"Caveat Venditor".
Most people are pretty familiar with caveat emptor or let the buyer beware. My comment for Twist and Scoot consists of caveat venditor, let the seller beware. A few months ago having grown a little older, less strong, and in a bit of a precarious health situation, I realized my 2001 Vespa scooter needed a younger, stronger rider. I found a service to tow it into Twist and Scoot and went by to talk to Bill, the owner. He mentioned that since it had not been ridden frequently it handled poorly and would need a lot of repair and fine tuning. My intention was to give it away to a friend after she paid for the necessary repairs. She and I were both discouraged from doing that, being told that an estimate of the costs could not be given until the scooter was pretty much taken apart. So you can see I was not interested in getting a lot out of the scooter and I admit to a lot of naïveté when Mr. Bill said "I'll just take it off your hands for $100.00. My instincts said gather that thing up and sell it on Craig's list or EBay. But, of course, I would have to pay to have it towed somewhere. I knew that more than likely there was a buyer, but just estimating in my own mind, he might get about 1,800 and I needed it out of my garage and off my insurance. Little did I know that he would sell it for more than I had paid for it 7 years ago, or about 24 times what he paid me, and in less than 3 weeks time!
Really wanting to let Bill know how I felt about the situation , I decided to just go in and have a bit of a heart to heart. I waited until another customer left not wanting to make the situation any more negative than it was. Immediately, he was defensive saying how much labor had gone into restoring the bike and how disappointed he was that I would confront him about the situation. How dare I try to vacillate on a deal we had made! Now that I've read some other comments, I see that I have not been the only one chastised for expressing disappointment in service. I also realize that from his demeanor he would never admit that he had "taken" this little old lady. Had he made the slightest effort to accommodate or just to admit that he made quite a lot on one deal I would have been fine, had he just made an attempt to look me in the eye, I would not have made a positive post, I would have just skipped it all together. Instead, I am simply saying, do not be a seller in this establishment. If you trade in an old scooter for a new one, perhaps you should try several sources first and know the worth of what you have. Caveat venditor and then, there's always KARMA... read more