Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/10/07) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted]
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@sbcglobal.net
Tires to Go (aka [redacted] & [redacted]) is filing this complaint as yet another in a series of diversionary tactics they have used to avoid...
paying their bills. This is not the first time that we have had to get to the point of a lien sale in order to get them to pay their bill. I will provide some history on this account to clarify each of their claims.
Tires to Go makes it sound like this was a recent repair, when, in fact, this boat was first repaired in 2012 (over 3 years ago). He waited over 8 months after picking his boat the first time to indicate that he had any problem with these repairs. The problems that he has & continues to have are not due to the repairs that we did. Regardless, our written warranty, which is clearly stated on the work order that this company signed is 90 days parts/labor warranty. The warranty from Mercury on engine is 1 year for defects on parts/workmanship only. While we were not obligated to, we did help him out on more than one occasion with his bill as good will. We want our customers to be satisfied with our work & we go well above what is required of us in order to keep our customers happy.
The first date this boat was brought into our shop on 6/19/2012 (3 1/2 years ago) for diagnosis of overheat & major oil leak. The motor had salt water intrusion in the cylinders & a knock from being ran low on oil. The customer was given an estimate of repairs for $5348, which included a remanufactured MerCrusier 4.3 Long Block (which is a block with heads). Tires to Go signed a work order that states: "90 days parts/labor warranty". The customer waited until 8/17/2012 to bring in the $1900 deposit that we required to order parts & begin repairs. The work was completed 10/11/2012, but they did not pick up and pay for the repairs until 12/5/2012 after we made numerous calls requesting that they do so.
Over 6 months later (6/18/2013) [redacted] brought the boat back stating that the engine dies over certain rpm and has a pop. He also asked for rear tail lights to be repaired & for us to fix lighter on plug. We ran the boat on our dyno. Rebuilt carbs again, drained old fuel out & put 7 gals on new fuel in boat due to water in fuel for the 2nd time. They Picked it up 7/17/2013
Three Months later (9/3/2013 ) the boat came back. Work order stated: won't start, acting like it is starving for gas. Carb jets were spraying gas and carbs were just worked on here. Our Mechanic's notes indicate that they found the fuel tank was full of water (nearly 2 gals of water in tank). We Flushed fuel tank & fuel pump, replaced fuel filter, R&R top of carb and cleaned out water. This is now the 3rd time that this boat has been brought in with water in the gas tank. Customer was advised that he needs to figure out how he is getting water in the fuel tank. After numerous calls to customer requesting they pick up & pay for the repairs, the boat sat here nearly a year before it was picked up on 7/21/2014 by [redacted]. We had to threaten a lein sale to get them to pick it up. This was the first time that I dealt with [redacted], up to this point, it has always been his partner [redacted] that was coming in. [redacted] was not happy about having to pay $395 for the work that was done to remove water from the fuel & he didn't seem to think that he should have to pay storage for the 11 months the boat sat here. I credited him all but $100 of the storage bill as good will in order to get him to pick up the boat. Even though we had no obligation to do so, we cleaned his boat (he left it here without a cover) and we ran & checked it prior to pick up on 7/2/2014.
About 4 weeks later (8/5/2014) the boat was brought in with a broken propeller (from him hitting something). [redacted] wanted us to replace prop with used prop if possible. He said it had a bogging issue. He asked that we call first for an estimate for all work. We put a new propeller on the boat & did a compression test on it. It had poor compression on 3 cylinders.This was from being run lean. This is most likely due to damage done from water in the fuel. We called [redacted] & advised him of this, and advised that we won't know the extent of the damage until we tore it down to see what it needed. [redacted] agreed for us to pull the head to diagnose further. He was upset at this point, but he agreed that the heads needed to come off. The heads were pulled off & we called [redacted] to advise him that it would be $2200 to replace the 3 damaged valves & reinstall the heads with new gaskets. [redacted] was upset & said he expects us to cover that expense & he won't pay for it. I explained that this isn't something that Mercury would have covered under their warranty, even if it was still within the 1 year period (the Mercury warranty expired 10/11/2013) & that this is not something that we are going to pay for. It was explained once again that he needs to get with his partner to figure out why they keep getting water in their fuel tank. We don't know if this is due to them swamping the boat, using contaminated fuel, someone vandalizing their boat, or simply rain water getting in because they store this boat outside, without a cover. In either respect, this is the reason for their continued problems with this boat, and they were made aware of this every time we talked to these people.
A day or two before the 4th July 2015, after not hearing from [redacted] for over 9 months, [redacted] called me very demanding. He stated that he wants his boat, fixed at no charge, and he wants it now. It was a very threatening call. I simply stated that I am not paying for these repairs.
I called [redacted] again in Late July & advised him that we had about $1200 in charges for tearing down his motor, and having the heads inspected, along with the new propeller he requested. I told him that we had not done any further repairs because he indicated that the was unwilling to pay for them. Once again, he stated that he has no intention of paying this bill.
We started a lien sale to recover the service bill(s) outstanding on this boat.
There have been many disputes with this customer, with [redacted] claiming one thing, and his partner, [redacted] claiming another. There is/was a lack of communication between the two partners in the boat. We have had to get to the point of a lien sale in order to get this boat picked up and paid for more than once.
I am very sorry that [redacted] (aka Tires to Go) feels that he has not been treated fairly, but we have already gone above & beyond what is required of us to try and help this customer.
