What would you do? – Boat dealer concern

Memorial Day weekend I put my boat in the water and it just was not right. Had only 2/3 power. Called the closest Yamaha authorized shop (Yam VMax 150 carb), and was told they could get it in right away and it would be done in 3-5 days. As it turned out they were not able to look at it for 10 days, then had to “wait for parts”. Said it needed the carburators rebuilt. I finally got the boat back last Friday night. Put it in the water Saturday morning and it ran EXACTLY the same. Took it immediately back to the shop. Now they are telling me it was a shift relay that turns off 2 cylinders in order to make it shift easier. The relay was not working and kept two cylinders shut off. Supposed to be fixed this time.

Here is my question… I paid $1000 to have the carburators rebuilt. My guess is that was their error and not necessary. They are telling me that they are going to fix the relay for free.

Would you demand a refund on the carb rebuild, and pay for the relay, or just pick up your boat and move on with the rest of the summer?

I’ve had my pontoon in 7 times (2 different dealers) over the last 2 years to fix an alarm that keeps going off. I’ve now spent over 1200.00 and the freaking alarms keeps going off. They keep inviting me to bring it back claiming they can fix it. But I keep getting charged for the things that don’t fix it.

It stinks, but at least they aren’t going to charge you to fix the relay (although its probably a minor repair if they agree to do it for free). My suggestion… bend over and take it like a man. And don’t give them any future business. (If for no other reason than you’ve been without a boat between Memorial Day and the 4th when they claimed they could get you right in).

I’ve had several problems over the years. When one dealer, (Located in Chisago, MN), rebuilt my powerhead claiming I’d blown it, it still ran the same. After an entire summer of messing around, I called Johnson and threatened a lawsuit. They had me go to R&R Marine, who fixed in in 25 minutes.

I then successfully sued the original dealer for the wrong diagnosis. Small claims court is perfect for this. Just document the hell out of everything. At the court, the owner claimed he’d never seen me after he gave me my boat back. Fortunately, I had video tape that proved otherwise.

Last summer, I did have a blown powerhead. After the dealer reinstalled it, my trim pump would only work when the motor was running. Two dealers gave me different estimates with the cheapest being $450. It turned out to be a loose ground screw that they’d stripped putting in in the first place. The mechanic who found it didn’t even charge me for it. Works great.

They also disconnected my hydraulic steering, and refilled it with the wrong fluid. This is one of the most respected dealers in town. I found a guy who does work at his home after hours and he’s worth his weight in tungsten spinnerbaits.

I do not trust dealers. R&R is the only one that’s done good work for me, but they are about as far from me as you can get in the metro.

Gordon

If you haven’t done so already I think you need to go to the management there and politely discuss with them exactly what you just posted… If you approach it in a respectful manner I would hope they can at least remove the labor costs you paid for a mistake on their side. Handled right they should be able to earn your business in the future.

If they won’t then I guess just write it off as a bad break and somewhere that you’ll never do business with again… And if they’re jerks about it then you may want to mention to all of your friends so they don’t go there either.

I think if it were me, I would ask to talk to the general manager of the dealership, explain your concerns,(mis-diagnosis, wrong repair, and almost thirty day turn around) politely and civil like. Tell him you really want to keep doing business with him and refer friends etc., but feel in this situation you were treated unfairly.Give them an opportunity to resolve your concerns.More than likely (depending on the size of the operation) he has no idea that this is taking place, and wouldn’t want to lose a customer (or potential new customers) over this matter. Let us know how it goes!

I would ask to speak with management and explain the situation.

1) I would maybe be willing to pay for the parts and no labor on the carb rebuilds. I say maybe because it was not required in the first place.

2) I would pay for the shift sensor and labor.

If they did not agree I would immediatly seek legal advice. I had to do this once with a major dealer in my area and it only took a simple letter from my attourny to staighten things out. $4K at stake in my situation.

Buzz if you’re running a Johnson, shoot me a pm.

South side of Hastings on Hwy 61, next door to the KC hall, there is a new marine/small engine repair shop.
They have a dyno.
They rebuilt the carbs on my brothers 70hp Johnson, changed lower gear lube, and dyno tuned the motor for something like $225 or $250——out the door (including tax). Don’t know about you, but that is CHEAP!

He talked to the mechanic because he was having problems in the upper mid ranger performance. The mechanic told him he hand to rebuild the carbs twice to “get it right”. Because of their dyno, the mechanic was able to dial right in, what my brother was talking about.

those guys got me sold! I’ll go there for all carbed marine/small engine repair!

If they screwed up they should “own it”, admit it, and make it right. If they do then the problem goes away. Don’t lay down and roll over. Right is right. You shouldn’t get your wallet out because they goofed. Calmley and politely attempt to escalate to whomever is in charge. If they do not give you satisfaction, become the thorn in their side they wished they never had. NEVER “accept” this kind of B.S. as it only makes it ok for them to try and jerk around the rest of us.

I would think at a minimum, they should adjust the carb rebuild cost. Being in the repair business myself, I can tell you nobody is 100% right everytime. Sometimes, the diagnosis can be clouded, your carbs may have had issues, but not bad enough to cause your concern, or maybe part of it. As an example, we get minivans in with 140,000+ miles on them, that have a check engine lamp on and misfiring. The spark plugs and wires will be original…. the plugs are recommended at 60K, my tech will recommend starting with wires and plugs…when it doesn’t get rid of all the misfires, the customer will say we diagnosed it wrong ??? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t know your situation exactly, but unless you can bring the work in and tell a shop what to fix, there will be some diagnosing that may end up being catching up on maintenance…. which as I stated right off, they should work with you on it. You did get some value out of it, I hope. Good luck, a shop worth it’s salt will work with you, so you are happy and they can pay the bills

big G

I appreciate everybody’s advice. Ultimately, I decided to pick up my boat, and move on. Not my nature, but I had talked to the owner on my 2nd time bringing the boat back in, and he (Dan of Dan’s Southside Marine is angry, defensive, and not customer service oriented in any way, shape or form).

So I picked my boat up, put it in the water to test before leaving on vacation, and discovered that up is down and down is now up on my tilt and trim… Called the service manager and brought the boat back for the 3rd time. While he was fixing the wiring I noticed that on the wall they had their rates posted. “Carb Rebuild: $158 per carburetor. I had just paid $894 for 3 carburetors, for what appeared to be a $474 job…. He explained that the price did not include parts. OK, I can understand that but the $158 should have “plus parts” or at least and asterisk. I then asked if labor was $158 per carb, or $474 for 3, why was I charged $600. His reply, “that is labor to reinstall and test the carburetor”

At that point, I just headed home… Lesson learned.

PTC,
I haven’t dealt with Dan’s Southside but your experience is similar to most of my dealings with various dealerships over the years. I get a kick out of everyones comments about threatening to take them to court. They obviously have more time and money than I do.