[AnotherHobby]

I am incredibly frustrated right now, and apologize for the long post, but I want to make sure I share all of the information. I have just been denied warranty for what is clearly a manufacturing defect in the resonator, because of an unrelated cosmetic scratch on the muffler. I also waited for Ducati's response and everything else before coming here to post.

In early June, I noticed an occasional rattle when I started my bike. It got progressively worse over the next week, until I thought something was dramatically wrong with the bike. I finally figured out it was the resonator can on my Termi exhaust. From what I can tell, an internal weld failed and something now rattles inside.

I have ruled out that something fell into the exhaust and is stuck in there. Here is a video of the rattle. It only makes the rattle when you hit it on the side where I'm hitting it, or when it’s on the bike. When I ride I can feel it rattle in my foot pegs and can hear it at idle and low rpm, especially when starting:

I brought it to my dealer (Motoprimo in Lakeville, MN), and dropped it off on June 15th. My first frustration was that it took them over a week to contact Ducati and get it shipped out. I won't go into details, but I finally got a call on the 25th that they had shipped it off. That was pretty disappointing response. 10 freaking days just to get my exhaust sent back to Ducati! But I digress...

I waited patiently for quite some time, and on June 8th finally emailed my sales guy at Motoprimo wondering what the heck was going on and asking if he could help grease the wheels for me. Sure enough their parts manager called me back with an answer within a few hours. He said that Ducati was not going to warranty the part due to “crash damage” on it. WTF? Crash damage? The dealer didn’t seem to ask any questions to Ducati or anything on my behalf, so I realized that if I wanted some resolution I’d have to contact them myself. I got my RMA number from the dealer (RMA:60122031) and submitted a customer service request on Ducati's website that day.

I got a call the next day from Ducati's customer service department asking for clarification so they could route my request, but after that I didn’t hear anything until July 15th, another full week later. It was a US customer service rep for Ducati, and he explained that Italy told him there was a scrape on the outside of the exhaust and on the carbon fiber tip that was “crash damage” and they weren’t going to warranty it. Now I knew what they were talking about, and I was blow away.

THIS IS ALL IT TAKES TO VOID YOUR EXHAUST WARRANTY FROM DUCATI:

It’s a small cosmetic scrape, and it’s not even on the resonator, the part that failed. For reference, here are pictures of the resonator (both sides), which has no dents or scrapes on it (cosmetic or otherwise):

It was rattling before that scrape happened. It’s completely unrelated, and I can’t understand how they can just tell me to F off because of that. Also, Ducati never even sent it to Termignoni to see what they would say. Some idiot there made that judgement call. I explain all this to the US customer service rep and he agrees with me that a cosmetic scrape in that location shouldn’t have anything to do with my resonator problem. I told him I don’t want a new exhaust, and that’s not what I’m after. All I want is a new resonator. That’s it! Even if they won’t warranty it, I ask if they’ll see me one at cost. He tells me he will talk to Italy and see what he can do.

That’s the last I hear until yesterday, when Motoprimo calls and tells me that my exhaust is back, and I can come pick it up, in the same broken state that it was sent out. So this is where I sit now. I can either keep barking up the tree and trying to complain, or I can find somebody that can actually weld titanium (not trivial at all!) and pay them to cut it open and fix it for me.

All I know is this is complete and utter B.S. If this happened with ANY other exhaust, I can guarantee you they would have supported me and stood behind their product. I can’t pick on Termignoni since they never even saw it, but this is a complete failure of customer service by Ducati. I never even heard back from the US customer service guy. Land of Joy my ass.

I am going to submit a customer service email to Termignoni directly (linking this thread so they can see pics and video) to see if they’ll help me out, but I have a feeling they might tell me I have to go through Ducati to get help. Who knows...

We will see how they respond, but you may want to think twice before dropping $1300 on this exhaust if a small cosmetic scratch will void the entire warranty.

 

[MotoChief]

Bummer man, hoping you get some resolution soon.

 

[vibration]

I was thinking of getting one of these but I think I'll hold off until I see how this gets handled.

 

[brendanfalkowski]

Pretty crappy they wouldn't even respond to an offer to replace the malfunctioning chamber at cost. Bizarre they shipped it to Italy and back without doing anything. You'd think they would let dealers make the call on this stuff since they're the ones handling us face to face.

