Problems – ETec

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I had a japaneese motor before and it never gave me any grief. It was a 50 evinrude/suzuki efi 4-stroke. I wish now I would have made a longer drive and got my naviagtor with a 90 Yamaha. I do beleive this issue would’ve never happened with a yamaha. It is unbeleivable to me the poor service, I don’t even know if its been touched! At the least they could do is spend 30 minutes and tell me it’ll be a week or be a day or so! I know I didn’t buy from them, but I purchased my last 2 boats from them.(2 princecrafts) They just didn’t stock this boat and the dealer I got it from had financing and everything right there. They even sold me the autopilot trolling motor 20 bucks cheaper than cabelas! Now I am stuck with a new boat at a dealer I didn’t buy it from and the service is very slooooooooooooooooow!!! I said earlier I work at a chevy dealer, and we never do this!!! Heck we could build a car from scratch in this time!! If I don’t get a response by Friday I will contact BRP directly.

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Obviously EVERY motor company has some issues with their motors. I have a Suzuki and have had a few problems at the start, my neighbor has a 4 stroke Yammy and he’s had a couple problems. Hands down, my next will be an E-TEC. I think your issue starts at the dealer. I’d stop in and ask to speak to the service manager and if you don’t get the answers, ask to speak to the owner.

If you do call BRP, you’ll want to speak to Leon LaRock, he’s a heck of a great guy and will do all that he can to take care of the situation.

Bill just talked to the kid with the problem E-TEC. Still not looked at and the dealer promised him they would check it on Tuesday.

I usually agree with you, but in this case when you are bringing a relatively new motor on the market dealer service should be AAA.

The guy with the Yamaha may have a point.

Yes I agree. When you just buy something and its broke the dealer that he bought it from should of had it fixed so hes back on the water buy atleast the next weekend if its more than just something minor. This sitsuation is different than just regular repair or maintenence, etc on a boat thats been around for awhile if you know what I mean. It will be interesting to see what the problem is. Does anyone know who the dealer is?
Thanks, Bill

I bought the boat/motor from American marine is Shawano. The boat was supposed to be looked at (by last tuesday according to the manager)and repaired by Muellers sales and service in Random Lake. They now told me to take it to Shawano as there are to busy!!! I also called another dealer, Cedar Lake Sales in West Bend and they told me “they didn’t want to get involved, as its so new” So tomorrow I will take the 2 hour drive north and the original dealer can have it back. hopefully they can fix it as I wait, that’s there and my plan as of now. Its nice to see that you can get such great service in your local area!!!! Like I stated earlier I have purchased 2 boats at Muellers and also my dad purchased 2 at Cedar lake. Just because I bought this elsewhere I guess I’m blacklisted. I know its first come 1st served but this is ridiculous, how long does it take to diagnose! As a gm tech we get .3 of an hour to diagnose a warranty issue, that’s a whole 18 minutes!!! Outboards aren’t half as complex as a car. I will keep track of all this and Bombardier will be contacted. I tried to call Leon, but he wasn’t available as I was told hes a traveling salesman.

Time to call E-Tec direct and start

I must admit, you have a much higher patience level than me.

Personaly, I would take it to the place you bought it, go directly to the owner of the dealership and NOT leave until the problem was fixed as I waited.

There is no reason to have any service less than what I just stated.

IF you purchased a brand new car and it died 10 miles later, you would do the same, let alone demand a “loner”. WHILE THE MOTOR was replaced. Being that it is a new motor, I would not accept it back and demand it be replaced with a brand new E-TEC. IF you accept this motor back, it will be “labeled” as a warranty claim motor.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t purchase a used motor, knowing that after 1 hour or 10 hours, or even 100 hours of operation, it had a warranty claim against it.

Again, it may just indeed be a simple rigging fix that the dealer “goofed up”, and that is fine, for there would not be a warranty claim against the motor, such as a pinched fuel line or a loose wire.

But having to wait this long is unacceptable.

