Trippy
Guest
Yep with a responce like you gave it would be nice to know if you have had or do have any connection with Ocean, especially after people at other dealerships have been known to log on here and sing the praises of companies.
Yep with a responce like you gave it would be nice to know if you have had or do have any connection with Ocean, especially after people at other dealerships have been known to log on here and sing the praises of companies.
avrolancaster
Guest
This is an interesting thread for many reasons, not least the popcorn value.
It all concerns the perception of a certain dealer, it really matters not which dealer because all get the same treatment eventually.
However, there is something that really needs to be said. Ocean are the best dealer the we have had in the west country for a VERY long time, not just because there have been relatively few but because of the continuous improvements in the site and the service (some of which may have been enforced by corporate dictate, but in a time where car dealers all too readily ditch the bikes we should perhaps be grateful). Of course they have hic cups along the way, you can not please every one.
It seems Sid Horman got bad service and wasted a lot of money finding that out, that is bad but is not the rule and certainly not my experience of Ocean. I confess to having met Sid on a professional basis and always found him easy going, very enthusiastic about the whole GS thing and a 'regular joe'. As to riding every demonstator, blimey thats what they are there for isn't it! If the demonstrators are there for the converted then what a waste of money.
Willywonker, I don't know who you are or your motives but I do wonder. Personally I have had nothing but positive dealings with Ocean, both with test rides and servicing, I have stated as much, you however give no such support to Ocean. All you do is slate someone who has had a bad experience. There is good and bad, just hope the good out weighs the bad by a huge margin!
As to the OP, don't give up on Ocean, really. Try again come service time, if you don't get a friendly, confident experience then go elsewhere. Don't bite off you nose to spite your face.
It all concerns the perception of a certain dealer, it really matters not which dealer because all get the same treatment eventually.
However, there is something that really needs to be said. Ocean are the best dealer the we have had in the west country for a VERY long time, not just because there have been relatively few but because of the continuous improvements in the site and the service (some of which may have been enforced by corporate dictate, but in a time where car dealers all too readily ditch the bikes we should perhaps be grateful). Of course they have hic cups along the way, you can not please every one.
It seems Sid Horman got bad service and wasted a lot of money finding that out, that is bad but is not the rule and certainly not my experience of Ocean. I confess to having met Sid on a professional basis and always found him easy going, very enthusiastic about the whole GS thing and a 'regular joe'. As to riding every demonstator, blimey thats what they are there for isn't it! If the demonstrators are there for the converted then what a waste of money.
Willywonker, I don't know who you are or your motives but I do wonder. Personally I have had nothing but positive dealings with Ocean, both with test rides and servicing, I have stated as much, you however give no such support to Ocean. All you do is slate someone who has had a bad experience. There is good and bad, just hope the good out weighs the bad by a huge margin!
As to the OP, don't give up on Ocean, really. Try again come service time, if you don't get a friendly, confident experience then go elsewhere. Don't bite off you nose to spite your face.
Trippy
Guest
Don't know about regular Joe (complete fruitcake more like) but Sid is a 100% good guy, a friend and I would like to think totally trustworthy and reliable.
I take his word as truth over someone I don't think I have ever met.
As for Ocean they have always been ok with me with the exception of the time when I called to try and get the 1150 in for an insurance estimate and got the distinct impression that it was all a bit too much bother and I ended up going to CW.
jdjfry
Guest
Hi all
As the original poster , can I say how interesting it is to view all of the replies and comments.
That is what forums are all about and I thank you all , positive and negative
I really did feel badly treated in my experience and it seems that for every happy customer there is one that feels aggrieved.
It is not very often that I feel that strongly about things that I feel compelled to write about it , but one salesman there acted so unprofessionally that I question myself how long he will be there , or maybe has been there.
As someone working in the sales world, there are some basic customer skills that are essential. This guy illustrated not one of them.
Maybe I have been unfair brandishing the whole dealership poor just because of one department though , sales!
Every customer that walks through the door should be treated as a potential sale and with an open mind.