I tend to think of warranties as dead-on-arrival protection, but little else. You could always threaten to cancel the payment if you bought it with a credit card. Most are pretty decent in automatically siding with the consumer. But that would probably nuke your relationship with the dealer. Not really their fault.

The only company I've ever had good warranty experience with was Apple. I bought a laptop + display with a three year warranty extension to cover both. The display started showing dark ghosting clouds, and I brought it to the Apple store 2 years 50 weeks after purchase. They replaced the $780 IPS panel for $0 and I had it back in 3 days.

I've been eyeing and earring the Termi upgrade, so it will telling how they respond. Most good (and smart) companies look for these situations to do something right in the public eye. It costs them basically nothing in the long run unless the product is actually garbage.

 

[DJKham]

Not sure if you live in the U.S. but feels like you may have legal recourse as the issue could not have been caused by the scratch you are showing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson?Moss_Warranty_Act

The exhaust is **** expensive. The reason I've purchased from Termignoni in the past is that 1) they make great products but also very importantly 2) they are Ducati's OEM supplier and are therefore covered under warranty.

We all know we're paying more for Termignoni for this reason so if they are falling short on #2, I see it as a major disconnect because your $1,200 is long gone and you're caught between a rock and a hard place with a rattling exhaust.

A few recommendations:

1) make your concern known on every social media channel available, including Facebook, Twitter and the Ducati Connunity app (these channels are monitored by Ducati and will likely get you another chance at speaking with someone)

2) Speak to your dealer Mano-a-Mano. I'm not talking about the sales guy. I'm talking about the manager and preferably the owner of the dealership. They are supposed to be your ally in this type of situation. I've had smaller mishaps (received my Scrambler with some small cosmetic defects) and they got the replacement parts from Ducati at no expense to me. I'll buy Ducati's from them again in the future as a result.

3) continue to Email and call contacts from Ducati in your country of residence, but also in Italy. Send a hand-written letter to Claudio Domenicali (Ducati CEO) if you have to. Need to be resourceful here but the squeaky wheel gets the greasing...so squeak a lot (see "Shawshank Redemption" movie for reference)

At the end of the day, Ducati is a manufacturer of premium motorcycles and I find it hard to believe that sooner or later, if your tone remains professional and your story above is the complete truth, that they would not help you out.

Keep us posted.

 

[tonyjuliano]

You most definitely have recourse if you are in the U.S. This is just the kind of thing that the Magnussom Moss Act was meant to prevent.

Get a lawyer to write a letter, I guarantee that's all it takes.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Crilly]

Motoprimo in Lakeville, MN) Bought a bike from them once. Worst dealer I have ever delt with. "What do you mean you want to take your new honda with you that you just paid for? Our service department is very busy. Come back in three days. Don't you feel sorry for us." It took 10 minutes to finish the set up.

 

[AnotherHobby]

I've contacted Termignoni and will wait for their response. I'm not going to go any further than what I've currently posted until I hear from them. I don't want to raise any stink about Termignoni since I have no beef with them at this point. They had no part in this.

I'm upset at Ducati for:

• denying warranty on a $1300 exhauset based on what is clearly a cosmetic scatch
• not contacting Termignoni to even see if they would cover it
• not following through with my Customer Support query on the exhaust
• just shipping it back to me when I had an open query with them

I'm also a little upset with Motoprimo for taking so long, and I am disappointed in them for not advocating for their customer. They asked nothing of Ducati, not even what they meant by "crash damage." When I asked what they meant, they said they didn't know. I completely feel like they didn't/don't give a shi+. I'd already recommend one person over there who bought a bike last month. I won't be doing that again. I'll still get service there because they are very convenient and I know their Ducati guy is really good, but I don't think I'll ever buy another bike there.

Also, I hope I don't have to ship the pipe back to Italy again. I've already been without it for over a month because of the dealership and Ducati.

 

[AnotherHobby]

Well, I got a response from Termignoni today. They responded quickly, and seem to agree with me, but say their hands are tied. Here is the part where they say they can't help me:

"First of all I have to inform you that unfortunately we are not allowed to work directly with you. We have an exclusivity contract with Ducati Motor Holding and we sold only to Ducati motor holding for this reason we can recognize a guarantee only to them and not directly to you or to the Ducati US or your Ducati dealer because we cannot have any direct contact with them, only with Ducati Motor Holding."

