[redacted] I am sorry you still have a misunderstanding of the facts We never removed your power steering belt, we replaced the circulating water pump which has a separate beltYour boat is years old and belts stretch over timeWe found the belt in the bilge under the engine, it must have come off because it had too much slack in it from stretchingAgain, even if that belt had been left off, which we never removed, this has nothing to do with the power steering cylinder in the back of the boat leakingYou approved the repair work to be done, which is why if you were blaming us for causing your power steering cylinder to fail you should have taken it to another dealership and received a second opinionThey would have told you the same thing, nothing we did caused the leak in your power steering cylinderYour power steering pump is mounted on the front of the motor and power steering cylinder is mounted in the back of the boat under all the upholstery, they are separate parts If you had requested us to save your power steering cylinder, we would have given the defective unit back to you, but you did not request us to hold the part so we disposed of it as we usually doAs for the speedo not working, we removed lots of trash from the hose the first time and tested it on our air hose and it works fine, we did find the pitot was kicked up so we put it back in place [redacted] you are mistaken what [redacted] our service manager told you about bringing your boat back in if the repair did not work this timeWe will honor our work 100%, if it is not working, we will fix itWhat he told you was that in the future it would best if you found another dealership to do your repairs, we believe that would be the best interest for both parties since you were saying you are going to sue us and very argumentative to our cashier and service manager, but we will stand behind the repairs we didThis is the last reply I will do regarding this matter to the Revdex.com since you have directed me to respond only to your attorney
Please allow me to address the issues as described by Mr [redacted] in his response to our complaint“First issue is MR [redacted] was given an estimate for service of $4,and not $3,000” This is incorrectOn February 27th 2015, [redacted] Lawder of SAM sent me an estimate of $4,which I questioned with Mr [redacted] on the same dateOn March 4th 2015, ***Lawder of SAM sent a revised estimate for the work for $3,Both of these estimates contained two types of pricing – those with the word Estin from and those withoutFor example: Oil filter change on both main engines Est$Replace anodes if needed $The Estrefers to an estimated costIf it doesn’t have an Estin front of it, it’s a fixed costI also disputed these costs with Mr [redacted] in an email sent March 23rd and in a subsequent conversation agreed that they were estimates based on timeThe work proceeded and as I have stated previously, I was happy to do so because the deviance was in the estimated labor costs which I knew I could trackFrom the second estimate of $3,849, I received a bill of $4,based on hours of labor when there had been a maximum of hours of labor suppliedOn the bill, South Austin Marine state: ESTIMATES ARE NOT QUOTES, THERE MAY BE DIFFERENCES IN THE FINAL INVOICE FROM AN INITIAL ESTIMATESo, it seems from South Austin Marine’s perspective that an estimate is only good if its more than the actual but if its less, they reserve the right to put up the priceOnce again, I ask South Austin Marine to charge the correct hours for labor, hours and stop trying to tell me that because I read an estimate of hours, they provide but want to charge for because somehow agreed to the estimate – I agreed it was an estimate, not a fixed chargeThank you Regards, [redacted]
I am sorry Mr [redacted] had a bad experience with South Austin MarineThere must have been a miscommunication between our parts and service department of when the parts arrived, as this situation should never happenWe want to resolve the issue of the damaged power pole cover and aluminum shroud We will reimburse the customer for the power pole cover with a copy of the customers invoice and we will order a new power pole housing and ship it to the customerAlso, it has come to my attention that there were a couple of missing lower unit parts that the customer did not receiveWe will order the parts and send them to the customer at no chargeI hope this resolves the complaint and will look forward to your response
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:I had took my boat in to have the speedometer looked at and the belt was making noiseThe technician working on the repair did not put the boats belt back on when he was finished, never fixed the speedometer, and returned the boat back to me this wayI, having no knowledge the belt was gone, took my boat out on the lake this way The engine then started shaking and the power steering was going outI opened the back to look at the engine and that's when I noticed the belt was goneI returned to South Austin Marine II and told them of the incident and spoke with the manager ***, who was very rude and insultingI asked to speak to his manager and he refused my request saying he was the highest ranked person thereThey agreed to put the belt back on and charged me $for the workI took my boat back to the lake and power steering was still acting the same way, so I go back to South Austin Marine II a third time and met with ***, who claimed that leaving the belt off could not have caused this issue, even though my boat had no issues with power steering before the incidentThey did a third repair and upon picking up the boat they charged me $2,066, and told me if the repair did not work this time to not bring it back to themI asked if I could have the old steering cylinder they said they replaced and they refused to give it to me If they have any further response they can contact my attorney at ###-###-#### in regards to case number: ***
Mr. [redacted] claims that South Austin
Marine broke his boat and charged him $3,000. This not correct, we actually repaired the
items that were broken on his boat and that he requested to have repaired.On 5/24/17 he brought in his boat
because the speedometer was not working, the remote for...
