Winnisquam Marine

[Anchor Management]

LIforrelaxin,

I do realize that flat tires happen, that was just one thing out of like 3 things that have happened and trust me we did not make a big deal of it. We replaced the tire and they replaced the bimini bar that they admitted to braking as well as the rip in the cover. We had valet parking which included the inside storage, so we didn't need to cover the boat. It was only when they started storing it outside they they threw the cover on and it ripped because it wasn't put on properly. All that really dosn't matter. We tried to pay for the extra time we were there and we were turned down and they treated us like we didn't belong there. This year we had asked them to look at an engine issue for us and they refused. Ed and his staff had informed us that they will no longer be providing any service for us. I really don't know any business that treats their customers that way. But i guess its a private business so they can do what ever they want. All i can say is that type of treatment is bad for business and word of mouth can go a long way. I am sure just like any other business they have loyal customers, i can only speak for the experience we had with them and it was definitely not a good one. Again, I am sorry i bought a 20,000.00 boat from them.

[Grandpa Redneck]

Seems kind of odd to me that Anchor management is a brand new member, and 4 of their first 6 posts are bashing Winnisquam, and the other 2 posts were nothing of any substance. ?
I still would recommend Winnisquam to anyone. They sure have a whole lot more people posting positve comments than the few sour grapes posting negative, and the positive folks actually have a posting history.

[Anchor Management]

Grandpa Redneck,

yes I am new member to this forum, I always followed this site but have never been a member. I admit I am angry, and yes i will spread the word because i feel when you make a big purchase from a company, you should have a good experience with that business. I didn't, and i feel my money should have went towards someone that deserves it and towards a place that continues to welcome me as a customer. These people turned us down flat. And for what???

Hey cheers to you for sticking up for them. It doesn't change my experience. And i know plenty of other boaters in the area that feel the same way i do, including some of their current and former employees.

[Anchor Management]

Originally Posted by Grandpa Redneck

Seems kind of odd to me that Anchor management is a brand new member, and 4 of their first 6 posts are bashing Winnisquam, and the other 2 posts were nothing of any substance. ?
I still would recommend Winnisquam to anyone. They sure have a whole lot more people posting positve comments than the few sour grapes posting negative, and the positive folks actually have a posting history.

i had no idea you had to be an avid user of this forum or veteran member to speak your mind. Hmmm i find that a bit odd.

[mhtranger]

Why does everyone judge someones post by the number of posts they have? I thought forums like this are to discuss things openly?? I think people need to look at the content of the post and agree or disagree to what the poster has to say and move on. I could see if he was trying to sell a boat or something of great value with his fist post but because he wanted to let people know of HIS experience and is a new member like myself he gets jumped on.
Sorry just my .02
David

[Grandpa Redneck]

David, I didn't "jump on" Anchor management, I have been a rookie myself on many forums, this one just a little over a year ago. On most forums untill you have a few posts you are taken with a bit of scepticism, especially when 66% of your posts are joining in bashing someone/something as soon as you register. Quite often in that situation it is found to be the OP or friends, joining simply to add fuel to the fire.
That may or may not be the case here, but as I said it seemed odd to me.

[Jonas Pilot]

Originally Posted by mhtranger

Why does everyone judge someones post by the number of posts they have? I thought forums like this are to discuss things openly?? I think people need to look at the content of the post and agree or disagree to what the poster has to say and move on. I could see if he was trying to sell a boat or something of great value with his fist post but because he wanted to let people know of HIS experience and is a new member like myself he gets jumped on.
Sorry just my .02
David

When a new member joins and bashes I can't help but think they joined just to try and harm the mentioned business. AnchorM admits he got tossed from the business. They must have really been fed up with AM to tell him he was no longer welcome there. They deliberately chose to give up any chance of future sales.

[mhtranger]

Guys I get all of what you said but thats part of what forums are for. If he chooses to sign up just to bash a business thats his choice. But guess what? He got people talking about said business..... good and bad. The whole point of this thread. I love all the input I get from these boards and most everyone is welcoming.
So back on track, I just bought a new to me bass boat and find threads like this interesting and informative. I boat in the northern part of the big lake and probably won't take my boat to Winnisquam but not based on this thread. But my girlfriends parents did buy a boat there and were more than happy with the way their transaction went.
David

[Anchor Management]

My husband and i bought a boat there because we love that lake, because the marina is close to the sand bar because buying a boat there gives us priviliges to the dock and because we heard good things about the marina. My husband was pissed when things went negative, we tried and i mean really tried to work it out but owner refused to do business with us. So the statement above about them being fed up with us is in my opinion over the top. If anything we should be fed up with them. Oh and by the way thanks to those that defended me above. Really who cares how many posts i have or when i signed up????