The particular salesman in question could hardly find time to talk to me , had me almost chasing him around the showroom , was dismissive of my questions , refused to talk to me because I had spoken to another salesman the day before ( He was day off that day) even though I explained that I was away on holiday the next day and wanted to talk about a deal before I went away, Looked at my bike and ripped it to pieces in front of me ( to my amazement), showed no friendliness at all throughout my visit etc etc I feel no need to continue......
Maybe I should not " bite off my nose..." and try the service department , however if they have read my posts , will I be welcome?????
Thanks to all posters again
As the original poster , can I say how interesting it is to view all of the replies and comments.
That is what forums are all about and I thank you all , positive and negative
I really did feel badly treated in my experience and it seems that for every happy customer there is one that feels aggrieved.
It is not very often that I feel that strongly about things that I feel compelled to write about it , but one salesman there acted so unprofessionally that I question myself how long he will be there , or maybe has been there.
As someone working in the sales world, there are some basic customer skills that are essential. This guy illustrated not one of them.
Maybe I have been unfair brandishing the whole dealership poor just because of one department though , sales!
Every customer that walks through the door should be treated as a potential sale and with an open mind.
The particular salesman in question could hardly find time to talk to me , had me almost chasing him around the showroom , was dismissive of my questions , refused to talk to me because I had spoken to another salesman the day before ( He was day off that day) even though I explained that I was away on holiday the next day and wanted to talk about a deal before I went away, Looked at my bike and ripped it to pieces in front of me ( to my amazement), showed no friendliness at all throughout my visit etc etc I feel no need to continue......
Maybe I should not " bite off my nose..." and try the service department , however if they have read my posts , will I be welcome?????
Thanks to all posters again
Thanks to all of those who have posted in support, I appreciate that.
Avrolancaster, not sure who you are but thanks anyway. "Met me in a professional capacity". Blimey, you're not one of my psychiatrists are you!
To the original poster, I gave an honest opinion of my experiences but despite that I still said that the majority of Ocean staff are helpful and I would continue to use them. My comments were intended to be helpful both to you and to Ocean. They need to ensure that they don't pre-judge potential customers by the value of the bike they arrive on. If Ocean want to win Dealer of Year again then they can't afford to have these sort of customer experiences. The fact that "Alexei" no longer works there negates my point about the quality of his work and therefore I would not hold that against them in future. Equally, I'm big enough to apologise if my comments about the General Manager were deemed unfair but his attitude did appear at best discourteous if not outright rude. Your experience suggests you had a similar encounter.
I recommend give them another go as it has been agreed by everyone that they are basically a very good dealer. Incidentally, I tend to agree with the other BMW dealer who posted and said you won't get a good trade in for a non BMW bike. The salesman that I dealt with re the HP2 was completely honest about this when I discussed chopping in my new R1 against it. They would pass it on through the trade so would have to offer lowest trade value. I fully accept that as an honest answer.
WillyWonker has probably done more damage to the reputation of Ocean than any dissatisfied customer could ever have managed.
Still waiting for him to admit that his posting was a concoction of lies and unnecessary personal abuse. I have refrained from answering in kind and kept my replies to the facts. I will leave it to others on here to draw their own conclusions.
Will he be big enough to come back and apologise?
Avrolancaster, not sure who you are but thanks anyway. "Met me in a professional capacity". Blimey, you're not one of my psychiatrists are you!
To the original poster, I gave an honest opinion of my experiences but despite that I still said that the majority of Ocean staff are helpful and I would continue to use them. My comments were intended to be helpful both to you and to Ocean. They need to ensure that they don't pre-judge potential customers by the value of the bike they arrive on. If Ocean want to win Dealer of Year again then they can't afford to have these sort of customer experiences. The fact that "Alexei" no longer works there negates my point about the quality of his work and therefore I would not hold that against them in future. Equally, I'm big enough to apologise if my comments about the General Manager were deemed unfair but his attitude did appear at best discourteous if not outright rude. Your experience suggests you had a similar encounter.