the stereo needed to be
replaced, and the power steering was making noise (he was not 100% sure). We unclogged the passage to the speedo pitot
and replaced the stereo transom remote.The issue of the power steering pump
making noise is the customers main complaint. After our technician test ran the
engine on a water hose, he found that the water circulating pump on the front
of the engine had a bad bearing and was making noise, not the power steering
pump. We called the customer on 5/26/17 to get his approval to replace the
circulating pump, and he gave the ok to fix it. He picked up his boat on
6/19/17 and the total of the repairs was $759.04.On 6/19/17 the customer brought the boat
back to our dealership because the power steering belt come off and was laying
in the bilge under the engine. We found the belt had stretched from age, the
boat is 13 years old, so belts stretch over time. I believe he is misunderstood
and thinks we did not put his belt back on when we did the initial repairs and
this is what eventually led to the failures with his boat. First, we did not
remove the power steering belt, we replaced the water circulating pump, which
has a separate belt, we never removed his power steering belt. His belt coming
off was due to the belt stretching and the age of the belt, not us removing it.
He picked up his boat on 6/27/17 and the total of the repairs was $64.18. Also,
we did not charge him labor to replace the belt, only for the parts.On 7/5/17 the customer brought his boat
back for a third time because he had little or no steering and it shook
violently. He was correct, we found his
power steering bottle almost empty. This is where the customer tried to blame
us for his steering going out due to South Austin Marine not installing his
power steering belt back on. Like I stated earlier, we never removed his power
steering pump belt, but even with that being the case, this had nothing to do
with his power steering cylinder going out. These are two totally unrelated
issues. To find the leak we had to add dye & fluid to the steering system
and run the engine on the hose. This is where we found his power steering
cylinder on the back of the boat was leaking, nothing to do with the power
steering pump on the front of the boat. On 7/10/17 we gave the customer an
estimate of $877.09 for parts, $910.00 labor, plus shop supplies and sales tax.
He approved the repairs on that day. We had to remove all the upholstery in the
back of the boat to even gain access to the power steering cylinder, plus one
of the exhaust risers had to be removed so the cylinder could be replaced. We completed the repairs and his steering
works fine. The total of the repairs
with tax was $2,066.48 which was $49.10 more that the estimate we had given him
because we had to remove one of the exhaust risers and replace the gasket, but
we did not charge any additional labor, only the price of the gasket. He came
into our dealership on 7/20/17 to pick up his boat and was very argumentative
to our cashier and service manager. He was still trying to blame us for
breaking his boat and saying he was going to sue us. We again tried to explain to him what broke
and it is a fault of no one. The boat is 13 years old and things start to break
at that age and boats do require maintenance, like your car or house. He still
kept believing we caused his failure, which isn’t true. That’s when our service
manager [redacted] asked Mr. [redacted] not to bring his boat back again to
South Austin Marine for repairs. It will be best for both parties if he had
someone else to do his repairs from now on. In final conclusion, I believe South
Marine owes Mr. [redacted] nothing, we repaired everything correctly and Mr.
[redacted] approved all the work that was done. I am sorry that his boat had these
problems, but the boat is 13 years old and things do break down at this age.
