SYM and Carter Brothers - Splitsville!

It's been fairly obvious for some time now to anyone following the USA scooter industry that things have not been going particularly well for SYM's exclusive USA distributor, Carter Brothers.

Ever since the devastating fire of last July that destroyed their main warehouse - and over 3,000 SYM scooters - and the subsequent determination of arson as the cause, Carter Brothers has seemed to be in a protracted state of limbo. Immediately after the fire they boldly announced that they were going to rebuild and get parts and warranty service up and running again as quickly as possible, but that never happened. In fact, nothing much has happened since then. Their operations seem to have come to a complete standstill.

Take the SYM-USA website for example: it has become a time capsule of the "before the fire" state of the company. It hasn't been updated since July, 2010 (over seven months ago) - not even the "news" section. Nothing about the fire, no updated information for SYM owners regarding where to get parts or warranty service, no reassuring words about their commitment to rebuilding.

Even before the fire there were general complaints circulating among SYM dealers regarding difficulty getting parts and product support.  Carter Brothers did not appear to be keeping their parts warehouse adequately stocked.  Since the fire, dealers have reported trouble even getting through to Carter Brothers by phone or email. The most they seemed willing or able to do was to post a parts order form on their Facebook page and instruct dealers to place their orders with SYM Canada.  That's been the general state of affairs for over six months now.

One can not help but observe that any reasonably capable company should have been able to set up at least a shoe-string parts distribution operation by now. How long does it take to rent a warehouse and get a basic supply of spare parts shipped from Taiwan? Nowhere near seven months. Also, it's not difficult in this day and age to drop-ship parts directly from the manufacturer (or SYM's own parts operation) in Taiwan. Carter Brothers could have had that up and running in less than a month after the fire.

But, again, nothing happened!

The fire burned down a building - albeit a very large one housing much of Carter Brothers inventory and manufacturing operations. However, it didn't also burn down the company's employees, the company's websites (which are remotely hosted), or the Bellsouth Telephone Company. Unfortunately, Carter Brothers has been behaving as if the fire wiped out all of southern Alabama.

Many of us have been wondering what SYM was going to do in the face of such (sorry to say it) lethargic and inept behavior on the part of their exclusive USA distributor. 

Recently, indications of SYM's intent have begun trickling out, not in the form of any official pronouncements, but through events. In mid-February it became known that Alliance Powersports (a unit of Lance Powersports, Inc.) had sent out notices to SYM dealers in the western region of the USA that they were taking over distribution of the SYM brand as of April 1st. This new relationship was officially confirmed by SYM on March 1st (without elaboration).

Speculation followed that, perhaps, Carter Brothers might possibly be retained as the SYM distributor for the eastern-half of the country, with Lance handling the western states.

However, Team Symba has recently been informed that, indeed, as of April 1, 2011, Carter Brothers will no longer be a distributor of SYM scooters and motorcycles in the USA, period. They are officially out of the scooter business.

So, who's going to be the new SYM distributor for the eastern half of the country? Nothing definite on that yet - but there have been some hints from various sources that SYM Canada might be filling that role. To date, SYM Taiwan has not confirmed anything on this question.

The more important concern for us Symba owners is, what does this mean for warranty service and the availability of parts and accessories? I hope to have some information to post on this subject as we get into April.