A Boat Storage Story.

[Belmont Resident]

Originally Posted by songkrai

Two items.
Oil change.
Outdrive.

I am used occaisionally as the "ride" person. Drive down with boat owner so that boat can be driven home by boat owner. I drive the car back.

Expensive brand boat near Lakeport.
Neighbor bought new.
Somewhere above $80,000.00

Used it one Summer. Stored at selling marina in Winter.

Following Spring. Owner made an appointment to pick up boat. Owner makes arrangesments with me for the "ride".

We go down to marina in Lakeport.
Boat not ready.
Next week told. Way behind schedule. Very busy.
My boat neighbor notices that rear drive is off boat. Asks why. Told "normal maintenance".

Next week boat owner shows up and asks if boat is ready and that all maintenance has been completed. Yes.

My boat neighbor, previous autumn had marked on bottom of oil filter with an X. He goes out to boat and finds the same oil filter with the X still on engine. The service manager appologizes and hastily gets oil and filter changed right then and there. And states that the "mechanic" must have "forgotten".

The following year, the out drive disintergrates/breaks and has to be replaced. Very expensive repair.

I never said a word.

But I don't think that the out drive has to be taken off during routine maintenance. I surmise that the outdrive was taken and placed on another customers boat. That 2nd outdrive was "fixed" and placed on my neighbors boat.

That's not possible, is it?

I can sympathize with you over the problems but why would the owner not call before driving down to find boat not ready.
When ever we have had our boats serviced we gotten a completion date, but even so we always called beforehand to make sure the boat was in fact completed.
Unfortunately the juggling act is common in all service work, cars, boats, bikes etc., even I will try to juggle things around to work a small job into an already full schedule and gain a new customer. Although it usually doesn’t interrupt work because I’ll just do it on a weekend.
No marina is perfect and there is not one out there that has not had negative feedback.
What I have found is it isn’t what the marina does wrong that clinches weather you use them for future work, but it is how they handle the situation that shows just how professional they are and how much they want to retain your business.

[8gv]

Honesty IS the best policy. Lose the public's trust and your days are numbered. I would hope that the short sightedness described in this thread does not reflect the intentions of the marinas' owners.