Modern Vespa

They must be so busy that they can not respond to emails and telephone calls. The dealer support is poor, if I had to do it all over again I would have bought a Japanese scooter. Anyone want a 2005 BV500 runs well great shape, just too expensive to keep on the road !

I hear yah! My Dealer also has nothing but frustration to express about his Dealings with Piaggio. If I didn't have more than one scooter, I wouldn't be riding right now-thanks to their snail paced shipping and limited parts availability!

i have never had problems with them yet!
sorry for your fustrations though.

I get my parts from motorsport scooters or check the web for some of the big dealers out there in other states. Our vespa dealer is worthless. You can just bring the part with you when you get it fixed. If a dealer isn't big enough to have a wide range of parts your screwed

I dread the day when I need a part for my ET that can't be found locally.

That is a shame as my dealer cannot be more helpful, ordering parts in just to see if they fit or spending half an hour on the phone while i bug him Take your money somewhere else, i would.

In a lot of ways it's just the cost of ownership with many things Italian. You have to be able to take the good with the bad and still keep smiling.

If my experiences with Italian supermotos is any indication, summer is the worst for trying to get in touch with, or get things from, Italy. Seems like everyone is on holiday. Where do I sign up?

If you know what parts your looking for, and aren't getting any traction with your dealer, use the internet to find them (parts)...you'll most likely locate someone over there (Italy) that has what you need.

If I could recommend any dealer, it would be "Vespa of Thousand Oaks" or their sister store "Vespa of Sherman Oaks." Do a search on the web, and then give them a ring or drop them an email. David and his crew really love their Italian bikes and will do their best to help. If they can't it wont be for lack of trying. ( http://www.vespato.com/ )

Piaggio USA should have had the forthought and the means of stocking several scooters worth of parts on hand for local distribution along with making sure dealers are well trained and equipped. I would never again buy any scooter outside Europe from Piaggio like the 500s or for that matter anything over the GT200 due to overegineering, the need for diagnostic equipment, poor dealer network, lack of training and experience from a hit and miss dealer network, unless you don't mind paying for the training, don't need your scooter every week and plan on staying within a fifty mile radius. It does not matter how nice you think your dealer is, the follow up is not there yet. Only having one distributor may be the problem.

The problem with supplying your own parts is, if the part fails, the replacement of the part is not warrantied like it would be if you got the part from the dealer that is installing the part.

Wayne B

WAYNE in theory yes but if your dealer is an idiot and screws up your scooter you find some one else to fix it. We are all glad we didn't have warranty problems over here since the scooters come out worse than they went in

It's a rare day when an owner gets any kind of response from Piaggio/Vespa USA. Your primary contact should be your dealer, though. They, in turn, should have contacts at Piaggio who they can pester and complain to if there are repeated problems and delays with parts.

If there's a problem, the dealers should be the ones clamoring. It hinders their ability to provide prompt and quality service to their customers, who really don't have a voice (as far as the company goes) when it comes to these matters. It also hits dealers' earnings. Parts and service are their bread and butter, what keeps them going through slow seasons and lean times like the current recession.

Unfortunately, I think most owners, and probably dealers, have come to accept that some things are just going to take a hell of a long time.

Last time I had to order a part (clutch bearing) from Vespa, it was ordered through one Vespa dealer and two well known parts suppliers. I think one source got a package over a month later and it was the wrong part. Don't know if the other two ever actually got it. I was lucky enough to get one pulled from a crashed ET.

Parts supply is and always will be one of the biggest complaints about all scooters makes sold in the US. In some cases, there may not be enough volume to justify stocking quantities of everything in a US warehouse. Makes sense for a business, but isn't so great for owners. In many cases, there seems to be a disconnect between brand reputation and what you get when you buy.

I'm not going to even try to read what goes on at Piaggio/Vespa USA and make a guess as to why some things are the way they are. Maybe someone with more insight into the company can offer some suggestions.

ERIC i know things in general aren't made as well these days but i never had any problems with my honda helix back in the late 80's. In fact i rode it daily(5days a wk) round trip about 70-80 miles and only did oil changes. Maybe now things have changed since i haven't owned a honda recently.

If Piaggio is a pain in the ass then my dealer doesn't allow it to effect his customers. I have no problems getting parts. If it's something not in stock, it's ordered and comes in a reasonable amount of time.

I also have no problem getting a response from Piaggio.....you just gotta' know who to contact and be reasonable with your requests. I was once told ...."you catch more flies with honey then you do vinager".

I have also found that my scooter probably requires a bit more attending to then some other brands, but it's got a little more class and will have a higher resale then most and is extremely fun to ride.

I'm not really addressing quality of the product, just parts availability. With Honda, for instance, people assume that because they have a reputation for good service that it automatically applies to their scooter business. They make great scooters, but I've read complaints similar to the OP's about availability of their parts via dealers. (Disclaimer: I went looking for complaints, so don't know if they're more pervasive than with other companies, just that they exist.)

On the other hand, I've read posts from scooter owners who thing that there should be no more than a few days delay in getting a part. That's pretty unrealistic, at least until the US scooter market is proportionately similar in size to Europe or Asia (which is pretty unlikely to ever happen).

think they're new "technical center" in so cal will help with any of this? one would hope or dream.

http://www.vespausa.com/about.php?section=News&nid=36

Olympia, Washington must be on a different planet. Here on planet Earth, Piaggio doesn't answer the phone and parts are slow to arrive from Italy. Can we have your guy's phone number?

