1st Klas Marina

Review: My 22' 2006 Avalon Pontoon was taking on water in the left pontoon. I took my boat to 1st Klas and had them pull my boat out of the water. Upon visual inspection we were unable to determine where the pontoon was taking on water. We were then told by [redacted] that they can pressure test the pontoon and find out where the leak was coming and then they would call in a certified welder to have it repaired if in fact it was repairable. Since this was on a Saturday (8/3/13), I asked if this can all be done prior to the following weekend, I was assured that it would be no problem. On Tuesday, 8/6/13, we received a call explaining that a crack was found. We asked that pictures be forwarded for our review prior to authorizing any work. Tuesday came and went. We called Wednesday (8/7/13), found out they were closed. Called Thursday morning (8/8/13) and again asked for the pictures and finally they were sent to us for review. Upon review we agreed that this needed to be repaired and authorized 1st Klas to do the repair. We again asked if this would be done before the weekend (8/9/13-8/11/13) and [redacted] assured us that it would be and in fact it would be taken care of that day (8/8/13). We asked for a quote and were told between $400-$450 for the repair. Later on that day, we received pictures of the repair. To say the least, we were disgusted at what was done to our boat! The weld job that was performed looked as if a 2 year old had done the work. I immediately called the marina and asked to speak to the manager. I spoke to [redacted] and explained to him my dilemma. He said that he had to look at the work and call me back, which he did. I come to find out that this marina never even called in a certified welder. This welding job that this marina decided to charge me $394 was done by their own service technician that does MIG welding and is not even certified. If you know anything about pontoons and welding you know that repair welds should only be done by a TIG weld. So, their "welder" and I use the term loosely, over heated the pontoon and more than likely caused a hole and the only way to repair that was to weld a patch onto it, which was done and the work is terrible! [redacted] offered no solution at all but to say he did his best and [redacted] should have explained that the certified welder was on vacation. I immediately called my insurance company to file a claim, which I would not have done if this was done properly. Move forward to Friday (8/9/13), I leave work early to retrieve my boat from this marina. I now have no choice but to pay them the $394 because my boat is sitting on their trailer on their property so they will just hold my boat hostage if I do not pay. I make the payment while my boyfriend goes to inspect the boat. Upon close inspection, the marina was nice enough to cover our boat, or so we thought. The cover was improperly put on not even snapped on to all the snaps. In the rear of the boat by the ladder, the cover was just thrown on. There are also 4 poles to correctly perch the cover to prevent any pooling of water, 3 were holding up the cover and not extended to a proper height. Between 4 and 5pm, the skies opened up and had a terrific rainstorm. The cover now had a huge belly of water inside the boat along with one of the poles that now punctured a hole right through the canvas material because the pole was never snapped into its proper place. I have pictures to prove all of this. You can only imagine how upset I was and explaining the situation to [redacted], he proceeded to smirk and laugh, because he thought it was so funny because he did not understand why he was being yelled at because he did not do it. This marina told me to drop my cover off in a week and they will send it out to be repaired. Given my current experience, I do not trust them to touch anything further or related to my boat.

Business

Response:

Better Buisness Bureau,

In response to this customer complaint I have attatched a statement from [redacted] (he works at our service counter). I have also included a copy of the customer work order, which shows a break down of work performed. As you will see it was not $394.00 to weld pontoon, that was her total bill. The actual weld was only $237.50 way under [redacted]'s estimate. We graciously drove them back to their dock as a cortesy and did not charge them. I dont recall her mentioning that either.

The customer also, left out a very imprtant part of her conversation with [redacted] (owner of Marina). When [redacted] called her back he explained that patch was only way to get her back on the water by the weekend. [redacted] explained to customer she needed a new pontoon, which in our experience takes about 8 weeks to receive from manufacturer. The price for a new pontoon with parts and labor generally costs the customer about $2,500.00. That is why [redacted] told her to call her insurance company beacause, the customer obviously hit something with the pontoon. (that is the only thing in our experience that would cause a dent and crack a pontoon like they did).

As for the cover issue, we had no reason to get back into the customers boat after our technicians pulled it from the water. The customers took the time to climb into their boat & remove the items they wanted, but, they neglected to cover their own boat themselves. Had they covered the boat themselves the cover may or may not have ripped after the torrential downpour we received. Even though we felt it was not our responsibility to pay for the cover repair we still offered to have it patched. It also appeared to us that the cover is not an original manufactures cover( did not fit boat properly) If the cover is original most covers only have a 5 year life expectancy and since the boat is 7 years old. We also, feel had we not covered the boat they still would have yelled at us for that too.

My husband [redacted] and I have owned and operated 1st Klas Marina for over ten years. We pride ourselves in doing the best job possible for every customer that walks into our facility. We were in a different service business for eleven years prior to this and had the same practice. It pains us to know a customers feels we wronged them in anyway. However, we have also learned after 21 years of business there will always unfortunatley be a few people you just can not please no matter how hard you try.

At this time we are not willing to refund this entire bill, as we feel we did the best job possible considering the circumstances. Thank You.

Sincerely,

Owner-1st Klas Marina

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

Although this has nothing to do with the claim that I submitted, and [redacted] would like to try to make me look like I am just an unreasonable customer, I have no problems admitting that they indeed did drive us back to our dock where our vehicle was parked. What we were originally going to do was drain the water in the pontoon, pay to be put back in the water, drive back to our dock where we would pick up our vehicle, then go back to the marina. We had no problem paying for this, but all in all was their idea to just drive us.