I responded asking if they'd be willing to back door Ducati for me and contact them on my behalf and tell them they'd honor the warranty. We will see what they say, but I'm not very hopeful that'll happen. So unless they help me, I'm stuck to battle it out on my own with Ducati if I don't feel like giving up (not sure yet).

For now, let it be known that a cosmetic scratch voids your Ducati exhaust warranty. Furthermore, the fact that this even happened in the first place isn't very reassuring for long-term durability. The reason you pay more for the Termi is for the supposed factory support and warranty, but clearly that's marketing BS.

I have updated my signature, and it'll live with all of my posts on this forum until I sell my Scrambler, or if somebody more intelligent at Ducati realizes they made a mistake.

At this point, I'm left with two options:

1. Keep barking up the tree with Ducati (I'll give them one more chance)
2. Pay to have it fixed myself

I'm really tempted to just go with 2 because I want it back on my bike, but I might make one last attempt with Ducati.

 

[Rooster]

If Termi is agreeing with you I would take your e-mails to the dealership and raise some ****.

 

[MotoChief]

Raise hall with Ducati, in all fairness, it was probably some low level sh!t head that is told to first deny, deny, deny all warrrenty claims, just like insurance companies. Get the right persons attention, who that is I don't know. But if you keep screaming loud enough, sooner or later you will get the right person to listen.

 

[AnotherHobby]

Raise hall with Ducati, in all fairness, it was probably some low level sh!t head that is told to first deny, deny, deny all warrrenty claims, just like insurance companies. Get the right persons attention, who that is I don't know. But if you keep screaming loud enough, sooner or later you will get the right person to listen.

I've assumed all along it was some low level sh!t head, because any reasonable person can tell that this isn't related to my problem.

Termignoni just replied to me: "I’m going to write to the Accessory Business Manager of Ducati Motor Holding, let’s see his answer."

I must say, I'm very pleased Termignoni is doing this for me.

 

[Rooster]

That's good to hear. At least you have some leverage with termi backing you up.

 

[truant]

I have a feeling this will be sorted for you. In the big scheme of things its an easy problem for them to fix, and Termi are also probably very interested in why the resonator is rattling.

 

[mitra]

Personally won't be buying any termignoni product based on this, and will point friends I know to this article when thinking about their products.


Also out of curiosity, have people have similar warranty issues with general Ducati bikes? Let's say minor drops marks, or scrapes and then issues with bike, related to other areas of the bike? Would want to understand if Ducati are just being ridiculous or not, or this is a one off?

 

[AnotherHobby]

I have contacted Ducati NA, explained the situation, got the name of their person that helped me before (which is great), and gave them links to this thread (and the one I made on the "other" forum) so they can see the pictures and video. They now have all of the info. Ball is in their court.

 

[DJKham]

Personally won't be buying any termignoni product based on this, and will point friends I know to this article when thinking about their products.


Also out of curiosity, have people have similar warranty issues with general Ducati bikes? Let's say minor drops marks, or scrapes and then issues with bike, related to other areas of the bike? Would want to understand if Ducati are just being ridiculous or not, or this is a one off?

Hold on a second here people. Let's not get all crazy and start painting all Ducati or Termignoni products any shade of black. Termignoni has a pretty good track record in the industry (as does Ducati -I can attest after having owned 5 of their bikes, 3 of which had Termi exhausts) and not even the greatest companies are immune to defects and bad representation. In the end, it's all about how issues are handled which is exactly what's in progress here. For all we know, this could all be due to a single incompetent person making a bad call on a Friday. Let's let the OP play this out, give all parties a fair chance to reply and then decide if we're going to burn anyone at the stake.

 

[vibration]

The best customer service organizations train and empower their people on the front line to handle customer problems expeditiously and graciously...without having to consult a higher-up.

 

[AnotherHobby]

Hold on a second here people. Let's not get all crazy and start painting all Ducati or Termignoni products any shade of black. Termignoni has a pretty good track record in the industry (as does Ducati -I can attest after having owned 5 of their bikes, 3 of which had Termi exhausts) and not even the greatest companies are immune to defects and bad representation. In the end, it's all about how issues are handled which is exactly what's in progress here. For all we know, this could all be due to a single incompetent person making a bad call on a Friday. Let's let the OP play this out, give all parties a fair chance to reply and then decide if we're going to burn anyone at the stake.

I agree with everything in this statement 100% — there is no need to get out the pitchforks.

 

[MotoChief]

I agree with everything in this statement 100% — there is no need to get out the pitchforks.

Yet