Canadian dealer not happy about transition...

[flar]

 

[Shinysideup]

This is exactly the kind of social media buzz(kill) that neither Polaris nor Brammo needs. I certainly hope they are able to, you know, actually COMMUNICATE, so these folks get treated as humans in the transition process.

[Adan]

I've been assuming that Polaris' preference will be to consolidate Brammo and Victory distributors, and that some distributors will lose Brammo in the process.  Do those distributors lose their investment?  It seems like they might, and whether they are entitled to some recoupment from Polaris might depend on whether there is successor liability as between Brammo and the distributor.  Having no idea of the details, one can only speculate but surely this is the sort of thing that transpires as a matter of course in the business world.

[Brammofan]

Per thespecialone (Adrian Stewart at Brammo), this post from April 2015 is still relevant:

For now, Brammo and most of its authorized dealer network will continue to support all Brammo motorcycles, this includes all models of the Enertia, Enertia Plus and all models of the Empulse.
Warranty claims will continue to be honored by Brammo and processed in a timely manner.
Brammo will continue to make parts and accessories available through Brammo dealers.
Here is a list of those dealers  http://legacy.brammo.com/store-locator

Sometime during 2015 Polaris will assume full service and parts responsibility for Brammo motorcycles through their Victory dealer network.

Polaris will then service and support all Brammo motorcycles. This includes all models of the Enertia, Enertia Plus and all models of the Empulse. Polaris will honor all warranty claims on Brammo motorcycles.
During the transfer of production from Brammo to Polaris and the associated transfer of production inventory and service inventory customers may experience some delays in parts availability.
We are working hard to ensure that these delays are kept to a minimum, however we apologize in advance for any temporary disruption to the availability of certain parts.

Once this transfer is complete Brammo owners will enjoy access to a much larger dealer network that has the training, tools and parts to support their motorcycle. Probably the largest electric motorcycle dealer network in the world.  I believe this will have a favorable impact on used prices of Brammo motorcycles. 

Please dont hesitate to email service@brammo.com at any time.     

[Chocula]

I refuse to talk or correspond to any Members of Brammo.

This sounds like a rant from someone who is not interested in resolving things.  If they are truly out $40,000 and Brammo will not work with them, then legal action is probably their best option.  Posting a rant on Facebook is unlikely to help anybody.

Even after the sale to Polaris, Brammo has responded to my requests.  Sometimes they needed a follow up before responding, but that was the case prior to the sale as well.  That seemed to be a matter of getting my request to the correct person.  Adam, the service manager has been awesome!

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

They still have an Pic of an Empulse on their homepage. My guess is they won't be importing much else after their rant.

[flar]

That last line on their FB post definitely seemed a bit far out there on the rant scale.  Full sand-head-burying.

Also, their web site has Brammo all over it still.  The splash image, the first thing they talk about importing on the home page, the entire focus of their "About Us" page - all highlight Brammo even still.

[Ted Dillard]

WC Distributing has jumped into the electric market with both feet, and if memory serves, picked up Brammo in December 2014, about a month before the announcement.  They also (again, if memory serves) are the only Canada dealer for Energica, and are pushing that out there too. 

Immediately after the announcement they pushed that they were supporting Brammo's move, and trying to sell their stock, and parroting the "Polaris will support Brammo sales" statements that came out of Brammo.  I'm not going to argue with a lawyer, Harry, (this time, anyway ) but don't confuse customer support with dealer support.  My impression at the time was they were trying to be the stand-up dealer, they made a decision, they sold the bikes and were going to stand behind that decision and their customers. 

You can sit at your keyboard and judge all you want, but it appears to me that these guys feel like they got seriously burned by negotiating an agreement in good faith with a company that had full knowledge of what was going to happen in a very short timeframe, and have reached the end of their rope with continuted lack, and mis-information.  Yes, they have a crap-ton of money out there invested in this brand, and went into it with good faith in December.  I've seen how hard they pushed them, and how hard they're pushing Energica and everything else they sell. 

I personally know what it feels like to come in to work every day and field phone calls from customers who've put their hard-earned money out there on a product that can't deliver, doesn't work as advertised, or isn't supported by the manufacturer anymore, all totally out of my control.  It sucks.  For everybody. 

I can't imagine how hard it is to keep a business going in this market, in Alberta, Canada, selling electric motorcycles in the first place.  When a company makes moves like Brammo and Polaris have, you're going to see some pissed off people.   

...and this isn't the first time I've heard of Brammo pretty much screwing their dealers.  Unfortunately, a lot of those dealers aren't so willing to talk publicly about it. 

[flar]

I imagine that this is all very frustrating, and I'm not defending (nor do I have any direct knowledge of) any lack of communication from Brammo and/or Polaris.

But "I refuse to talk to ..." is not someone making a business decision, it is someone ranting.  Refusing to communicate is an emotional reaction and typically short term.  It would be expressed differently if it was a well-considered business decision.

A week after that post there are still several prominent mentions of Brammo and the Empulse on their web site.  It's not that hard to get that content removed if you are serious about terminating your relationship, but they haven't made any apparent progress on the intents that they expressed.

If they did terminate their relationship in response to a frustrating lack of communication, then that would make some sense.  I'd be disappointed - not in them, but for them.  But it doesn't appear to be happening.

This sounds more like an angry rant made one day at a peak of frustration that fizzled in terms of long-term intent.

[Shinysideup]

Not all emails should be sent?

[Ted Dillard]

Yeah, I'm not even sure what your point is.  You don't approve?  Sorry, but it reads as the Ashland Bubble "Nobody can stay mad at Brammo, can they?" 

