Modern Vespa

Just phoned Vespa Winnipeg to enquire about the status of my bike ( been waiting since September for a new water pump) and as I suspected might happen they are closed. Now given my recent experience with them I cant say I am surprised... service was not what you might call exemplary, though the mechanic was great. Now I am not sure what to do.. the water pump was a warranty issue and without a local dealer I wonder if I can even get it covered. Worst case I will take it to a motorcycle dealership and pay to have the work done. I can get the part from Scooterswest. In the interim though I guess the bike is safe (the Vespa shop was affiliated with a local car dealership which continues to operate) and warm, but I doubt the battery is being charged etc. Any advice is appreciated.

Cheers and Happy new Year
MikeC

If the Vespa dealership left debts you should get your scooter out now (even if you have to rent a truck).
Drop by the dealership and see if you can get the mechanic's contact info; there's a good chance he'll be willing to work on your scooter as a side job. That would benefit both of you.

Here's an thread you should check out:
e-mail of reassurance for all Canadians, From: Paolo Timoni
If it's not an extended warranty, I would contact Piaggio N.A. by email or better yet, by registered mail, with a history of your claim, so they have a record of it. Ask them how you should proceed. If it's an extended warranty- contact CSC in the same way.

Ive been trying to get a response from Piaggio Group U.S.A. under their CustomercareCanada, e-mail address. So far my 4 e-mails have been ignored. I even sent one to their dealer e-mail address, same result - zip.
So far it looks as though Canadian customers are "collateral damage."

I tried a to trade the GT200 in on a Sym but the dealer didn't want it. He told me to sell it privately.
He has dealt with Piaggio in the past, but now wants to dump them before they dump him.
Looks as though there may be some more "fire sales" such as Motoretta had, before this ends.

Probably a silly question but you say when you phoned they were closed, are you sure they're just shut for Crimbo????

It is situations like this that make me, and I'm sure a bucket load of other Canadians, very wary of purchasing a Piaggio product. In my eyes Piaggio has shot itself in the (Canadian) foot with a 50 mile walk back to civilization - they may make it, but it will be slow and painful.


Dave

Like Harvey said, Get your scooter,NOW! It could get tangled up in a legal mess and tied up for a long period of time.

Oh yes they are closed... the car dealership is still answering the phone and they were explicit. I am not sure about how much this had to do with CSC as there were grumblings from the auto side for a while about the Vespa operation. I don't know if I want to comment until I have my bike safe at home, but suffice it to say there were "family" business issue with the Vespa side. For the past 3 months at least it was near impossible to get the "owner" to respond... I probably should have taken the bike elsewhere earlier and just paid to get the repair done.
Thanks for the input I will get down there in the am and arrange to get my bike home

Thanks Harvey.. I will do so

Unfortunately, I think you're right.
Unfortunately, I've got two of them.
Canada is a small part of the Piaggio international presence.
As I said previously, we're collateral damage.
They pulled out of Canada once before.

But, you bought the 500 during Motoretta's 'fire sale' didn't you?
I would call that a case of 'informed consent'!

Granted, but should have been "buyer beware."

Where are you going to get your service Harv, if we are "collateral damage."

I can do all my mechanical work myself. All I need is to be able to get the parts.

If I can dump these "anchors" without too much of a loss, I will.
I should have stuck with the TMax, I didn't know when I was well off.

It's the old adage, "Once bit, twice shy, twice bit, the fool am I."
I was bit twice.

I think there are going to be a few more "fire sales" in the next few months.
Some of the dealers will be lucky to get cost.

And the "fire sale" ain't over; it'll continue for as long as they have bikes. I have no idea what they're telling customers about warranty/service.

Whilst I feel for all of you and am not happy about this situation myself (since I keep a third Vespa in Toronto for when I visit) ... but not having a local dealer isn't the end of the world. I manage with my two scooters without any dealers or mechanic shops on Tortola. I buy my parts in California (from David) and have him ship them to me. I keep plenty of spares on hand for normal maintenance and I can always get parts shipped overnight if I have to.

Yes, it's a pain in the butt ... but if you have a Vespa, then that's what you may have to do until the dust settles! Find out where your friendly neighbourhood mechanic is relocating (if leaving his current job) and follow him!

I am in the process of making my annual shopping list to send to David in the next couple of days. The only problem I can foresee is if anyone has a fuel injected model which requires the special navigator tool to diagnose problems.

If I lived in Canada, I would be asking around the dealerships to find out if anyone is selling their navigator on the cheap! If you have a local club, perhaps the members can chip in to buy one you can share. Then all you need to do is set up a "Club Account" for your membership with the nearest US dealer and buy your parts en masse to get sufficient discounts to cover the cost of shipping. If you plan ahead and keep spare parts on hand, you can minimize repair delays.

As for the warranty issue, again, I would recommend sending a letter to Piaggio USA as a club, representing all your members with Vespas. That would carry a lot more weight than just one person trying to get their attention on an individual basis.

I ve had two minor cosmetic issues, which they have taken care of by mail, as I m 400 km away.
They responded within 3 or 4 days. What I m concerned about is the the long term situation.

Boy is this getting confusing, spoke to the owner and met him at the shop and according to him they will be open and are just closed seasonally (open by appointment only) as there is little to no business at the moment. There appears to be some internal conflict between the auto dealership and the Vespa dealership (which share space and phones) with the result that some staff at the auto dealership (the operator for one) have been told that Vespa Winnipeg will not re-open. Clearly there are some issues between employees of the two operations (the vespa dealership is owned by the son of the Auto dealer) So I may have been misinformed about the imminent demise of the Vespa dealership... though clearly they have a problem with their "roomies"
Thanks for all the input

So, what's the story on your water pump?

Actually Mike, both Dealerships are owned by the son. If you need a mechanic I can put you in touch with one who works out of his garage. Is Piaggio europe trained, and charges fairly reasonable rates.

Since you still have the water pump problem I would contact Piaggio N.A. (or Canadian Scooter Corp) directly for advice on your warranty repair (in writing- you want a response on Company letterhead). I doubt your dealer has, and you don't want to fall between the cracks.
Good luck!

Thanks to everyone for the input... I seem to be making progress, not that i'm totally convinced that it will work out. I have been told (in writing) that the work will be completed by the end of February.

Cheers
Mike

Piaggio isn't "pulling out of Canada." Quite the opposite, it looks like they're looking downstream to recapture profit margins, something they wouldn't do if they were going to pull out of Canada.

I'm not making a judgement on it either way, just saying that large National Manufacturers (or int'l mfgrs) who are squeezed by the economy often look downstream because they think (rightly or wrongly) that middlemen are taking too large a bite out of the cupcake. We have seen it several times over the past few years in our own industry. In fact, we've also seen distributors looking downstream to recapture profits of their own.

My guess is that what they are aiming at is having distribution in place for the summer months, so be patient for a while and see if that does indeed happen.