Cape Yachts

Hello I received a letter today saying we had a complaint from a customer of ours, [redacted] *** I was not aware of the complaint until last week and have no idea how to respond to it We have never had a complaint to my knowledge in our years in business Mr [redacted] has had all items addressed in his contract with us and all are completed While we appreciate and value Mr [redacted] as a customer, he was unreasonable in his expectations of time required to address the issues his specific boat had The work on this boat is custom and not off the shelfAll efforts to please him went without appreciation; no good deed goes unpunished His complaint further extends to criticizing our sub-contractors, specifically a bow thruster expert who refused to work on his bow thruster (our shop ended up repairing because the sub refused to do); again, no appreciation for the incredible amount of effort it took to get this done, just complaints on timing All other shops consulted said the thruster would not be able to be repaired as did the first contractor Our shop repaired his thruster; albeit not on the timeframe he demanded We further offered to launch his boat to use (the thruster is not necessary for the proper operation of the boat) and then haul, install and relaunch at our expense when the components were returned to our yard Mr [redacted] chose to not accept our offer and now is logging his apparent complaintMr [redacted] further criticized our canvas makers on his time it took to build his custom headliner Again, this is custom work Mr [redacted] further complains that the sub-contractor we hired to soda blast his bottom was late and that we made no efforts to hire other soda blast contractors As explained continually to Mr***, our industry experienced the worse winter and spring in my years of experience setting everyone back as most work could not be performed due to weather The sub-contractors are no exception The weather significantly impacted all of our schedules and all of our customers launch times (a point Mr [redacted] continually refuses to acknowledge and behaves as though this impact was directed solely at him and his boat) No other sub-contractor was available or willing to do his work within the timeframe we required other than the company that did the work Finally, Mr [redacted] refused to return his boat to our yard for an Air-conditioning item to be addressed as he is required in writing to do As a further accommodation to Mr***, we sent a certified sub-contractor to his boat to address his issue While there, the Sub apparently made several recommendations to improve the system that the builder of the boat designed (Mr***'s boat is a used [redacted] 44cc) Mr***'s complaint to my understanding is that he felt we should pay to have a year old system that was designed and built by the builder of the boat to be now redesigned, even though it works This was not a reasonable requestPlease call with any further questions [redacted] ***

Revdex.com: I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # [redacted] Please add your rejection comments below:Apparently Mr [redacted] is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the service department because he does not have the facts correct as to what occurred during the months that the boat was at his facility awaiting repairsThe purchase contact listed all items to be repaired and the timeline for launch, to which Mr [redacted] agreed by his signatureIf the terms were unreasonable, they should not have been acceptedThe fact is the majority of boat work is custom because there are countless models of boats and numerous equipment combinationsAll of the Cape Yachts employees that I dealt with before, during, and shortly after the purchase said there was plenty of time to complete the needed work before springThe work done by the boat yard and its’ sub-contractors was very routine and none of the individual jobs should have amounted to more than 2-days effort for each.I was not aware that a bow thruster expert hired by Cape Yachts refused to repair the unitI was only told that they were waiting for the sub-contractor to come back to finish the work, and was later told that the electric motor was badIf an expert was contacted in a timely manner and refused to repair the bow thruster, perhaps the unit should have been replaced rather than waiting until the last minute to attempt to fix itMy purchase contract called for a working bow thrusterThe fact that repairing this particular bow thruster proved more difficult than expected is irrelevantMr [redacted] acts as if he did me a favor by completing the work as required by the contractIf fixing/installing a bow thruster was not possible I would have agreed to cancel the purchase agreement, however that option was not offeredIf I wanted a boat without a bow thruster, that’s what I would have purchasedExpecting me to bring the boat back at a later date was not a reasonable expectation.Mr [redacted] references the “worst winter in years” as the reason for delays, however does not explain why work scheduled in October was not completed until July or laterEven with the harsh winter, there were several months of good weather between Columbus Day and Memorial Day, and many boats all across New England were soda blasted, bottom painted, and launched in the springAlso, much of the work that needed to be completed was on the interior of the boat, and not subject to the outside weatherExamples include repairing the bow thruster, repairing the head and replacing the headlinerAll of these were put off until spring, and the last two were only done after the boat was delivered.I did not criticize the canvas maker for the time it took him to replace the headlinerThe fault for that delay goes back to people employed by Mr [redacted] since they procrastinated in hiring a sub-contractor to do the workIt’s not the fault of the canvas maker that he was hired for the job months after the work order was written up by South Wharf Yacht YardOnce the sub-contractor was engaged, it took him about a month to measure for the job, and then another month to complete the workI found this timeframe to be reasonable considering he took on the job in the middle of his busy season.The A/C unit on this boat was an after***et add-on; not one designed and installed by the boat builderThe purchase contract calls for the air conditioning to work, however this system does NOT workThe A/C sub-contractor is located in Tiverton RI and they completed one repair when the boat was in Dartmouth, but they have not been sent out since I took possession of the boatA repair person at my local marina looked at the system and determined that the water pump is badBecause the boat is currently kept in Bristol RI, miles from the air conditioning sub-contractor used by South Wharf Yacht Yard, I asked if it could be serviced at my location which is miles closer than South DartmouthGiven all the prior delays, I wasn’t comfortable bringing the boat back for it to sit waiting for service yet againThe last I heard regarding this matter is the service department at South Wharf was waiting for a return call from the A/C service companyThat was two months ago, so obviously they are not being proactive in following up on the issue, which a continuation of their past behaviorRegards, [redacted] ***

I purchased a new cobia boat from Cape Yachts in the summer of 2018. I live in upstate NY and went to Cape Yachts to see the boat and complete a sea trial. The sea trial went well and I agreed to purchase the boat. It was from that point that everything went down hill. I met Dave Nolan the owner and he seemed to be a sincere person and someone you would do business with. Far from his true nature unfortunately.
