Modern Vespa

Okay this is gonna be long, sorry in advance.

Back in mid April of this year, I went to a dealership to look at Vespa's in person as I was interested but had never been on a motorcycle much less a Vespa and didn't want to buy without seeing / sitting on one myself.

Sales person was very helpful, had me sit on one, showed me all the features, and offered to order one in my desired color if I put down a deposit. Told me it would be 2 - 3 months for a customer order to come in. Put down the deposit and left knowing I had plenty of time to get my endorsement.

A little over a week later I get an email from the sales person saying "first step went great, got the bike ordered"... that put me off a little as I had thought the order was placed when I paid the deposit, but it was just a little extra time added no big deal. I readjusted my time frame and moved on.

Took my MSF and got my endorsement end of May, and waited until 2nd week of June to reach out to the dealer as I saw 3 listed in my color showing on the dealers site. I got told the next Vespa that came in, would be the bike ordered for me. Couple weeks later, I get told "any day now". Another week goes by and I call to check, I got told it was showing as assembled in the computers, but my sales person wanted to lay eyes on it before saying 100% it was there. The dealer is an hour drive away, I was beyond excited, waited 2 hours and when I didn't hear anything back, drove up. I get there and track down my sales person and get told "Yeah sorry, not sure why it was marked as here, I looked everywhere, it's not here, so sorry, but any day now!" I was disappointed, but it is what it is, chit chatted a bit, my sales person mentioned a vaca for a week coming up, but someone would reach out as soon as it arrived.

A week later I'm on edge and nervous that if my sales person isn't there, no ones going to call me. (Officially hit the 3 month mark) So I call and ask for my Rep because I wanted to find out when they would be out of office, the guy that answered said he was new he wasn't sure who that was, he was going to check and get back to me. He gets back on the line, "They're out on vacation, can I help you?" Said sure, can you check on my order, he's looking in the system and gets all flustered and says he's going to get me over to the sales manager. I introduce myself and ask him if he can find out what's going on with my order, and he says "Oh yeah! I just spoke with my Vespa Rep a couple days ago, because I saw you've had a deposit with us for 3 months now. My Rep says that color won't be getting to us until mid to late August at the earliest. Sorry, delays due to Covid, you understand."

I wasn't super happy, and the next day started calling other dealers, checking if anyone had my color in store, and asking how long it's taking them to get custom orders in, get told about 60 days, never longer than 90 days... I spoke to the other dealer in my state (AZ) spoke with NM, NV and 3 in Cali. Got the same answers from each of them...

But benefit of the doubt who knows how accurate they were being. And starting over at this point would still take longer than just waiting for my dealer to finally get one in. But at this point, I'm obsessing, and checking my dealers website every day, I have SS's of the VIN's of each of the 3 showing on their site... can't shake the feelings they sold mine to someone else, right, given everything so far... Wednesday I do my daily check, and suddenly only 2 showing on the site.

I called and asked for my rep, they xfer me and I leave a VM asking for a call back. Nothing. This morning (two days later), first thing I emailed my rep, asking what's going on. Normally they're on top of everything and answer my emails within an hour, today it's been 5 + hours with nothing. I called and left another message... Googling why a listing gets removed, says that a dealership listing is only removed after a sale has completed and everything has cleared... I'm kind of freaking out and my dealer isn't getting back to me... not sure I'd trust anything they tell me at this point anyhow...

Does anyone have any similar experience? Is my dealer screwing me? I'm at 3 1/2 months into this and regretting my dealer choice for sure

I didn't get the run around but I did order mine in mid June of 2021 and did not take delivery till November 1, 2021. All I can say is be patience.

There are still disruptions in global supply lines. Scooters are no exception. From shortages in semi conductors at some point, to Covid related plant shut downs while sales increased. All had an impact. Not just in the case of Piaggio.

While I don't know what exactly had happened in your case, I think it's important to keep in mind that we haven't returned to what we considered normal some years back

If they give you the run around during the sale, just think of what they'll do if you need warranty service. Actions speak louder than words.

I ordered a GTS-Touring earlier this year and the dealer said it would be 90 days till arrival. Well they received it about a week ahead of the 90 day time frame, and the dealer was a bit surprised as they expected it to take longer due to supply chain issues.

Patience, grasshopper.

It's an exciting time, and you want your bike now, of course, but there are so many things that can mess up an expected delivery time. Distressing, for sure, but it's part of the process these days.

So I drove the hour + to the dealership the Saturday I made the OP. I spoke with a salesperson, who told me my rep was on vacation until Monday. The person I spoke with said the only reason they know of for a listing to be removed is if the vehicle sold, but that he would call the Vespa Rep for the dealership on Monday and get back to me, in addition to letting my salesperson know I'd stopped by.

Tuesday rolls around, still no reply from my sales rep, and the other guy never got back to me either. I call, and get told my rep is still off, I explain the situation, this other guy (not the same one from Saturday) say's I'll look into it and get back to you as soon as I find anything out...*crickets*

So today (Friday) I call again, I'm told my rep is out again, (IE took a trip was back for a day, took off on another trip) I ask to speak with the sales manager. I ask him if he can find out what's going on / a more specific time frame, and he tells me he spoke with the Vespa Rep earlier this week and it's now looking like mid - end of Sept...

I ask him why exactly, as I know it's been in the US for almost 3 months now, why is it still just sitting in port and you're now telling me a FURTHER delay? (Mind you it's in Cali, I'm in AZ and it arrived in port 87 days ago) I didn't get upset with him, I kept it calm and pleasant, just wanting to know a reason for the continued delays. (Hubby verified I didn't go Karen at all after I got off the phone) Sales manager says, let me call my Vespa Rep right now and really nail him down on this. Over an hour later he calls me back, and now says it will arrive by August 17th give or take a couple of days either way. (So 1.5 weeks approx)

I'm really not happy with the customer service of this dealer, and will be making a longer trip to the only other dealership in my state for services once I finally get my bike.

Fingers crossed it actually gets put on a truck finally and arrives when he told me...

**Side note** In all my research it seems the mistake was that if you order from the Vespa website and pick the dealer to ship it too, it stays in that 60 - 90 days range. However, if the dealer orders it for you, it is treated as a Dealer Restock and given ZERO priority. So if you're ordering a new Vespa, do yourself a favor and order it yourself!