Terrible Experience with Plaistow Powersports, NH

[slaps76]

You still looking for the deposit?

My advice is stop dealing with the sales manager immediatlely and go over his head. The owner is probably impossible to get in touch with since they own all those stores. Call back and ask for the owner's contact info, and if they won't give it up ask for the General Manager.

Explain your situation, and like mentioned above, tell them how you're not hesitant on spreading the negative word on them, however don't tell them you already have...

If you need, I think I have the phone number/name to that company's comptroller(main office mgr). She probably wouldn't make the decision to refund your money, but I'd guarantee she speaks with the owner daily, since she's the one tracking the $$ every day. (I work in outside sales with auto & powersport dealers, that's why I have the contact info).

[Dianne]

Contact Diane Dube at the NH BBB. Claims are easily filed online as well.

[richw]

I would explain that you have an active FLAME JOB going and it will cost him if he doesn't see the light..

There are few advantages to being old but..

frankly since I was 30 they don't even try to pull this sort of shit on me...

I tell them what I want...
make the deal...
I will be back when its ready and give you a check for the amount we agreed upon.
Call up and when its ready head down and buy it like its was socks.

I will give a thumbs up to Columbia motorsport in Willimantic (columbiA) connecticut scott. good price and went the extra mile.

[Awesome]

Verbal contract is just as stong as a written contract by law. It is proposed and accepted by the same media and legally binding. It's just harder to prove. Spread the word on your experience, or before you do maybe you should call the sales manager and ask if your $200 is worth an internet full of bad publicity.

Oh, the BBC doesn't do shit.

[chicharone]

We should have a for section with Good / Bad dealer experiences. Then we can have a better internet influence on these dealers. Just email them the link to the thread and to help the good dealers and hurt the bad ones. LET"S JOIN FORCES!!

[Awesome]

We should have a for section with Good / Bad dealer experiences. Then we can have a better internet influence on these dealers. Just email them the link to the thread and to help the good dealers and hurt the bad ones. LET"S JOIN FORCES!!

You mean like a 'Dealer/vendor/product reviews' section?



http://www.nestreetriders.com/forum/...oduct-reviews/

[Crash Dummy Denno]

Verbal contract is just as stong as a written contract by law. It is proposed and accepted by the same media and legally binding. It's just harder to prove.

indeed - a "tort"

[stoinkythepig]

you should fire bomb the building and shoot them as they come running out on fire..

That's funny if you know the history of the building they are in. It's called "Phoenix Place"...

[spicy]

yeah, this morning i went out and made my rounds to the insurance agency, RMV for plates, and then the post office so i could send them a formal written request, which has been CCed to the MA Attorney General, the NH Attorney General, Suzuki Motorcycle/ATV of North America, and the Federal Trade Commission, all to their Consumer Protection Departments...

I'll try and post a copy of the letter in a bit, cuz I'll need to edit all the names and addresses and stuff...

And yes, I'm aching for tomorrow morning when I go up with plates to bring her home before work. I'll post a review + pics and stuff when I have the time.

[spicy]

so here's the letter:





AS
Street Address
Town/Zip Code
July 14, 2007

Mr. S.
Sales Manager
Plaistow Power Sports
P.O. Box ###
Plaistow, NH 03865

Certified Mail
Return Receipt Requested

Dear Mr. S;

As we discussed by telephone, because your dealership has reneged on the transaction I negotiated over the telephone with your sales representative, Mr. D, I am requesting the immediate refund of my $200.00 deposit. Mr. D and I agreed that you would sell me a specific Suzuki motorcycle for a purchase price of $6000.00 “out the door,” meaning free from any add-on charges. Before reaching agreement on the final price, I informed Mr. D that the transaction would involve a cash down payment of $2500.00 plus a balance of $3500.00, for which you were to arrange financing. I told Mr. D, and he clearly understood, that $6000.00 total was the maximum price I would pay for the motorcycle, and that there were not to be any hidden fees such as dealer preparation, “documentation” and other add-ons. Since I intended to deal with the Registry of Motor Vehicles myself, the transaction was to be free of title, registration and other fees.

