The Aftermath: Ducati NA Calls

I could barely sleep last night. All evening I kept thinking about the Duc. I tried my best to put yesterday out of my mind, but unfortunately when you watch your Duc spew oil for the second straight ride in just about a month the mental images from the day seem to get the best of you. So when I got up this morning I couldn’t help but feel a bit sick to my stomach. There’s an unfortunate reality that sinks in when something like this happens. Suddenly all you want to do is ride again. Somehow find a way to forget that this even happened. Yet that’s not an option. The bike is broken. Again. It’s at times like this that I’m quite frankly amazed at how large the blogging world seems to have become – almost overnight. In only hours after I posted about yesterday, I instantly got a number of emails from people I’ve never even met offering their condolences. It seems a death to your bike is akin to a death in the family in the real world. Absolutely amazing. Perhaps the biking brotherhood is bigger than I thought and if anything it certainly makes you realize that you’re not alone at times like this…

When I got to the office this morning in an odd way I didn’t quite feel as alone as I thought I would. So around 10 AM I promptly put in a call to Ducati North America’s customer service division just as Jake over at ProItalia had suggested I do while we were chatting yesterday about the bike. He passed along the name and number of a fellow named Mike Norman. When I placed the call, my immediate reaction was ‘oh shit here we go again’… No one seemed to be in the customer service office. Instead of a human being I got voicemail that said that someone from DNA would get back to me in four to five business days. I don’t know about anyone else but the idea of waiting four or five days just to start a conversation with someone about the bike struck me as semi-insane. So I waited a few minutes and then redialed. Instead of heading to the DNA customer service extension, I shuffeld my way through the options and found a operator. The gal quickly connected me to Mike’s direct line. Again I left a voicemail. At that point things didn’t look so hot.

About ten minutes later the phone at the office rang and it was Mike. When I got on the phone he; a) already knew who I was, b) had already heard about the problem from Jake @ PI and c) was already working on a solution.

At this point I don’t have a clue how this will all shake out, but I have to give some serious props, first to Jake @ PI for really being on the ball and secondly to Mike over at DNA for really making me feel like someone at DNA cares about their customers. Less than an hour after I got off the phone with Mike, another DNA customer service rep named Daniel called to confirm my conversation with Mike and go over more particulars about the broken bike.

To be quite honest, I’m amazed how fast DNA seems to be moving along. I was expecting a process similar to what MotorMilt & I went through with State Farm when the 749′s were stolen. During that fiasco life seemed to stop and there was so much battling back and forth between parties. Today was completely different. Both Mike & Daniel seemed to truly understand how I was feeling and both set a vibe over the phone that they were trying their best to find a fair solution. Both men were very clear that they couldn’t promise anything as of yet and that they had to talk to their superiors before any resolution could be discussed in more detail and that’s cool. I get that there’s a system at play here and that these sorts of things take some time to work out. Yet somehow when I left the office today I couldn’t help but feel like I was in good hands and that all the horror stories that you hear or read on the web about dealerships or manufacturers screwing customers over wasn’t going to happen. And if things turn out the way they seem to be heading and that’s the Ducati Ownership Experience that’s pretty damn good.