Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

(first up if you want to read about the maiden voyage go here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9328)

So Smithville Marine agrees to fix the pontoon that broke on its first shot at the water. The Mechanic comes out and says he could use an easy out, but that there are clearly metal shards down in the steering ram, and that it just needs to be replaced. Smithville tells him he is nuts and that they will consider fixing it if he gets a second opinion...he promptly tells them that it turns out he is busy and doesn't need this hassle. So we find another shop nearby, haul it up there, and they say the same thing. Smithville decides they agree now, and tell that shop that they have the part in stock and will ship it the same day, and overnight it to them. That was Friday June 3rd, so we expected they would get the part on Monday or maybe Tuesday and we should have a running boat by Friday. So we call on Wednesday, and the shop hasn't heard from Smithville and no part. So we call Smithville and they tell us there was a mistake and delay(heard this crap before) and that they shipped it on Wednesday. So we call on Friday....no part....call Smithville, another delay but they will ship it out that day. Monday....no part, Smithville said they weren't sure and would call us back immediately. No calls....we are two days from our vacation with 14 guests set to show up on Saturday and no boat. Smithville marine is obviously a terrible dealership, they are willing to lie to your face.

On a side note, after they lost the license plate for our trailer on the last toon, my mom told them we were going to report the plate stolen so we could get a replacement, and they threw a tantrum, saying we couldn't do that and that it was stupid and why would we even think like that. They swear the plate is lost somewhere at the dealership and didn't go with our old toon, that they sold the next day after they were supposed to be appraising it(and without title or a full signed contract). Gonna really suck for those people if they tow the boat somewhere and get pulled over with stolen tags. The plate had just been renewed like 3 months earlier too.

Fun, fun, but figured I should let everyone know about the worst dealership I have even encountered.

You have warned everybody, they sound like one of the worst!

Got it! Smithville Marine Blows. In today's economy it baffles me that companies such as this one throw caution to the wind and screw over the customer base they rely on for a living. I mean really.

THE STATE OF THE BOATING BUSINESS IS IN COMPLETE DISARRAY, WITH MANUFACTURERS AND DEALERSHIPS DROPPING LIKE FLIES. BOATS ARE GENERALLY LUXURY ITEMS, AND THE FIRST THINGS TO GO DOWN IN SALES WHEN THE ECONOMY GOES SOUTH.

BOAT DEALERSHIPS MUST REALLY RUN A TIGHT SHIP IF THEY EXPECT TO BE AROUND IN THE FUTURE. THEY'RE NOT AUTO DEALERSHIPS, AND CANNOT SELL @ $100 OVER INVOICE. MARINE SERVICE DEPARTMENTS ARE VERY SLOW FROM OCTOBER UNTIL MARCH--UNTIL THEY BEGIN PREPPING NEXT YEAR'S BOATS. UNFORTUNATELY, THEY CANNOT HIRE MECHANICS FOR 6 MONTHS AND LAY THEM OFF FOR THE WINTER. BOAT OWNERS MUST BE PATIENT IN THE BUSY MONTHS, AS 2 DAY SERVICE IS RARE--MORE LIKE 4 WEEK SERVICE IS THE NORM. QUALITY SERVICE IS EXPECTED, HOWEVER.

SMITHVILLE MARINE'S FUTURE IS PROBABLY POOR. DON'T EXPECT THEM TO BE AROUND VERY LONG WITH THIS KIND OF REPUTATION.

You would think that a dealership that needs business, especially from repeat customers, would make a better effort than this. obviously, they are not concerned with their future prospects, just an immediate payday.
they need to go...now.

The fact that they sold your old boat without authority really bothers me. That is grand theft.

Have they paid you for it yet? If not I would report it as stolen.

I'd report the plate as stole anyway just to protect yourself. If they sold it to some bozo and he does something stupid on the road YOU will be the one they come after.