Please allow me to address the issues as described by Mr. [redacted] in his response to our complaint.. “First issue is MR. [redacted] was given an estimate for service of $4,175 and not $3,000” This is incorrect. On February 27th 2015, [redacted] Lawder of SAM sent me an estimate of $4,730 which I questioned with Mr. [redacted] on the same date. On March 4th 2015, [redacted]Lawder of SAM sent a revised estimate for the work for $3,849. Both of these estimates contained two types of pricing – those with the word Est. in from and those without. For example: Oil filter change on both main engines Est. $675 Replace anodes if needed ...⇄ $695 The Est. refers to an estimated cost. If it doesn’t have an Est. in front of it, it’s a fixed cost. I also disputed these costs with Mr. [redacted] in an email sent March 23rd 2015 and in a subsequent conversation agreed that they were estimates based on time. The work proceeded and as I have stated previously, I was happy to do so because the deviance was in the estimated labor costs which I knew I could track. From the second estimate of $3,849, I received a bill of $4,091 based on 14.5 hours of labor when there had been a maximum of 8 hours of labor supplied. On the bill, South Austin Marine state: ESTIMATES ARE NOT QUOTES, THERE MAY BE DIFFERENCES IN THE FINAL INVOICE FROM AN INITIAL ESTIMATE. So, it seems from South Austin Marine’s perspective that an estimate is only good if its more than the actual but if its less, they reserve the right to put up the price. Once again, I ask South Austin Marine to charge the correct hours for labor, 8 hours and stop trying to tell me that because I read an estimate of 14.5 hours, they provide 8 but want to charge for 14.5 because somehow agreed to the estimate – I agreed it was an estimate, not a fixed charge. Thank you.
Regards,
[redacted]
I am sorry Mr. [redacted] had a bad experience with South Austin Marine. There must have been a miscommunication between our parts and service department of when the parts arrived, as this situation should never happen. We want to resolve the issue of the damaged power pole cover and aluminum shroud....
We will reimburse the customer for the power pole cover with a copy of the customers invoice and we will order a new power pole housing and ship it to the customer. Also, it has come to my attention that there were a couple of missing lower unit parts that the customer did not receive. We will order the parts and send them to the customer at no charge. I hope this resolves the complaint and will look forward to your response.
[redacted] I am sorry you still have a
misunderstanding of the facts. We never
removed your power steering belt, we replaced the circulating water pump which
has a separate belt. Your boat is 13 years old and belts stretch over time. We
found the belt in the bilge under the engine, it must have come off because it
had too much slack in it from stretching. Again, even if that belt had been
left off, which we never removed, this has nothing to do with the power
steering cylinder in the back of the boat leaking. You approved the repair work
to be done, which is why if you were blaming us for causing your power steering
cylinder to fail you should have taken it to another dealership and received a
second opinion. They would have told you the same thing, nothing we did caused
the leak in your power steering cylinder. Your power steering pump is mounted
on the front of the motor and power steering cylinder is mounted in the back of
the boat under all the upholstery, they are separate parts. If you had requested us to save your power
steering cylinder, we would have given the defective unit back to you, but you
did not request us to hold the part so we disposed of it as we usually do. As
for the speedo not working, we removed lots of trash from the hose the first
time and tested it on our air hose and it works fine, we did find the pitot was
kicked up so we put it back in place. [redacted] you are mistaken what [redacted] our service manager told you about bringing your boat back in if the
repair did not work this time. We will honor our work 100%, if it is not
working, we will fix it. What he told you was that in the future it would best
if you found another dealership to do your repairs, we believe that would be
the best interest for both parties since you were saying you are going to sue
us and very argumentative to our cashier and service manager, but we will stand
behind the repairs we did. This is the last reply I will do
regarding this matter to the Revdex.com since you have directed me to respond only to
your attorney.
10/19/2015 ID Number: [redacted] South Austin Marine disputes [redacted]’s complaint regarding billing or collection issues. First issue is Mr. [redacted] was given an estimate for service of $4,175 and not $3,000. He is correct that the service to his boat last year was only...
