Sport Durst Power Sports

Took my vehicle to this 'authorized Vespa dealer" for standard oil change; resulted in problems that compounded when we took it back for repair.I took my 2010 Vespa LX150 to Triangle Cycles because Vespausa.com listed them as an authorized dealer, and it is the closest authorized dealer to my home. I have never had any issues with my Vespa previous to having it serviced at Triangle Cycles. Too it in and they did an oil change/tune up. Got the Vespa back, and it died two days later. After charging the battery, it died again. This cycle repeated several times throughout the week until we took it back to Triangle Cycles. They offered to look at it because they recently had serviced it and it never had any issues before their service. We took it back on Wednesday. We did not hear from them Thursday, or Friday. We called Friday at close of business and the person who answered gave no details and insinuated they hadn't taken any time to look at it yet. They did not call us on Saturday. They are closed on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday morning we called them, only to be received rudely and with vague language, again giving us the impression it had fallen to the wayside and not been given the attention it deserved. We called again mid morning, and spoke with [redacted] the mechanic who was responsible for working on it. Besides taking a rude and condescending tone, [redacted] would not answer of my direct questions with a straight answer, only replying " I can't really explain it". Repeatedly used vague language, would not give answers to specific questions, and was unable to communicate what they had done to work on the Vespa, what they believed was wrong, or how to fix it. We drove to pick it up because we no longer trusted their service. After getting it home and parking it in our attached garage as usual, we returned to work. We returned home 4 hours later to find the entire house smelled of gasoline fumes, and a puddle of gasoline had formed under the Vespa in the garage. In short: we took it in for an oil change, got it back and it died repeatedly, we took it back to TC, and it now has a gasoline leak/issue. This is supposed to be a "certified dealer" yet all evidence points to the fact that they don't know what they are doing with Vespas, are unable to successfully identify an issue and fix it, and have caused damage to it. The Vespa is my primary mode of transportation to and from work and is critical to my family. I am now left with a non-working, UNSAFE vehicle, which Triangle Cycles caused, as well as further financial inconvenience due to their incompetence. Not to mention their customer service is downright rude. Desired SettlementThe Vespa needs to be restored to full functioning capacity as it was when we first gave it to Triangle Cycles. If not, a settlement in the value of the Vespa in the condition it was originally given ($3,000 Kelly Blue Book Value) should be issued. Business Response I would like to first thank you for this system and the ability to respond to this customer service issue. This response may take longer than 9000 characters. I reviewed all paperwork and interviewed both [redacted] (service manager) and [redacted] (service writer) for my response. The [redacted]'s did in fact bring their Vespa on Thursday 9/26/2013 for a basic service ; mileage was 2052 ; which includes oil change, set tire pressures, clean / oil air filter, top off fluids, check idle speed, check rear end fluids, lights and electronics. Mr. [redacted] set an appointment for this and Rode the scooter from Raleigh and waited while we performed the service. He paid his bill and rode home. On Saturday, October 12th (2 week 2 days after initial service) Mr. [redacted] called and talked to [redacted] and said Vehicle was having trouble starting. By default and only with information provided by customer we advised him to first check battery leads, then have battery tested. We volunteered to do this for them but they said they lived too far away and did not have a way to get back to dealership. [redacted] talked to Mr. [redacted] 2 or 3 times back and forth about the loose leads and where to have battery tested. Eventually Mr. [redacted] asked if we could look at it. We indicated that it would be no problem to bring it in for our service department. Mr. [redacted] did not have a truck and said he would find one and bring it in. On Thursday October 17th Mr. [redacted] called and said he had a truck and he (MR [redacted]) asked about how to secure the scooter in the truck. [redacted] indicated that it really needed to be strapped upright, MR. [redacted] did not have the proper straps to properly secure vehicle in truck, we did warn him about possible hydro locking, but if there was no other way it was best to lay it on the right side. Mr. [redacted] came just before lunch on Thursday Oct 17. The scooter did arrive laid on its side, this is important to remember. Mileage in was 2296 