Tourer
Posts: 460
Centennial, CO | All,
After becoming so frustrated over the last few days by some of the reading I have done as well as my own experiences, I am starting a grass roots effort to get Mark Blackwell and company off their proverbial…
I would like all of you to take just a few minutes and write a letter to Mark Blackwell, VP - Victory Motorcycle. Now, here is the cool part…I want everyone to send the letter on the same day. I have included contact information for Mark below…so read on.
On July 15, 2009, send your letter. This way, the company is inundated with mail from all of us at the same time. This WILL make an impact especially if all of the letters are addressed to Mark Blackwell himself!
Mark Blackwell - LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-blackwell/1/277/53b
Polaris Industries, Inc.
2100 Highway 55
Medina, MN 55340
I am sure the above address will hit his corporate office. But I am not sure it will actually get through his assistant.
I am writing the following letter and would ask that you use only portions of my rant as a template if you so choose. I would rather that Mark hear all of your rants and conclusions.
Dear Mr. Blackwell,
I want to express my profound frustration in regards to Victory Warranty processes and Dealership abilities.
I purchased a 2008 Vision Tour Premium in early September, 2007. Since that time I have come to love the Victory brand and the ability of this bike. Bar none! Yes, from this standpoint I AM a satisfied customer. I will stand behind your engineering and outstanding motorcycle!
However, over the last 10 months I have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of sound WARRANTY service provided by my Dealership. This is a systemic issue that I am seeing across the country based on hundreds (if not thousands) of posts to Vision and motorcycle forums relating to the Victory Vision.
I have come to the conclusion that there MUST be a lack of care and/or understanding by your Service and Warranty Department(s) that WE (Victory Bike Owners) are the ones keeping your business alive.
Because of this, I am leery to tell my friends about the Vision and how great this bike is! The fact is, the bike is awesome but service is HORRIBLE! I will give you several examples of my issues with Grand Prix Motorsports of Colorado as well as contacting Victory directly by me:
1. The right saddlebag was not adjusted from the factory correctly. I asked to have it corrected and it was. However, it was bungled by the dealer and it has now been 10 months with several calls to Victory Warranty by Grand Prix to get this resolved.
a. This warranty issue should be resolved this week. My Tour Premium is in the service department as I write this letter.
2. The lower Valence on the Vision was broken about 3 weeks ago. I asked to have it corrected and ultimately found that I am paying for the lower valence while the dealer is gifting the labor costs to me.
a. Because this bike is babied, I find this deplorable. The part does not look like it is engineered well and broke during a long ride on a HIGHWAY!
b. I was told by my dealer that Victory will not cover this and then provided a long explanation that the economy may be the cause of the decisions that Victory is making.
When my dealer provided me with the information in 2b, I was astounded. This is NOT what I want to hear from ANY dealer in regards to your flagship motorcycle and warranty issues.
Here is an excerpt from my latest post in regards to Victory service (Posted 2009-06-16 3:37 PM (#36879 - in reply to #36853) (Vision-Riders.com):
"I keep hearing stories from all of my HD friends that I get shafted each time I take my bike in. Here is what I hear:
1. Dude...they came and got my bike...serviced it and brought it back
2. Dude...they didn't even question why the sh!tt!n thing broke...they just fixed it...NO CHARGE
3. Dude...The guy took my new part off his personal machine (no kidding...I watched him…you should have been there, it was COOL!) and put it on my bike. Got me back on the road and then he dealt with HIS bike later.
Where is this world class service I would expect with such a high end machine?"
Due to a lack of understanding of the legal ramifications of providing excerpts from other member posts on a few of the forums that I read and contribute to, I will not post any actual excerpts. However, I would encourage you to become very active in at least reading many of the postings on the Vision-Riders and TheVog.net forums to name two. They will be very enlightening to you and your staff and will directly show the lack of dealer activity which seemed to be based on the lack of service provided to them by Victory.
Sincerely and frustrated,
James C. Armagost – 720-364-2923
6367 So. Iris Way
Littleton, Colorado 80121
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Mark your calendar for JULY 15, 2009 - LONG post!