Oly is just south of Seattle.............

ERIC thanks for the explanation. I went 15yrs without owning a scooter since i was overseas and traveling for work a lot so i'm remembering "the old days". Like anything there are good dealers and bad dealers. Some may have the extra cash to have a large inventory and others not, so in the end it probably is an across the board kinda thing.

I've never had to wait for a part. There are a couple of great dealers in SoCal who carry a good inventory of parts, and Motorsport Scooters does too.

I'm curious as to what kind of parts you guys are waiting for?

For a scooter I no longer own ... clutch parts. They took forever to arrive. Twice.

Both my dealer and myself have tried several attempts to contact Piaggio over the course of a month, and have just finally received a response. No bueno!

What was the problem?

A fuse keeps blowing, killing the engine.

https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic50026

Sorry, not finding this intermittent short to frame is just incompetence. I can't believe a scooter dealer doesn't have one member of staff who is clued up on electronic fault-finding. They also had a Piaggio resource very close by if they could have been bothered to take it there.

If and when (sorry I had to include the 'if'[1]) this gets sorted - find a new dealer.

[1] If they can't find a short, how they hell are they going to be competent to replace a complete harness?

I have to agree +1

Here's good customer service from Piaggio America.

I got a really nice form letter the other day from Paolo Timoni, President and CEO of Piaggio Group America. It thanked me for thinking green by buying a scooter and explained how I am helping reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions by riding clean and how much I can save on gas and other costs by riding instead of driving.

It was a very long and very nice letter dated July 15 2009.

I bought my scooter in May of 2008.


And people wonder why spare parts from Piaggio take months to arrive.

SCOOTINVA i got one too and i bought mine in '07 While they will donate a hundred bucks to The Conservation Fund (which i like don't get me wrong) they should only give $50 and use the other 50 to fix their problems. IMHO

Sounds like Piaggio USA is all mouth and no trousers just like Piaggio UK. No interest in actually sorting dealer's problems, only with the bottom line.

Note they have no legal duty to sort out customer problems - that remains a contract between customer and dealer, unless there's a question of safety, which is when a recall comes in.

Choose your dealer wisely...

I've gone to a few places and got what I needed. Vespa Dealer ordered what I needed if not in stock and had it in my hand in a week or less.

Do you have some secret contact or resource over there that's not public? Any info you care to share with the rest of us?

I'm not challenging you, just saying that if dealers can't get a response from Piaggio and if there's a contact that works but which isn't available to all owners, it's hardly effective customer service.

I've never tried to contact them directly but if I knew there was actually someone on the receiving end, might give it a shot. I have a lot of ideas and opinions to share!

This is BS, sorry I need to stand up for Piaggio. I can agree certainly that you as a consumer did not get ahold of them but the dealer? Absolutely no way, it just doesn't work like that, I can prove it with 30 different Piaggio employee's in 60 minutes time with you sitting at my desk.

Demand better........Its not fair as these Piaggio employee's work their tails off for all of us and 98% of the parts are actually IN the country.

We had a guy this week that was from out of town, stranded due to a bad seat/seat sensor on an MP3 250. We could of put him down for a week or more however we did what we usually do. I stripped one off a brand new bike, got him on his way and will await the seat from Piaggio for MY bike, the dealer. That's how we try to do this whenever the situation deems it necessary.

Sorry for the rant, I just get so tired of dealers blaming a good company.

SDG

PS. We had a dealer tell a gal earlier this week that Vespa does not make a Vespa Super 300 in red. Um? She called me, bought over the phone and traveled from down south to pick her scoot up and traded a lovely 07 GTS to do it. I mean, is this rocket science? I am just sayin............

Well I'm not a dealer - I'm a customer and Piaggio has been pathetic in their treatment of my husband and myself as we now wait over 5 weeks for them to honour our warrantee. Don't get me started (plus you've probably already read about it in the MP3 Forum). I'm just happy that we have an excellent dealer who's doing his best for us.

Yes we got that letter from Paolo also - and since he asked us for our feedback, we gave it. We were extremely polite, but we were honest and thorough in our documentation.

Would you like to speak to someone directly at Piaggio tomorrow? Has your dealer ever offered you that? I don't mean the customer care line, I mean like a director. Since we are on the subject, lets get you fixed up and happy !!!

Best,
SDG

Email me at vespaofthousandoaks@msn.com if I can help.

David

Thanks SDG - I'll get my husband to email you since it's his MP3 and if anyone should speak to Piaggio directly it should be him. I appreciate this.
LJ

LJ,

Done deal. I only want to help and I believe I have the network to do so.

Cheers,
SDG

It's interesting that you are able and willing to do this when other dealers can't or won't. Your shops have really distinguished themselves in terms of service; I'm sure you're aware that that's not the experience everyone has had.

I have to wonder (rhetorically; I'm not trying to get you to slam your peers in a public forum) if you can do this, why isn't this type of service and experience more common?

I realize that on the forums there's a negative bias; we're more likely to hear the complaints than when owners receive the level of service they expect or better. But it seems all too common that there's a little bit of disillusionment that comes with being a Vespa owner. Most of us seem to experience it right at the point when we realize we've purchased a luxury brand but that the support and service that comes with it is often a disappointment.

The offer you've made to pooh is much closer to what owners expect. While we'd rather there was no problem, when there is one, we want our dealers to represent us and cut through all the crap to get it fixed. Other dealers: take note.