Erico Service Dept. - What's the Problem?

[JustSomeDude]

Not trying to rant here, just trying to open a serious dialogue. Mainly, just curious as to what may be going on over at Erico. I heard lately that Dominic is gone... kaput... cya. Don't know if he quit, or what, but I just know that he's no longer employed by Erico. This follows a summer of interesting/troublesome service stories including myself, and 2 coworkers.

For me, my problem is relatively minor, I just didn't appreciate how the service rep. handled it. I have repeated vibration/shaking in the front end of my 2008 Triumph Daytona during moderate-to-hard braking. The bike has less than 1,000 miles on it. When I explained it to the Erico service rep., he told me, "well, it's $90 an hour to look at it if we don't find a warranty problem. And quite frankly, a shaking front end doesn't sound like a warranty issue to me. Do you still want to schedule an appointment?" Knock 1-point off those guys for bad attitude. I had to cancel my check-up, but I will follow-up with a report once I get the bike in to their shop. Moving on...

My male coworker had a problem with his Ducati Monster's valves. I understand that it was a rather serious problem, and that the bike had to be sent to FoCo or Greeley or something for basically an entire engine tear-down. After having the bike for 5 weeks, Erico went 2 weeks past the promised return date. As has become typical with them, he had to call daily for updates, because the familiar Erico promise of, "we'll call you tomorrow with an update" always went unfulfilled. The cost of the work WAS covered by the Ducati warranty, however, it was a frustrating period trying to get any update at all from the service dept. Yet another bad customer service story.

My other coworker has a new Piaggio scooter. This is by far the worst of the stories. Ever since she purchased the scoot in June of this year, she has had repeated problems with the "check engine" light coming on. No joke, it started the day she drove the scooter off the lot. She called to explain the problem, so Erico was aware of it early on. During the bike's 600 mile service, Erico promise to replace a relay that was the possible culprit. When dropping off the bike she was told Erico had none of those parts available. To make the 600 mile service experience worse, she found that the oil was drained, but NOT REPLACED during the service. She rode back to Littleton with only a few drops of oil in the engine!! Moving into late August the "check engine" light continually pops on, and Erico has yet to solve the problem (they did finally replace the relay to no avail). This is all after repeated visits, phone calls, etc. between herself and Erico. Erico now points to a lack of response from "Piaggio". This is a problem moving beyond 60-days... I smell lawyer involvement on that one.

These stories occur during a time when I hear of other people having problems with pushed out service appointments, late bike returns, generally flustered/confused/stressed out service center employees, un-returned calls/promised callbacks, etc.

So I ask... what's up with Erico? Did they bite off more than they could chew? I truly hope they get their proverbial poop together soon, as their once reputable Service Dept. appears to be headed down the wrong road.

[salsashark]

Why do people continue to put up with that place?

[McVaaahhh]

They also doubled the cost of their Erico-only track days at pueblo. Something like $150 or $200. Up from $100 last year.

Erico = fail

[fook]

you ask if they bit off more than they could chew but it sounds like they never learned HOW to chew.

I swore them off for good back around 2003 after the final straw when they dropped my Triumph during service - cracked the fairing, scraped bar ends/center fairing and scuffed the gearbox then took MONTHS to even replace the one fairing.. it ended up being a daily ritual of harassment until finally one day they came through.... and all this is after one servicing where they forgot to put anything in my radiator and a few other random bonehead manuevers which clearly demonstrated they dont even bother to test ride after performing maintenance.

crazy to hear that even today they're still making the same kind of piss poor mistakes.

at first I wrote it off to just bad help in the service dept.. but after the fiasco with the fairing, I'm pretty sure the problem is cutting corners at the top.

[pilot]

I'm starting to see a service manager job in the future.

[rforsythe]

They also doubled the cost of their Erico-only track days at pueblo. Something like $150 or $200. Up from $100 last year.

Erico = fail

Granted I don't know what they offer at their track days (medical? corner crews?) but that isn't totally unreasonable. It's not cheap to rent a track, get insurance, and handle the other logistical expenses. I'm not commenting on the rest of Erico's actions since I have no frame of reference on it, but there seems to be some rampant misconception that $150 a rider for a track day means ridiculous profit, and it just isn't so. At $100/rider I'd be surprised if they didn't take a loss on it, unless it was just a barebones test and tune day with the benefit of exclusive access.

