A letter from Honda...You might be surprised! (Please Rant!)

About a year ago, I wrote a Honda VP to discuss this forum, and our desires.
I got a polite phone call back, but no information about the items discussed in the letter.
On October 3rd, I wrote a followup letter, saying I had not heard anything about the first letter,
nor seen in a year, any changes to Honda's marketing, bike, or accessories, nor any reply to my
letter indicating they had followed up on any of the information provided.

As an example, one of the things I mentioned was the existing Honda trunk light replacement that
Honda uses on their cars, that fits our bikes perfectly and has the built in switch, to overcome the
common problem of the seats not latching all the way and killing the battery.

Anyway, I went thru some old mail and found they had sent me this, which I just hadn't looked at until now:

Nov 11, 2008
Dear Mr Spevack,

I am responding to your letter of October 3, on behalf of Mr. Blank. First let me say that
we appreciate the enthusiasm for your ownership of the Silverwing, and your sincere
desire to share your suggestions for improving the features. I'm sure you can understand
that there are many considerations that go into the creation and marketing of a product in
the marketplace, and what may work well in one part of the world, might not have the
same return on investment in another part of the world.

American Honda has many aspects of sales and marketing to consider before it brings a
product to market or makes significant changes to a product, and while there may be
features that would appeal to some in the market the judgement may be that there is not
enough potential interest in a given feature to warrant its introduction into another market
area. We make our marketing decisions on many factors and we do take into
consideration the desires of loyal Honda owners such as yourself, but ultimately the choices
that are make must be done using our best judegement and without acception or discussing
unsolicited product features and improvement ideas.

We would respectfully request that no further suggestions be submitted, to minimize our
risks from future lawsuits from individuals that might claim to have the same ideas as what
may already be in development by the Honda engineers.

William R. Willen
Managing Counsel
Product Regulatory Office.
--------------------------------------
While I understand and agree with most of his points, do they not understand what a focus group is?
Do they not understand that the best focus group they can have at no cost to them is these forums?

What are your thoughts?

"We would respectfully request that no further suggestions be submitted, to minimize our
risks from future lawsuits from individuals that might claim to have the same ideas as what
may already be in development by the Honda engineers".

I couldn't help but think how two words being changed would sound so similar to an email I got from my Senator a few months ago about a bill I wanted to make a suggestion for....

Change "Honda engineers" to "US Senators"*

*Is that two words?

Aren't we blessed that our Swings are so great in spite of attitudes like your letter suggests.

Hi Gary,

Your right on about this letter sounding like a form letter. I can just see it now..... a bunch of $200,000 a year people sitting around a table debating which form letter to send. It probly took them a week to decide on this letter.

DennisB

Wow,

That letter didn't sound very wise on Honda's part. You would think they would want to know what the people who buy their product would like. It would have been best to not even respond at all.

Maybe the letter should of gone to "Honda" headquarters in Japan.

American Honda motorcycle/scooter division is a profit driven sales group. They do not design nor do they build our machines.

If I could write in Japenesse, the headquarters in Japan is where I would write to. If there was a similar response, I would seriously consider not buying their product in the future.

Thats right. I myself (personaly) would stop buying Honda products.

Thrue my job I have had to deal with German, Brittish, and French companies. When I got a poor response from their "US" offices, I contacted their headquarters. Each and every time the headquarters response was caring and did satisfy my concerns.

Well, thats my take on the subject.

Have a great day
bob

bob

PS Dan, I posted this response of mine on other boards, so if "Honda" is reading these forums, they will know what to expect from me.

When any company makes any change to a product it is viewed as an engineering mistake on their part and is subject to a gillion lawsuits. There are armys of lawyers out here who will sue for anything and every company lives in fear of lawsuits. When you buy a new car for 30,000 you can figure that at least 5,000 is for product liability insurance to cover the law suits. The fellow from HONDA COULDNT TELL YOU THE TRUTH SINCE THAT WOULD LIKELY LEAD TO AHOTHER LAWSUIT.

Well said Jeff. I think the Suzuki forum is monitored by Suzuki. Maybe Honda just doesn't want to know what we think.

Sounds to me that honda does NOT
care what w want.. All they want is the
money coming from the machines.
It would be nice if there was a honda
rep reading all rthe stuff we post
on this forum so they could get
some feedback. To make some good
changes to the sccots we ride and the
cars we drive. IF they did care
we probably would have a bigger
cc on the new swings and a
couple of other improvements.
Ghost rider Greg

I can't believe that Honda (that includes all of the various importers around the world) do not monitor the myriad scooter forums. The complaints registered here are probably put in the giant pile of "stuff" that all companies have for that purpose.