UPDATE: Thunder Road got in touch with me personal...

UPDATE: Thunder Road got in touch with me personally in light of this review to apologise for the experience I had, and invited me to give them another try. You have to admit that taking the time to contact me was good customer service. I eventually went in on a weekday, so it wouldn't be too busy, and was able to get some service questions answered.

In general, though, some of my initial impressions remained the same. I didn't really get the feeling that I was welcome.

I suppose the way to spin this feeling positively is to say that I definitely did not feel pressured. No sales guys were breathing down my neck and I was free to wander and check out bikes for as long as I pleased. I even went to the point of testing my luck by sitting on bikes and then lying on the floor to check their brake pads, etc. No one bothered me. At all. Not even once.

Some would see this as a very good thing, and I suppose I do, too, in a way. But it also feels like indifference. So, I'm keeping my review at three stars. Below is my original review, of the first experience I had at Thunder Road.



I don't know how Google's system works, so this review relates to Thunder Road's Bridgend location:

I went in for a visit on the strength of some of the reviews here and I have to say I felt a little let down. I'll stress that my experience wasn't negative, but it also wasn't as positive as I had expected. Firstly, the staff outnumbered customers two to one but I had trouble getting anyone's attention.

Just so you don't think I was simply standing there expecting to be wait on hand and foot, my means of trying to get someone's attention was to walk up to the counter where four members of staff were chatting and politely say, "Excuse me," several times. I was effectively made to wait whilst one of them finished telling his hilarious story.

Thereafter I found myself being passed from one person to another as I sought answers on the cost of service and modifications to my bike. I had to speak to four different people and each time the conversation started with an accusatory: "Did you get the bike from us?"

I came away feeling that I would have to put effort into convincing them to take my money, which is a strange sort of thing.

The word that comes to mind is "parochial." If you aren't already in their scope of who and what their customers are, you never will be. Everyone was nice enough, but I didn't feel welcome. If this were the only Honda dealer around, I'd let it pass, but there are plenty of other good dealers in the area, so I don't think I'll ever go back to this particular location again.