Mr [redacted] needs to pay his service bill, pick his boat up, and find another shop that wants to deal with his antics.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/10/07) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted]
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@sbcglobal.net
Tires to Go (aka [redacted] & [redacted]) is filing this complaint as yet another in a series of diversionary tactics they have used to avoid...
paying their bills. This is not the first time that we have had to get to the point of a lien sale in order to get them to pay their bill. I will provide some history on this account to clarify each of their claims.
Tires to Go makes it sound like this was a recent repair, when, in fact, this boat was first repaired in 2012 (over 3 years ago). He waited over 8 months after picking his boat the first time to indicate that he had any problem with these repairs. The problems that he has & continues to have are not due to the repairs that we did. Regardless, our written warranty, which is clearly stated on the work order that this company signed is 90 days parts/labor warranty. The warranty from Mercury on engine is 1 year for defects on parts/workmanship only. While we were not obligated to, we did help him out on more than one occasion with his bill as good will. We want our customers to be satisfied with our work & we go well above what is required of us in order to keep our customers happy.
The first date this boat was brought into our shop on 6/19/2012 (3 1/2 years ago) for diagnosis of overheat & major oil leak. The motor had salt water intrusion in the cylinders & a knock from being ran low on oil. The customer was given an estimate of repairs for $5348, which included a remanufactured MerCrusier 4.3 Long Block (which is a block with heads). Tires to Go signed a work order that states: "90 days parts/labor warranty". The customer waited until 8/17/2012 to bring in the $1900 deposit that we required to order parts & begin repairs. The work was completed 10/11/2012, but they did not pick up and pay for the repairs until 12/5/2012 after we made numerous calls requesting that they do so.
Over 6 months later (6/18/2013) [redacted] brought the boat back stating that the engine dies over certain rpm and has a pop. He also asked for rear tail lights to be repaired & for us to fix lighter on plug. We ran the boat on our dyno. Rebuilt carbs again, drained old fuel out & put 7 gals on new fuel in boat due to water in fuel for the 2nd time. They Picked it up 7/17/2013
Three Months later (9/3/2013 ) the boat came back. Work order stated: won't start, acting like it is starving for gas. Carb jets were spraying gas and carbs were just worked on here. Our Mechanic's notes indicate that they found the fuel tank was full of water (nearly 2 gals of water in tank). We Flushed fuel tank & fuel pump, replaced fuel filter, R&R top of carb and cleaned out water. This is now the 3rd time that this boat has been brought in with water in the gas tank. Customer was advised that he needs to figure out how he is getting water in the fuel tank. After numerous calls to customer requesting they pick up & pay for the repairs, the boat sat here nearly a year before it was picked up on 7/21/2014 by [redacted]. We had to threaten a lein sale to get them to pick it up. This was the first time that I dealt with [redacted], up to this point, it has always been his partner [redacted] that was coming in. [redacted] was not happy about having to pay $395 for the work that was done to remove water from the fuel & he didn't seem to think that he should have to pay storage for the 11 months the boat sat here. I credited him all but $100 of the storage bill as good will in order to get him to pick up the boat. Even though we had no obligation to do so, we cleaned his boat (he left it here without a cover) and we ran & checked it prior to pick up on 7/2/2014.
About 4 weeks later (8/5/2014) the boat was brought in with a broken propeller (from him hitting something). [redacted] wanted us to replace prop with used prop if possible. He said it had a bogging issue. He asked that we call first for an estimate for all work. We put a new propeller on the boat & did a compression test on it. It had poor compression on 3 cylinders.This was from being run lean. This is most likely due to damage done from water in the fuel. We called [redacted] & advised him of this, and advised that we won't know the extent of the damage until we tore it down to see what it needed. [redacted] agreed for us to pull the head to diagnose further. He was upset at this point, but he agreed that the heads needed to come off. The heads were pulled off & we called [redacted] to advise him that it would be $2200 to replace the 3 damaged valves & reinstall the heads with new gaskets. [redacted] was upset & said he expects us to cover that expense & he won't pay for it. I explained that this isn't something that Mercury would have covered under their warranty, even if it was still within the 1 year period (the Mercury warranty expired 10/11/2013) & that this is not something that we are going to pay for. It was explained once again that he needs to get with his partner to figure out why they keep getting water in their fuel tank. We don't know if this is due to them swamping the boat, using contaminated fuel, someone vandalizing their boat, or simply rain water getting in because they store this boat outside, without a cover. In either respect, this is the reason for their continued problems with this boat, and they were made aware of this every time we talked to these people.
A day or two before the 4th July 2015, after not hearing from [redacted] for over 9 months, [redacted] called me very demanding. He stated that he wants his boat, fixed at no charge, and he wants it now. It was a very threatening call. I simply stated that I am not paying for these repairs.
I called [redacted] again in Late July & advised him that we had about $1200 in charges for tearing down his motor, and having the heads inspected, along with the new propeller he requested. I told him that we had not done any further repairs because he indicated that the was unwilling to pay for them. Once again, he stated that he has no intention of paying this bill.
We started a lien sale to recover the service bill(s) outstanding on this boat.
There have been many disputes with this customer, with [redacted] claiming one thing, and his partner, [redacted] claiming another. There is/was a lack of communication between the two partners in the boat. We have had to get to the point of a lien sale in order to get this boat picked up and paid for more than once.
I am very sorry that [redacted] (aka Tires to Go) feels that he has not been treated fairly, but we have already gone above & beyond what is required of us to try and help this customer.
Mr [redacted] needs to pay his service bill, pick his boat up, and find another shop that wants to deal with his antics.