I suppose I'd better post my views rather than allow Proff and Trippy to quote my views second hand.
I had always been the first to praise Ocean in the past when I had received excellent service from them. Bill, the parts manager, is always extremely helpful and will order in anything that is not available from stock and post it on to me as soon as it is received.
I have had mixed reception from the sales department. I did not buy my GS from them (it came from Jersey) but they have mostly been helpful. I had one bad experience just after Pete left and the new Sales Manager replaced him. This was the person who I famously said of "I took an instant dislike to him, it saved time!". He spoke down to me as if I knew nothing about bikes and told me I was no worthy to have a test ride on a Mega Moto as "it was only available to people who were seriously going to buy one" whereas I was more interested in HP2 Enduro. In fairness to the other Salesmen, they were very professional and contacted me when they did get a HP2 Enduro in stock and let me take it out. I very nearly bought it but decided to keep my GS and buy a KTM as an off-roader.
Mark the Workshop manager is very helpful and has managed to fit me in at short notice when I have been going away. However, my last visits to have the tick-over sorted out were very disappointing. The mechanic working on my bike (Alexei Sayle lookalike) was very sloppy and unprofessional. He removed tank and let petrol pour all over bike lift until he eventually stopped fuel flow. He tried to start bike when it was clear he hadn't connected up fuel injection on right hand side. Very poor quality of workmanship and not what you expect when paying £50 per hour.
The bike had to go back in 5 times as it was clear that they had no idea how to rectify the problem apart from throwing new bits at it and hoping that would cure the problem. £500 later and it was no better than the day I first took it in. Finally I took it to Steptoe and he correctly diagnosed the problem with the throttle body and it was then running perfectly.
I would use Ocean again for spares but I would be reluctant to trust them with an older bike as their "mechanics" are more like fitters who can do simple jobs on recent bikes but don't appear to have the skills to diagnose and rectify problems. Its a long trip to London to visit the shrine of St. Eptoe but worth it in the long run.
I would use the Sales Dept if they had something that caught my fancy, but I would avoid the new Sales Manager. That wouldn't be difficult as he completely ignored me on my subsequent visits as I think I had already been marked as unworthy in his book.
Like the original poster, I'm not one to buy brand new bikes every other year and consequently don't like to waste money. Equally, if I wanted to, I could easily afford to buy any bike in their showroom for cash but I choose not to.
I think Ocean have rested on their laurels a bit after winning Dealer of the Year a few years ago. It was well deserved then, but it is not surprising that they have not won it since.
The front office staff are all nice guys and very helpful (with the obvious exception of the new "suit") and the service department is let down by the quality of their mechanics.
I had always been the first to praise Ocean in the past when I had received excellent service from them. Bill, the parts manager, is always extremely helpful and will order in anything that is not available from stock and post it on to me as soon as it is received.
I have had mixed reception from the sales department. I did not buy my GS from them (it came from Jersey) but they have mostly been helpful. I had one bad experience just after Pete left and the new Sales Manager replaced him. This was the person who I famously said of "I took an instant dislike to him, it saved time!". He spoke down to me as if I knew nothing about bikes and told me I was no worthy to have a test ride on a Mega Moto as "it was only available to people who were seriously going to buy one" whereas I was more interested in HP2 Enduro. In fairness to the other Salesmen, they were very professional and contacted me when they did get a HP2 Enduro in stock and let me take it out. I very nearly bought it but decided to keep my GS and buy a KTM as an off-roader.
Mark the Workshop manager is very helpful and has managed to fit me in at short notice when I have been going away. However, my last visits to have the tick-over sorted out were very disappointing. The mechanic working on my bike (Alexei Sayle lookalike) was very sloppy and unprofessional. He removed tank and let petrol pour all over bike lift until he eventually stopped fuel flow. He tried to start bike when it was clear he hadn't connected up fuel injection on right hand side. Very poor quality of workmanship and not what you expect when paying £50 per hour.
The bike had to go back in 5 times as it was clear that they had no idea how to rectify the problem apart from throwing new bits at it and hoping that would cure the problem. £500 later and it was no better than the day I first took it in. Finally I took it to Steptoe and he correctly diagnosed the problem with the throttle body and it was then running perfectly.
I would use Ocean again for spares but I would be reluctant to trust them with an older bike as their "mechanics" are more like fitters who can do simple jobs on recent bikes but don't appear to have the skills to diagnose and rectify problems. Its a long trip to London to visit the shrine of St. Eptoe but worth it in the long run.
I would use the Sales Dept if they had something that caught my fancy, but I would avoid the new Sales Manager. That wouldn't be difficult as he completely ignored me on my subsequent visits as I think I had already been marked as unworthy in his book.
Like the original poster, I'm not one to buy brand new bikes every other year and consequently don't like to waste money. Equally, if I wanted to, I could easily afford to buy any bike in their showroom for cash but I choose not to.
I think Ocean have rested on their laurels a bit after winning Dealer of the Year a few years ago. It was well deserved then, but it is not surprising that they have not won it since.
The front office staff are all nice guys and very helpful (with the obvious exception of the new "suit") and the service department is let down by the quality of their mechanics.
you put that beautifully 
.
and from a female as well 
).
.....are any of you South Westerners going to the last (of the year) Paignton Bike Night tomorrow?????.............
