Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey Guys (and gals),

Just a quick heads up about a situation that has developed with pontoonstuff.com. A few weeks ago I got an email from the owner of pontoonstuff.com (Jim Myers) saying he was aware of some problems with his forum and the hard feelings (and possibly negative impression of pontoonstuff.com) it has created. He said he let the mod's go and wanted to work with us to get the word out on a new line of products he is now producing/selling. He wanted to "sponsor" two of our senior members who had older pontoons and send them both all new items to completely rebuild their toons from the deck up completely at his expense (including shipping). I was unsure of how serious he was and made sure to let him know that he could not buy his way into our forum and that any reviews we posted would highlight the good and the bad in "open and honest" manner. He confirmed that that was all he wanted and giving away these products was in no way going to entitle to any special advertising or perks on our forum. Now I am all for helping an honest business (think sharkhide) if what he said was true and the quality of his products were as good as he says, so I got him in touch with Handymanherb and Curtiscapk and told them what was going on. They both were more than happy to give it a shot as they had been wanting to rebuild for a while. I was going to wait to tell everyone about this until something was actually received, and sure enough craig (curtiscapk) got his order delivered today! So, I will leave this thread up so they can fill in some details about what they got and what they think about it. Part of the deal was they document the rebuild so I will put the link to each rebuild thread here for you all to follow the progress of.

I am really excited for them both, couldn't have happened to better guys. Jim also said he would work us up a standing pontoonforum.com discount for our members as he is obviously hoping to get some business down the road to recover his costs. I am sure he see's this as advertising and fixing the past a bit, so if you like what you see or read be sure to give him a shot if you need anything.

Here is Herbs build viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15271

Hi Mike


I just made a post on the forum, thank you so much for the sticky on the boards!! I've created a discount code for all your members to use as many times as they'd like and it's Forum2013. Just need to enter that into the coupon box on the right during checkout and it will work


Thank you so much for this opportunity!
James

A few weeks ago I got an email from the owner of pontoonstuff.com (Jim Myers) saying he was aware of some problems with his forum and the hard feelings (and possibly negative impression of pontoonstuff.com) it has created. He said he let the mod's go and wanted to work with us to get the word out on a new line of products he is now producing/selling.

I'm a pretty long term member over there and they may actually be the first forum I ever signed on to and I've observed a long time age they had problems. But I'm not convinced they're problem ever was actually the moderators themselves. Yea I know wildcat was an iron fist and ran a tight ship and some had issues with him for it, but in reality their isn't anything actually wrong with running a family safe forum and format.

I also admit I had some hard feelings about how tight fisted and territorial they were with their format in another way myself. When I first joined there a person needed help in locating specific items for their boat if you knew a source you could post a link to it on the forum for anyone reading it to see and read. They then tightened the ship to the point threads were destroyed because they forced people to PM sources to each other if it wasn't from pontoonstuff itself.

Pontoonstuff does carry decent line of products, but unfortunately fall short of carrying "everything pontoon". And that is fully understandable and acceptable in itself, but if you're sponsoring an honest and open forum they ought to allow it's members to help each other out in obtaining things they need or desire despite the fact it is sold by one of their competitors.

Another thing that sort of grated me is the fact that they wiped out the existence of the former mods. and generalized all their posts and contributions as "guests". Like them as individuals or mods aside they put a lot of time in posting, representing and caring for that forum. And to take away their time and contributions and label all there efforts as "guests" was wrong in any way I could look at it.

So just maybe Jim needs to loosen his fist a bit about the links and competitors issue. And maybe over time either new members will come and choose to stay, and maybe some of the inactive members may choose to come back and post again.

Cool!

Oh yea, and to Craig...

Lucky dog

Thanks Brett!! I still can't believe it!!!

My post....

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15328

As a business owner or a companies business mgr, I've always gone out of my way to recycle the money they spent with me. For example the years I had a tool truck, I'd fuel at the truck shops that had repair shops I called on etc. I'd sure like to see this being a win win win. Herb and Craig both were over due for a re-build and they're finished product will be the best advertisement Jim could get. Providing the equipment for 2 toons even at his cost + freight I'd bet is a chunk of change. Don't get me wrong, I don't know Jim, never emailed him or ever had any contact with him, but he is the small business owner type who really is the backbone of what's left of our economy. I think we're all really looking forward to seeing both these toons done. I think Mike picked two of the best to "get'r done"

Congratulations!!!!!! Its always nice to see good things happen to great people. I have had good luck purchasing from Pontoonstuff.com I bought a underbow ladder and trailer guides from them and was very pleased with the service and products.

Looking forward to seeing pics of your rebuild.

I will see if he can give us a special coupon code so people can start saving if they need anything...

I just ordered this http://www.pontoonstuff.com/boat-seat-mount-slider.aspx

Just pedestal alone was $25 cheaper than Bass Pro not to mention the slider included with free shipping

Nice!

Loyd you should have waited for a discount.... I let them know someone from the forum already ordered. lets see what happens.

Hi Everyone

I want to thank you all for giving us the opportunity to show off some of our products and to help out a few of the long time members with updating their boats.

Also, I wanted to apologize for some of the mess that happened with our forum. Bamby's right about how I removed two of the moderators, only two guys were removed though, the other moderators never lost their status or usernames just the ability to edit posts. I had to make some changes for business reasons which I'm not going to go into but it simply got bad for business. My goal for our forum was simply to have a place for folks to put pictures of their products and ask questions and over the last year so many of our customers had bad experiences on the forum.

The links to other products is also something that we will allow, you're right, we don't carry everything that customers may need and the fact is that even direct competitors products should be welcomed on our boards. We don't do custom colors and I know a few manufacturers do offer that service so we allow anyone to post pictures of their boats and seating as well. Saw a post with American Soft Trim seats in it the other day that broke my heart but it's good for boaters to see all their options.

So as for our board goes, with the exception of two former moderators all the other folks still have their titles and named posts, not Guest. In hindsight I should have done it differently but some personal things came into it and I acted rashly and I do regret deleted their names because they did add a great deal to the forum.

Thank you again and thank you Bamby for pointing out some things we are changing to make it a better place for folks to show off their rebuilds.

Also, any member of the forum is entitled to a 10% off coupon for use on any purchase.
The coupon code is Forum2013 and everyone is free to use it as many times as they need. It's not a one time thing, it can be used for multiple orders.


James Myers
President
PontoonStuff, Inc.

Wow James. That is exactly why I am so impressed with you. Honest to admit your downfalls and ready to put your money were your mouth is...

I really appreciate the chance to showcase all your product!! The bimini came in today now I am only waiting on the console. I just wish I had Herbs weather to start my rebuild!

Again,

many thanks to you for the opportunity!

I will be posting my rebuild on your site as well.

Glad to have you here James, I was to busy helping on this forum to know what was going on besides what I seen posted, but it was only the forum they were bitching about, not the parts or supply's, I sent a guy your way for new steering, now I'm going to post the discount code to him, Thanks James

I used a good bit from PontoonStuff.com on my rebuild, and have yet to have anything but good service and high quality products. Everything looks great so far!

Just ordered a new captains chair at $399.00 and coupon code doesn't work.