$1,150 which is less than the service he had done this year. The difference is that after a certain number of hours the engine requires additional service or maintenance than the previous year, the same as a car would after a certain number of miles. The annual service this year included changing the engine oil & filter, transmission fluid, water pump impellers, fuel filters, and air filters on both engines for all the service listed above. The previous year, only the engine oil & filter on both engines had to be changed and the generator had to be serviced. The customer also wanted his refrigerator fixed which required replacing the thermostat and indicator light. We gave Mr. [redacted] a breakdown of the costs before we started working on his boat and he agreed to have the service done. Second, we did reduce the freight charges from $36.00 to $9.00, eliminated $68.50 in shop supplies which were calculated incorrectly, and removed three LED lights of $48.00 and one NEMA 2000 male terminator that should have been warranty. Mr. [redacted] was correct that the shop supplies were calculated incorrectly and the LED lights and NEMA connectors should have been no charge to him. The freight charges we reduced as a goodwill gesture to the customer. After reviewing his letter we removed the items in dispute, except for the labor amount and corrected the invoice. Third, we did send Mr. [redacted] a letter asking for payment since the repairs had been completed almost six months earlier. I have included a copy of the letter. He then responded with his own letter, which I discussed with [redacted] and [redacted] our service manager and corrected and adjusted the items I discussed above, but not the labor charge. I then left several voicemails with Mr. [redacted] to discuss his invoice with him, but never received a call back. [redacted] and [redacted] also called several times with no response. So finally on my last call, I urged Mr. [redacted] we needed to resolve the issue or I was going to have turn the matter over to my attorney for collection. [redacted] in service received an email from Mr. [redacted] that said he hadn’t received a written or emailed response from his bosses. Still there was no attempt to call me with his dispute. I responded to the email Mr. [redacted] sent to [redacted] and went into detail with each one of his issues on the invoice. As I replied to Mr. [redacted], a simple phone call back to me would have been a lot faster and easier instead of having to communicate by email or letter each time. Ignoring the issue makes the matter worse and sends the wrong message, especially since the invoice was six months overdue. The last issue in dispute and Mr. [redacted]’s biggest complaint is over the number of labor hours charged on the repair invoice. This is probably the most cut and dry issue I have ever dealt with since I have been in business. Like I tried to explain to Mr. [redacted] in my earlier email response is that labor hours are calculated on flat rate time by the job, not actual hours spent working on the job. Every car and boat dealer calculates labor this way. Mr. [redacted] was given a labor quote for the maintenance items on his boat and he was charged as per the estimate. He added repairing his refrigerator which was not one of the maintenance items requested, but was given an estimate of 1.5 hours to repair which he was billed for. I have included a copy of the repair order and you can see the labor repairs are all routine maintenance items. I do dispute the number of hours Mr. [redacted] claims [redacted] the technician actually worked on his boat. He was there working on and off for three different days, but as I replied to Mr. [redacted] earlier it didn’t really matter on his actual time because the job is calculated by flat rate time, not actual hours. I encourage Mr. [redacted] to call different boat or car dealers in the area and see how they charge for the same type of repairs he had done to his boat. In conclusion, South Austin Marine will not be refunding the difference in labor charges Mr. [redacted] is asking for. This how we have calculated and charged for labor since we have been in business, which is over 40 years.
[redacted] I am sorry you still have a misunderstanding of the facts We never removed your power steering belt, we replaced the circulating water pump which has a separate beltYour boat is years old and belts stretch over timeWe found the belt in the bilge under the engine, it must have come off because it had too much slack in it from stretchingAgain, even if that belt had been left off, which we never removed, this has nothing to do with the power steering cylinder in the back of the boat leakingYou approved the repair work to be done, which is why if you were blaming us for causing your power steering cylinder to fail you should have taken it to another dealership and received a second opinionThey would have told you the same thing, nothing we did caused the leak in your power steering cylinderYour power steering pump is mounted on the front of the motor and power steering cylinder is mounted in the back of the boat under all the upholstery, they are separate parts If you had requested us to save your power steering cylinder, we would have given the defective unit back to you, but you did not request us to hold the part so we disposed of it as we usually doAs for the speedo not working, we removed lots of trash from the hose the first time and tested it on our air hose and it works fine, we did find the pitot was kicked up so we put it back in place [redacted] you are mistaken what [redacted] our service manager told you about bringing your boat back in if the repair did not work this timeWe will honor our work 100%, if it is not working, we will fix itWhat he told you was that in the future it would best if you found another dealership to do your repairs, we believe that would be the best interest for both parties since you were saying you are going to sue us and very argumentative to our cashier and service manager, but we will stand behind the repairs we didThis is the last reply I will do regarding this matter to the Revdex.com since you have directed me to respond only to your attorney
