Thursday 27 December 2012

Some Clarification - Bob Speaks!

Well, not actually, but he does write!

I was looking on the net to see if I could find out where Will Brydon lives - or works. He is the awesome mechanic at the soon to be closed Urban Wasp in Vancouver. My GTS 250 is a bit hard to start right now and, as I've always said, I want to ride it, not fix it, so should probably get this dealt with pretty soon. I've heard nasty things about Vespa Metro's service, although I have absolutely no experience with them myself, and would prefer to see if I can track down Will. But only if I can do so easily and he wants to start some sort of side business....

Back to Bob....

Here's the post he recently made to vancovuerscootering.com. Good luck in the new year, Bob!


Hi everyone!!

Just to clear up a few things. Why are we closing? For the last 4 years we have to deal with product being dumped on the market. We had Vespa Surrey who for 2 years dumped all their Vespas at margins that makes selling jeans more profitable. They finally closed, then we had Metro do the same. Some of the quotes we would get from that dealership didn't make sense on paper. With regards to the number of Piaggio scoots that are sold in Vancouver, that number has not risen since there was only one dealer(us). The number has stayed the same, but now it's just split between two dealers. We always sold more scooters then Metro, that wasn't the issue. The problem came down to margins we were making on those scooters that we were selling. 


We were told earlier this year that we would be the only dealer in Vancouver when our contracts are up for renewal. We thought our renewal was coming up at the end of December because that is when we sat down with Piaggio three years ago, but we forgot it took them 4 months to draft up Canadian contracts so are renewal wasn't actually up till April. We gave a call to our rep to ask him about this, and he decided when the contracts come up for renewal, it would all stay the same. We told him if it remains the same, then we can't see us going forward with Vespa. His response was "if you decide to close it down, I'll miss chatting with you". We gave them 2 weeks to think about it, and got the same answer back. I still find it unreal, considering our rep lives in Bellingham that he didn't drive up and sit down with us to discuss our concerns or options. For those that work in sales, I don't know anyone that would lose a million dollar customer without trying to work it out or putting up a fight. As I said to Piaggio, I work harder selling a $5 part then he does, but the only thing he'll miss "is chatting with us". 


Saying all of this, all of you have been great, I thank-you all for your support, but I really need you to come in and buy stuff. We need to clear out before the end of December, and there is lots to clear out. Everything from equipment to license plate bolts. The discounts are huge! Join Robert also on Saturday, he's losing his coffee bar very soon, and I would love to see more then 3 people support Robert trying to raise some money. He's been a member of our Vespa family here for the past 6 years and I'll miss his Saturday coffee meet-ups.


For myself, it's all good, I'll start pounding the pavement looking for work in the new year, but first have to close off this chapter before I can scoot forward.


Bob, still lost in paradise...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave
My name is Mike. I got to know Will after having very crappy disservice experiences with Lorenzo. Do you have any knowledge of Will's whereabouts?

let me know as I have a Piaggio 250 without a mechanic.
Regards Mike Mikejakus@hotmail.com
Thnx

Dave Dixon said...

Mike - No idea of Will's whereabouts - I wonder what your crappy service was? I'll be on guard but really don't know where else to go!

Anonymous said...

I hear that Will is not at pacific bmw/yamaha.

Modern has been doing a good job with scooters, but, they don't stock anything for parts.

Anonymous said...

I emailed Piaggio as I too have had less than satisfactory service from Metro Vespa and the thought of having to go there again is enough to make me want to sell my scooter.

Piaggio confirmed the following:

The Mechanic from Urban is now working out in Richmond at Pacific Rim Motorsports who is one of our Aprilia/Moto Guzzi dealers so he is still local.

They also stated the following:

New mechanics have recently been brought on at Vespa Metro to help alleviate these issues.

Heres Hopeful!!!