Dan Carr October 2, 2009 10:02 AM
If you don't live in the area of this shop and expect to get parts quickly, it's a gamble. If the parts are in stock there, then you can probably get them in a reasonable amount of time if you live in the western U.S.

However, as was my recent experience, if the parts are not in stock, you will end up waiting for some period of time while they get the parts from their supplier (wherever that is), and then once they get them, then an additional waiting period for them to ship the parts to you. So I would recommend that if the parts are not in stock, to order them through your local dealer. They probably use the same supplier, so you will cut out one part of the wait to get the parts.

The online catalog is super. I like being able to look up the parts myself, and see the price right away. The downside to my recent transaction was that I ordered the parts on a Sunday night. (9/13/09), but did not find out the parts were out of stock until the afternoon of 9/15/09. My point here is that they are closed on Sunday and Monday (like a lot of motorcycle shops) and that’s fine people need time off from work…BUT if they are serious about doing internet business which runs 24/7, then they should have someone processing orders on Monday, a regular shipping and working day for most people. In this case, even someone working from home with an on-hand inventory could recognize the parts were not in stock, and get the order to the supplier immediately instead of waiting a couple of days.

I got the parts on 9/28/09, everything except they shorted me on one part I needed 3 of…at the time I placed the order, they had one on hand. Although they didn’t fess up to it, they probably got the two in from the supplier and sent those, forgetting to pull the other one from stock. So now I am waiting another week to get that part, so that will probably arrive on 10/5/09.

So basically it took over 3 weeks to get some parts. Sure, I could have lessened the time by paying a lot more for shipping. But then what is the point of even going though them? That’s what I’m asking myself right now. Let’s see, bike torn apart for 3 weeks waiting for parts, finally sending the shipment but short one part, slow to process the order to begin with…maybe I am just used to getting things from other online retailers and Ebay, who for the most part process and ship things quickly.

My recommendation would be to use the A&S catalog to look up part numbers and get prices, and then forward this to your local dealer to get the parts. Or I believe there are some other dealers going online now, you might try them. The good part of the experience was the catalog, and the response time I got from using the help line. The bad part is it took way too long, and they did not admit to the mistake of sending the one missing part late. If I were in change and made that mistake, I would have sent the part overnight at no charge to the customer. If they had done that, at least I would have been able to get the bike running again this weekend.

Maybe they should use USPS in some cases, since they deliver on Saturday. That would increase the chance of someone getting their parts in time to fix their bike over the weekend, when most people have time off to do that kind of thing.

A&S really needs to look at their operations critically.

Dan