Midlantic Marine Center, Inc.

This letter is in response to your letter dated 07/21/15 addressing additional concerns regarding this case.First I would like to say that we have already addressed all of these same concerns in detail in our original response. At this point I have had enough of Mr. [redacted] personally attacking me by saying "He is only interested in what more he can make off you in the future", "He tells lies and has selective memory." "His game is to try to let him do all the work on your boat." "He wants it all and will do everything in his power to achieve that." Etc. At no point did we ever suggest that Mr. [redacted] has to have his service work done by our company, but only an authorized mercury Marine Dealer as is substantiated in the documents already provided . This includes an excerpt from his owner's manual and his warranty sheet that he signed off on. If we really had as poor of customer service as Mr. [redacted] states, we would not be I n business as long as we have been with such high CSI ratings. Again this boils down to he doesn't want to pay anything for his repair even though a portion of it is maintenance and is not covered under warranty and was necessary to complete the proper repair of his engine.I would appreciate a timely ruling and response by your organization to put this issue to rest finally and remove any negative comments from your site that may arise from his complaint. I am afraid that I am left with no alternative but to contact my attorney and file suit against Mr. [redacted] for all of his harassment (to other agencies besides the Revdex.com) as well as for slander and defamation of character for personally attacking me and calling me a liar. This needs to stop. It is a great business philosophy to believe "the customer is always right" but this is one case where the customer is dead wrong and we have never in 15 years in business have had to deal withsomeone so unreasonable. Mr. [redacted] stated that "I am not paying for unnecessary work done on my engine due to incompetence on the part of Midlantic." In our initial response we already discussed that everything was done with the direction of Mercury's Dealer technical assistance.He has tried to put words I n my mouth (again) by stating that I know he will never be back to me therefore he wi ll not refund my $199. That's is not what was said at al l. I stated "I know he states he will never be back here for service and that works out fine as we will never do anything for him warranty or maintenance related ever again."As for us not offering to help a 67 year old man to help hook up his trailer to his truck we would be more than happy to do that for anyone who would ask and I have done it myself on many occasions. His age has nothing to do with anything. This is a "petty" comment, but as far as the trailer sitting in "tall grass", our lot is cut every week to 10 days and is never "tall". This is just something else for him to complain about.We are re-including all original documentation to make it easy for you to reference. Also we are enclosing a copy of a chargeback reversal from Mr. [redacted]'s credit card company to show that they have sided with us and the charges are his responsibility. Also, you will find attached the original charge back notification including our response to them which was sent along with the same documentation sent your agency.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Saturday, July 11, 2015 I reject Midlantic's response to my complaint. I will not stand by for poor customer service. [redacted] the owner is only interested in what money he can make off of you in the future. He tells lies and has selective memory of what he tells you. Basically he charged me $199 for work I did not authorized nor did it fix the problem and he did not supply any defective parts. Upon taking the boat back to him they fixed the problem under warranty, after another week of having the boat. I am not paying unnecessary work done on my engine due to incompetence on the part of Midlantic. He stated in his response that he knows I will never be back to him, therefore he will not refund my $199. There customer service is so poor they don't even offer to help a 67 year old man, help to hook his trailer up to his truck. Did you ever try to back a truck up to a trailer by yourself, when the trailer is sitting in tall grass (can't move trailer by hand) ? His game is to try to let him do all the work on your boat. He is not satisfied that I spent $23,000 to buy the boat from him, I bought the oil, filters, lubes from him or paid $560 to have the pontoons painted. He wants to winterize your boat, store your boat, and ready it for spring. He wants it all and he does everything in his power to achieve that. I have never been treated so poorly in my 67 years of life.