[SIKSUKR]

Its very rare for any business to ask that a customer not do business with them anymore.I think that speaks for itself.

[hilltopper]

Originally Posted by SIKSUKR

Its very rare for any business to ask that a customer not do business with them anymore.I think that speaks for itself.

Agreed 100%. I would love to hear Ryan's side of the story on this one. This guy must have been a peach to deal with...

[Anchor Management]

okay, i don't know where my last post went...huh!!

Guys my husband and I bought our boat from them because we love this lake, we are on this lake every weekend during the summer, we also purchased from them because we heard good things about the marina and also because when you buy from them you get the docking privileges plus it's close to the sand bar. In my opinion suggesting that they were fed up with us is an exaggeration especially since we didn't feel we did anything wrong. We actually tried to fix what ever issue they had with us. Either or i just wanted to say that we were disappointed. I am a business person myself and i do what ever it takes to make sure my clients are happy and i never turn anyone away unless there is a serious problem...i.e. verbal abuse, threatening etc... Nothing like that happened here.

@ SIKSUKR, i agree with you, however your statement insinuates that winnisquam marine did nothing wrong. The only thing that we did wrong was leave our boat there for two weeks past the vallet contract which we tried to pay for. Do you think that is reason enough???? And trust me we were told that it wouldn't be a problem. Just like we were told by Ryan that they would look at the engine issue this year and ofcourse Ed over ruled that.
If you ask me i think Ed just doesn't care, i think they feel they have plenty of happy customers and this one unhappy customer isn't gonna break the bank. It's a shame!! That is just my opinion.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Anchor Management

okay, i don't know where my last post went...huh!!

...i.e. verbal abuse, threatening etc... Nothing like that happened here.

@


With a screen name of "Anchor Management", this is not really supporting your argument here. Just saying

[Anchor Management]

Originally Posted by GTO

@


With a screen name of "Anchor Management", this is not really supporting your argument here. Just saying

Anchor Management is our boats name, becasue out on the water there are no worries, and because when you are boating you can let go of the everyday stress and worriess....unless of course you need to make a stop at winnisquam marine.

[Anchor Management]

Originally Posted by GTO

@


With a screen name of "Anchor Management", this is not really supporting your argument here. Just saying

(thought I already replied to this...hmmm)

Wow....really? AM is our boats name. If you ara a boater you know that when you are on the water you tend to forget your everyday troubles. Stress free sort of say, unless of course you need to make a stop at winnisquam marine.

[SIKSUKR]

The only thing I insinuate is that I can't see any company turning away any business without some just cause. Just doesn't make sense unless the business in not worth the trouble. So in your opinion you did nothing wrong. Then how do you explain them asking you not to return. Did they not like your haircut or the pants you were wearing? I have a hard time wrapping my head around "we did nothing wrong and they told us not to come back".

[NoBozo]

Some businesses, particularly those engaged in "Repairs," be it automobiles or boats, don't like it when you ask embarrassing questions of them. My last visit to a boat repair facility..16 or 17 years ago ended with the proprieter threatening to have me arrested when I asked him WHY a new gimbal bearing and a water pump in an Alpha 1, that he had just replaced, should cost $715. He had quoted me less than $300 a few days before.

I had asked him to save the old parts for me, which he did. I picked up the Old gimbal beariing ....which had a BIG gob of brand new grease smeared on it..no doubt to discourage me from touching it. I rotated the Old bearing in my fingers to FEEL the bearing as I rotated it. The bearing was PERFECT and didn't need to be replaced as they had done. I asked the guy about this. That's when he threatened to call the Police.

I PAID the bill, took the boat and left..and I've been TALKING about that place ever since. They are still in business....making a living ripping off unsuspecting boat owners. NB

[Happy Gourmand]

Originally Posted by NoBozo

Some businesses, particularly those engaged in "Repairs," be it automobiles or boats, don't like it when you ask embarrassing questions of them. My last visit to a boat repair facility..16 or 17 years ago ended with the proprieter threatening to have me arrested when I asked him WHY a new gimbal bearing and a water pump in an Alpha 1, that he had just replaced, should cost $715. He had quoted me less than $300 a few days before.

