I never took my bikes there, but I rang them a month ago to get my faulty tracker looked at (Biketrac) and was told they weren't taking any work as the workshop was going to close for a refurb for a month. Yesterday I was told they'd closed entirely, leaving Ducati with no dealers in London (Croydon and Romford are not London...) and only independent service options. And they closed their Barnet branch a while ago. Probably a sign of the times.
There are no official Ducati dealers in London, but we still have the independent specialists. What does that say about authorised dealers, unfortunately I can only say that my experiences with them were dire and I would avoid at all cost if possible. I live in london, and if i had a bike under warranty that has to be serviced by an authorised agent I would get Nelly on it as a collection/delivery service is available.
I use the independents for most things, it's always a more personal service. I have browsed at Metropolis and generally been ignored when I did want to buy, so I took my cash elsewhere.
I only live 20 minutes from the Barnet one, didn't realise it had shut. I only ever popped into the Vauxhall one a few times but the staff were friendly enough - can imagine the rent there is extortionate tough, probably something to do with it.
You hit the nail on the head there...they could probably rent for 1/2 the price couple of miles south from there. If I rememeber right they also closed the Greenwich branch back in 2009.
I was emailing with them last week about p/exing my 675R against a Supersport they had. The sales guy who was replying was arrogant and offered £2k less for my bike than any other dealer. Wanted me to leave a deposit !
Ahhh, I was in OYB last week when one of the salesmen came in telling the service guys that the owner was trying to sell all his Ducati spares and service items for cash, apparently he had 44k worth of stuff and wanted 20k CASH, plus he spoke to Oxford Products and wanted to sell that stuff back to them for cash and turn anything he had in stock for cash as well, it was commented on that nobody would entertain the idea as if there was a bankruptcy situation the receivers would be all over it like a rash.
About a week ago they were advertising brand new Multistrada 1260 s (maybe touring) for £15k. Now we know why. Thank god I didn’t have 15k. Could easily have parted with it and not got the bike.
I thought a new unregistered Supersport for £9400 was cheap ! Would have bought it if the salesman wasn’t an arse. Glad I didn’t.
I strolled over there on Saturday lunchtime to see if I could get my hands on any of the workshop or showroom stuff. It was all closed up and there was a guy peeling stickers off the windows. I was most upset as i’d walked all the way from Waterloo (the station, not the Belgian town of the same name) and had to leave empty handed! I had to settle for lunch in the West End with my daughters.
Similar to Nelly, JHP offer a collection/delivery service. So come service time I’d arrange a suitable time for them to collect.
I know. However I used the similar service JHP offer, hence my comment. Just pointing out a few main dealers seem to do this, and is a handy option.
We are all free to go where we want... I wasn’t trying to make a point anyone should go anywhere in particular, just that a few seem to offer the service.
I can highly recommend http://www.ducatiproteam.co.uk Alec has looked after my various Ducatis for over twenty years, can't recommend him highly enough. They're based in Kent but do a no extra cost collection and delivery. If you can live without your toy for a whole week this is the most painless way I've discovered for having service work done: no loan bikes to negotiate, no Tube journeys wearing biking gear; Alec comes to your home and takes it on a Saturday, returning it the next.