Wow! What a story. I sure am glad I am nowhere near that dealer. But we have a few in Michigan just as bad. Like stated they won't last long. We had an RV dealer like that. Word spread like wild fire and within a year they was bankrupt and out of business. Hopefully things will get better for you.

Something similar happened at a car dealer in Pa. Cheryl wanted to buy a car from once. We wanted to trade in her Nissan and she wanted an Escort ZX2. After looking at the Ford (I took it to the Auto shop I used to work for to do a detailed inspection prior to signing the deal). It was obvious it had been in a bad accident and lots of defects were covered up. We go back the next day to tell them no deal and they said they sold her Nissan.

I told the guy he had a few minutes to give us her car back or he would have hell to pay.

Sure enough, they "found it" parked out back. Made us wait for 45 minutes, all the while Cheryl is asking me to not drive the ZX2 through the dealership's plate glass window

I was ready to file a police report, because they technically stole the car if they sold it without actually having a signed title.

That dealership is long gone now.

Smithville Marine has been in business for a long time. I've gone in there a couple of times to look at boats but never had a warm, fuzzy feeling about the folks there or the place.
You are doing the KC area folks a real service by letting everyone know about their "no-service" department.

Smithville Marine has had this reputation for YEARS... It doesn't surprise me a bit to hear this story (saddens me for the OP though)

From what I've been told, Smithville Marine also owns the local boat show that is held at Bartle hall every winter. They make their money on the boat show and the rest of the time cater to the fishermen that hang out with them...and piss on everyone else that darkens their doorway.

It's a shame too because with Smithville Lake right there, if they ran their business properly, they'd have a captive not too mention loyal customer base right there.

As it is...I don't know ANYONE that patronizes Smithville Marine and stories like the above are everyday when discussing them.

With all the negative responses and reports on "Smithville Marine" and their poor service. Do any of you guys familiar with Smithville Marine belong to iboats? There are more than 13,000 members of iboats. A post with links to this post and the previous post mentioned above. That's a lot of BAD PUBLICITY and could save someone from making any purchases there. In fact iboats which I have been a member of for about six years has a entire catagory of bad marinas and service reports. I'm not sure but I think iboats ADM sends links to the places of business that get/earn bad publicity. I could post links there on iboats to this post and the other post but it wouldn't be as effective as one would be first hand. Someone that had actually dealt with Smithville Marine. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9328

So if we have 1,900 members and iboats has over 13,000 members. That is a lot of bad publicity.

there is no joy in smithville the mighty casesy has struck out............or is that mudville........either way sorry service sucks.
doc

My mom is going to fill out the Godfrey survey and Yamaha survey with negative stuff for smithville. She also intends to post reviews all over, but she doesn't want to do that until the boat is 100% ready to go, she is afraid they won't pay for anything once they find all the negative stuff. I will definitely suggest to her the iboats site.

To JohnO: Yes they paid us for the boat.

And finally to update, we found out today, that Smithville never had the part, they were going to order it from Godfrey and have Godfrey over night it to the shop who is working on our boat. Smithville swears they told Godfrey, but when the shop called Godfrey today, Godfrey said they had the part in stock, but no orders for it at all. So they called Smithville who basically said that its Godfrey's fault and they must have missed their fax.....so they put in the order. We called Godfrey who said it missed yesterdays UPS shipping. So it will go out today(Wednesday) and show up at the ship sometime Thursday. The shop said its ready to do it, and that if the part gets there before 1pm they will do it Thursday or it will be done by noon on Friday. Lets hope something else doesn't come up. We already will be running it to the wire.

I'll put $100 on it being 100% Smithville Marine's fault, not Godfrey's.

I truly hope Godfrey gets the part to your shop with as little delay as possible and you get the boat up and on the lake quickly. Nothing sucks worse than shelling out for a brand new vehicle and it being broke before you ever get to use it. And then on top of that, getting the runaround while trying to get it fixed.