I had asked him to save the old parts for me, which he did. I picked up the Old gimbal beariing ....which had a BIG gob of brand new grease smeared on it..no doubt to discourage me from touching it. I rotated the Old bearing in my fingers to FEEL the bearing as I rotated it. The bearing was PERFECT and didn't need to be replaced as they had done. I asked the guy about this. That's when he threatened to call the Police.

I PAID the bill, took the boat and left..and I've been TALKING about that place ever since. They are still in business....making a living ripping off unsuspecting boat owners. NB

That's when I pay with my AMEX card. Then I dispute the charge on my card. The offendor is usually willing to negotiate at that point.

[WinniMarine]

Fellow Posters,

Sorry it took so long to get back to this post, it's been crazy busy and I have made myself take some time off during the week to spend with my wife and 3 boys...

We made the decision last fall to no longer service Anchor Management's boat but upheld our obligations to the boat this spring. There was a series of events that led to that decision but ultimately the husband got himself kicked out of the marina. It wasn't until afterwards that they offered to pay for things but at that point it was too late. We felt this decision was in the best interest of both parties. We believe in respect and reason and that just wasn't the case here towards us. Trust me, we don't like turning away any business and this was the only customer last year that we decided to turn away and I still think it was a good decision.

Last fall the boat was brought in for a running issue that they thought was warranty. This was done after we decided to no longer service their boat but we still took it in and looked at the problem. The boat was stalling under 2,000 rpm. We started with a full Tune-up and Adjusted Timing. We then completely re-built the carburetor and found fuel that had gelled in the bowl and filter causing the low speed jet to run lean. A fuel issue is not covered under warranty but we took care of it anyways just for customer service and to not make the situation any worse. When I talked to Alecs this spring she told me that we had done warranty work that was still not right and I told her that if that was the case we would take care of it. I looked up the work order from last fall and found that not to be the case and they are most likely having a fuel problem again. The Ethanol Fuels are just no good and can cause many different running issues. It wasn't Ed said no, it was the fact that we fixed their boat last fall at no charge as a courtesy and this spring we are sticking with our decision to no longer service their boat. We did take the boat in this spring and replace the rear bimini bow because that had been damaged by us and we owed that to them.

The customer has also been texting one of employees asking him to work on the boat on the side which isn't right just as they were texting one of our dock boys last fall asking to get back in. It's best to keep our employees out of it; this was a decision by management.

We service hundreds and hundreds of boats a year and do our best. Everyone in my family loves boating and we want as many happy boaters on the water as possible. We have a great group of employees that we treat very well and in turn expect them to provide great service. We are here daily and oversee the marina. We can't make everyone happy no matter how hard we try. We look at every situation and make an educated decision on what to do. We do care and we try extremely hard but some customers are unreasonable...

Ryan Crawford
Winnisquam Marine

[RailroadJoe]

I think none of us can really make an honest decision without being involved in all the meetings. I guess there is always at least two sides to a story. Sorry I was harsh in my original post. Rash decisions sometimes prove wrong.

[NoBozo]

Originally Posted by WinniMarine

Fellow Posters,


Last fall the boat was brought in for a running issue that they thought was warranty. This was done after we decided to no longer service their boat but we still took it in and looked at the problem. The boat was stalling under 2,000 rpm. We started with a full Tune-up and Adjusted Timing. We then completely re-built the carburetor and found fuel that had gelled in the bowl and filter causing the low speed jet to run lean. A fuel issue is not covered under warranty but we took care of it anyways Ryan Crawford
Winnisquam Marine

You know what: As I stated earlier...I have NO sympathy for the robber barons in the repair..industry. However.. the symptoms and discovery of GEL in the Carbs makes perfect sence. It's ETHANOL my friends. I have been there....not with my boat but with a motorcycle that was used infrequently....infrequently..THAT's the problem.. $800 to FIX. The motorcycle had 4 Carbs and they were a bitch to remove. I sold the motorcycle AS IS.