I purchase in addition to the boat:
A venture boat trailer adjusted to fit the boat.
A garmin gps, fusion radio with 4 speakers, a vhf radio and upgraded trim tab indicators.
This work was to be performed by cape yachts. In addition the boat would be detailed for delivery.
The few defective items found during the visit were to be repaired before delivery.
Defective inverter, inoperative windshield washers and a defective hatch latch.
My transporter is there to pickup the boat for delivery and highlights several chips and scratches in the gel coat on the starboard side of the boat. This is covered with an employee before the boat is removed from the dealer. It is also reported that the power sunshade is not fully retracted and it will not move. The dealer says they were not sunshade dealers and could not fix it. They said the sun shade rep would be in touch to take care of it. I get the boat and call cape yachts to discuss the shade along with the gelcoat issue, a still defective inverter, no trim tab indicators, and the fact the boat was never fit to the trailer properly. In fact a chip was put into the bow by a strike on the trailer apparently during the loading process.
The final word was:
Get the gel coat repaired and send them the bill and they would process it through maverick boats, the manufacturer.
I fixed the shade myself with help from the shade company.
I got the gel coat repaired at a reputable company
I got the trailer bunks adjusted correctly at a local marina.
I got a new inverter from cobia and had a local dealer install it.
I had a local dealer install my upgraded trim tab indicators and got a bill adjustment from cape yachts !
I had a couple of questions on my garmin gps and called garmin for support. They told me my software was so far out of date they could not help me. It was just installed! I had to download updates before they could help me.
I tolerated all of these issues until I sent them the bill for the gelcoat repair and they refused to pay me. They said Cobia would only cover $300 of the $1800 bill.
I still cannot figure why they submitted the bill to cobia as the damage was surely a result of docking at the marina.( the boat had 9 hours on it)
They no longer return my calls so I called Dave Nolan. He had a subordinate call me and listen to my long story. Never heard back from him either.
Looks like Iam out $1,800 and lost the joy of getting a new boat!
Do not do business with this company or you will be sorry!

