Dealer Snafu

[DrEvil777]

Let me tell you all my tale...

I put my depost down for my '05 FJR on December 12, 2004 with LA Yamaha in Marina Del Rey, California. The dealership had the best price around and is well liked by the local sportbikers I used to ride with. I participated with the PDP the way you were supposed to and sat back and patiently waited for my expected delivery date in March 2004.

I started to call in March and was told April. I called multiple times and was finally told to come get my bike in late April, 2005. In the meantime I had called Yamaha Corporate and was told that they had no record of me ordering a FJR.

The dealership told me that they had ordered several FJRs in their own names instead of actually ordering for customers but I was promised a bike and that there would be no problems. They did deliver a bike as promised. And when I finally got the bike I also paid for YES and got a good deal, thanks to the forum pricing information. The local dealership matched the price for YES from D&H.

I have been waiting for the YES materials for several months and finally called Yamaha Coporate. Imagine my suprise when Coporate told me that they had no record of me ever buying an FJR, that the VIN I gave them was actually listed as registered with some other owner and that I also did not have a YES contract. The nice lady I spoke with actually advised me to call back if and once everything was settled to verify my registration and YES contract.

I called my lawyer. He verified my story with Yamaha and told me to call the dealership and let them know to expect a call from my lawyer. Breach of contract and fraud.

Good news. The very next day the dealership called me at my office appologizing. The stated that the registration "error" was fixed and that Yamaha now knows I own an FJR. They also explained that they had "forgotten" to register my YES contract. They also sent me a nice letter to my house appoligizing for the "errors." I called Yamaha Coporate and they were very polite and verified my registration and my YES contract details. I also received the materials from Yamaha on the YES contract in about 3 days. I think that someone expedited the materials.

My advice is to take a moment and call Yamaha Corporate just to verify the details on your registration and your YES contracts. 1-866-YES-EXTD

Have you VIN handy when you call. Hope this helps somebody else!

 

[XJRGUY]

Let me tell you all my tale...
I put my depost down for my '05 FJR on December 12, 2004 with LA Yamaha in Marina Del Rey, California. The dealership had the best price around and is well liked by the local sportbikers I used to ride with. I participated with the PDP the way you were supposed to and sat back and patiently waited for my expected delivery date in March 2004.

I started to call in March and was told April. I called multiple times and was finally told to come get my bike in late April, 2005. In the meantime I had called Yamaha Corporate and was told that they had no record of me ordering a FJR.

The dealership told me that they had ordered several FJRs in their own names instead of actually ordering for customers but I was promised a bike and that there would be no problems. They did deliver a bike as promised. And when I finally got the bike I also paid for YES and got a good deal, thanks to the forum pricing information. The local dealership matched the price for YES from D&H.

I have been waiting for the YES materials for several months and finally called Yamaha Coporate. Imagine my suprise when Coporate told me that they had no record of me ever buying an FJR, that the VIN I gave them was actually listed as registered with some other owner and that I also did not have a YES contract. The nice lady I spoke with actually advised me to call back if and once everything was settled to verify my registration and YES contract.

I called my lawyer. He verified my story with Yamaha and told me to call the dealership and let them know to expect a call from my lawyer. Breach of contract and fraud.

Good news. The very next day the dealership called me at my office appologizing. The stated that the registration "error" was fixed and that Yamaha now knows I own an FJR. They also explained that they had "forgotten" to register my YES contract. They also sent me a nice letter to my house appoligizing for the "errors." I called Yamaha Coporate and they were very polite and verified my registration and my YES contract details. I also received the materials from Yamaha on the YES contract in about 3 days. I think that someone expedited the materials.

My advice is to take a moment and call Yamaha Corporate just to verify the details on your registration and your YES contracts. 1-866-YES-EXTD

Have you VIN handy when you call. Hope this helps somebody else!

I bought my 2005 ABS from them beginning of June for my birthday.

My bike must have been one of the ones they ordered for themselves.

I wonder if I got your bike!

I can't complain at all about how I was treated, and I really liked the latina finance girl who I dealt with at the end. She was very cute.

LOL

 

[opt8low]

Your dealer was hoping that you would not notice anything until the first of the year. This is because the dealer gets back the 500 dollars if the bike is registered with yamaha with the original person that ordered it. It has to stay in that name until the first of the year. Most all car/motorcycle makers give there dealers kick backs at the end of the year per vehicle that they sell. This is Yamahas way on the FJR.

You most likely cost them that extra 500 dollars,

Dana

 

[GalaxyBlue]

Dirty rotton bastards! I will be on the phone with yammy when i get home! :angry:

 

[sks700]

I called D & H about 6 weeks ago to get the YES. When they got ahold of Yamaha, they said the same thing, no record of me being an FJR owner. I called the dealer that I got the bike from (no PDP) and they had "forgotten" to send in the paperwork. It got straightened out within the 1 year standard warranty period, but it could have really been a pain in the butt.

If you are considering getting the YES, don't wait until the last minute.