Ok it’s finally fixed. I took it from the dealer in Random lake this morning at 6:30 am and drove the 2 hours to Shawano. (I called them Friday and they told me they’d take care of it asap.) When I arrived I talked with Service and they imediately got on it. Within 30 minutes the problem was diagnosed. I talked with the 2 mechanics, one of which was much more knowledgable with e-tecs. The motor had a code for the fuel pump circuit. It set the code twice. He explained how some codes don’t set any alarms or lights. Strange. Within an hour the whole job was done. The problem was a bad fuel pump. They suspected wiring as they have never replaced an e-tec pump, but it all checked ok and the problem was duplicated in the 1st five minutes. After all this I can’t beleive I had to drive 4 hours round trip to get descent service. I did test the boat afterwards in Shawano on Shawano/weed! lake. The problem is fixed, but this isn’t over. My dealer in Shawano told me it would be worth writing bombardier and telling them my issues with the 2 local dealers. I understand a waiting list but to be told a couple days, oh a couple more, oh it’ll be a week or so is BS. And to be told “we don’t want to get involved” is worse. I am also going to see if I can get about $80 of gas reimburment!!!! I kept all the receipts. I ran it a second time today, still ok.

Good to hear you got it sorted, I really think you’ll be happy with the motor in the long run

I am glad you got it resolved. I would think they wouldn;t even turn this in as “Warranty” claim…..now get ahold of BRP and put the screws to the idiots at your local dealership.

Maybe BRP will pull it from them.

Glad to hear that it is fixed

Now write Bombardier and let them have it about your area dealers

Ron

Perhaps you should cut and paste the text of this forum and mail to BRP, along with copies to the local dealers that were so uncooperative.

Bottom line is the IDA folks spent lotsa $$$ on boats and motors, and perhaps their comments will help the local delaers be a bit more cooperative.

Great idea in my opinion.

The behavior from the two local dealers is not how BRP operates. This type of business tactics shows why people are willing to travel alittle for a better deal. And it also shows why someone didn’t want to do business locally in the first place. I would certainly write BRP.
Thanks, Bill

Letter has been writen and I cut and pasted 16 pages of this forum and mailed it in. I also kept all my gas receipts and mailed those in. It was around a $100 to go up to Shawano and back. I’ll see what happens and let you all know.

I am posting this simply to keep it upfront until BRP responds. I am cetrtain you all would like to know their, and also how/why the local dealers were unwilling to service the engine.

I recommend caution is pushing too hard on this. As we all know, there are two sides to every story. We have not heard what the dealer had to say. Whether he was right, wrong or just indifferent…we don’t know.
Remember, BRP is being blindsided by this, so let them go through their do-diligence.
I am no longer affiliated with BRP (In no part due to their engines BTW..) but I will tell you that they went way out of their way to help me with any problem I have ever had even when Evinrude was OMC, Ficht or Etec. They have awesome people working in support and technical assistance. Just be aware that they are not necessarily set up to handle complaints from the general public. That is what their dealers are for. Same for Yamaha, Mercury and Suzuki. So it may have to go through a few different channels before it hits the right ears.
Don’t put together the lynching party just yet.
Tuck

Well….I am really glad that u got the motor fixed. Congratulations!

However, I guess the right to do would probably have been to bring it back to the dealer u got it from in retrospect. But I guess 2 hours IS a long drive. I do understand that. I also travelled to get a better deal.

In any case, I want to say that some dealers are just SLOW and some are really fast. In my area, u had to wait at least 2 weeks to get into one dealer with an appointment! On the other hand, there is another dealer that u could get in by simply a call on the same day!! So go figure…..

For the customer, at the end of the day, boat time is a premium. The dealer who is motivated to provide fast efficient service, other things being equal, would naturally have my patronage.

I too, will travel for a deal. I do that, full well knowing that I am giving up priority in customer service from my local dealer. I have had many talks with my local dealer about that before I made the move to travel for a deal. I was told straight out that I will go from being able to sneak my boat in the back door to get an appointment and wait my turn. BUT, the deal I made from traveling to buy was soooo much better I did it anyways.

I do understand why they do that and it makes sense. You buy from someone and you will get the immediate and best service. If not, get in line. They owe you nothing but standard service at best. Its just how it works.
Used boats seem to be a little different. The local dealer really doesn’t get the slap in the face. In turn you tend to receive better than average service. All IMO.

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I do understand why they do that and it makes sense. You buy from someone and you will get the immediate and best service. If not, get in line. They owe you nothing but standard service at best. Its just how it works.
Used boats seem to be a little different. The local dealer really doesn’t get the slap in the face. In turn you tend to receive better than average service. All IMO.

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EXACTLY!!!

Buy a Yamaha HPDI and all your problems will go away

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Buy a Yamaha HPDI and all your problems will go away

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Thanks for the humor…I needed that.

Maybe I’m mis-understanding you guys? If I buy my boat from Dealer A and want service from Dealer B, I should lower my expectations of service level commitment. If this is what you are saying, I couldn’t disagree more. I don’t care where I buy the product, if it’s covered under warranty, a dealer should stand and up and do the work. I’m guessing the corporate office doesn’t support this mentality, at least I hope not.