Hi *** I was in process of responding to your complaint and then thought I should included you in our response as well as address what appears to be an open item: Air Conditioning - 2nd repair We were under the impression that Ocean Options repaired your AC last August *** will follow up with you tomorrow to understand what the status is and to help resolve this item I apologize that we were under the impression having been billed for the work that it was completed. Timeline for launch I understand you are not happy with how long it took for our guys to complete your work I'm sorry your feel this way and I understand I have reviewed many emails back and forth from our company to you and it does appear that our Customer Advocates (*** and ***) actively communicated with you through out the delivery with both good and bad news as the project progressed. I've attached our written agreement that you referred to in your complaint The agreement does not address a specific time line or launching to my knowledge or reading We rely on communicating progress and updates whether they are good or bad to keep our customers informed as to progress given the nature of our work. I will follow up again to make sure we have addressed the air conditioning issue in a timely manner. Thanks ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ***Please add your rejection comments below.I appreciate you acknowledging that the air conditioning is not fixed and agreeing to follow upIt was a few days later than expected, but *** did contact me for details on the problemI removed the a/c pump from the boat and tested to confirm this is the root cause of the issue*** said he would see about sourcing a replacement for the bad March LC-5C-MD 115v water pump and I will handle installationThe boating season is over now but it would be nice to have the Heat/AC system operational in the spring, so I hope he does follow through.As far as the launch timeline, before completing the purchase I discussed launch dates with *** and ***An exact date wasn't specified, but I did say I wanted the boat delivered early in the season, probably early to mid-MayI was assured that completing the work and delivering according to this time-frame wouldn't be a problemAlthough not in writing, verbal commitments by your employees should still be bindingAs I've said previously, I purchased in the fall of so I could be on the water for the full boating season.It's my fault for not insisting on a specific launch deadline in writing, but the contract did call for "spring commissioning and launch"This is contained in the Amendment dated 9/21/which I have attachedNobody can argue the fact that spring in was from March 20th through June 20th, and the boat wasn't delivered until July 3rd which is officially summerEven at that point the work was not complete, so the terms of the contract were not metI agree that I was occasionally informed that work was not proceeding according to plan, but sending an email does not relieve the service department from the responsibility of completing work in a timely manner.I think the root cause for much of the delay started with the lack of communication regarding the sale and necessary repairsThe boat was placed in the back of the yard which made it difficult to for the soda blasting contractor to access, which is probably why they kept pushing off the jobFrom my communications with the yard during the winter, it seemed that they had a hard time managing multiple repairs on the boat at the same time, and most of the work was put on hold until after the soda blasting was completedIf the other work had been done between October and May the boat would have been nearly ready to launch after the soda blasting was completed in mid-May.The bow thruster was removed from the boat in mid-June to be servicedIf that had happened in the fall or early winter there would have been plenty of time to complete repairs in the heated shop, regardless of the outside weatherIt wasn't until *** started to oversee the repairs in June that we began seeing significant progress on the outstanding work ordersIf somebody had worked that aggressively on managing the project starting in the fall, I have no doubt the boat would have been delivered before Memorial DayThese repairs were routine in nature; definitely nothing approaching a major overhaul.I know for a fact that the headliner replacement was not requested until late JuneThe contract amendment specifically called for replacing the headliner in the forward and aft cabins, so there was no reason to delay scheduling that work for monthsOn a related note, I accepted cleaning of the aft cabin headliner instead of replacement, which I did not have to doIn hindsight I should not have agreed to that concession because the service department did a poor job cleaning, and I ended up cleaning it myself after the deliveryI was able to remove the worst of the mold/mildew damage on the headliner and stitching using a toothbrush, but many stains still remain.Other than the timing, as you see from my original complaint there were other issues with the quality of the work done which added to my frustrationI have spent a lot of time correcting things done improperly by South Wharf service personnelOne open issue that I have not previously mentioned is the defective windlassBefore leaving Dartmouth I didn't test it long enough to realize that it only operated for seconds before seizing up and ceasing to function completely for an hour or longerI had been told that the service department tested the operation of the windlass so I only ran the unit for a couple seconds in each direction as a quick test and assumed everything was OKI was also told that the hydraulic leak in the steering system was addressed by the service department, but I have since found that it's still leaking.Another example of the unsatisfactory service is the initial handling of the aft head repair, which was specified in the contractJust prior to taking the boat on July 3rd I reported that it was still not working properly, so *** and a young inexperienced technician came to the boat to investigateThe technician said it was working properly, but couldn't explain the back-pressure in dry flush modeI asked *** if he had inspected the head himself, but he stayed above deck and said he didn't need to observe the operation because he trusted his techniciansFortunately, *** took the time to witness the problem, and later sent an experienced technician to replace the defective head pump
Regards,
*** ***

Hello I received a letter today saying we had a complaint from a customer of ours, [redacted].  I was not aware of the complaint until last week and have no idea how to respond to it.  We have never had a complaint to my knowledge in our 30 years in business.  Mr. [redacted] has...

