Scott Harrison, ext.2551(Head Office ,Yamaha Motor Canada Ltd. ,480 Gordon Baker Rd. ,Toronto, ON ,M2H 3B4) told me on the phone yesterday that he did't care if he was loosing me as a Yamaha Customer.????
Let me explain... I have a 1999 Yamaha Kodiak 400 single range that I purchased brand new out of the box in March of 2000, so far I love it. It's been a fantasitic machine. But I've come up against my first problem. The entire rear drive shaft needs to be replaced. It seems that the left rear tire mounts on a spline shaft, well I'm assumming that it never fit just right when I purchased the machine and little by little the splines wore down. I had been noticing the rear tire being lose for a while and when I come back for a ride I'd retighten and blot with the key, But my next ride it would be loose again due to the spline shaft beening worn down to much to hold proberly. So I just recently sent the bike into my Dealer to have the situation checked out. Yes, they confirmed that indeed the rear drive shaft would have to be replaced as well as the hub that mounts on the rim. With parts and labour this is a $1200.00 repair. Needless to say I was upset about the hole situation but my dealer assured me that this has never happened to a bike this new and that they have only seen this happen to really old bikes and that it seem that it was a manufactures defect.

So here where my story about Yamaha and Scott Harrison begins. I called Yamaha and eventually was put through to Scott. I exlained the situation to him and backed by my dealer, that indeed this was a manufactures defect and that I was looking for some help and support from Yamaha to put my bike back on the trails. I also explained to Scott that I was a valued customer that both my father and I purchased the same bikes and that his has no problems. Scott briefly sympathised took some information off me and said he would both call my dealer and get back to me with in a day.
Well my bike sat up a the dealer for a week with no phone calls from Yamaha, Getting frustraited with the situration I call again and again and again untill I finally got scott to call me back. He told me that he called the dealer and that Yamaha would not be participating in anyway for the repair on my bike, to further it he told me that even if the bike was under warenty that he wouldn't repalce the parts He even said that rear driveshalft replacement was just part of regular maintence. The man was extremly rude and ignorante with me on the phone, at which point I reminded his that he was representing a very large company and that is ignorance in dealing with me was not appreciated. I bluntly asked him "So your going to leave me high and dry with no help or support" he said "Yes". When I told him that he had just lost a Valued Yamaha customer he said he didn't care!
Can you beleive that Yamaha employes people like this, I'm sure he thinks that I am mearly a speck on the wall and he can disreguard me if he wishes. And, for the most part he's right, except for all of you.. My fellow ATV friends, I just want you all to know the way Yamaha is Valueing there customers, because it seems they just don't care about us. It's one thing to reject the repair and I probly could have delt with it, but it's entirely another situation to be treated so poorly by such a big name, Yamaha.

As it stands right now, I am concidering selling my Yamaha and I will not be purchasing another ATV from them, They wont' support us, How can I respectfully buy from them?? What do you think Freinds?? Should I pursue the matter with Yamaha or sell the bike as is and forget about Yamaha?
Has anyone had this problem, do you have a quick fix?

Sincerely an unappreciated
Yamaha customer
1999kodiak

 

That seems to be a universal theme with Yamaha, from my experience. Try talking with Lisa or her superiors at Yamaha USA and you'll get the same treatment. Trust me, I've been there as I'm sure many others on this forum have.

 

You should sell your yamaha and buy a honda. You would be glad you did.

 

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with your quad and your bad dealings with yammy brass. Hope it works out for you. Your rear axle takes about 20 min. to remove. You can take it to a machine shop with a $40 new hub where they can weld up the end and cut new splines to match the hub for around $100. A new axle + 2 bearings and seals are about $325. It is a very easy job and only takes a few hand tools. I had my 1995 Kodiak axle out twice for seal & bearing replacement. The ring,pinion & inner bearings all stay put, the axle slides right out after removing the other sides hub. Good luck whatever ya do. I have never had a warranty claim with Yamaha but after hearing about your mistreatment I hope I never do!!

Parts Locator & Pricing Link

 

I think Yamaha will start caring in a few more years when they get a new Senior VP of Worldwide Sales who puts pressure on the other departments to keep customers happy (the current one will get fired when sales start dropping). Yamaha doesn't realize that they are losing or will begin losing many first time customers - especially due to the Raptor. The one problem with being on the bleeding edge of technology (the Raptor) is that you better have the entire organization prepared to support it; otherwise, those first time customers lured with this machine leave never to be "had" again. Will Honda come out with a production 450? I doubt it. Honda is going to snap up on Yamaha's Raptor base with a very reliable 650ex.

