Was it something that Terry or his mother said? Has things changed since his son took over managing the business? Just curious?
Well, you got a minute? lol
I had a 2004 Heritage Softail I wanted to trade for a new 'Wing back in '09. Since I'm local I went over to Shroader's to look at his bikes, of course, since I knew he had good prices on them. (BTW, I appreciate all of the info from this great forum, it helped greatly in my decision.)
I asked Terry to give me a price for a new Wing with my H-D as a trade and he went over to his desktop calculator and made me a little printout showing the numbers: $9,500 for my H-D and LIST PRICE for a new Wing.
Wow, I thought. So I asked "Why does your bike go to list price with the trade-in?" His reply was something to the effect that he needed to make money on the trade-in. I'm thinking, when you sell the H-D for $12,500 you've just made a couple of grand.........
So, since I'm religious at researching before I purchase, I happened to come across Southern Powersports in Chattanooga, TN. They beat Terry's price by $500 without and would give me Kelly Blue Book for my H-D - $10,500. Sounded like a no-brainer to me!
But, I did call Terry and let him know that I'd rather support the local businesses when I can and asked him if he wanted a chance to compete with Southern. He said "the price is the price". No problem at all I said, but I will be glad to bring you the maintenance and get accessories from him. He replied: "No, you'll have to take it back from where you bought it." Of course I laughed out loud and said that MR (in Biltmore) would be glad to do the service. (I had already asked them, since Terry had this reputation already.) I kindly finished the call by telling him that I'll certainly help him advertise this policy.
So, here I am doing so. This is not my opinion, but his stated policy. As a private business owner he has all the rights in the world to have whatever policy he wants, I will just not support him. No biggy though, he has plenty of business and certainly doesn't need me. There are several war stories I could tell from bad experiences by other locals, but since they weren't my personal experience I will keep them to myself. I personally know their former mechanic who was there many years. He is at Dal-Kawa now and I will take any major issues to him if I have any. He is one of the best Wing mechanics I know.
I will continue to support and promote Southern Powersports, I had a great experience with them when I purchased my new Wing! No surprises at all.
Also, Direct Line Parts has a facility here in town that I'm able to get accessories from. They always exceed my expectations!
As a business owner myself, I take every opportunity to make sure a new customer has no desire to look elsewhere to do his business, even if it costs me in the short term.