For my first bike buying experience, I wish I could say it was better. I will caveat this review by acknowledging that some of the issues I've had are outside the dealership's control, and are faulted by Polaris' inability to supply their stores with product and parts in a timely fashion. However, there are several areas that have been less than great that were within the dealership's control, and areas that I would love to see improved.
I ordered an Indian Scout in the spring, along with several add-on parts. At that time I was told my bike would be delivered in mid June. By late June, I still had not heard from anyone and began regularly calling the dealer. The delivery date kept slipping, and each time the estimated delivery date approached, I called to get a status update. Finally after several weeks of "it should be here any day", it arrived the second week of July. Unfortunately the additional parts had not arrived, and I had to wait several more days for the reduced reach handlebars to arrive and be installed.
The day we picked it up, the dealership asked us to give them some time to finish prepping it for delivery. We delayed our trip to Annapolis, and of course got significantly delayed by traffic. By the time we arrived at the dealer, it was almost closing time. We had kept in touch with them so they knew we were delayed, and what our estimated arrival time was. The bike was out front waiting for us. However, we were essentially handed the keys and sent on our way. As we started exploring the bike, we came up with several questions about it but at that point the front door was locked and no one was around. I know the Scout is not a $30,000 touring bike, but it would have been great to have someone go over the bike with me before driving it off the lot. My husband has since bought a Roadmaster from a different Indian dealer and his experience has been 180 degrees different than mine. They spend almost an hour going over his bike with him, and even offered to do the same for me on the Scout even though I didn't purchase it from them. They have bent over backwards in all aspects, which is the customer service I wish I'd received at Chesapeake Cycles.
After riding the bike, I realized that the handlebars were installed with too high of a tilt, almost like ape hangers. I spoke with the dealership and asked about having them adjusted. They offered to squeeze us in on a Saturday morning, at which time they adjusted the handlebars to my liking. Because of the significant change in the angle however, the grips and controls were tilted down at an awkward angle. I asked the service guy about adjusting those and was told they were not adjustable on the Scouts. I went on to ride with the controls this way for a few more weeks until talking to a service guy at another Indian dealer who told me that was completely false. He offered to adjust them for me, but since I hadn't ridden the bike in, he went on to show us how to adjust them ourselves. Which we accomplished at home in less than 10 minutes.
I'm still waiting on one more part for my motorcycle. Unfortunately I never hear from dealer, even when ordered parts arrive, it takes me calling them periodically to find out the status. I feel like as a customer, I get the run around and have to 'bother' the dealership just to find out where things stand.
To be fair, the buying experience was good. The salesman was really nice, and they let us complete the financing virtually, since we live over an hour away. However, I have not been happy with the customer service after the sale and hope it improves because with the addition of several new Indian dealers in the WDC metro area, Chesapeake Cycles is looking at some competition. After all, customer service is what keeps people coming back. read more