Before driving up to your dealership to finalize the purchase, I repeatedly requested that you send me copies of the proposed sales documents. When the disclosure form arrived, in addition to the agreed-upon “out the door” price of $6000.00, you had tacked on an additional fee of $259.00 in “documentation” fees and $185.38 in “optional” insurance charges. When I called to question these fees, both you and Mr. D refused to delete them, claiming that the “documentation” fee was a financing add-on (in addition to the 14.2% in annual interest). And, apparently the “optional” insurance fee is not so optional because despite my complaints you never offered to withdraw it.

For obvious reasons, when you refused to honor the terms of the $6000 “out the door” deal, I asked you to refund the $200 deposit that Mr. D had charged to my debit card. You refused to do so unless I drove up to your store. In a subsequent call after I threatened to take you to small claims court, you said that you would refund the deposit by corporate check if I sent you a written request with a photocopy of my license. It seems that the money flows easily into your dealership, but when people seek a refund you create obstacles like requiring a personal visit, which is a little ridiculous given that all I was asking is that you re-credit the same debit card I used for the deposit. Nevertheless, to jump through the hoop you created here is my formal request: Please immediately refund the deposit to me at the address above.

In addition to the unfair business practices described above, I want to raise two serious legal issues that I think the authorities should look into. First, I think it is not right to condition the extension of credit on the borrower’s acceptance of “optional” insurance charges; the disclosure form you sent me specifically says the charges are optional, but since you refused to honor the deal without these hidden fees, in practice they are clearly not optional.

But here is the larger issue. In shopping for a motorcycle, I went to a variety of area dealerships looking for competitive offers. Late in the process, and only after visiting a number of dealerships, I learned from an offhand remark by a sales representative that these dealers, who hold themselves out to the public as competing with each other, are actually linked behind the scenes under common ownership. These dealerships include Plaistow Power Sports, Cycles 128, Billerica Motorsports, and Parkway Cycle, as well as Greater Boston Motorsports, and there may be others. This is a very large share of the motorcycle dealerships in the Greater Boston area. These supposedly “competing” dealerships are in fact not competing, but they deceive the public into thinking that they are. None of their websites disclose their affiliation, nor did I see anything in any of these dealerships to indicate that they are under joint ownership. Consumers who spend time and effort shopping for the best deal are being deprived of the benefits of competition, and worst of all they are being secretly deprived of the benefits of competition. These are substantial purchases for most consumers, and the deck should not be stacked against them

Personally, I will never do business with your dealership ever again. I’d like to say that this is also true as to any dealership that is commonly owned by you, except that (1) it is hard to figure out who those other dealerships are, and (2) because so many are under common ownership I may have few alternatives. I hope that the authorities will correct this problem.

Sincerely,

<signed>

AS

CC: Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Protection Division
Massachusetts Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division
New Hampshire Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division
American Suzuki Motorcycle, Office of the General Counsel

[Loun]

The problem with threads about vendors and dealerships is that everyone has a different experience and thus 1 person can love a place and another can hate it. As long as they are legitimate posts and not just flame jobs then im for it. Example, someone loves 3A.. I bought a snowmobile there in 2001 and got jerked around, miss lead and then I think they over charge for parts and arent helpful at all. I like RJs most people dont.. I bought a bike from Best Cycle and had a good experience with them but i know some people that havent.

Just take things with a grain of salt and do your own research but yes $200 is not worth the bad publicity they will get here. I know its in the back of my mind now if i ever go by that place.

[slaps76]

I still think you should make a call and get the sales manager's superior on the phone. The problem is that a sales manager many times really isn't that high up on the food chain in a dealership....you want the owner, and if you can't get that person, the general manager. The sales manager may just toss that letter in the trash hoping you'll go away, and nobody else at the dealer will ever know about the problem.

[PPS26]

sorry to hear u have had a bad experience with pps please call me at 603-612-1000 ext 108 and i will speak up on your behalf

[Royb]

+1000! Troy City Garage.........

I wanted an 07 Suzuki V Strom with ABS brakes, not only did they have it in stock, they sold it to me with an email quote for $6600. The best price I could find in Ma, RI or NH was $7300 (which is over list) All the dealers were charging me for "set up" which Suzuki told me they shouldn't do as Suzuki pays all set up costs.