Lee

 

[MCRIDER007]

Your dealer was hoping that you would not notice anything until the first of the year. This is because the dealer gets back the 500 dollars if the bike is registered with yamaha with the original person that ordered it. It has to stay in that name until the first of the year.

I must be missing something here. If the dealer gets a $500 kickback for every FJR that stays in the original owner's name, then why would the dealer order FJR's in someone else's name in the first place, especially before the ordering time period was up? If I was a dealer and was going to do that, I would wait until the last day to place my orders but that does not sound like what happened to DrEvil.

I bought my FJR in October 2004 when someone else backed out of the deal and my dealer acted like he could care less who actually bought it. In fact, in April 2004 he was telling anyone who was interested in ordering an FJR that they could have their deposit back at any time up to actual delivery.

 

[radman]

I'm an idiot. I don't understand any of this.

 

[opt8low]

You guys that did not buy through the PDP, did you also put down the 500 dollars? If you did then the dealer got there 500 dollars, but did not get the money that they sent into Yamaha to hold the PDP unless they kept it in the original name until there kick back period was up. I know it is hard to grasp, but that is the world when you are dealer. How else can they afford there overhead.

This kind of stuff is usually not talked about by your dealer. They don't really want you to know this, as a matter of fact, most owners don't even tell the sales staff.

I guess I am lucky to have a great dealer. Also, how else does D & H make any money on there great prices. Not on repeat business, most of there customers are from out of state. Small dealers love 500 dollars profit.....

I am not a dealer, just have a good friend that is. Believe me or not.

Dana

 

[MCRIDER007]

You guys that did not buy through the PDP, did you also put down the 500 dollars? If you did then the dealer got there 500 dollars, but did not get the money that they sent into Yamaha to hold the PDP unless they kept it in the original name until there kick back period was up. I know it is hard to grasp, but that is the world when you are dealer.

You are right, a $500 kickback to keep the dealers from cheating on the PDP is hard to grasp, but the whole PDP was hard to grasp. The dealers didn't like it, customers hated it, and Yamaha probably sent a lot of potential buyers to Honda and BMW because of it. If Yamaha used the kickback to enforce the intent of the PDP program then I am surprised that the dealers were not more clever when they wanted to work around it -- like being straight forward with the customers.

I do know that if the original buyer did not end up with the FJR then the dealer had to get off his butt and transfer the warrenty to the new buyer -- and if a customer buys a YES he doesn't actually have a YES until the dealer sends a check to Yamaha -- so if you don't get a YES contract in the mail within 60 days of paying for it you need to contact Yamaha. Buying a YES from an out of state dealer has a bit of risk attached to it but it was a risk that I was willing to take after reading all the favorable comments about D&H.

To answer the question; no, I did not put a $500 deposit on my FJR, I filled out the paperwork the day I picked up the bike. I bought the FJR in October 2004 and if my dealer held off transfering the warrently until 2005 then I didn't know about it, but it had been transferred when I asked about it in June 2005 and I got the YES paperwork from Yamaha about 2 weeks after I sent a check to D&H.

 

[dunhamg]

The dealers didn't like it, customers hated it,

I can tell you that this customer didn't hate the PDP program. I for one wish they would keep it. I will guess a small dealership like D&H won't be able to sell 30 or 40+ FJR's for the discount prices that they did. And then the small dealership I got mine from will have no incentive to match that price. I doubt you are going to find nearly the deals that we were able to get on them the first three years with the PDP program. Resale will also go down without the "percieved" shortage. As was stated in another post is only really benificial to the indecisive buyer who has to see the bike to buy it. I think that Yamaha would have sold even more FJR's if they had actually advertised the bike and lined up the buying cycle to order in the fall with a spring delivery.

Grady A. Dunham

 

[motorgod]

I'd check the DMV history of the bike. If it was registered in another name you bought a used bike. It does not matter if the bike never hit the road. When you go to sell it, the registration history will show you as the second owner.

 

[Bounce]

The dealers didn't like it, customers hated it,

I can tell you that this customer didn't hate the PDP program. I for one wish they would keep it. I will guess a small dealership like D&H won't be able to sell 30 or 40+ FJR's for the discount prices that they did. And then the small dealership I got mine from will have no incentive to match that price. I doubt you are going to find nearly the deals that we were able to get on them the first three years with the PDP program. Resale will also go down without the "percieved" shortage. As was stated in another post is only really benificial to the indecisive buyer who has to see the bike to buy it. I think that Yamaha would have sold even more FJR's if they had actually advertised the bike and lined up the buying cycle to order in the fall with a spring delivery.

Grady A. Dunham

+1

 

[lotecredneck]

I am sorry, but there is confusion on the PDP with the dealer. When a dealer orders an FJR his parts account is charged $500 for the order, so the customer pays the dealer thenb Yamaha takes the $500 from the dealer. When the customer takes delivery the customer pays for the balance of the sale. When the bike is warranty registered with Yamaha then the dealer is credited the $500 back.