From what I've seen of the dealer company, their outward facing stuff, especially on Facebook, is passionate.  Generally in support of their products.  The fact their site still has Brammo branding is meaningless, as to guessing their intentions.  Maybe they have stock?  Maybe they have orders?  Maybe they're trying to salvage whatever efforts they've put into the brand for when somebody steps up and helps them out?  Maybe it's simply that whoever maintains their site hasn't had time to do a re-design, or they don't want to spend more money for a re-design?  Maybe he feels he has to publicly beat on Brammo to underscore his support of his (totally fucked) customers who are SOL?  Who the hell knows, and it's immaterial. 

I realize this is a Brammo fan site, but come on.  You should sit on the other side of your dealer's counter for a bit, and see how much fun that is.  If in fact he is out that kind of money, or even a fraction of that kind of money, then I'd say he's entitled to rant on his own Facebook page.

And yes, I agree this is just the kind of thing that Polaris (and Brammo I guess, but I don't really know why) doesn't need, which is why it never should have been allowed to happen.

[Ndm]

In my opinion, the right thing for Polaris to have done would be to inform the current dealers that they can stay on as a Brammo dealer,with Polaris support and sell/service the brand, when you look at the Canadian dealer network for Brammo it reads like they are all small operations,no better way to kill a budding business than to yank half the carpet out, not a good sign for ev adoption, I had my fingers on the trigger for one but hung back feeling apprehensive about the lack of info from Brammo, still love the bike but can't make that commitment ,so here I sit on the sidelines waiting on Polaris

[flar]

Yeah, I'm not even sure what your point is.  You don't approve?  Sorry, but it reads as the Ashland Bubble "Nobody can stay mad at Brammo, can they?" 

So far I haven't said anything about any approval or disapproval of what Brammo and Polaris are doing.  I was simply pointing out that this company is venting an emotion, but I'm not sure how much further it is going.

From what I've seen of the dealer company, their outward facing stuff, especially on Facebook, is passionate.  Generally in support of their products.  The fact their site still has Brammo branding is meaningless, as to guessing their intentions.  Maybe they have stock?  Maybe they have orders?  Maybe they're trying to salvage whatever efforts they've put into the brand for when somebody steps up and helps them out?  Maybe it's simply that whoever maintains their site hasn't had time to do a re-design, or they don't want to spend more money for a re-design?  Maybe he feels he has to publicly beat on Brammo to underscore his support of his (totally fucked) customers who are SOL?  Who the hell knows, and it's immaterial. 

Perhaps, but the site is not some technical marvel that would require professionals weeks of proposals to modify. An average high school kid would have no trouble deleting the Brammo content in about 5 minutes with Notepad.

On the other hand, the site appears to be home grown.  If they do all of their own site work they may just be too disgusted to even go through the motions right now, though I think it would be somewhat cathartic to actually do it.

There's another thought, though - their contract with Brammo may still be active even though they are obviously receiving no information about the future of the relationship.  With the contract still in place they may be legally obligated to advertise the brand on their web page? (but not legally prevented from sharing a piece of their mind on FB)

I realize this is a Brammo fan site, but come on.  You should sit on the other side of your dealer's counter for a bit, and see how much fun that is.  If in fact he is out that kind of money, or even a fraction of that kind of money, then I'd say he's entitled to rant on his own Facebook page.

Individuals and even company owners are fully entitled to vent their feelings about their business relationships in public.  When you own a small company, though, there are also considerations of whether or not it is a wise move to make.

I'm not sure if all dealers are in their same boat (the money thing may have been worse for them given the timing of the announcements), but I've actually talked with a Brammo dealer (within the past 2 weeks) and they don't seem concerned at all.  Perhaps they are naive, or perhaps any money they are out is small enough to be considered an investment in a potential future new relationship compared to the financial situation of this company, or perhaps they are just too professional to vent in public about their concerns.

And yes, I agree this is just the kind of thing that Polaris (and Brammo I guess, but I don't really know why) doesn't need, which is why it never should have been allowed to happen.

I'll agree that it has been quite some time for a lack of communication, but I've been through corporate mergers and buyouts before and know that it can take months for even employees of the companies involved to hear anything definitive about the future of their product lines and jobs.  It's a very sad and unfortunate corporate reality.  I've also seen companies talk all positive about the future of the merger and then axe entire divisions once the decisions are made.  It completely sucks, but it happens to be par for the course in the corporate shuffling world.

The size of the merger that I've been through was actually several orders of magnitude larger, so I would have hoped that the shaking out period would have been much smaller for Brammo/Polaris, but on the other hand I have no idea what issues are at stake for a motor vehicle manufacturer.  Also, Brammo was not publicly traded, so that should have made things easier in terms of most decisions.  I wouldn't have thought it would take this long to make some final announcements in this case, but I'm not in the corporate merger game - I've just lived through one.

In terms of how damaging this event could/would be, I'm guessing that the average potential buyer who may eventually walk into a Polaris dealer to buy a new electric motorcycle with Brammo technology would probably have never heard of this incident.  We're coming from the perspective of a fledgling market having bought products from startups and so we are at the core of looking for information here and so we tend to find things and share them, but if electric motorcycles are coming from a major dealer network like Polaris's then they will likely start selling to a much less research-aware consumer.

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

Given Polaris' core market (snowmobiles and ATVs), my guess is they already have an importer in Canada - or they have a fully owned subsidiary there, and WCD is going to be pushed out of market by the merger. I feel bad for WCD given the timing, but that's how it goes. Then again, the fire sale had been going on for quite some time before WCD bought in. They probably should have done some more due diligence before investing so much money in a product that was struggling to sell.

[Ted Dillard]

Just curious, flar - you ever actually tried to run a small, independent company?