I gave Troy City a credit card for $500 deposit, drove to NY with a trailer, gave them a personal check for the balance and was out the door in 20 minutes.....Best and quickest deal I ever made on a motorcycle.......Can't recommend them highly enough!

[Currently]

Somebody else here bought an orange kaw from them and was also very impressed with the deal.

I will give them a try for my next bike.

[kmobrien76]

Police?? Geesh...Ask for the sales manager or dispute it with your CC company in writing. Also I work for a dealer, we don't run CC's unless we have an email or a fax from the client to run the CC...That's what most dealers do so there isn't any "gray area" when it comes to the deal...

highsider is absolutely correct, dispute with cc company and/or call the Plaistow Police and file a complaint (603) 382-6816.

[benVFR]

I thought your letter was great up until you started speculating as to common ownership of many Boston area dealerships.

Whether or not these guys are owned by one company it doesn't really have anything to do with your dispute... so it should have been left out of the letter.

[spicy]

One of the salesmen at Greater Boston Motorsports informed me of the common ownership, so I called around and asked about affiliations.

You don't think that's good business practice? That's like having all the same brand of car dealers in your area having different names and explaining on their website that they're privately owned and spouting off the "nobody beats our AMAZING prices" bullshit only to discover that they're all owned by a single person who is determining the price -- essentially monopolizing the market. My problem is that, not only is the vast majority of the Boston-Area Suzuki dealerships under common ownership, but that it's being publicly concealed. Nowhere on any of their sites does it mention common ownership. In fact, the sites go out of their way to inform you that they are privately, family owned and operated, ranging from 27-35 years.

If you went around to all the local Ducati dealerships and they all quoted you 60k for a 1098, but told you that they usually all sell for 75k but they're cutting you the deal of a lifetime, you'd think that was the going rate of them. If you went to 3 that were all owned by the same company and they quoted you 60k, and then you went to a fourth, independent dealer and they quoted you the actual 15k, where would you make your purchase from?

I'm just saying that my experiences with 3 of the local Suzuki dealers (GBM and 2 of it's affiliates) were unpleasant and that I am going out of my way to avoid them. I don't know if it's related to them all being under common ownership, or I just was unlucky and had the 3 shittiest salesmen at each dealership, but that is somewhat inconsequential.

Monopolizing the market and claiming that you're independent denies the consumer his/her right to the benefits of competition. If you have no options, the only way you can get the item you want is to pay what the seller asks, whether or not it's unreasonable. He/she doesn't care if you shop around, all the stores you'd be shopping at are his/hers anyways...

[Kham]

one of the guy i know needs to replace his front recall pilot. said he went to plaistow and they basically told him to get lost.

[Degsy]

I thought your letter was great up until you started speculating as to common ownership of many Boston area dealerships.

Whether or not these guys are owned by one company it doesn't really have anything to do with your dispute... so it should have been left out of the letter.

+1. Attorney general won't care about that stuff. Should have left it out. good letter apart from that, although I always write a letter without forwarding it to everyone first. You get more with honey when it's in writing.

derek

[s a x m a n]

I am late to this thread for just wanted to also post up my hate for Troy City! They are a bunch of arrogant pricks that I will never deal with again ... no matter how good their prices are. I'd rather pay more for good service and respect then deal with those assholes

[ZX-12R]

I am late to this thread for just wanted to also post up my hate for Troy City! They are a bunch of arrogant pricks that I will never deal with again ... no matter how good their prices are. I'd rather pay more for good service and respect then deal with those assholes

Ouch! What did they do to you? They were a pleasure to deal with when I bought a bike there or helped friends out.

[ChR1s]

re: Troy City

I've no personal experience with them, but have heard many reports of many satisfied customers. The key to their satisfaction seemed to be realistic expectations -- confirmed details of transaction in advance, go in with the money, come out with the bike.

[s a x m a n]

They told Neal, my brother and I that we were not "educated and we should just go back to ronnie's or something then come back when we know better" ... exact quote I think

I think the question we asked was "how much wiggle room is in the price", so instead of a simple "we have these set prices and don't move from them" we were insulted

We all have gone else where and gotten better deals

[benVFR]

I wasn't denying the common ownership of the dealerships.

It just doesn't matter for the purpose of the letter, it will just make them more pissed off at you.

All that matters is you get your money back.