It seems every step I take forward with this boat project thereare things there pushing me back 2 steps. This motor has been an ordeal starting with the idiots from Utica NY. Now that Chris from Onlineoutboards.com finally came through and got me a motor in the mail, out comes another problem…In my last post I talked about the motor not responding to the throttle and idling rather rough. Since then I’ve been making phone calls and writing Emails to everyone in the boating business to try to help me out. My local Tohatsu dealer was pretty much against working on anything he didn’t sell. They did not even offer to take the motor in or spend 5 minutes to take a look at it. On the other hand, he said they would have gladly taken it in if I had bought from him. I sort of understand that attitude. I would like for everyone to buy from me too! But it seems that repairs are just as big of business and anything under warranty would be paid by the manufacturer, why not take them in?
There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with the marine warranty repair business. The manufacture doesn’t take an active approach in making sure people who buy their products have a pleasant experience when it comes to servicing it. All of the discretion is taken by the service center and they are obviously taking their own liberties in whom they service and whom they do not. It may appear to them that I would purchase products directly from them next time the opportunity came up to avoid these servicing issues, but to the contrary, their attitudes are completely turning me off from letting them profit from anything I do. It seems masochistic but I just don’t believe in supporting their way of running their busines in principle.
I took my motor to the next closest service center which is in Goleta, CA. Right off the bat the guy on the phone was copping attitude. his name was Dan. “Well, I’m going on vacation for a month and a half starting tomorrow. I get these all the time and I just don’t have the time to do it.” He ranted. “I guess if you can bring it in today I’ll take a look at it.” Well, I did. Took it 3o miles north to some guy who clearly did not want the business. I was not in a position to choose. I wanted someone who knew what the fuck they were doing to see it. When I got there, this old grumpy guy did not seem like he was liking his job. He pissed and moaned like a middle-aged woman getting her hot flashes for the first time. No more than a couple minutes of him sticking my motor in his water tank, he walks away and says “I’m gonna go eat my lunch.” “Okay……. I’ll just… come back in a little bit…” What else does he want me to say? This guy is out of control.
Anyways, long story short, I came back in an hour or so to take some more of this abuse. He agreed to take it in over night to see it tomorrow and let me know if this is someting he can fix. Meanwhile I’ve been talking to Chris from OnlineOutboards.com and he apparently has heard it all from these local guys who have little joy in working on motors ordered from him. They are all grumpy that they lost a sale to someone over the Internet. It is not Chris’ fault that they don’t see the value in putting up an ecommerce site and sell motors themselves. Even when some of them do, they end up doing business like these idiots from Utica, NY.
I am making another trip to Goleta tomorrow to see what abouts with my motor. Chris said that worst case scenario, he will send me a replacement and take mine back. They will even pay for the freight both ways. That is amazing customer service. OnlineOutboards definitely has my business for as long as I’m buying boat motors. More to come…..
