Kahuna powersports - nice experience, not!

250R-ICE said:
Bought two new bikes there in the past 3 years , dealt only with Norm. Excellent service, honest , fair price.
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+1 with Norm. Bought 2 bikes from him also. Fair and he won't nickel & dime you.
 
5:12 said:
i dont have experience with having a bike serviced at kahuna but i do have (bad) experiences with buying accessories etc. i think it was enough for me to stay away from them.

4 examples to share for now.

1) very first experience was last year when i was looking to get a bike at that time, walked in, receptionist at the front was nice and all. walked around looking at the bikes. a couple of others were looking at bigger/more expensive bikes. i asked for someone to help me and i had questions i was told to wait while he attended to the big spenders. finally when the guy had time, he approached me again and started telling me the prices of the bikes right out the bat and started giving me their financing offers etc etc then he said 'is that within your budget or are you looking for something cheaper?' this all happened with me just saying 'hi, hows it going' right after he came back.

anyhow, i asked questions about the bikes and he dismissively answered 1 question and told me to look around. at this time another couple came in and started looking at the bigger/more expensive bikes again. so the dude told me 'ok, gimme one sec' as he walked towards the new couple and entertained them. big difference with the way he was interacting with the others than with me. i guess i was only looking at the smaller cheaper bikes.

2) accessories upstairs. it was the skinny lady with long blonde hair (she may have cut her hair now or something). i didnt know any better at that time. again this was last year, spring. she knowingly sold me an incorrect size helmet. it was the last piece and i guess she was just trying to get rid of it. she even said 'it looks good on me and fits me perfectly' and that i should get it and that she will give me a discount even. btw, she did help me measure and answered my questions about helmet fitting. in the end, helmet was 2 sizes bigger. found out later. i guess this is partially my fault for not getting enough information about helmets at that time. but i also thought these sales people can help us with the purchases thats why we go to a 'motorcycle' shop so we could get the assistance we need. good thing i met someone during the safety training who bought the helmet for her bf.

3) key cutting (recent). they should get their details straight. i called and asked if they can make a copy of a bike key. the guy said yes and to bring the key in and theyll make a copy. before heading there the following day, i called again to confirm, this time the guy said, they don't keep blanks and they would need to order them and proceeded to ask me details about the bike etc. he said to come in and pay a deposit for ordering the blanks. the next day i went to the shop to leave a deposit for ordering the blanks, but the guy at the counter told me that they can't order the blanks and cant make copies of the keys (wtf?!?!). then he said that with my bike, the whole ignition system will have to be replaced (another wtf?!?!). and he said, if i dont want to go that route, he recommended a locksmith who would need to make a copy of the key based on the ignition. and when i told him, i have an actual key to base a copy from and that i rode the bike to the shop, then he said it would depend on the locksmith since this is a vehicle key he might have to order a special blank etc etc and told me to talk to the locksmith. what a load of crap nuts bs. again, i thought going to a registered dealer for the bike would make things easier but not with kahuna people.

4) my wife bought accessories from them as well, same crap (last year also). they sold her the wrong size helmet, a supposedly new icon leather jacket with a missing armour/padding (we didnt notice til later when we found out that the jacket is supposed to come with it). they also told her that since shes got long hair she would 'automatically' need to get a bigger helmet to accomodate it (?!?! what, ball up her hair and put it in the helmet?!?!). again, wife didn't know any better at that time. sales pressure too. and try to return things to them? or exchange?!? good luck with that.

im sure everyone has different experiences with them. others may not just have as much time to do research research research and just rely on the expertise of the (hopefully honest and helpful) sales team. but now we've all learned which is the most important part. i guess.


sorry for the rant. im just sharing experiences. at this point kahuna doesnt exist to me anymore.
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This is interesting because i was there some time ago and I heard a customer complaining about the salesman that sold him THE WRONG SIZE item and wanted to exchange it but kahuna was refusing to exchange it. It was one of those storage thingy people hang on side of the bikes.
 
hamiltok said:
How is Kahuna with new bike sales?
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Good, at least in my experience. I got my bike back in 09, it was a Ninja 250 and they were selling like hot cakes. My salesman was Greg who has since moved to Ride Motorcycles which is still under the same ownership. When I put down my deposit he made no promises on when I'd have my bike because it was going to be in the second shipment coming in, the first was all spoken for during the fall/winter. I placed my deposit mid May and he got me a VIN about a week later, June 2nd I had my bike. I had no problems with anything...can't really say anything other than that.

Service on the other hand...I won't complain too much because I got warrantied for something that was clearly my fault but they missed putting back some bolts and switched some around putting Philips in place of allen heads, which I ended up stripping trying to get them loose with a screwdriver, not knowing they probably used a socket wrench. That ****** me off, but they fixed it.

My bike is there right now for more warranty work and I will thoroughly look it over before I pick it up tomorrow...

In response to the guy who is quoted above, I got a blank twice no problems, and got it cut for free at CT no problems...I don't know why he claims the dealer claimed they could not get blanks.
 
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Norm+1 for sales in my case norm had to had to act for parts and service.... Buy the bike and make to include the first service in the deal...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
Some follow up...so turns out not only was the sprocket wrong (had an extra tooth) but it was for the wrong year bike!!! I took everything apart and it didn't fit. Fortunately the front sprocket fits. Now I also ordered an RK chain with a clip-on master link. They gave me one with a rivet head. I don't have that tool. I already found another rear sprocket but now I'm out for another week or so to get the clip-on. They would not just swap the rivet head for the clip-on even though it was their mistake. It was only a couple bucks so I didn't care, but really THEY shouldn't care either..it's a customer's happiness for $5. Anyways waiting for that to come now and refund my rear sprocket at the same time. Will open all boxes and inspect everything thoroughly at Kahuna if I buy anything from them again, even if its off-the-shelf simple stuff.
 
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