Please allow me to address the issues as described by Mr [redacted] in his response to our complaint“First issue is MR [redacted] was given an estimate for service of $4,and not $3,000” This is incorrectOn February 27th 2015, [redacted] Lawder of SAM sent me an estimate of $4,which I questioned with Mr [redacted] on the same dateOn March 4th 2015, ***Lawder of SAM sent a revised estimate for the work for $3,Both of these estimates contained two types of pricing – those with the word Estin from and those withoutFor example: Oil filter change on both main engines Est$Replace anodes if needed $The Estrefers to an estimated costIf it doesn’t have an Estin front of it, it’s a fixed costI also disputed these costs with Mr [redacted] in an email sent March 23rd and in a subsequent conversation agreed that they were estimates based on timeThe work proceeded and as I have stated previously, I was happy to do so because the deviance was in the estimated labor costs which I knew I could trackFrom the second estimate of $3,849, I received a bill of $4,based on hours of labor when there had been a maximum of hours of labor suppliedOn the bill, South Austin Marine state: ESTIMATES ARE NOT QUOTES, THERE MAY BE DIFFERENCES IN THE FINAL INVOICE FROM AN INITIAL ESTIMATESo, it seems from South Austin Marine’s perspective that an estimate is only good if its more than the actual but if its less, they reserve the right to put up the priceOnce again, I ask South Austin Marine to charge the correct hours for labor, hours and stop trying to tell me that because I read an estimate of hours, they provide but want to charge for because somehow agreed to the estimate – I agreed it was an estimate, not a fixed chargeThank you Regards, [redacted]
I am sorry Mr [redacted] had a bad experience with South Austin MarineThere must have been a miscommunication between our parts and service department of when the parts arrived, as this situation should never happenWe want to resolve the issue of the damaged power pole cover and aluminum shroud We will reimburse the customer for the power pole cover with a copy of the customers invoice and we will order a new power pole housing and ship it to the customerAlso, it has come to my attention that there were a couple of missing lower unit parts that the customer did not receiveWe will order the parts and send them to the customer at no chargeI hope this resolves the complaint and will look forward to your response
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:I had took my boat in to have the speedometer looked at and the belt was making noiseThe technician working on the repair did not put the boats belt back on when he was finished, never fixed the speedometer, and returned the boat back to me this wayI, having no knowledge the belt was gone, took my boat out on the lake this way The engine then started shaking and the power steering was going outI opened the back to look at the engine and that's when I noticed the belt was goneI returned to South Austin Marine II and told them of the incident and spoke with the manager ***, who was very rude and insultingI asked to speak to his manager and he refused my request saying he was the highest ranked person thereThey agreed to put the belt back on and charged me $for the workI took my boat back to the lake and power steering was still acting the same way, so I go back to South Austin Marine II a third time and met with ***, who claimed that leaving the belt off could not have caused this issue, even though my boat had no issues with power steering before the incidentThey did a third repair and upon picking up the boat they charged me $2,066, and told me if the repair did not work this time to not bring it back to themI asked if I could have the old steering cylinder they said they replaced and they refused to give it to me If they have any further response they can contact my attorney at ###-###-#### in regards to case number: ***
Mr. [redacted] claims that South Austin
Marine broke his boat and charged him $3,000. This not correct, we actually repaired the
items that were broken on his boat and that he requested to have repaired.On 5/24/17 he brought in his boat
because the speedometer was not working, the remote for...
the stereo needed to be
replaced, and the power steering was making noise (he was not 100% sure). We unclogged the passage to the speedo pitot
and replaced the stereo transom remote.The issue of the power steering pump
making noise is the customers main complaint. After our technician test ran the
engine on a water hose, he found that the water circulating pump on the front
of the engine had a bad bearing and was making noise, not the power steering
pump. We called the customer on 5/26/17 to get his approval to replace the
circulating pump, and he gave the ok to fix it. He picked up his boat on
6/19/17 and the total of the repairs was $759.04.On 6/19/17 the customer brought the boat
back to our dealership because the power steering belt come off and was laying
in the bilge under the engine. We found the belt had stretched from age, the
boat is 13 years old, so belts stretch over time. I believe he is misunderstood
and thinks we did not put his belt back on when we did the initial repairs and
this is what eventually led to the failures with his boat. First, we did not
remove the power steering belt, we replaced the water circulating pump, which
has a separate belt, we never removed his power steering belt. His belt coming
off was due to the belt stretching and the age of the belt, not us removing it.
He picked up his boat on 6/27/17 and the total of the repairs was $64.18. Also,
we did not charge him labor to replace the belt, only for the parts.On 7/5/17 the customer brought his boat
back for a third time because he had little or no steering and it shook
violently. He was correct, we found his
power steering bottle almost empty. This is where the customer tried to blame
us for his steering going out due to South Austin Marine not installing his
power steering belt back on. Like I stated earlier, we never removed his power
steering pump belt, but even with that being the case, this had nothing to do
with his power steering cylinder going out. These are two totally unrelated
issues. To find the leak we had to add dye & fluid to the steering system
and run the engine on the hose. This is where we found his power steering
cylinder on the back of the boat was leaking, nothing to do with the power
steering pump on the front of the boat. On 7/10/17 we gave the customer an
estimate of $877.09 for parts, $910.00 labor, plus shop supplies and sales tax.