Fair and Balanced... NB

[Belmont Resident]

Originally Posted by NoBozo

You know what: As I stated earlier...I have NO sympathy for the robber barons in the repair..industry. However.. the symptoms and discovery of GEL in the Carbs makes perfect sence. It's ETHANOL my friends. I have been there....not with my boat but with a motorcycle that was used infrequently....infrequently..THAT's the problem.. $800 to FIX. The motorcycle had 4 Carbs and they were a bitch to remove. I sold the motorcycle AS IS.

Fair and Balanced... NB

I give up on the whole gas thing. If it is small enough to drain all gas out of it including the carb bowl for storage I do. If that is not an option I try and run it down to a low as possible and stabilize the crap out of it then fill it with fresh gas when it comes out of storage(boat). Bikes, sleds, mower, weed wacker all get stable in EVERY tank of fuel just in case they sit around for a while not being used.
An ounce of prevention for every ten gallons and it seems to work.
Can’t tell you how many people are having problems with power equipment that sits unused for awhile, I very rarely do.
2 stroke engines seem to be the most susceptible. I know between my wife and I we have gone through 3 2 stroke snowmobile engines when E-10 first came out.

[WakeboardMom]

Is "Anchor Management" the wife of "Electric Blue?" I apologize...I'm getting confused.

Ryan seems to be doing a good job of answering the concerns expressed here.

[tbonies]

Why does the screamer always leave key elements out of the story? Like others have said, it takes alot to get yourself kicked out as a customer of anything, especially of a marina. Congratulations. Sounds like it was very well deserved. I especially liked the text messages to the employees.

[Anchor Management]

Well folks i have already replied to Ryan's post and for some reason the post didn't get posted. Maybe because the webmaster decided this thread is getting a bit out of hand. Either way I really just wanted to say that when our boat was being worked on we didn't feel anything was done out of courtesy, if something wasn't under warranty then in my opinion the marina should have said so, that is their job. We were never looking to get anything for free, we just wanted our boat to work, it was new to us. We had spent nearly 20,000.00 on it of course we wanted it to run smoothly. We had no idea they had made the decision last year to not service us any longer. Ryan claims there were a series of events that had my husband kicked out, we would love to know what those were. I can tell you that we never texted any dock boys last year. Why would we need to? We were still under contract and still using the marina. And as for the mechanic that he is referring to, we called him to see if he would like a side job, and that was after they refused to service us and at the suggestion of a mutual friend. I didn't think that would be a crime in the boating world... Turns out we the engine was stalling because the idle was too low. I'm surprised they didn't catch that last fall. We turned the idle up and the engine been running just fine ever since.

Guys, just remember there are always two sides to every story, I respect Ryan for trying to keep up the image of WM. That is his job. The only reason for my post was to share my experience. This within itself has been quite the experience, funny to see how some of you react. I am a business owner myself and I always try to remember that the customer is always right, at least that's always kept my clients happy.

I hope this post will get posted, it will be my last one.

[Shreddy]

The cat must have Electric Blue and Anchor Management's tongue...Appears that Ryan's side of each story holds strong. So, what have both Electric Blue and Anchor Management accomplished? They've attempted to demoralize a business while giving them great publicity and a chance to prove that they are cognizant of the issues around them. Seems like a sound business practice to me. Unfortunately, you can't make everyone happy...

[Anchor Management]

Originally Posted by SIKSUKR

The only thing I insinuate is that I can't see any company turning away any business without some just cause. Just doesn't make sense unless the business in not worth the trouble. So in your opinion you did nothing wrong. Then how do you explain them asking you not to return. Did they not like your haircut or the pants you were wearing? I have a hard time wrapping my head around "we did nothing wrong and they told us not to come back".

You must not have read my post, scroll up and read it again. I don't want to have to sound like a broken record. Although i have a feeling i will anyways. We stayed 2 weeks past the valet contract at the end of last year's season. Owners daughter said we could, owner said noone told us we could. She said/he said crap. Ed called my husband and freaked out told him we overstayed our welcome, We offered to pay for the 2 weeks, he said no thanks, we tried to fix what ever pissed him off. I don;t know what else you want me to say. I tried several times to communicate with these people and they just ignored us and sent me an email saying we will no longer service your boat. In my opinion i think they were mad that they had to replace my bimini bar that they broke and fix the rip in my boat cover. I understand these people go above and beyond for their customers. We had a good transaction last year when we purchased our boat. Things went south when we were having an engine issue, and when the bimini broke and of course at end of the season when they told us to get lost. END OF STORY!!!.