Bought a 1200 Enduro Pro From the Main Dealer just over a month ago. Got to the Isle Of Man to watch the TT and the key snaps in the fuel filler. Blade completely snapped but able to get it out with a pair of pliers. Get back home and take the bike to the dealership for what I thought would be a warranty replacement. Very helpful dealer but I had to not only pay for the new blade but then had to find a locksmith company to cut it. Poor show Ducati and makes my mind up that I will be looking to replace the MTS with a BMW as their service is guaranteed. I purchased 3 spares so the new owner will never have the same problem with the crappy key In conclusion £70 worth of parts and labour for a new key plus the 5 hour round trip to get it done. Not impressed at all and, although the dealer was polite they should have fixed the problem and replaced the key. Good dealership but short sighted. It’s not the cost but the principle !!
As a counterpoint. Bought an approved used R1200GS/A last March from BMW dealer... wanted £108 for "diagnosis" before looking at non-functioning QS directly after a service (and my wonder-wheel wouldn't work properly either). I filled out a customer survey in the period between booking it in to be looked at and it going in, wasn't awfully complimentary and suddenly the dealer would "take a look but it was unlikely to be covered by the warranty". They replaced the QS under warranty and magically the wonder-wheel fixed itself on the same trip. Now I've got a rear tyre pressure sensor off and it's booked in for early July with the same "£108 please" for diagnosis shenanigans... and the "probably not under warranty, and we will have to order one if it's the sensor". It's exasperating. The thing is either under warranty of not, if it's under warranty then book it in and deal with it, if it's not under warranty then I'll figure out whether I want to pay main dealer prices. And why the dealer has to wait until the flat TPMS battery in the wheel sensor has been confirmed by a computer before ordering one in is beyond me. BMW's legendary aftersales experience is not what it was, their bikes are not as well built as they were so we're calling in warranty jobs more frequently at the same time as the dealers are holding less stock and acting with less enthusiasm. Grass is kind of brown / yellow on the German side of ze fence too.
It just snapped like butter. Wasn’t caught or anything. Guess I was wrong to think a warranty on the bike would help and more to the point I thought for the cost they would have simply replaced it. Guess I was wrong to assume that.
Seems no matter what we buy the after sales services are slowly eroding. I remember a time when they couldn’t help enough to sort issues but these days once you buy that’s it. My issue was more the point that they didn’t even think to say “thats unfortunate sir, here’s a spare blade compliments etc etc”. The money isn’t the point as £70 won’t break the bank but I just thought they might look help seeing as I had only recently made the purchase and, in the opinion of the locksmith cutting the new key it “wasn’t the best”. Ah well rant over
Hi, although I do sympathize with you on the key issue it is difficult to quantify without more context, was it sold under the Used Approved Ducati scheme or just the dealers in house warranty, if it was the former the dealer doesn't have the control over what's covered so it probably wasn't their decision. Another thing to bear in mind is the dwindling margins on bikes in showrooms, when you are selling a £10k plus bike with only a £600 margin it doesn't take much to eat that profit even without taking tax, VAT and running costs for a dealer in to account! I'm not making excuses for the trade and charging for a diagnostic check, especially to the tune of £108 is disgusting, at most a nominal charge could be made but if a customer had just bought or had a bike serviced it wouldn't occur to us to charge for plugging it in and finding a potential fault!
I do agree with the eroding dealership aftercare and hope some of this is due to the fallout post Coronavirus and Brexit, supply of parts etc etc, but expecting them to replace a snapped key is not dissimilar to asking them to replace an exhaust end can you've dropped a brick on.
When my key snapped in exactly the same way, I got a washer welded to it. I have a brand new replacement key kept for the future new owner. When you go abroad, its wise to take the red spare key ...for situations like this!
I think the point you made was 'short sighted' - for the sake of £70 the dealer loses a customer. Warranty or not, investing in customers goodwill seems to be a dying trend and as you aptly put it, short sighted.
This could be partly a throw-back aesthetic thing with the Italian approach, certainly back in 60's/70's anyway and a Ferrari or Lancia key would be much easier to break compared to "ours" of today (early Cagiva were much smaller also). I used to worry that an MOT Tester would break my keys 40 years ago, and can remember that sometimes if you commented to this effect, you could get a dirty "i've been doing this for years" type of look back..
Previous owner probably bent it and then bent it back weakening the metal? I do think it’s a bit tight, esp from a main dealer, to replace the key (I wouldn’t expect them to supply 3) would have been small change for the sake of a good relationship and future custom?
As I see it a snapped key is something that can't clearly be attributed to mechanical failure and therefore is a clear cut warranty issue. A bit like clutch wear, there is a good chance the owner (or previous) has contributed to a failed clutch through their actions. While it would be nice if they replaced the key, I wouldn't expect it. Every dealer handles things differently, I was once charged 100 for a fuse from a Jaguar dealership because I fitted a aftermarket towbar and it needed one fuse to work. I never took my car back to that dealership, went and found another but I did get another Jag. P.S Not all key cutters can cut the Multi keys, I was going to get a copy made of my red key at one and they told me to go to one of the larger branches as they didn't have the equipment.