He approved the repairs on that day. We had to remove all the upholstery in the
back of the boat to even gain access to the power steering cylinder, plus one
of the exhaust risers had to be removed so the cylinder could be replaced. We completed the repairs and his steering
works fine. The total of the repairs
with tax was $2,066.48 which was $49.10 more that the estimate we had given him
because we had to remove one of the exhaust risers and replace the gasket, but
we did not charge any additional labor, only the price of the gasket. He came
into our dealership on 7/20/17 to pick up his boat and was very argumentative
to our cashier and service manager. He was still trying to blame us for
breaking his boat and saying he was going to sue us. We again tried to explain to him what broke
and it is a fault of no one. The boat is 13 years old and things start to break
at that age and boats do require maintenance, like your car or house. He still
kept believing we caused his failure, which isn’t true. That’s when our service
manager [redacted] asked Mr. [redacted] not to bring his boat back again to
South Austin Marine for repairs. It will be best for both parties if he had
someone else to do his repairs from now on. In final conclusion, I believe South
Marine owes Mr. [redacted] nothing, we repaired everything correctly and Mr.
[redacted] approved all the work that was done. I am sorry that his boat had these
problems, but the boat is 13 years old and things do break down at this age.
Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Regards,
[redacted]
Please allow me to address the issues as described by Mr. [redacted] in his response to our complaint.. “First issue is MR. [redacted] was given an estimate for service of $4,175 and not $3,000” This is incorrect. On February 27th 2015, [redacted] Lawder of SAM sent me an estimate of $4,730 which I questioned with Mr. [redacted] on the same date. On March 4th 2015, [redacted]Lawder of SAM sent a revised estimate for the work for $3,849. Both of these estimates contained two types of pricing – those with the word Est. in from and those without. For example: Oil filter change on both main engines Est. $675 Replace anodes if needed ...⇄ $695 The Est. refers to an estimated cost. If it doesn’t have an Est. in front of it, it’s a fixed cost. I also disputed these costs with Mr. [redacted] in an email sent March 23rd 2015 and in a subsequent conversation agreed that they were estimates based on time. The work proceeded and as I have stated previously, I was happy to do so because the deviance was in the estimated labor costs which I knew I could track. From the second estimate of $3,849, I received a bill of $4,091 based on 14.5 hours of labor when there had been a maximum of 8 hours of labor supplied. On the bill, South Austin Marine state: ESTIMATES ARE NOT QUOTES, THERE MAY BE DIFFERENCES IN THE FINAL INVOICE FROM AN INITIAL ESTIMATE. So, it seems from South Austin Marine’s perspective that an estimate is only good if its more than the actual but if its less, they reserve the right to put up the price. Once again, I ask South Austin Marine to charge the correct hours for labor, 8 hours and stop trying to tell me that because I read an estimate of 14.5 hours, they provide 8 but want to charge for 14.5 because somehow agreed to the estimate – I agreed it was an estimate, not a fixed charge. Thank you.
Regards,
[redacted]
I am sorry Mr. [redacted] had a bad experience with South Austin Marine. There must have been a miscommunication between our parts and service department of when the parts arrived, as this situation should never happen. We want to resolve the issue of the damaged power pole cover and aluminum shroud....
We will reimburse the customer for the power pole cover with a copy of the customers invoice and we will order a new power pole housing and ship it to the customer. Also, it has come to my attention that there were a couple of missing lower unit parts that the customer did not receive. We will order the parts and send them to the customer at no charge. I hope this resolves the complaint and will look forward to your response.