had all items addressed in his contract with us and all are completed.  While we appreciate and value Mr. [redacted] as a customer, he was unreasonable in his expectations of time required to address the issues his specific boat had.  The work on this boat is custom and not off the shelf. All efforts to please him went without appreciation; no good deed goes unpunished.  His complaint further extends to criticizing our sub-contractors, specifically a bow thruster expert who refused to work on his bow thruster (our shop ended up repairing because the sub refused to do); again, no appreciation for the incredible amount of effort it took to get this done, just complaints on timing.  All other shops consulted said the thruster would not be able to be repaired as did the first contractor.  Our shop repaired his thruster; albeit not on the timeframe he demanded.  We further offered to launch his boat to use (the thruster is not necessary for the proper operation of the boat) and then haul, install and relaunch at our expense when the components were returned to our yard.  Mr. [redacted] chose to not accept our offer and now is logging his apparent complaint. Mr. [redacted] further criticized our canvas makers on his time it took to build his custom headliner.  Again, this is custom work.  Mr. [redacted] further complains that the sub-contractor we hired to soda blast his bottom was late and that we made no efforts to hire other soda blast contractors.  As explained continually to Mr. [redacted], our industry experienced the worse winter and spring in my 30 years of experience setting everyone back as most work could not be performed due to weather.  The sub-contractors are no exception.  The weather significantly impacted all of our schedules and all of our customers launch times (a point Mr. [redacted] continually refuses to acknowledge and behaves as though this impact was directed solely at him and his boat).  No other sub-contractor was available or willing to do his work within the timeframe we required other than the company that did the work.  Finally, Mr. [redacted] refused to return his boat to our yard for an Air-conditioning item to be addressed as he is required in writing to do.  As a further accommodation to Mr. [redacted], we sent a certified sub-contractor to his boat to address his issue.  While there, the Sub apparently made several recommendations to improve the system that the builder of the boat designed (Mr. [redacted]'s boat is a used 1997 [redacted] 44cc).  Mr. [redacted]'s complaint to my understanding is that he felt we should pay to have a 19 year old system that was designed and built by the builder of the boat to be now redesigned, even though it works.  This was not a reasonable request. Please call with any further questions. [redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # [redacted]. Please add your rejection comments below:Apparently Mr. [redacted] is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the service department because he does not have the facts correct as to what occurred during the 9 months that the boat was at his facility awaiting repairs. The purchase contact listed all items to be repaired and the timeline for launch, to which Mr. [redacted] agreed by his signature. If the terms were unreasonable, they should not have been accepted. The fact is the majority of boat work is custom because there are countless models of boats and numerous equipment combinations. All of the Cape Yachts employees that I dealt with before, during, and shortly after the purchase said there was plenty of time to complete the needed work before spring. The work done by the boat yard and its’ sub-contractors was very routine and none of the individual jobs should have amounted to more than 2-3 days effort for each.I was not aware that a bow thruster expert hired by Cape Yachts refused to repair the unit. I was only told that they were waiting for the sub-contractor to come back to finish the work, and was later told that the electric motor was bad. If an expert was contacted in a timely manner and refused to repair the bow thruster, perhaps the unit should have been replaced rather than waiting until the last minute to attempt to fix it. My purchase contract called for a working bow thruster. The fact that repairing this particular bow thruster proved more difficult than expected is irrelevant. Mr. [redacted] acts as if he did me a favor by completing the work as required by the contract. If fixing/installing a bow thruster was not possible I would have agreed to cancel the purchase agreement, however that option was not offered. If I wanted a boat without a bow thruster, that’s what I would have purchased. Expecting me to bring the boat back at a later date was not a reasonable expectation.Mr. [redacted] references the “worst winter in 30 years” as the reason for delays, however does not explain why work scheduled in October was not completed until July or later. Even with the harsh winter, there were several months of good weather between Columbus Day and Memorial Day, and many boats all across New England were soda blasted, bottom painted, and launched in the spring. Also, much of the work that needed to be completed was on the interior of the boat, and not subject to the outside weather. Examples include repairing the bow thruster, repairing the head and replacing the headliner. All of these were put off until spring, and the last two were only done after the boat was delivered.I did not criticize the canvas maker for the time it took him to replace the headliner. The fault for that delay goes back to people employed by Mr. [redacted] since they procrastinated in hiring a sub-contractor to do the work. It’s not the fault of the canvas maker that he was hired for the job 8 months after the work order was written up by South Wharf Yacht Yard. Once the sub-contractor was engaged, it took him about a month to measure for the job, and then another month to complete the work. I found this timeframe to be reasonable considering he took on the job in the middle of his busy season.The A/C unit on this boat was an after[redacted]et add-on; not one designed and installed by the boat builder. The purchase contract calls for the air conditioning to work, however this system does NOT work. The A/C sub-contractor is located in Tiverton RI and they completed one repair when the boat was in Dartmouth, but they have not been sent out since I took possession of the boat. A repair person at my local marina looked at the system and determined that the water pump is bad. Because the boat is currently kept in Bristol RI, 7 miles from the air conditioning sub-contractor used by South Wharf Yacht Yard, I asked if it could be serviced at my location which is 13 miles closer than South Dartmouth. Given all the prior delays, I wasn’t comfortable bringing the boat back for it to sit waiting for service yet again. The last I heard regarding this matter is the service department at South Wharf was waiting for a return call from the A/C service company. That was two months ago, so obviously they are not being proactive in following up on the issue, which a continuation of their past behavior. Regards,
[redacted]