I'll start with the positives.
Staff is friendly and the…read morebuilding itself is unique. Good selection of motor clothes and HD stuff. Average bike inventory, guessing what was outside is moved out there weather permitting because no way they fit that on the show room floor.
Now the negatives.
Was traveling in the area when my 2024 Road Glide broke down, don't need to go into specifics, on Saturday 5/16. Called in and spoke with Haylee, she was friendly and with which ever tech was on that, they did their best to help over the phone. No offer of a tow was given even though it was not needed. I did inform her that would be dropping the bike off Tuesday morning, their next day they are open, and that I would already be a day late getting home at that point. Fast forward to Tuesday morning. Haylee gets my bike checked in and informs me that there was a cancellation so someone would be able to get to my bike soon. Side note, the gentleman that checked in before me was a waiter appointment, this is important in a moment. 6 hours go by and no contact from service. I call and ask for an update. Was informed that no one has touched my bike yet. Was told again, they would get to it soon. This is where the waiter appointment comes in, what happened to that technician or did that waiter appointment wait 6 hours for a recall check and possible some other minor work? For those that don't know, most dealerships won't make waiter appointments for major work, I know this from working with a local dealership and my wife's 7 years experience as a service writer for two different HD dealerships.
Fast forward again to 5:30 PM, 30 minutes before the dealership closes. Still no call from them, so once again I call. Bike is on the lift and the tech is pulling codes. I asked to speak to the service manager and express my disappointment in their lack of prioritizing a traveling rider. He claims that all 6 of the technicians were busy all day and could not pulled off the job they were working on. This was their first day back to work after 2 days off and my bike was there at opening. A tech could have been reassigned to my bike before they began work on whatever was still on their lift or starting a new job. This was done several times at our dealership in PA. Told the service manger to call me by 10:00 AM the following morning to provide an update. 9:57 the following morning, he calls. Starts going over what they have found. I informed him to stop all work and that I would be there in a few hours to pick up my bike. With an hourly rate of $140, I did not want them to do any more than what they had done which is significant because when I dropped the bike off it was at least able to start, run and had throttle response. Upon pick up, the bike barely started, had no throttle response and shut off within 30 seconds.
This is only positive about this whole experience. Went in close the work order and get the list of codes that were pulled. I was not charged for "2 hours" of labor.
Unfortunately, this experience will not have me returning to New River HD upon my yearly visits to the area for anything. Secondly, my brother, fellow rider with several friends and colleagues that ride, local business with multiple connections will no longer recommend New River HD either.
Hoping the service manager learns from this and does better in the future with managing his team in meeting the needs of traveling riders.