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V85TT Warranty headache

Vagrant

Vagrant

GT Reference
Joined
Aug 2, 2009
Messages
1,744
Location
Gainesville, Ga. or Green Valley Az.
scottmastrocinque said:
Did you experience an issue?
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Yes! When it ran so bad from the worn rings it wasn't safe to ride they Piagio, refused to hook it to pads until I put the stock F bag and can on it. The dealer had it hooked up with them on the phone. As it was running and I heard the whole conversation. I had a 100 miles round trip to go home and get them. Then I paid on a piece of cardboard in the lot changing it out. A bunch of BS!!! Piaggio knew exactly what was wrong the just like screwing dealers and end users. As soon as I finished without hooking it up they said change the rings!
Marietta in Atl. was very nice to me especially as I had bought it in Charlotte. They took my Versys 1000 in trade and Marietta wouldn't.
 
So where do they do their training now? That seems counterproductive at best. I would have thought they were providing Aprilia, Piaggio, Vespa, and Moto Guzzi training and support from there.

Things are sure cattywumpus at Moto Guzzi it seems.

I would hope that the new CEO of Piaggio, would become more attentive to these shortcomings.
 
Since 2013 I've owned two Guzzis, a 2012 V7 Stone stone which a few months after I bought it developed a major pesky "pumpkin" leak and a 2001 California special with various (luckily not critical) issues. And while I've been able to mitigate the California problems either by myself or with the help of a friend mechanic, and a lot of advice from this forum, the V7 was un-repairable, at least locally, eventually the dealer refused to honor the warranty (?!) And dealing with Piaggio was a nightmare. Luckily, I ended up not losing much money when I sold it back to another dealer (but not the original where I bought it who refused to help me out). My point is that in the 45+ years I've been buying, selling, riding, motorcycles, etc, Piaggio/Moto Guzzi is by far and hands down the worst motorcycle company I ever had to deal with. I live in the NW suburbs of Chicago and lately we've had a new dealer open up 'Top Gear Powersports', and so far it has been a decent place. My overall experience though with my two MGs can be summed up as: Great motorcycles terrible customer service (Piaggio). As a side note, another thing that troubles me with MG's is that am I right or wrong that recently a certain batch of V85 TTs appear to develop some "strange" problems?!
 
FWIW, I had a bad experience with warranty coverage on a motorcycle from another well-known European brand. Their warranty terms included towing to the nearest dealer, but they refused to pay even though their customer service arranged the towing. The $300 plus cost that I had to pay is one reason I will not be buying any more new motorcycles (and probably no new cars) from that company. Also, the loose electrical connections that caused the failure to start several times were never found and fixed under warranty. I eventually found and permanently fixed the issue several years later.

I respect Moto Guzzi because the warranty terms on my V85TT clearly state two-years, unlimited mileage with owner responsible for transportation to nearest dealer. I have no doubt that my dealer would have taken care of the issue when the bike went into limp mode with check engine light on in my driveway. I chose to do some troubleshooting before arranging transportation and was able to fix my bike without taking it to the dealer (saving the expense/time of transporting it).

Regarding reliability of the V85TT, the intake air leak which caused the check engine light is the only issue I have had. I am very happy with the bike.

I am disappointed to hear that Piaggio training is now online. I personally hate online technical training—hands-on with instructor feedback is needed for effective learning and retention.
 
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Unpleasant experiences with another "well-known European brand" is definitely something to empathize with but objectively speaking, irrelevant to this conversation about Piaggio performance in the customer service warranty department. ANY company is supposed to provide and is therefore rated for the quality of post purchase service they provide to their customers. The way Piaggio and their (then, but now -luckily- defunct) local dealer treated me when I needed them to come through for a defective motorcycle was atrocious; I will spare you all the details because I need tons of space to recount the incessant Merry-Go-Round I had to endure, I'd be abusing the terms of this forum. In contrast, suffice to say that between 1987 and 2013 I owned three BMWs, before I switched to Guzzis, and I had ZERO complaints with BMW Americas, but again this is irrelevant to our conversation.

My point was two-fold: First, that Piaggio in the United States is one of the worst motorcycle companies I had to deal with regarding warranty, parts, etc issues. Second, it is ironic that such an emblematic name like Moto Guzzi is currently owned and managed by Piaggio, a brand of motorcycles that IMO does not value its customers as much as it should.

Lastly, the part about the V85 was, for the most part a question: From what I've been reading in this forum but also generally speaking online, the first couple of production years of these motorcycles, appeared to be having issues out of nowhere, i.e. problems that should not manifest in a brand new modern technology motorcycle. But this is exactly what happened with my new V7 when due to -again- an out of nowhere problem. Only a few months after purchasing I had a crippled motorcycle that both the dealer and Piaggio refused to fix under warranty. I am very happy you are happy with your V85 but I'd be interested to know how come a brand new motorcycle developed an intake leak problem, and how soon after purchase?!

Btw, I agree with you 100%, in the future I'm not buying again a brand new vehicle, motorcycle, car or whatever 😉👍
 
If it's of any solice, Piaggio Group does not treat it's dealers any better than it's customers. I know the service manager at a local motorcycle dealer. She said when Moto Guzzi was one of their brands, dealing with warranty work was a total nightmare for them. That and lack of sales is why they dropped Guzzi altogether.
 
That is exactly my experience with not one, not two, but three different MG dealers in the greater Chicago area. They all dropped Piaggio because it was impossible to maintain a workable (mutually beneficial) business relationship with them. I was very surprised when Tony became a Piaggio dealer at 'Top Gear Powersports' (it used to be a very well established, family owned, independent dealer in our area) and as a matter of fact I had a conversation with him about that; his response was "politically polite": He said something like, "I know, will see how it goes".

Can't explain it, but the overall feeling is that Piaggio does not seem to care much about dealers and as a direct result, ultimately for it's customers.

😉👍
 
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Raven said:
If it's of any solice, Piaggio Group does not treat it's dealers any better than it's customers. I know the service manager at a local motorcycle dealer. She said when Moto Guzzi was one of their brands, dealing with warranty work was a total nightmare for them. That and lack of sales is why they dropped Guzzi altogether.
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Unfortunately, that is not a surprise.
 
It was interesting when I owned my Triumph for the last couple of years up until I got my Mandello in October the corporate attitude was that the dealers were their actual customers and the bike owners were the dealer's customers. Made for better problem resolution and warrantee care, in theory.
kk
 
Dimi Pana said:
Only a few months after purchasing I had a crippled motorcycle that both the dealer and Piaggio refused to fix under warranty.
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There is way way way more to this story than you are revealing.

It is a clearly actionable offense in court to capriciously deny warranty liability.
 
Vagrant said:
Not sticking up for Piaggio by any means but…
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That’s ok. I’ll stick up for them.

We have an excellent dealer here in Ohio in Cadre Cycles.

I currently own a ton of Piaggio products (10 - TEN) and I’ve had nothing but stellar success with all of them.
 
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