[sfarson]

Have had no issues with Erico. There are complaints against every dealer out there. Most have a positive experience, but whether it is Fay Myers, or Foothills, or you-name-it, there are some having a poor experience. Would note the Service Dept at Erico had an opportunity to be more customer service focused thus the change.

[McVaaahhh]

Granted I don't know what they offer at their track days (medical? corner crews?) but that isn't totally unreasonable. It's not cheap to rent a track, get insurance, and handle the other logistical expenses. I'm not commenting on the rest of Erico's actions since I have no frame of reference on it, but there seems to be some rampant misconception that $150 a rider for a track day means ridiculous profit, and it just isn't so. At $100/rider I'd be surprised if they didn't take a loss on it, unless it was just a barebones test and tune day with the benefit of exclusive access.

I have no clue what their profit/loss was last year on the track days but Peter was going to them and enjoyed them. It was pretty much a basic exclusive rental (no ambulances, cornerworkers, etc) and a few other perks provided by Erico. Free lunch, drinks, trailering to the track, things like that. My understanding from Peter was this year they took away all or most of the "perks" and doubled the price. So, they were going to have to pay like $200 for a track day just for the exclusivity of it being an Erico-only day.

Sounded like a really bad deal compared to last year.

[rforsythe]

I see. Well, come ride the Chicane extravaganza this weekend! 3 days, all the perks, and a good deal for all of it.

[fook]

Steve, you're right in that every service dept has complaints out there.. I've been highly irritated with Foothills and other dealerships too but i've also always felt that they at least made an effort to put things right... if nothing else an apology and an honest explanation of the situation... always been enough for me.

with Erico though, I personally gave them several chances and had several pretty stupid issues leading up to dropping my bike during service. yeah, Jon stood there apologizing up one side and down the other but then took forever to resolve anything.. they were quite happy to forget about it once it came down to money out of their pockets..

I was even told at one point by Trip more than a month after the incident that it was taking so long to get a replacement fairing because they were still "shopping around" for a cheaper one... give me a break!

I should also note to everyone that this was many years ago, as I mentioned before.. I just bring it up because it seems that little has changed.

[McVaaahhh]

I see. Well, come ride the Chicane extravaganza this weekend! 3 days, all the perks, and a good deal for all of it.

I'll be there Sunday and Monday.

[Chadilac]

Hey Gang, Sorry for the intrusion but one of our clients passed this thread on to me here at the shop.

I just wanted to say that we are listening to what you all have to say. We could not grow into the shop that you expect without hearing when we miss the grade.

Dominic is no longer with Erico and he has been replaced by Mark Magruder. Mark is absolutely committed to our clients and to creating the Service Department that you can all trust and believe in. While European motorsport manufacturers are sometimes difficult to deal with, we believe that we should shoulder the burden and not our clients.

We are working hard to rectify the holes in our internal systems. We currently have less than 5% of our clients that tell us of unsatisfactory performance. I would like to get that down to less than 1%.


We hope that you all will give us the opportunity to provide you with the level of service that you expect. In fact, exceed your expectations. Many of our clients have seen the changes and have noted their experience on our Testimonial page. Our goal is for everyone to feel truly comfortable leaving their Euro bikes and scooters with us.

We really do want to hear from you and give us your experience good or bad. My email is chada@ericomotorsports.com and I will do my best to monitor this forum.

As for Track Days, It is absolutely true that we loose money on Track days. Due to lack of attendance in liability factors, we will probably not organize exclusive Track Days for the 2009 season. We have always provided breakfast and lunch, re-hydration, tools, tech support, 30 rider limits, safety programs and Track Schools with Ricky O. The only "perk" we cut for 2008 was bike transportation. The liability of this free service was way too much to shoulder. (20 bikes @ $20,000 each) It has just become too expensive to rent the track for our exclusive use with the volume of participants that choose to attend.

