Triumphrat

Bonnie06Tangerine

I have been thinking about putting a second Trumpet in the garage for a while now; which one and which direction I am going to go in is a whole other story that I won't get into I would like to start off by saying though that my Bonnie has been a fantastic bike. Reliable, gorgeous looking, good price and so on. This has been a major factor in staying with Triumph, that and I simply like this company and always have. My one concern though is these constant stories members posting about headache warranty issues. Is Triumph getting this bad over warranty issues or am I only seeing one side of the coin here? Anyone have the "good" warranty story or is Triumph actually getting this bad?

dogtired

Not me, but mine came out of warranty 38 years ago.

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spank86

I've not had experience with it but I'd say that whatever brand you go for you'll hear horror stories much more readily than praises.

epynt1050

The problem seems to be confined to the USA where it appears to me that dealers have a different attitude to warrenty work.
In the UK, dealers get well paid for warranty work and are happy to do it. I have never had a problem and do not know of anyone who has. My local dealer says that Triumph are very good as to authorising warranty work.
Not sure what the situation is in the US.

LightningJack

My one and only warranty work was done a couple of years ago, and it was generally a good experience, expeditious, courteous, etc, and no problems since the repair work was done.

road dog

It seems to vary a lot from dealer to dealer here in the US. My dealer (Lone Star in Austin, TX) was great regarding warranty work. They were more than happy to resolve several small issues when by bike was still under warranty... no questions asked.

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Skidplate865

It probably depends on how much work the US dealership's service dept is use to getting. The problem some US dealers have with warranty work may be the amount of time Triumph sets as standard for each service. My dealer (NYC) has told me that the amount of time set as standard for any particular warranty service is not realistic. Apparently, the way Triumph calculates the standard service interval is by setting all the parts and tools necessary for the job in front of a really good mechanic and starts the stop watch as he makes his first move, and stops when he finishes the last move of the repair job.

While this sounds fair to me, it's not how dealers calculate their labor intervals (hours). They can make alot more in service fees by doing non-warranty work and charging the clients what the market will bare (what we'll put up with).

This is bad for me, because if I'm in for warranty work, my job is last on the priority list. It's a business, and I'm the lowest paying job if I'm warranty work - therefore, I'm last in line.

It's tough, but on the bright side, I haven't had anything but wheel hub issues with my Scrambler in over 35,000 miles. Also, Triumph hasn't turned down my warranty requests. It's a solid company. I've bought two bikes since 2007 and I will buy from Triumph again.

Nickwiz

I think its a dealer issue rather than a Triumph issue.

road dog

Exactly. Choose your dealer carefully.

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-Phil

epynt1050

Also will depend how familiar the dealer and their technicians are with Triumph products. Average sales/dealer for Triumph in the US is approx 60/yr. In the UK, the figure is 150/yr. So Triumph is more important to the average UK dealer and, inevitably, the dealer has more experience of the bikes.
Also for UK dealers, the factory is in the same time zone, the communication is direct with factory rather than via a regional (US) office and the technicians are almost certain to have had direct factory training. All these things make it much easier to provide a higher level of service.
You would think in this day and age with instant communication it would not matter but I can tell from experience (on both sides of the fence) it matters a lot.
Having watched this forum for the last year or so, Triumphs biggest barrier to entry in the US is its dealer network. This is a catch 22 situation. How do you get sales without a good dealer network? How do you get a good dealer network without sales?