miles. Total miles ridden since oil change 244 miles. Upon check in we told Mr. [redacted] we would have to work the vehicle into the schedule and we could not guarantee return before weekend. We worked the scooter in on Friday Oct 18 for the initial diagnosis. We found the unit to be hydro locked. Hydro lock occurs when the cylinder of the motor fills with fuel/oil from extreme angles like laying down for a pro long period. (a 30 minute trip from Raleigh would cause this) When hydro locked, the piston is locked in the cylinder and will not move. We then proceeded to relieve the Hydro Lock by removing the excess fuel and oil out of the cylinder. We tested battery and charging system all systems/voltage checked good. We then started the vehicle and test rode it. The test ride was short because the starter clutch was making a noise. The technician then put the vespa back on the service bench and removed the starter clutch , cleaned, lubed, and re-installed. The scooter started no problem and all was working properly but starter was still making a unusual noise. ( a sign that the starter is going bad) We admit a call was not made Friday or Saturday with our findings. Our plan was to try and Test ride and start the vehicle several more times to see if the lubrication was going to help the problem or would it re-occur over a two day period before our service manager called to discuss the issue with the customer. We repeatly started the vehicle Saturday and noticed that the starter was still noisy. We are closed on both Sundays and Mondays. On Tuesday am Mr. [redacted] called us before we phoned him. [redacted] our service manager spoke to him and shared all information with him as I have outlined in this response. We indicated to him that we wanted to test the vehicle one more time and we had that scheduled sometime after lunch, Mr [redacted] asked if we could do this before lunch. [redacted] indicated we had one job in front of him and he would be next. [redacted] indicated that he thought that was acceptable by Mr. [redacted] . Shortly after Mr. [redacted] hung up Mrs. [redacted] called and asked to speak with [redacted]. She was not happy and accused him of not "wanting" to work on her Vespa and that nothing had been done. He tried to explain to her that we had worked on it Friday afternoon, explained the Hydro lock issue they created from hauling the vehicle on its side and what we found on the started clutch. she was not happy. As far as being rude I think it was unfortunately we were sharing bad news that she did not take as acceptable. The bottom line is that we made a diagnosis on Friday, attempted to repair the unit in the most affordable way possible for them and then we wanted to double check our work on Tuesday before we gave the customer a definite answer on the Vespa issueHowever, before we had a chance to get the scooter back on the lift to inspect, the [redacted]'s showed up to pick up their unit and said if we could not fix their unit today they would go elsewhere. Before they left [redacted] and [redacted] both went over the unit extensively covering all the work we had performed to determine our diagnosis and started the unit multiple times in their presence and pointed out the starter noise.This Repair order to determine the diagnosis include relieving a hydro lock caused by transport, removing, cleaning, lubing, and reassembling starter clutch. This ticket had approximately 2 hours of labor that we DID not charge the [redacted]'s. We did advise them they need a starter to fix there starting issue. As far as the gasoline issue that now exist, it will go back to the hydro lock; either seal/valve/ gasket was compromised that showed up after the scooter was ridden or they may have laid the scooter on its side when going home.We did not charge them for the additional work that was preformed. We were prepared, willing and capable of finishing the job. You also have to keep in mind that we were not allowed to finish the job, due to there impatience on waiting on the vehicle. Please note the starter issue started 244 miles after the basic service was performed and the starter issue had nothing to do with the service work. The started clutch is located inside the belt housing and has nothing to do with oil change and basis service. We have certified technicians with over 75 years of service experience that know exactly what they are doing and how to fix the vehicle we service.Unfortunately I feel the only issue is a communication problem in which we could have maybe called her on Saturday and explained what we had found, but we were still in the middle of testing the vehicle. The [redacted]'s did not let us finish the job, We feel the vehicle needs a starter Clutch or will need one in the near future. We also feel the starter clutch was causing an excessive drain on the battery and was calling their starting issue. Please note that Mr. [redacted] left riding the Vehicle from our store.With Appreciation[redacted]GM