Sit back and let me tell you a little tale about parts for
my bike.
Now, those who know me can tell you I am, to an extent, a
patient man, sometimes to a fault. But, even I have a limit,
especially when I get involved in what could best be termed
a comedy of errors. The very sad part of this is that it is
not at all funny.
Let us use the wayback machine and go back to late August,
around the 25 or so. I had been out riding and had stopped for
a cup of coffee at my favorite haunt. As usual, my bike (2k4
ES Military) was a people magnet. After the usual spate of
questions and answers, one old Triumph rider says to me “Hey,
did you know you have a busted muffler bracket and your
butterfly bar is broken?” I blinked in surprise and then
kneeled down to check it out. Sure enough, cracked in 2 places,
right on the welds. The muffler bracket seemed to bust due to
vibration. “No biggie..” I thought, I have a warranty.
Fast forward a few days and I zap an email off to Dan at DRS.
In his usual style we have all grown to respect he was right on
top of things, referring me to Classic to get it replaced. What
a great guy! When it passes from Dan to others is where the
true fiasco begins.
I call Classic and talk to Terry (Or is it Terri, I don’t know)
who says she needs a dealer to fill out the warranty paperwork
online. Should be no problem. Call Upstairs/Downstairs, since they are my closest dealer. So, I call U/D and talk to a person there in the parts department that takes all my info, ect. Says he will get right on it and I should have my parts in a few days, being that MN is not that far from where I am in Ohio, generally speaking.
Fast forward now 2 weeks time, still no parts or word. I call back U/D and talk to Jason. He says the person I talked to before no longer works there and that there is nothing about a parts order for me. Sigh, okay, let us try this again. Name, address, fast drive with him on the cell with me to get the bikes serial number. A small muttered prayer and we hang up.
Fast forward again, to the third week in September. No parts. I
call again and Jason, to his credit, works hard on finding out
what happened. Apparently, Classic shipped them, but they
disappeared into the ether known as UPS. Okay, here we go again. Name, address, serial number, I am beginning to feel like a prisoner of war at this point. Jason gets Classic to ship again. Should be delivered to me by October 4.
Now move into October. The fourth comes and goes, no parts. I call on the sixth back to U/D and talk to Jason. Okay, something fishy is going on here. He calls Classic, and then calls me back. My parts are held up by UPS, as they need an address correction to be able to deliver them. UPS says they are going to send me a postcard so I can send them the corrected address. Um, correct me if I am wrong, but if they can send me a post card, why can’t they deliver my parts?
So, 2 more phone calls later, I get the UPS tracking number and call UPS. While waiting on hold I decide to track my parts and find they are in Butte, MT. How the heck do you get BUTTE MONTANA out of ATHENS OHIO???? But above all, I am still calm, no really. They say the address will be corrected and they parts will arrive on the 12 day of October. I call back Jason and let him know. He is a shocked and amazed as I am. He suggests calling Terry (Or Terri) at Classic and getting the address corrected. So I do and sure enough, they have it listed as Butte, MT. They have the right street and house number, wrong city, state and zip. We get that corrected. I am totally amazed at this point as to how Classic shipped to the wrong address, when in February, they shipped to me my accessories package with out a single problem, in 2 days, to
the right address in Ohio.
So here we are, 12 October and being someone who likes to hedge his bets, I decide this morning to track the package, in a vain hope that it will say “Out for Delivery”. Well, so much for that great idea. The package apparently went back to Minneapolis, MN. Classic is in Fairbault, MN. According to UPS, it got left on the dock in Minneapolis. Now they say 14 October for a delivery. By the time I get these parts, they will have more miles on them than my bike!
Okay, so now I have to admit I am p*ssed. Not the good English type of multi pint induced p*ssed either. It has now become more of a grumpy old junkyard hound been swatted by a cat in the nose while sleeping, hair standing up, teeth bared kind of psychotic rage.
The worst part of that is, whom can I be mad at? Jason? Nope, he has done everything he could to try and make they system work and then some. Classic? I don’t know, but they seem to be trying to get this to work. They went with the info they had, wherever it came from, so they did what appeared to be right, UPS? Nope, they just followed the labels on the box. Although I can be kind of mad for them leaving my box on the dock. There is nothing worse than being angry and having no one but the universe itself to blame.
So next time your upset it has taken 2 weeks to get your parts, I would direct your attention to an old phrase:
“There, but for the grace of god, go I”
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