In my eyes, dealer B also lost any chance at future sales by treating the customer poorly.

I was going to buy extra seats at $200 each at the local dealer to support him, but since this has happened guess what? I bought from the original dealer after they fixed my problem. It’s funny how all the older OMC parts I got from the both local dealers over the years are now available online. They won’t get my business anymore unless it’s an emergency. I understand their customer’s’ comes first, just like where I work, but if you tell someone you’ll have it fixed in a couple days and hold it for a week then blow them off you’ll loose every customer. Now, where to buy that $40 a gallon oil. Hey I’ll just take some from my dad!

Kooty, Dealer B will always stand up and do the work but dealer A will work harder and scedule faster than dealer B. Dealer A made a profit on the boat. Dealer B is only left with the warranty work and only gets paid according to the manufactuers figured time for said repair.
I know what you are thinking and wouldn’t that be nice but in reality it isn’t always the case. Honestly, think about.
Again, I am the shopper too. I drove to MO for my last boat but I do not sit here and think I will be able to call my salesman at home on the weekend and tell him it will be there monday morning and for them to put it on the top of the scedule.
Think of it from any small business owners perspective. You need to take care of your paying customers first. That is the right thing to do. IMO

ER…I gotta disagree. Customer service is customer service. You either have it or you don;t. Just becasue your an “authorized _ _ _ _ service center” does not mean you have “customer service”. I work in a service industry (security and fire systems) and either you give a crap about the customer, or you don’t. Too many places these days don’t care about the customer. They only care about the benjamins. Their PNL will not reflect it this month, or maybe this quarter, but it will in the next 12 months. Its called attrition.
Wealthy people or those with a good deal of disposable income may not care, but those of us with a budget for our disposable income care very much and will take our buisness to those who show that they know what customer service means.

I do not disagree with you about customer service. No doubt thats huge for any business to survive. But what is in debate here is whether a marine shop with 2 weeks of work booked should take a guys boat that he bought somewhere else and put it up in front of everyone elses including those who purchased from them.
So what we are talking about here is only a fraction of customer service, not customer service as a whole. Sorry for the confusion.

March until September is the busy season for repair work. Very few dealerships have less than a 2 week waiting list. So this local dealer should drop everything to take care of you and you didn’t even buy from him?…yeah right.

ER is right. Before you buy a boat from a dealer I would make sure there service department is good. If you buy a boat from dealer A and have a relationship with dealer A, you should get priority service. This has nothing to do with Customer Service, but more with relationships. I hope that when I take my boat into the dealership that I have bought ALL my boats from I get preferred service, and I do.

I am not saying anyone deserves bad service or will get bad service, just that people that buy from a dealership should and do get preferred service. It is all part of establishing a relationship. In return, they want you to buy your next boat from them.

I guess I don’t agree. I feel the “ford” dealership should put me in line and fix my repair when it’s my turn. If I was told two days and got bumped because a local brought in a problem, I would be mad too. Then to say, we dont’ want to work on it….

Maybe it’s too much to expect from boat dealers, but I liken them to a car dealership. They sell the same products, service the same products via certification, then they should treat all owners of said products evenly.

Later guys!!

I have to agree scott and er, its no differnt then if you have your roof shingled from a low bid from out of town and your roof leaks and you call your local roofer to fix it because the guy you had do it is to busy .

Maybe I just see things differently but this isn’t an issue of where the motor was purchased as much as it is a dealer that over-promised and under-delivered.

They promised it would be looked at in the next two days. It didn’t happen as promised. No explaination given. No attemps to make it right with you made. Good dealerships just don’t do this no matter where the boat was purchased. A good dealership tells a guy up front how long the fix will take (good dealerships will ALWAYS tell you it will take longer than they expect) and then they’ll get it done in less time than they told you it would take. LaCannes in Faribault is the perfect example. If they tell you a repair will take a week, you get a call in 2 days to come get your boat. If they state it will take 2 weeks to get it in, expect to hear from them in 4 – 5 days.

What really concerned me was that this dealership washed their hands of the fix altogether in what sounds like a move to punish you for calling them on their promised time frame.

In my opinion you got lucky that this original dealership never got the cover off the motor. I’m sure it was a frustrating experience to have to wait the additional time but those local guys sound like a disorganized bunch that I wouldn’t want anywhere near my motor.

It is good to hear that the motor is up and running good again. All of the Etecs I’ve driven have been unbelieveably impressive.