Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I dropped off my boat May 16th and was told 7-10 days before they looked at it. I called after 9 days for an update and was told "next week we'll get to it." I give them the whole week and call friday morning June 1st which is now 16 days after I brought it in. They say.. o.k we have a mechanic on it now and will have an answer for you soon. I say "soon as in a day or a week".. he says a day.

No call and Monday rolls around so I call in again and am told the same thing by a sales guy... the tech people are always "busy". The sales guy says we'll call you in a day or 2.. I say I've already been told that.. he then says we'll call you by the end of the day. AGAIN NO CALL.

So I wait 2 days and call back on Wed June 6th. Again the tech people are busy.. I say let me talk to one seriously. He puts me on hold and comes back couple minutes later saying the tech on my boat is on a lake call. At this point I don't know what to think. All I was looking for was what their diagnosis of the engine was. I told them if they are overloaded I will take my boat back and take it elsewhere. If they don't know what the problem is.. tell me that... tell me something. The sales guy says he left a message on the techs toolbox to call me.. this was Wed morning... no call.

Tomorrow will be Friday and I'm going in there. What's my play? It will be 22 days into the thing and not a single word on the boat even after they had a mechanic supposedly start on it a week ago. I don't want to yank it out of their because I don't want to have to go through the initial wait everywhere else, but If I'm not careful these guys could jerk me around for who knows how long.

I would not trust someone who jerks me around. These are the type of guys that charge you for a lot of work they have not done. If I were you I would find another mechanic.

Boat shops hate them! First I'd see if it was inside then I'd go in an seriously ask them when they will touch it? Then leave try an find another place an monday if they haven't touched I'd relocate it to a dif shop. With mine I have taken it to the shop sun night picked it up friday night to find out they didn't touch it with an appt. Which mean nothing in there world. 4 weeks in a row I hate those guys! Sorry for ur sorrow what is it doing?

Name the dealer so none of the rest of us get caught up in this run around and none of us ever buy from them? You have a legit complaint that if I was looking for a new toon I would want to know what kind of service I was going to get. Name and location of the dealer?

Anderson Boat Sales in Waterford, MI.

I have gone in and broken my boat out of jail for crap like this. I told them to call me when they were ready to start on the work.

Dude, you need to break it out and go elsewhere. At this point you can't trust them to do any honest work for you.

Go in and hopefully other customers are there and loudly say I am here for my boat I brought in 22 days ago and I'll be damn if you ever see me and hopefully these folks again.

Loyd,
How about we start a topic "dealers that suck" I would put this one at the head of the list.

in my estimation you are being way to patient and way to nice. Once they did not live up to their original committment, you should have hammered them then. At this point they are just jerking you around.

No way in He** that I would let them touch my boat at this point. get it out of there, and give it to someone that cares about you and customer service. Go Kick some a**

Go on over to the lot, and if your boat's not in a service bay, back your tow vehicle up to your boat. Then, tell'em thanks, but no thanks. You will not be returning.

I just hope you're just in for maintenance, and not some kind of warranty problem.

Service turnaround is a universal problem for boat dealerships. They run scaled down service departments on purpose so they don't lay off mechanics in the fall and early winter--when there's little work to do. It's the nature of their business, and is not likely to improve in the future.

The new CAN/BUS EFI engines are so complicated that they take a higher quality, factory trained mechanic. But most of the really good mechanics are at the local Toyota/BMW/Honda shops where they can beat the pants off the base hourly rate manual and make seriously big bucks paid for by the factories.

Quality boat dealerships are out there, and they're important to our boating hobby. I just hope that some day, marine ECU scanners are more readily available and that more mechanics will take the specialized training to work on marine engines. Right now, independent boat shops are stuck working on old generation marine equipment.

I just bought a YDIS setup on Ebay for $100 (best offer accepted). I will let you know how that works out. (SharkyMarine)
I am sure it is a cracked version of the software and a hacked cable but I would pay $100 to watch a monkey F#@k.

If it works I will let you know.

Bamaman wrote:
I just hope you're just in for maintenance, and not some kind of warranty problem.

It's not just maintenance, engine wasn't running as strong as it should... it is under warranty, but that's only if what's wrong is covered.

I had my boat to dealer to repair lower unit seal, Warranty. I told them I wasn't getting full rpm's but computer showed I was and tac they installed 2 years ago wasn't reading right. They installed a new ETec tac with features that tell me how systems are working. $250 bucks, no charge. My volt gauge showed I had a issue when I used nav lights. They checked and found no wiring problem but bad volt gauge. I went to pick it up today thinking 2or 3 hundred for labor and left with checkbook unused. I have to buy a new volt gauge as they had none.

Larry Smith Marine at Coweta Ok. They sell Sylvan,Seark, Etec, and Yamaha

I don't blame you for being angry.... believe if it was me, I'd go over there and if the boat is out on the lot, tell em your taking the boat and you won't be back... if it's in the shop, I would demand I get a " no later than" date on the service being done... I also think I wouldn't dick around with a salesman... I'd ask to see the owner or general manager... and then I'd politely read them the riot act... but no way would I return there for service after this time...