My advice is to take your bike to another shop (not a factory dealer shop) to have the work done if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself. The price you were quoted sounds extremely high. Generally, Yamaha will at least supply the part if you pay for the labor. At this point, could you just try welding the hub to the axle? Can you get it tight enough that it would be properly seated prior to welding? I am assuming the two metals are compatible for welding. If you do have to replace the axle and/or hubs, I recommend going after market. The guys who race the Kodiaks all go with aftermarket axles.

I feel your pain. Just out of curiosity, do you have the extended warranty?

 

1999Kodiak-
Man, Very sorry to hear your troubles with that guy. Is there anybody above him you could contact, explain the situation to with your quad, then explain about your completely rude and disrespectful conversation with this Scott guy? I see he works in the "head office", but possibly there could be one of his superiors that you may be able to get through too??? The sad thing is, you're exactly right. I hate to say it, but in big corporate companies such as Yamaha, one person doesn't amount to squat. A few people complain here and there about different things, Yamaha (or any other huge corporation for that matter) couldn't care less-like this Scott guy, they just don't give a damn. Why? Because your single $5-6,000 purchase is less than pocket change when they turn millions, if not billions of dollars in annual sales each year. If there was any way you could find other Kodiak owners with this same problem, from that same year, possibly you could gather up and all send letters or call-being a louder voice, you just may get heard. You know the old saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease".

As far as repairs go, Boghammer is right. I doubt many people would buy a quad with those repairs needing to be done right away-at least not for very much money. It will have to be repaired either before you sell, or naturally before you plan to ride again. If you're happy with the machine otherwise, get it fixed and keep it, just don't buy Yammy again when you upgrade. Any good machine shop could either repair your shaft, or even cut you a new one for fairly cheap. Order the rest of your parts, then if you don't have a shop manual already, have somebody scan you in the necessary pages, and do the work yourself. Basically, none of this stuff is really "hard", it just takes a little time and some patience depending on the job. The thing about doing it yourself-you KNOW it's done right, and don't have to second guess whether or not the dealer messed with anything else while working on your machine. Also, it will be done soon as you get around to working on it, not "oh, maybe sometime next week".

Again, Very sorry to hear of your troubles with the "head office", Best of Luck resolving this matter,

Mike

 

NotuRaptor,
I am one of those first time customers of Yamaha lured by the Raptor. My other choice was the 400 Ex. I just wished that I had known about the forums on atv connection. I have been looking at atv connection (reading atv tests) I know since the beginnning of 1999 because I purchased my Recon after reading the test atv connection did. I have had 8 honda's and they have all been really good machines. Also have had good luck with my Kawasaki KDX dirt bikes. When I compared the 400ex and the Raptor the Raptor just looked exciting compared to the 400 ex. I just hope I am one of the lucky ones that have few problems. My hope is after seeing all the problems with the Raptor that I can wait it out till the 650ex is in its second year of production. I am not going to purchase any more first year models and really didn't even think about that when I purchased mine. I hope a late VIN number helps!!!!!!! My Raptor has been really lots O fun so far but I have only 31 hrs on it which is really nothing. When I was at my dealer to purchase Raptor I asked have any of the ones you have sold since last september had any major problems. They told me no except one person had his big bolts that secure axle that are by disc brake to come loose because he was riding on concrete alot and to drop front tooth for slow going. I did NOT purchase extended warranty. I not giving up on my Raptor yet but this could be my first and last Yamaha too.

 

so far i've loved my service from yamaha, their wqarrenty says not to modify anything that comes stock on it i drilled holes in my air box for better flow, and they got on me for that but theystill fixed my filter where it fell apart from that backfire through the intake. other than that when i take it in for fixing, theres no questions asked, they ask the boss if its under warrenty he says yes and it's fixed.

 

Oh no, here I go again!
I bought a Polaris Xpedition 425 2 years ago. About a week after buying it, I started seeing posts in the polaris forum about guys going through hell trying to get warranty work done. One guy in particular finally got his SP500 fixed and bought another Polaris. He is happier(I think) with his new Explorer but still has some complaints. My Xpedition gave me 1 1/2 years of fun then 6 months of breakdowns(stator, shift shaft, fan motor which burnt several elec parts in the process and finally a broken rear axle)

Here it is 2 years later(exactly) and I just bought a 02 Yamaha Grizzly. My first impressions of this machine are very good, I love the power! Now 3 days later Im reading this post about Yamaha not wanting to fix their mistakes. I just hope the fact that I bought extended warranty this time(and the fact that Im not gonna modify ANYTHING!) will help me enjoy this quad for a long time.

 

Your comment about Scott not fixing the problem even if you were still under warrenty is really scary, so if you had bought the extended it wouldnt have done any good. Well bad news goes around the world while good news is putting its shoes on .
I have been torn between the Grizzly and the Prarie and this helps with my decision, we need more comments on these forums to keep the Mfg. honest.