all dealers are not like this. In fact another dealer in another county did try to get our business by dealing with us. In fact, I will probably go to him in the future for all the reasons trevormezz stated.

I think it's tough because dealers don't stand to make a ton on new sleds. They make their money on accessories, mods and warranty work. I will tell you, sledders are among the cheapest people I know. They will buy a $10000+ machine but not join a club or some don't even register their sleds.

I agree. My 08 Dragon was bought locally and got a good price. Too bad that dealer is not around anymore, I loved having a shop 45 minutes away and in a place that was convienent to get to for me.

I just bought an 11 Etec Doo midseason and tried to buy one locally, but the dealer that had one wanted $2,000 plus tax and setup, or about $3,000 more than where I bought it. I'm all about supporting local dealers when it's fair to both parties, but I'm not going to bend over for the privelige.

 

[ProRmKaren]

This customer does sound a little crazy. Does he think you are lying to him saying he has no warranty? He really expects YOU to fix it out of your pocket? He must have another side to this story that we are missing, or, he is a BIG JERK.

Jerk