whyme8504,
I also prefer to support local businesses, whatever they are.
Unfortunately, on my one-time visit to the 'local' Vespa dealer in Houston (meaning the hole-in-the-wall Vespa 'dealership' at the Maserati/Ferrari dealership, Hwy 59 & Chimney Rock, about 60 miles from me) during the period I was researching/looking for a dealer to buy a GTS-250 from -- I wasn't impressed. Instead, I found MY Vespa online at the Abilene, TX, Vespa dealer. HE ended up not being that great, either, but at least I got a good deal on the scooter itself.
Still, I knew that regardless of where I ended up buying it, I'd need to do as much of my own mechanic work as possible...partly because of the few-and-far Vespa dealerships (unlike MC dealerships, like Harley, Honda and Yamaha just about everywhere) and partly because of (A) the high labor prices dealers charge and (B) even then, really good and caring (high work ethic) mechanics are way too rare nowadays. IME, too many of the 'pros' have broken things, lost parts or just did a sorry/sloppy half-assed job...even if they did it at all (but charge you for it anyway).
Consequently, I am just plain skeptical of dealers, whether they sell MCs, scooters (or cars).
So when it came to my first service (just last week), I did it myself. And as for future services, I will try to do those myself also. Outside of the 'normal' things needing to be done (as per the official Vespa Maintenance Schedule), I can only hope that nothing serious (meaning expensive and 'shop-only' work) goes wrong with my Vespa when the warranty runs out!
In short, I would suggest that you get a service manual, some basic tools and start doing your own work also. If you encounter something you can NOT handle, you can always take it in to the 'pros,' but in the meantime, you will have saved HUNDREDS of dollars doing the routine maintenance items yourself.
As I get older, however, I must admit that I have less and less 'enthusiasm' to do this 'grease-monkey' stuff, but I'm kind of forced to. That's okay, at least I know it's done right and I have complete control over the oils, filters and such that go into it...let alone saving all those hourly labor charges!
Good luck...
⚠️ Last edited by cloudcroft on UTC; edited 1 time