Just wondering what sort of dramas have people have had when discussing a warranty issue with there local dealer. 

Interesting comment, a guy at wk took his street 500 in for a simple warranty claim that the dealer picked up on service. As he rode out he heard a crunch and grinding noise, same as you the bolts on the rear pulley have come loose and damaged the belt and scratched plenty around the rear. The dealer took the bike off him , gave him a fat bob to ride and now waiting for the parts under warranty. Dealer is Sunshine Coast Harley

Old mate still has the loan bike , now been a week and no sign of his parts to fix his Street 500. 

HD Ausralia will just put it back onto the dealer. It's up to the dealer to warrent all claims. 

One question,

Did you paint the wheels and or the pulley sprocket?  If you did you need to use new bolts.

The mated surface has to be free of paint/powerdercoat too.

Seen it time and time again. The bolts WILL back out if there is any paint on there. Bolt Lockers wont help much either (the hardcase ones) 

Now, Brash is onto an issue here. And absolutely correct, as I do know fro experience and , experience is as good as any manwell....

Like you Jack I had issues trying to get legitimate issues sorted under warranty at one of the two dealers nearby (wink wink shadow).......took myself, my bike and my wallet to the other one and the difference was night and day. All you can do is shop around and hopefully find a dealer who is willing to work with you in a reasonable fashion.

Jesus cropduster, did you go same school as me. 

I just had my 10000km service done with the bike just ticking over 2 years old. Dealer said that I need to keep an eye on my brake master cylinder as it is showing signs of wear and eventually the brake light will not activate. I nearly fell over. When I asked is it normal for a 2 year old bike with 10 000km on the clock to have a dodgy master cyclinder I was told "yeah it can be". They said if it happens while under warranty they will cover it. Thats big of them considering the bike only had a week to go until the warranty expired. Imagine buying a Toyota or similar and having a worn brake master cylinder at 2 years old with low km's. FFS the bike is still brand new in my opinion. Anyway they recorded the problem on my service receipt so when it does fail I'm guessing Ill be going to war with HD and reporting my dissatisfaction to anyone that will listen.

It can't be hard for government to create legislation forcing manufacturers to honour their warranties, they sell a product with a promise it will be serviceable for a set period if the consumer folows maintenance schedule set out by them. The ACCC doesn't have enough power or resources to force them to comply so the rules need to be changed to remove the wriggle room and technicalities they use to avoid their responsibility, meaning they can no longer hide behind a loophole that forces consumers having to take legal action if they want justice. They know most people won't have the resources to hire lawyers and spend time trying to recover a few thousand in costs for repairing their goods ( I know it can be lots of moey but small shit to big corporations ). Maybe they could create a register of refused warranty claims where if enough of the same problems show up the ACCC would have the power to force a mandatory recall on the problem, given the recall could cost millions spending a few thousand to fix a customers goods without argument would look to be the better option and the corporation might lean on the agents and dealers to be a bit more cooperative and even proactive. It is a lovely dream and not likely but imagine if all manufacturers were forced to back their products properly the quality would improve or we might at least get our monies worth.

The agent or seller is the final point of contact so a customer will hold them ultimately resposible for fixing the problem, that said what I meant by the manufacturer leaning on them to solve the problem was opposed to now where they seem to encourage them to try and get out of fixing the issue.  The manufacturer is the one who must make good on warranty by supporting the seller to fix problems and covering all costs associated with repairs or even replacement being they are the ones who who make the products and issue the warranty not the seller and they are the ones any legislation should be aimed at. In this case Harley prices its self in the high end prestige brand but is struggling to compete with cheaper foreign clones and so if they are to survive must step up and offer exceptional service and backup its no good trying to change the product to attract new buyers if that product is not reliable or at least backed up by that service to show value for money. The idea that once it out of the factory our job is done has to change and if governments have to force them then so be it but better if pride in their product and loyalty to their customer base naturally drove it and may even draw the new generation of life long buyers.

If I had spent $30k-$40k on a  bike only to have the dealer not abide by the warranty I would consider that a personal issue and treat it as such - enough said.  As bugs bunny puts it 'this is a declaration of war'

As an aside, it’s interesting that some in the car industry now argue a five year warranty should be the standard noting Hyundai, Jeep etc have it as standard. Kia has seven. Admittedly they all went from 3-5-7 for marketing purposes (for Jeep there was no choice due to such bad customer service and reliability issues). And as plenty have written in this thread ‘having’ a warranty and actually having something ‘covered’ under warranty are sometimes two different things.

Fair trading, and for that matter the ACCC are bound to work within consumer guidelines, suffice to say if the Dealer Warranty is that well worded you'll get bugger all when it comes to a claim, as mentioned above it's the Dealer "only" that may take the issue further [on the basis of customer service].

What this does represent (now given we no longer manufacture in Australia)...an will rely solely on imports for vehicles and bikes...!  Is the urgent need to introduce "Lemon Law's"
to remove any issue with warranty claims! Dealers need to be held accountable for our "hard earned" and the only way I see it I a robust warranty claim process i.e Lemon Law application!

Just my thoughts, but would be nice to get a collective [cars/bikes] together to hunt down a federal member to promote this!

Cheers S

Recently had to replace the clutch I bought Easter last year - 13 months old. Ring gear broke a tooth.