I recommend give them another go as it has been agreed by everyone that they are basically a very good dealer. Incidentally, I tend to agree with the other BMW dealer who posted and said you won't get a good trade in for a non BMW bike. The salesman that I dealt with re the HP2 was completely honest about this when I discussed chopping in my new R1 against it. They would pass it on through the trade so would have to offer lowest trade value. I fully accept that as an honest answer.
WillyWonker has probably done more damage to the reputation of Ocean than any dissatisfied customer could ever have managed.
Still waiting for him to admit that his posting was a concoction of lies and unnecessary personal abuse. I have refrained from answering in kind and kept my replies to the facts. I will leave it to others on here to draw their own conclusions.
Will he be big enough to come back and apologise?
jdjfry
Guest
Hi
jdjfry here - The original poster
Just thought it would be only fair to mention that I have today received a sincere apology from the salesman at BMW Plymouth who has read through the comments on this site and recognises himself as the person in question
I have accepted his apology and I will , as other posters on this thread have suggested , give them a try in the future for my servicing and repair needs
I suppose we can all have a bad day!
jdjfry here - The original poster
Just thought it would be only fair to mention that I have today received a sincere apology from the salesman at BMW Plymouth who has read through the comments on this site and recognises himself as the person in question
I have accepted his apology and I will , as other posters on this thread have suggested , give them a try in the future for my servicing and repair needs
I suppose we can all have a bad day!
Good result 
Well done Ocean as well, recognizing and addressing the complaint without any fuss.
Maybe you will win dealership of the year again with that attitude
Theres a lot of us Tossers down by yer in Debon ooo arrrrrrr
Well done Ocean as well, recognizing and addressing the complaint without any fuss.
Maybe you will win dealership of the year again with that attitude
Theres a lot of us Tossers down by yer in Debon ooo arrrrrrr
Ocean Plymouth
Dear all
Thought I'd wait to see if this thread 'moderated' itself before 'contributing' (if at all!). Thank you to everyone for your comments, good and bad - we (Ocean) genuinely don't know how we are doing unless you tell us and believe it or not, we are all just human beings too! That of course means that occasionally we do stuff up and upset people or indeed do any of the other regrettable things that I am sure we have ALL been guilty of during our lives.
We would all like our lives to be a little easier and certainly do not set out to cause either ourselves or our customers any extra grief or hard work. All the staff at Ocean our committed to providing the best level of service that we can, sometimes we don't and I apologise unreservedly if you have encountered us when this has been the case.
If you have an issue with any aspect of the service we provide, please tell me personally - you must know that I can't really respond to the personal criticism on here (even though I have been sorely tempted......) but would be happy to try and resolve any problems before they get to this stage!
I wish you all the best and look forward to serving you with a steaming hot Latte Machiato (or any coffee of your choice!) with our compliments during your next visit to Ocean Cafe.
Kind regards
Peter
Ocean General Manager
Dear all
Thought I'd wait to see if this thread 'moderated' itself before 'contributing' (if at all!). Thank you to everyone for your comments, good and bad - we (Ocean) genuinely don't know how we are doing unless you tell us and believe it or not, we are all just human beings too! That of course means that occasionally we do stuff up and upset people or indeed do any of the other regrettable things that I am sure we have ALL been guilty of during our lives.
We would all like our lives to be a little easier and certainly do not set out to cause either ourselves or our customers any extra grief or hard work. All the staff at Ocean our committed to providing the best level of service that we can, sometimes we don't and I apologise unreservedly if you have encountered us when this has been the case.
If you have an issue with any aspect of the service we provide, please tell me personally - you must know that I can't really respond to the personal criticism on here (even though I have been sorely tempted......) but would be happy to try and resolve any problems before they get to this stage!
I wish you all the best and look forward to serving you with a steaming hot Latte Machiato (or any coffee of your choice!) with our compliments during your next visit to Ocean Cafe.
