I hear that they have gone into administration - anyone else heard anything?
Seems to be true. The group has gone in to administration.
One of Rachel’s friends was a store manager and left a little while ago as she could see they were struggling and thought the writing was in the wall.
That’s interesting, they opened the new dedicated triumph dealership in Queensferry (called Chester Triumph) not long ago. I wonder what will happen to Triumph now?
You can bet Bill Smith will be watching closely
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The ex manager - is she the lady that now works BMW Chester?
I believe that is the same lady, yes!
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All paddocked up today - both North Wales outlets
They had a big outlet just down the road from Triumph at Hinckley. That’s where I bought my Sprint GT. Weren’t they sponsoring a BSB team, as well?
Yeah it was Kawasaki. Still showing as Completely Motorbikes on BSN results from Brands.
Presumably they’d already paid up for the sponsorship and there’s not much point in taking the name off the fairing so close to the end of the season.
Worcester just lost two bike shops linked with the above, Ducati adjacent to Pitchcroft Race Track and Kawasaki, Sidbury, formerly Skellerns.
Just been watching update - its amazing how many customer bikes are now locked up in these workshops.
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I was talking to a guy in the trade yesterday and he was saying that many customers were encouraged to pay the full asking price for their bikes only days before it went bust and have now lost all of their money and no bike.
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There’s definitely a lesson to be learned here.
When I bought my 400 Scrambler at the end of July, I part-ex’d my Tiger 900 so the deal meant about £4k back to me. On collection day (a Wednesday) after all the relevant paperwork had been completed the sales guy told me that the money would be in my bank account “by Friday”. I was a bit surprised by this, I assumed it would all happen on the day- bank transfers are almost instantaneous these days - but said okay as I wasn’t desperate for the money.
Friday came and went and no money had arrived, so Monday morning I contacted him to ask whether the transfer had been done. He was very apologetic and said I’d definitely have the money the next day (Tuesday). Tuesday came and went with no money appearing so by now I was getting worried! Was this down to a cash flow problem on their side? Was it incompetence? Or were they just being deliberately difficult? Wednesday morning I checked the bank again before calling them and to my relief, the money was there.
After they failed to meet their second promise, I became concerned mainly because if they were to go into receivership then I would lose the ÂŁ4k I was owed and just become another unsecured creditor.
I never did enquire to why they kept me waiting, but given that the Scrambler was the fourth new bike I’d purchased from them in the past three years, I was confused why they would be trying so hard to really piss me off, particularly as they’d already achieved that earlier in the transaction when they screwed me for an additional £200 because Triumph had upped the price. I was aware of this at the time, but the sales guy had told me they had two bikes coming which were still at the old price, so we had agreed the price, only for him to renegade on that deal (he blamed his dealer principle). Although annoyed, I wasn’t going to drop out over £200. I thought their decision was a bit short sighted given the number of bikes I’ve previously bought from them, but combine it with the payment issue and maybe a different story emerges.
The moral of the story is - don’t pay for anything before collection and if they owe you money, don’t let your existing bike out of your sight before you’ve confirmed the money is in your account!
I previously thought I had a good relationship with my local dealer, but they’ve soured it now which will change how I deal with them in the future - assuming I deal with them at all.
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Is that about Completely Bikes or a different dealer?
I know they were still taking deposits for new bikes right up until the admin walked in.
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Different dealer, but part of a large group.
Happening in car industry aswell, Ford Nantwich closed overnight.
Probably ought to have a separate thread for that, then. Name names if you feel it’s fair.