Harley Davidson Customer Service

When calling Harley Davidson, it's important to know that if you don't have a vehicle identification number, you're not going to be able to get anything out of calling. When I attempted to call to get information about finding a Harley Davidson dealer near me, I was first taken to the automated menu, where I was presented with two menus worth of questions to get me to the right location.

However, upon getting through those menus, I was told that in accordance with Harley Davidson's policies, I would need to have my vehicle identification number and provide that in order to get assistance from them. The system didn't give me any reason as to why I needed to enter a VIN in order to to get assistance; it just told me that it was Harley Davidson's policy. It also told me that if I did not have the VIN available, I would need to call back another time when I had it.

As I didn't have a VIN, I wasn't able to progress. With that being the case, the system automatically hung up on me after giving me an opportunity to enter the number. There wasn't a way to get past the choke point by refusing to enter a number, nor could I ask for help in another way to get to a live person. The call simply ended at that point, with no way around it.

It seems a bit of an odd choice for Harley Davidson to set up its help line in this manner, given the nature of its business. As a motorcycle company, it would make sense for them to want to encourage new customers as well as cater to existing customers, but there's no way for new customers to get any information about finding dealers, where to get parts or any of the other details that come with becoming a motorcycle owner.

It seems like Harley Davidson wants to focus on providing the best experience it can for its existing customers by streamlining the assistance it gives. By limiting itself to genuine Harley Davidson customers and requiring a VIN, it does prevent a logjam of callers and makes it easier for customers to get through when they do need assistance. That's an understandable goal, but it does seem like that it would be helpful to have a way for customers to get information about Harley Davidson and whether they'd like to purchase a specific motorcycle.

Without a VIN, it's not possible to give a complete picture of whether this number is helpful to customers. Based off the setup, I would use this number if I were already a Harley Davidson owner, but otherwise, I would not use it.