Well Boys my V&H baggers broke yesterday

[macmac]

Originally Posted by slots

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
Drat ! I sent my broken pipe to the company CEO with a survey taken on the Delphi board (many failures recorded). My enclosed letter was taught but professional despite my internals wanting to yell at them.

True to form......never heard from them. One would think they coulda sent me a simple email.

I sent the pipe in an open-ended ripstop cloth bag....easily inspected...just in case they thought it was an IED.

I don't think threats work to solve any product issues....for any product. So I try to stay calm and professional.

Guys...according to V&H, any breakage is due to errors made by the wrench who installed it. They rest assured in their beds that their product is perfect and will last for our duration of ownership. Communications with the customer is a necessary evil....but they pay no attention to it. Warranties are there for show...the trick is to never honor one. Anybody know anybody who has received a waranty fix on a V&H product (not counting missing parts....only failed parts). Together, we all know a shitload of V&H owners don't we?.

Bah Humbug. I tried...I failed.

Slots

Well I am way out of warranty time, but I would buy a rear pipe if i could. That's telling. No spare parts????? Com'on now....

But i know this fact already, and so won't bother to write V&H and i won't bother to tell anyone to buy one. Worse yet, if asked by someone what i think, the answer will be total garbage. but that was my answer before my pipe broke.

I am sure my pipe didn't break from bad tech..... I didn't use the clamps in the first place to hold the cans tight to the head pipes. These were able to move at will.

It isn't like when I lived in Fla and did M Benz exhausts that were all cut up in NY and NJ to fit a bus cargo bay and had to be mocked up on blocks on the shop floor and be welded which I DID myself, and seeing this mess I Farmed out the job. That's different.

I don't farm out squat but i did this time. Of course that welder didn't charge me and i was there as the human clamp too.

V&H SUCKS. Their metallurgy sucks and I doubt they have an engineer than knows Jack Shit.

[macmac]

Originally Posted by slots

DC....

I have the unused, unbroken replacement rear Nomad pipe I PAID $80.00 for since they would not honor the warranty on the broken pipe (took 7+ months to receive it). I will send it to you only if I receive your assurances I will get it back in usable condition. If it is broken or goes missing ...my $400.00 set of pipes is down-the-drain. I promised a complete, working set of V&H Baggers to a very good friend (a real die-hard V&H fan) but I think he will be willing to wait (he will have no choice). The pipe is still boxed-up ready to go. I've not checked it over.

Slots

I hope that idea flys. I would love to have a new rear pipe made by someone else.

[Loafer]

What V&H's doesn't take into account when they say "'the pipes were installed wrong' and should last
the duration of ownership", is that Nomad owners keep their Nomads longer then most brand owners and
then someone else keeps them on the road. V&H management needs to start thinking better of their customers.

[macmac]

Loaf that might be. I have gone thru 3 head pipes on my turbo volvo ..... That car is probably older than anyone alive at V&H.. It's off the road just now but it might not always be.... It's an 85 and i can still buy parts. For that matter my 1981 XS 850 Sh Yammi bike never needed a head pipes. It has aftermarket pipes too, but made by Jardine.

What's cool is all this blather ends up on google, and anyone wanting to see what V&H is like doing a google search may trip over this.

Marketing is wide OPEN these days. A reputation can be ruined in an instant for lack of customer care.

Metzler is not selling like it did because of their bad move to South America. They lost quality control in that move.

[id-man]

Agreed, anybody can make a mistake, it takes guts to admit it, back it up and make it right. Any manufacturer not willing to do that will suffer way more than the cost of the fix. The best move V&H could make is to re-engineer the crack-prone header so it's indestructable - then hand them out freely to ALL owners who had trouble - no questions asked. Anything less is reputational routette.

[macmac]

I guess V&H thinks so much of their work nothing matters. And nothing will matter until the get hungry. By then someone else will be branding their name on parts.

Once a company commits suicide by customer service, or lack there of, they never come back.

So It is Written!

[Idaho]

Originally Posted by macmac

Once a company commits suicide by customer service, or lack there of, they never come back.

So It is Written!

So let it be done!

[Yellow Jacket]

I wouldn't be surprised if Harley is the majority owner of Vance and Hines. Probably V&H's market is 80% to 90% products for Harley. I doubt very much if they give a flip for their market share in Metric's. Just an incremental market for them.

I for one, won't give any of my money to V&H.

[macmac]

I dunno if i was a HD newbie and i was reading on aftermarket parts, I might reconsider V&H reading reviews of the same pipe breaking for many hundreds of people and no customer service, not even able to buy a replacement part in a timely fashion.

I own a 84 chevy 4x4 pick up and have bought replacement headers for that 4 times. between heating cooling and weather in NH we go thru parts. We have road salt all year long here too. While i don't ride in winter road salt when i can avoid it, which means after first salt i wash the bike and put it away, there is another salt for dust and it's as bad on bikes as winter salt.

Not having a parts inventory for sale is nuts.

Little me even did for lost earrings when i was heavy into doing that before silver shot thru the roof.

I didn't sell anyone a replacement either, I gave them away for free. All I needed was to see the one left and just so i could match it. Who knows which graver I picked up making these at times Could have been 1 of 10 hand made gravers. Gravers wear too with each sharpening, so i needed to see .....


like this:

[id-man]

That Mac is a lot of things. And now he is one more. Silversmith. Huh. Renaissance man?

[macmac]

Originally Posted by id-man

That Mac is a lot of things. And now he is one more. Silversmith. Huh. Renaissance man?

Naw,,,,,,,, I just move metal.....I never sold silver, I sold the holes

[id-man]

Originally Posted by macmac

I never sold silver, I sold the holes

Now you're being modest. Nice holes dude.
I have a friend who scribbles on other people's guns. This guy drops my jaw.
www.engravedsportingguns.com

[minst7877]

I would prefer one that is broken that way no one is out anything if the shipper screws up. All I would do is have it checked on the bender computer to get the proper bends. angles and end points. It would not be cut apart or changed in any way for what I would need it for.

DC

[macmac]

Originally Posted by id-man

Now you're being modest. Nice holes dude.
I have a friend who scribbles on other people's guns. This guy drops my jaw.
www.engravedsportingguns.com

I don't do that, but wish i did. I knew one of the gravers for Beretta, but he has passed away.

I have fooled around some but was never good.

[slots]

Originally Posted by minst7877

I would prefer one that is broken that way no one is out anything if the shipper screws up. All I would do is have it checked on the bender computer to get the proper bends. angles and end points. It would not be cut apart or changed in any way for what I would need it for.

DC

Sorry...missed the pont you were making. If you can get a firm, detailed computer spec reply from V&H please let a few hunded of us know. I doubt it.