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I heard a troubling story today from an area Triumph dealer that, if true, implies Triumph USA's operating policy with local dealers is heavy-handed and hurting the company's potential bike sales. The dealer said he is forced to (1) buy a $9,000 Triumph sign for his store's exterior, (2) send his personnel to Atlanta to attend sales or tech/repair or accessories seminars, (3) stock $3,000 inventory of motor clothes or accessories, and so forth, as a precondition to being paid his sales commissions (called "hold back") on completed bike sales. He said the other motorcycle brands his dealership sells do not have the same practice. He said our state's franchise laws prohibit a vehicle manufacturer from requiring or implementing certain trade practices as he said Triumph does, and the company does not want to address the legality of his complaints. As a result, he said one or more other local Triumph dealerships have adopted an attitude of selling a Triumph if a customer wants one, but not going out of their way to promote Triumph sales. Those dealerships are focusing instead on their BMW or Ducati business. This dealer even said that he knows of another Triumph dealer in the area that just refused delivery of 30 bikes remaining in the 2006 inventory, as their protest to the US management about these practices. In short, I hope to see Triumph motorcycles sell well in the US and for me to have an ever growing number of dealerships to visit closer by, and this story does not bode well. I would hope Triumph has better dealership relations in general across the US and elsewhere.
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Stay cool, like Steve McQueen
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