Kind regards
Peter
Ocean General Manager
Peter
I would have sent this as a private message but not able to as you are not a subscriber so I will post this here as hopefully the final word from me.
Thank you for taking the time to post on this thread. I hope you accept my apology for the original personal comments I made about you. With hindsight, I should have just discussed this directly and moved on. Sorry for any embarrassment caused.
I think your post was very helpful and professional and will reassure many people about Ocean.
I sincerely hope that WillyWonker is not a member of Ocean staff but from the clues he posted about our trip last year I strongly suspect that he is an ex-member of your staff. I would also hope that you would distance yourself from his comments which were totally untrue in every respect.
I would have sent this as a private message but not able to as you are not a subscriber so I will post this here as hopefully the final word from me.
Thank you for taking the time to post on this thread. I hope you accept my apology for the original personal comments I made about you. With hindsight, I should have just discussed this directly and moved on. Sorry for any embarrassment caused.
I think your post was very helpful and professional and will reassure many people about Ocean.
I sincerely hope that WillyWonker is not a member of Ocean staff but from the clues he posted about our trip last year I strongly suspect that he is an ex-member of your staff. I would also hope that you would distance yourself from his comments which were totally untrue in every respect.
No apology needed or indeed sought!
Thanks for your message
I have read through all of the posts on this thread and cannot identify a current member of staff from the indications given. Suffice to say that I can only be responsible for my own comments and accept no responsibility for the others!
As a further incentive for all UKGSERs to use Ocean Plymouth (as if the free coffee wasn't enough!) I would like to extend an offer of a 10% discount on parts and labour for anyone needing a service on a R1200GS/A and 20% off the labour and 10% parts for any last generation GS's (R1100/1150) until the end of the year. Please mention my offer to the staff when booking (I havent communicated it yet!).
I am travelling up to the Touratech event this Saturday should anyone have any questions or comments, I would be delighted to receive them personally.
Kind regards
Peter
General Manager
Ocean Plymouth
Thanks for your message
I have read through all of the posts on this thread and cannot identify a current member of staff from the indications given. Suffice to say that I can only be responsible for my own comments and accept no responsibility for the others!
As a further incentive for all UKGSERs to use Ocean Plymouth (as if the free coffee wasn't enough!) I would like to extend an offer of a 10% discount on parts and labour for anyone needing a service on a R1200GS/A and 20% off the labour and 10% parts for any last generation GS's (R1100/1150) until the end of the year. Please mention my offer to the staff when booking (I havent communicated it yet!).
I am travelling up to the Touratech event this Saturday should anyone have any questions or comments, I would be delighted to receive them personally.
Kind regards
Peter
General Manager
Ocean Plymouth
Nate
Registered user
Excellent result....
Thanks Peter... 10% sounds cool... I'm due a service and an MoT
Personally, my experience of Ocean has been superb... all aspects; servicing, sales and the coffee
In addition, had the pleasure of popping into CWs in May for a headlight bulb and again found the staff really helpful (and they do free coffee too, though not as nice as Ocean)
Thanks Peter... 10% sounds cool... I'm due a service and an MoT
Personally, my experience of Ocean has been superb... all aspects; servicing, sales and the coffee
In addition, had the pleasure of popping into CWs in May for a headlight bulb and again found the staff really helpful (and they do free coffee too, though not as nice as Ocean)
Mac
Registered user
Hi peter,
some people understand what you are saying and well done for saying it
if my bike breaks down and someones day is ruined as a result, it's not always my fault........but...............it is always my job to fix it
i've got an 1100 and will be heading to Plymouth before x-mas for the usual round of family visits, yer on my list aswell now, but it will need to be a large coffee while i wait for my discounted spares.....
some people understand what you are saying and well done for saying it
if my bike breaks down and someones day is ruined as a result, it's not always my fault........but...............it is always my job to fix it
i've got an 1100 and will be heading to Plymouth before x-mas for the usual round of family visits, yer on my list aswell now, but it will need to be a large coffee while i wait for my discounted spares.....
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