I hope you do not find this an intrusion, but an invitation to voice your opinions to someone who is listening and WILL make a difference.

Thank you,

Chad Ammons
General Manager
Erico Motorsports

[rforsythe]

Chad, thank you for taking the time to respond! We have this forum here not just as a way for CSC members to tell others about their experiences, but so that shops can learn and respond as well, so it's no intrusion. I hope you're able to correct the things that need fixing.

[modette99]

Thanks for posting Chad, I never thought that would of happened when I emailed Erico the link to this. I always like to point out to shops what I see...I advise others to do this too. As a Business how can they make improvements if no one tells them there is a problem. Yeah, you might tell the service manager, but why not write a letter to the owner, or email them like I did. It took me all of 2 seconds, and emails go to someone else, usually someone that will pass it along to a higher up.

My brother in-law had problems too at Erico when he brought in his Triumph Speed Triple. Service manager messed up the date, and when we showed up he told us we were suppose to be there the other day. Two people do not screw up the dates, and then his lack to even try and get it in was a concern. Brother in-law missed time from work, and we came up from Springs, not like we are local. In the end the brother in-law did his own servicing, and valve adjusment and even bought a Tune Boy to fix the ECU that Erico seemed to have problems with the previous two times we came up, claimed it was some part and could cost $$$$$$ to fix....10 minutes with the Tune Boy and it fixed the stalling issue *shrug*

Chad, I hope you guys do fix the problems there...as we loved the layout of the place and the no hassle of the sales guys and the food on Saturdays.

Chad if you want to read my full review on Erico I have it here:
http://www.cowrw.com/dealerreviews.html

[Chadilac]

Thanks rforsythe,

Great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quote by the way.


I can think of nothing more important than being comfortable with you service shop.

• Trusting that they only do the work that is necessary.
• Advising you of unsafe conditions
• Doing the job with more quality that you could

My previous career in aviation has taught me that even the best process and procedures can fall victim to Murphy’s Law and have mistakes happen. We as professionals, try to limit this to a minimum.

In aviation, margin of error is razor thin. I strive for those same controls within the Erico organization.

At the end of the day, It is what the establishment chooses to do with it’s mistakes that really matter. We are committed to do it right the first time. When that goes off beam, we fix it with no question. We need only the opportunity to make it right, and the understanding that sometimes humans error.

[Chadilac]

modette99,

Your review seems to be fairly accurate considering that you are using predominantly negative posts from the board. Have you looked at our Testimonial page? I think you will all agree that we would not spend the time to make up these posts. Your review of any shop should include the good stories as well as the bad to remain truly unbiased.

We acknowledge or problem areas and are addressing them as I write this post.

In regards to the post below: What codfish124 did not mention is the fact that we sold him the bike in question at an appreciable discount from our asking price. This bike was a good runner considering that we had it priced at the condition it was in. We did not have the opportunity to run it through our service shop as I believe it had just been traded earlier in the week. The premise of the discount was that the bike was to be sold”AS IS". We always list this on a "WE OWE / YOU OWE" form at the time of contracting. Our fees include a 30 day warranty against the drive train on used vehicles unless we negotiate out this warranty in exchange for a reduced price. I immediately agreed that the bike was not running right when he brought it back and that we would fix the carbs. When I spoke to codfish124, he said that he would rather we fix the chain than the carbs. We did what our client requested.

Keep in mind that there are ALWAYS two sides to every story...

codfish124: "the only good person was Ron the finance guy the GM i talked to was the guy that finally said well fix the chain but were not going to fix the carbs its one or the other. i was also complaining about the clutch needing to be bled when i got the bike back after they replaced the chain the tech told me that they shouldn't charge me for the chain because they missed it when they went through it. when i went to fill the bike up next time i saw clutch fluid on the faring and the cap wasn't tiend also the little thing that held the cap on was gone."

[fook]

good to see a response and I sincerely hope that Erico is a successful business and does work harder to rectify issues in the service dept.

I always like to have choices when i'm going to a dealer for a new bike.

[Chadilac]

Right on fook,

We know we have to EARN you business. We all vote with our dollars.

Empty campaign promises will not go far in our business...

...We will save that for the politicians!