The dealer can order these in a ficticious name, but has to warranty register it in the ficticious name in order to receive the deposit back from Yamaha. You can change the warranty registered name the very next day. You DO NOT have to wait until after the 1st of the year as someone suggested. The drawback is that the warranty starts the day it is warranty registered, so if it sits on a dealers floor for a couple of months, then the bike has only 10 months of warranty even though it is new.

The dealer takes a substantial risk taking the deposits and here is why. Say the dealer takes deposits for 25 FJR's and the economy takes a crap and say 10 guys back out at the last minute. The dealer has to pay off the bike within 30 days of receipt of the vehicle and still loses the deposit unless he warranty registers it in the original customer name. This is a huge amount of money the dealer must come up with out of his pocket until he sells the bikes and he still has a bike that the warranty has started on in order to collect his original $500 and have a big inventory of bikes that is floored out of his pocket.

Hope this clears this up.

Best regards,

Tony Orihuela

Yamaha Sportscenter

 

[Thug]

OOh it's getting a bit stinky in here! Why would dealerships who are apparently well established try something like this?

 

[catiadan]

OOh it's getting a bit stinky in here!  Why would dealerships who are apparently well established try something like this?

Risk = Reward (or loss).....what makes the world go around.

 

[Captain Obvious]

You guys that did not buy through the PDP, did you also put down the 500 dollars? If you did then the dealer got there 500 dollars, but did not get the money that they sent into Yamaha to hold the PDP unless they kept it in the original name until there kick back period was up. I know it is hard to grasp, but that is the world when you are dealer. How else can they afford there overhead. This kind of stuff is usually not talked about by your dealer. They don't really want you to know this, as a matter of fact, most owners don't even tell the sales staff.

I guess I am lucky to have a great dealer. Also, how else does D & H make any money on there great prices. Not on repeat business, most of there customers are from out of state. Small dealers love 500 dollars profit.....

I am not a dealer, just have a good friend that is. Believe me or not. 

Dana

Huh?

I'm with Rad... I don't get it.

In order to get a big sent over, a Deposit of $500 must be paid to Cypress by the dealer. Cypress could care less who's name it's attached to. If somebody thnks that calling and complaining is going to make any difference, well good luck to you. Your complaint will go in to the same warehouse the Ark of the Covenant went into in Indiana Jones.... Of course joing the complaints from the last three years.

For the record, I was a PDP with one dealer for a non ABS. I changed my mind. sold my spot to someone else, and then proceeded to find an ABS that was an "extra" from another dealer. Paid my $500 deposit (well after the bike had already been ordered). So how's that for fooking up the PDP program??

 

[kanfjr]

Dr. Evil, Thanks for your story. It made me start thinking about my purchase. I talked with my dealer today about the fact I havent gotten any paperwork from Yamaha about my purchase.(bought the bike in late May) He said that the bike had been ordered under his name (I did NOT put participate in PDP) and that he had to wait 6 weeks in order to get his $500.00 deposit back from Yamaha. He said he would check with the bookkeeper Tuesday and see if my bike has ever been registered in my name! :dribble: I will check on monday, but I would bet money, marbles, or chalk, that it is registered under the dealers name Now, this dealership has treated me very well in the past so I will be disappointed if my assumptions are correct. I know this is probably a stupid question but what am I gaining by having the bike registered in my name? Just letters from Yamaha about any recalls? I also purchased a YES contract. I asked the dealer about that. He said the YES contract is tied to the bike is registered. If I had trouble with the bike ANY Yamaha dealer would honor the contract. I don't mean to be dense about all this I am just trying to understand. Thank You to any and all replies. John

 

[avigar]

To all that didn't go through the PDP, check with Yamaha's warranty dept. to make sure ownership records are correct.

I bought my '05 FJR without the PDP on 10/2004. When I called Yamaha in May 2005 to check on the remaining factory warranty status, I was told that the bike was still registered under the dealership's name. Therefore, I couldn't purchase the extended warranty. I spoke with a nice gal in Yamaha's warranty service dept. to explain my situation. She said that all I needed to do to correct it was to fax a copy of my sales contract to Yamaha. Within a few days, I received a callback from Yamaha stating that the ownership records have been changed. The initial warranty coverage was adjusted to reflect my actual purchase date in 10/2004. I was then able to go ahead and purchase the 4 year extended warranty from D&H without any problems.

 

[DrEvil777]

The biggest benefit of having the bike registered in your name is probably the fact that Yamaha will treat you like a 2nd class citizen if you ever try to claim a warranty repair, etc if the bike is not in your name.

I just miss the days of good customer service when you buy a car or motorcycle and the dealer treats you like someone special. When I bought this FJR, the dealer was nice and in the past was great. But this time they almost seemed put out that I was "bothering" them to buy a motorcycle from them. Considering that invoice was around 10,2 and OTD was 12,499. Nice profit to have to put up with those pesky customers. Then be too damn lazy to register the frickin' bike or the warranty.

I bought my wife a Honda Accord a few years ago and we were thrown a party by the dealership with confetti and cake when we picked up the car. My wife still loves that dealership. And they registered the car in our name with Honda!

Basically I love the FJR and my R-1. But when (& If) I shop Yamaha again I will be using a different dealership. :agent: