We dropped off our 2004 Vespa GT at University Scooters in Dallas, Texas on Friday, August 27 at 10:00AM as they opened for business. Emily (at the front counter) took down the information of what work we needed performed. We told her that it needed to get a Dallas Inspection sticker (since we'd just moved to Dallas from Denver) in order to get plated, 2 reflectors replaced (that had been lost or broken in the move) and that the bike would tend to die when we pulled up to a stop light or stop sign.
We thought it was a timing adjustment but wanted their mechanic to check it out and repair. She asked if we'd be leaving the bike we told her yes and said we'd like to pick it up the following Saturday. She indicated that would be more than enough time to get things done and would call us later in the week to follow up.
The following Friday, when we hadn't heard back from the dealer, we called to see where they were with our bike. The guy who answered the phone, said he'd have to check with the mechanic. As he asked the mechanic, we heard the mechanic start ranting and raving that it hadn't even been looked at yet and he was too busy to get to it. I asked the guy who answered the phone who he was talking to and he told me the manager. I asked to speak him directly. I began speaking with Derek. I told him I could hear all of his rude comments and asked what the problem was. He told me that our bike had fallen through the cracks and there was no way he was going to be able to start working on it.
On Saturday, September 3, we went down to the shop to find out in person what the problem was. We were greeted by Emily who immediately picked a fight with both of us about the conversation we had with their staff the day before. We asked Emily why no one called us to let us know the bike wouldn't be ready, but she refused to answer that question, only stating over and over again that she was the Manager and there was a problem with out bike that not only wasn't simple to fix, but was a problem she believed we caused by not providing regular maintenance. We told her that the Vespa dealer in Denver had worked on our bike and all maintenance had been done as regularly scheduled. Again, the bike was only about 15 months old when we brought it into the Dallas dealer.
We spent some time talking with Derek, who we then found out was actually the mechanic. He shared some of his thoughts as to what was causing the bike to die out and said he would continue to work on the problem. He also acknowledged that their store had been selling a lot of bikes and new sales took priority over repairs. We left the bike for another week.
We called again on Friday, September 9, to find out where they were with the repairs. After leaving numerous messages, Derek finally called back to say that he still wasn't sure what the problem was with our bike. He said he had been in touch with the Vespa technical department and the Denver dealer, but couldn't figure out why the bike wasn't running well. He said he needed more time to look at it. Again, he acknowledged that they were still very busy with new sales and our bike was not a priority. We agreed to leave it for another week.
We then called and left a message for the owner, Randy Campbell to see what his thoughts were on the problem. But never heard back from him.
By Friday, September 16, we had left 2 messages for the owner but never received a call back. We again called to talk to the mechanic to see if the bike would be ready to pick up on Saturday, September 17.
Again, Derek told us, that he just didn't have enough time to work on the bike. He said the owner had told him it was not a priority and it could be worked on in between other things.
On Friday, September 23, we called and talk to Derek again but only to get the same story, along with the line we're not holding your bike hostage. Not sure exactly what that meant. On Saturday, September 24, we called and left 2 messages for the owner, Randy, again to see if we could at least get a response from him. Emily continued to take our messages but was rude and condescending to us on the phone. Randy never called back.
On Monday, September 26, we left another message for Randy on the voicemail system asking him to call us on our cell phones, leaving both numbers.
On Tuesday, September 27, Randy finally returned our phone call and spoke to my wife. She started the conversation by thanking him for returning the call and asking him what his thoughts were about the problem with the bike. The conversation seemed to start out fine, but as Randy continued to talk, he became angrier and louder (with no reasoning as to why). He commented that he thought someone other than a Vespa dealer worked on the bike and said some parts were not original parts.
When my wife asked him how he thought that might have happened, he became angry again and avoided the question. He accused us of harassing Emily, Derek and him and that he would not fix the bike any faster if we kept calling. My wife tried to explain to him that we kept following up because we couldn't get anyone to call us and that there wasn't any harassing going on at all, but he kept interrupting and picking a fight.
He told her we could go down the street to get it fixed. When she asked him where down the street, he told her we could go to Austin or Houston or Oklahoma City or back to Denver. Obviously, none of these locations being down the street. He then told her that our bike wasn't a priority only new bikes are a priority to the store. He went on to say that they'd get to it when they had time and didn't know how long that would be.
Randy said that they had put countless hours into the bike, which Derek had already told us wasn't true. Randy said he was upside down on the deal and would never be able to recoup the dollars already put into the bike in labor, which again Derek had told us wasn't true.
Derek had told us that he was constantly pulled off of working on the bike because they wanted him to work on other things.
As the conversation with Randy moved forward his anger and speech got louder and faster. Then he yells, just pick up your bike, just pick it up you obviously aren't happy with our service, just pick it up and hung up on my wife.
My wife kept asking him through his ranting and raving. Why are you so angry, but he wouldn't stop yelling long enough to answer the question.
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