Nowadays, there should be no excuse for a major, customer facing company to not answer phone calls, emails and letters within a day or two. Staff absence due to holidays should be covered by others, and if this is not possible then a 'sorry not available for a few days' message should be made available to the customer to keep them informed. Non/late reply to customer contact is THE biggest contributor to a company getting a reputation for bad customer service. Once a company earns this reputation it will take years to get rid of it again. Most good companies know this and they will do their utmost to not piss their customers off by leaving them in the dark, especially when the issue involves a high value product.
Sounds like the dealer giving excuses as you say they have had the bike for 4 weeks but only requested help over the last 7 days?
I agree I think the your dealer hasn't been honest with you. I'd ring other dealers, explain the problem with the bike and ask how long it would take to get the parts and complete the job, if they give you a decent time line then you'll know it's the dealer and not Ducati UK.
Seems nothing has changed since 2001 when I had a valve drop into the engine on my 500 mile old Ducati 748S. It was only a few months old, so back to the Ducati Dealership it went who then had the bike for about 4 months before they fixed it. It was my sole means of transport at the time and neither the dealership or Ducati UK gave 2 hoots about any sort of compensation, loan bike or anything at all. I paid a premium price for the bike and yet if I had bought a Skoda instead I would have had a much better after sales service including a courtesy car to get me to work whilst the car was in for repair. Afterwards I discovered that the reason the dealer took so long to repair the bike was that it was spring time and everyone wanted their bikes serviced ready for the summer. Apparently they get no money out of warranty repairs and so kept putting my bike at the back of the list whilst they cashed in on paying customers.
Its been a bit painful, but it looks like Ducati UK have given the go ahead for the repairs to my bike. Just a great shame its taken so long.
Well at least it's good news, but it's a real shame that it took so long. Hope you get it back soon and happy riding from here on mate.
Glad to hear that the snail mail has finally kicked in. Ducati Uk will push you to talk to your dealer or if you really want to complain I'd either do this directly with Ducati Italy or would have a chat with your dealer. Most of the new dealer's I feel these days aren't old school enough, we can at times ask a lot of them tbh after spending £100's or even £1000's of pounds on the brand and in the shop. The last time I had an issue I bypassed DUK and raised it direct with Italy. Ducati Motorholdings managed to get it sorted in the end.
I haven't been a Ducati customer for very long but my experience similar to this was entirely down to the dealer - week after week I chased the part I had on order, given the run around being told the long delays were normal, until I happened to call while the area/regional (not sure how that works) rep was there (receptionist said that was why I couldn't speak to the manager) when I said "tell them about my delay, I will wait on the phone" there was a different response altogether, and the part was delivered in 4 days. Turns out "long delays are very rare for parts these days". Next time I won't pay in advance. I also am lucky to have a different dealer not too far away whose service has so far been exceptional (JHP Cov), but my local gets no more business from me.
I would advise you to take the bike to John Burrows, DUCATI COVENTRY. He'll sort it out for you in no time.