[redacted] I am sorry you still have a
misunderstanding of the facts. We never
removed your power steering belt, we replaced the circulating water pump which
has a separate belt. Your boat is 13 years old and belts stretch over time. We
found the belt in the bilge under the engine, it must have come off because it
had too much slack in it from stretching. Again, even if that belt had been
left off, which we never removed, this has nothing to do with the power
steering cylinder in the back of the boat leaking. You approved the repair work
to be done, which is why if you were blaming us for causing your power steering
cylinder to fail you should have taken it to another dealership and received a
second opinion. They would have told you the same thing, nothing we did caused
the leak in your power steering cylinder. Your power steering pump is mounted
on the front of the motor and power steering cylinder is mounted in the back of
the boat under all the upholstery, they are separate parts. If you had requested us to save your power
steering cylinder, we would have given the defective unit back to you, but you
did not request us to hold the part so we disposed of it as we usually do. As
for the speedo not working, we removed lots of trash from the hose the first
time and tested it on our air hose and it works fine, we did find the pitot was
kicked up so we put it back in place. [redacted] you are mistaken what [redacted] our service manager told you about bringing your boat back in if the
repair did not work this time. We will honor our work 100%, if it is not
working, we will fix it. What he told you was that in the future it would best
if you found another dealership to do your repairs, we believe that would be
the best interest for both parties since you were saying you are going to sue
us and very argumentative to our cashier and service manager, but we will stand
behind the repairs we did. This is the last reply I will do
regarding this matter to the Revdex.com since you have directed me to respond only to
your attorney.
10/19/2015 ID Number: [redacted] South Austin Marine disputes [redacted]’s complaint regarding billing or collection issues. First issue is Mr. [redacted] was given an estimate for service of $4,175 and not $3,000. He is correct that the service to his boat last year was only...
$1,150 which is less than the service he had done this year. The difference is that after a certain number of hours the engine requires additional service or maintenance than the previous year, the same as a car would after a certain number of miles. The annual service this year included changing the engine oil & filter, transmission fluid, water pump impellers, fuel filters, and air filters on both engines for all the service listed above. The previous year, only the engine oil & filter on both engines had to be changed and the generator had to be serviced. The customer also wanted his refrigerator fixed which required replacing the thermostat and indicator light. We gave Mr. [redacted] a breakdown of the costs before we started working on his boat and he agreed to have the service done. Second, we did reduce the freight charges from $36.00 to $9.00, eliminated $68.50 in shop supplies which were calculated incorrectly, and removed three LED lights of $48.00 and one NEMA 2000 male terminator that should have been warranty. Mr. [redacted] was correct that the shop supplies were calculated incorrectly and the LED lights and NEMA connectors should have been no charge to him. The freight charges we reduced as a goodwill gesture to the customer. After reviewing his letter we removed the items in dispute, except for the labor amount and corrected the invoice. Third, we did send Mr. [redacted] a letter asking for payment since the repairs had been completed almost six months earlier. I have included a copy of the letter. He then responded with his own letter, which I discussed with [redacted] and [redacted] our service manager and corrected and adjusted the items I discussed above, but not the labor charge. I then left several voicemails with Mr. [redacted] to discuss his invoice with him, but never received a call back. [redacted] and [redacted] also called several times with no response. So finally on my last call, I urged Mr. [redacted] we needed to resolve the issue or I was going to have turn the matter over to my attorney for collection. [redacted] in service received an email from Mr. [redacted] that said he hadn’t received a written or emailed response from his bosses. Still there was no attempt to call me with his dispute. I responded to the email Mr. [redacted] sent to [redacted] and went into detail with each one of his issues on the invoice. As I replied to Mr. [redacted], a simple phone call back to me would have been a lot faster and easier instead of having to communicate by email or letter each time. Ignoring the issue makes the matter worse and sends the wrong message, especially since the invoice was six months overdue. The last issue in dispute and Mr. [redacted]’s biggest complaint is over the number of labor hours charged on the repair invoice. This is probably the most cut and dry issue I have ever dealt with since I have been in business. Like I tried to explain to Mr. [redacted] in my earlier email response is that labor hours are calculated on flat rate time by the job, not actual hours spent working on the job. Every car and boat dealer calculates labor this way. Mr. [redacted] was given a labor quote for the maintenance items on his boat and he was charged as per the estimate. He added repairing his refrigerator which was not one of the maintenance items requested, but was given an estimate of 1.5 hours to repair which he was billed for. I have included a copy of the repair order and you can see the labor repairs are all routine maintenance items. I do dispute the number of hours Mr. [redacted] claims [redacted] the technician actually worked on his boat. He was there working on and off for three different days, but as I replied to Mr. [redacted] earlier it didn’t really matter on his actual time because the job is calculated by flat rate time, not actual hours. I encourage Mr. [redacted] to call different boat or car dealers in the area and see how they charge for the same type of repairs he had done to his boat. In conclusion, South Austin Marine will not be refunding the difference in labor charges Mr. [redacted] is asking for. This how we have calculated and charged for labor since we have been in business, which is over 40 years.