Good evening All, I would firstly like to state I have no afiliation to any of the Ducati dealerships I am about to discuss. I purchased my Ducati 899 Panigale from a good friend 2 weeks ago. It was originally bought from Seastar Ducati in Norwich. It is a late 2013 model with 4700 miles on the clock. It has been looked after and fully serviced by Seastar every year. In the summer the dash had the dreaded crack appear in the bottom left hand corner, my mate contacted Seastar to ask for advice and they said putting a piece of tape over it was an adequate fix... He followed there advice and continued to do a further 48 miles on the bike. He then offered the bike to me as he had another project that needed finishing. I bought the bike and firstly wanted to sort the glass. As you might be aware the piece of glass isnt available to just replace it is the whole dash at a price of £750 not including fitting.. I asked Seastar about the warranty repair option that a few of you suggested me asking for. I was told by forum members it was hit and miss, but worth the try. Seastar didnt even want to entertain it, they was rude, un-helpful and to say unprofessional would be an understatement. They didnt even want to bother trying, there words where (Pointless). My local Ducati dealership is Hyside in Romford. So on thinking it was going to be me that would be paying the full price in contacted them to get one ordered. I firstly spoke to Peter who was very helpful in going through the process of what has to be done when fitting a dash, he then asked me what my issue was. After a brief discussion he asked if I could take the bike into the dealership to have a look, on doing so he asked if he could take a few pictures of the clocks and service book as he thought it might be a warranty repair. I explained the Seastar fiasco and he said let's give it a go they can only say no. 24 hours later Peter calls me to say the clocks are on there way from Italy.... I was over the moon, they booked me in for 6 days after. Today was the day I picked her up. While it was there I had a full service, health check, tracker and new screen fitted. The service I received was excellent, tea or coffee Sir, can we have a walk round your bike, introduced to the mechanic that worked on the bike and explained what he done and found. I cant rate this dealership highly enough. My advice to anyone in the future, if looking to buy a Ducati or needing your pride and joy servicing then these guys are a must. I would like to thank Peter and Scott for helping me and being true honest gentlemen, and a Thank You to Ducati for honouring the claim.
Only been there once to look at a used Triumph. Whilst there asked if they had some clips for my 748. Yup, had them in stock. My local dealer would have had to order them in. I was impressed.
Jack I am glad you also had a great experience with the team at Hyside. They was nothing but professional towards me.
Your quite lucky being that side of Essex. You have Hyside as a main ducati dealer and Glen at Moto-V motorcycles, quite a well thought of independent ducati garage. Glad hyside were able to help you out.
I'm having a nightmare at the moment purchased a 1299 final edition last November it's been broken down nearly 4 and a half months now been to 2 different dealers still cant find the fault tryed contacting complaints department in Italy basically just fobbed me off I've asked for refund for the bike or replacement which I dont think is out of order. I received an email off Ducati UK technical director Steve Cox 4 weeks ago basically blaming it on dealers why it isn't fixed it's a nightmare to get hold of Ducati to talk to anyone they just dont wana know and after spending 35000 on this bike i think it's terrible
Good evening Richard, mate I am sorry to hear that. What dealerships have you had problems with. I am a firm believer of reputation is the heart of any business and if the dealerships that dont care about there customers get away with it it will never change. As I said Hyside have been decent to deal with. I did have a conversation with a gentleman at Seastar today that has spoken to the person that I dealt with and basically said that everything I had told him was a lie lolololol...Everyday is a day of learning and today I have learnt not to have any further dealing with Seastar... I wish you all the best with your bike mate.
I bought the bike from italia moto at Lincoln but they gave up there dealership whilst trying to sort the fault so then it's been sent to cornerspeed Ducati near Mansfield Phil at Lincoln was great to be fair and is still trying to sort bike even tho hes not a dealer weve tried contacting Italy and Steve Cox technical director in UK disgusting really. I'll never buy new Ducati again after the way Ducati treat customers its ridiculous
Glen does a lot of Hyside’s overspill work and has done for years, they deliver a few bikes to him and collect back later.. x
When the 1199 Pani tricolour came out several years ago now a guy we knew was wanting to buy one and was working between Seastar and Parkinsons motorcycles for the best deal.. He basically just saw one and thought blimey got to have one of those.. He was not a genned up enthusiast .. Not many weeks later he took it to Parkinsons and asked them to sell it for him as the bike left him with a bitter taste.. Why? Because Seastar had removed the termis and much of the stock carbon parts from the bike at the PDI stage, had stuck a couple of termi stickers on the stock pipes and took full money off the guy.. Wasn’t until he met an enthusiast that he discovered he was nearly £4K down with the bike he bought from new.. Seastar had already flogged the termis etc and told our friend to Seastar off... I’ve never spent a penny with them and never will.. x
NOODS that is disgraceful. Took the good bits off and sold it under the pretence of being what it wasnt, gutted for your friend. My friend bought my bike from them with the Termi's already fitted and the sales guy stated that the standard system was upstairs and to collect when he was passing, all good until he went to collect 5 months later, apparently thrown in the skip as you only get 30 days to collect. I appreciate that items do take up space but to just throw it away (Yeah right).
Ducati UK should also be made aware of it. Ultimately they can strip the franchise but, if true, it’s definitely a Trading Standards issue as the bike was not sold in the specification it should have been.
It was totally true. Eventually he got the parts but that was only after Parkinsons jumped in to help they contacted Seastar and threatened them by saying they would go to Ducati ..
I also know of a very well known dealer who was replacing actual Ducati carbon pieces with a cheaper carbon manufacturers products.. So when someone purchased a piece thinking it was genuine Ducati, what they were getting was a copy piece wrapped or bagged in original Ducati packaging .. They then put the actual genuine pieces in a glass cabinet and sold these to visiting customers and to others over the internet using boxes etc from their workshop work.. eventually they got caught out after a customer noted the stamp on the rear of the pieces he purchased on line from them was a copy manufactures stamp and not that from Bologna .. Eventually the Director owned up when the customer confronted him with hard evidence to prove what they had been doing by trying to fob him off with a refund etc. Shocking but again, genuinely true.. x
I visited Seastar once when out for a ride on my hypo.. the guy in sales was so pushy and imposing, he then told me basically that my 796 was a waste of time and I needed the SP... so I Questioned he with a few Ducati history questions on the old bikes etc, he failed miserably ... “ Can I take your details so we can advise you on our offers etc” I reached for one of the famous calling cards.... “ You have just been visited by the ICF” I left him looking very confused as he studied the card... X
I agree that Peter, the Spares guy at Hyside of Romford, is very helpful, obliging, and efficient. Even for warranty bits, and even if you didn't buy the bike from Hyside. He's one of the good guys.
