Kind of long, sorry.....
Maybe I can lend some insight into the Aprilia parts issue.
My wife's Scarabeo 150 had a speedometer go out. I had called the same dealer that I had gotten a sidestand off of and they "attempted" to order the speedo. Note that because of the issues that I had heard of with parts, I sought out a dealer for the sidestand that had one in stock. This dealer was in Florida, had the sidestand, and overnighted it to me with no problem.
Anyway, back to the speedo. Aprilia never got back to them. The dealer, very frustrated, gave ME the phone number to ApriliaUSA in Atlanta. So I called them and they had an automated "press 2 for parts" and I did. I actually got a person. I never identified myself as a dealer, but he made the assumption and I never corrected him. I gave him the part number and he said they had the part. To quote him exactly, he said "those don't go out all of the time, but they do go out often enough that we keep them in stock. We have over 100 in stock right now."
Now I figured that since I was going to be ordering the doggone thing anyway, I might as well go through our local Aprilia dealer. Ironically, this dealer is pretty big, but not in scooters. They do sell Audi, Volkswagon, Porsche, and Aprilia. They called, emailed, ordered via web and phone, but could never get an order confirmation. Finally, I told them let me handle this.
I called Aprilia and got the parts manager. He said that the dealer never ordered the part correctly. He said "some of these new dealers are green behind the ears and they don't do it right." I told him that the White-Allen Auto group in Dayton OH has been around for 70 years and the specific dealership is a very large Porsche/VW/Audi dealer AND if anyone screwed this up I am not betting against the 70 year old dealer group, but I will bet against a very young Aprilia USA that has a record of this sort of thing happening." Silence was all I heard.
So he then said he would order it himself and work with the dealer to get this done. A week later I called Atlanta again...customer service confirmed the part was not on order. So I got ahold of the parts guy again and flamed him. He told me that he ordered the part but it was coming out of Italy and it woudl take a while. I told him I confirmed the part was in the US already and that I also confirmed he didn't do jack to get the part ordered. I told him I confirmed he never called the dealer or did anything at all to correct the problem.
Now I could go on and on, but I think you are seeing the problem, right? I did. So I called the dealer network folks and got their song and dance to a point. Then I told them something that seemed to wake them up. I told them "say what you will, but I have spoken to numerous folks that have acknowledged that the Atlantic and Scarabeo are some of the best scooters on the market. And they have never done as I have, complained and cussed over your dealer and parts support. No, they never did that. Instead, they quietly bought a Honda or Suzuki. So here I am telling you of a problem and I am getting lip service. Listen, keep your scooters. The Chinese are coming at the 50-150cc market and the Japanese are already dominating the 250+ market. Keep making excuses and jacking the customer around. It won't get you far."
I did get a call from one of the head honcho's in parts and he did acknowledge the parts issue, stating all kinds of excuses. I told him that it doesn't bother me as I ride a Honda (had the helix at the time) and as long as I can get parts for it, I guess my wife will have to suffer."
Again, silence.
Hope this explains at least some of Aprilia's problems.