This letter is in response to the complaint filed about customer service issues. Mr. [redacted] purchased a boat/motor and trailer from our company during a boat show in Ocean CityMaryland in mid-February 2013. He took actual delivery of the package later that spring. During the paperwork process, one...

of the forms that he read and signed was a new boat service and warranty form.Some of the highlights of the form (i nclud ed for review) are:#2, "Customer must properly maintain the boat and engine to keep the warranty in effoct. Your engine may require a service after the I nitial break-in period. This is not covered by the engine manufacturer and any service and transportation fee will be the responsibility of the customer."#3 "You must properly winterize the boat and engine prior to winter. Some engine models require computer programing by a certified dealership to be properly winterized. Failing to properly winterize your boat and motor will VOID your warranties."#6 "The boat and engine warranties do not cover road service, haul-outs or towing."#7 MMC will provide customers with one free service call for a warran ty related item in our local area during the boat warranty period. This is a complimentary service from MMC and we do not get reimbursed for service calls by the manufacturer. Any subsequent service calls on transportation charge will be the responsibility of the customer."We send out semi-annual spring and fall service flyers, as well as a check off sheet for recommended services with prices. The fall flyers have a large block at the top that states "Your Boat is a Large Investment, Do Not Trust Your Investment to a Non-certified technician or skimp on proper recommended maintenance." The spring flyer contain an Important NoticeBlock that states "Please fill out the spring work request form and return to us as soon as possibleto reserve a date and time. Keep in mind there are a limited number of openings for delivery per day. This is a first come first serve basis." Also on our spring work request check off sheet it states "Remember we need 2-3 weeks' notice to schedule delivery of your boat during the busy times. Schedule early to guarantee your date!!" We stress this or we have several hundredcustomers who all want their boats ready in the spring and there is always a 2-3 week backlog for service work not only with us but all local boat dealerships.My service writer Bonnie was contacted by Mr. [redacted] on 05/12/ 15 about a service request and informed him we were backed up over 2 weeks but would do our best to work it inthe schedule sooner, she was able to get our lead tech, [redacted] to talce a quick look at his motor on 05/16/15. [redacted] came in and took myself and Bonnie out to look at all of the corrosion and salt spray on the engine and under the motor cowl before he ever started working on it. He said itlooks as though it has never been maintained properly. He ran some diagno stic tests with our mercury computer and found multiple codes and would need more time to get involved I n it but not until after a11 of our presched uled work was completed for the busy Memorial Day Weekend . Mr. [redacted] was called and informed of this even though he claims he was never called by us.When [redacted] resumed work on the engine on 05/28/15 he found moi sture in the electrical connectors that could be causing the faults. Also the engine was not coming up to the proper temperature which is required to get a proper reading. [redacted] had to clean the engine and  connector as well as replace the thermostat in order to get a proper computer reading. Once this was done he was able to get a fault code on an injector and replaced it. Ifyou refer to the statement of facts under 05/28/15 written by Bonnie, this will address this issue and repair in more detail. Customer was called and told engine was running with no alarms but throttle body was also going to get replaced under warranty and were back ordered but he could pick up and use the boat in the interim. Boat was picked up on 06/02/ 15 and we were called on 06104115 stating there was another alarm. Customer brought the boat back so we could replace the back ordered throttle body that had since come in and found another injector that had gone bad which was also replaced under warranty at this time. The customer was only charged a small amount for the cleaning of the salt corrosion and for the replacement of the them1ostat which is not a warranty item but a maintenance item. The techn ical service department was contacted by MMC several times during this repair and was done in accordance to their standards and procedures.Mr. [redacted] has not bad their boat back to MMC for any of this required  routine spring or fall maintenance  since taking delivery  in the spring of 2013. It is our true belief  (as well of that of Mercury Marine based  on my conversation with them on 07/1/15) that there issues could have been prevented  if the boat/engine  were maintained  properly  by a certified technician . Mr. [redacted] states in one of his social media rants that he had owned a boat for IO years prior with only one problem.  We don't know if his prior boating experience was in fresh or salt water  but unfortunately  salt water boating  does require more diligence in strict maintenance. Mr. [redacted] also received  a copy of the mercury owner's manual at delivery that states on page 6 w1der general  exclusions section. Item  3 "Damage  caused  by  neglect/lack  of maintenance  accident, abnormal operation or improper installation or service."#4 "Haul out, launch, towing charges etc." "All related  transportation  charges  and/or  travel  time, etc." "Customer  must  deliver  product to an authorized dealer."  We are also including a copy of a statement from  mercury that talks about proper maintenance  in order to keep the extra 2 year mercury  gold warranty  i n effect that was given to Mr. [redacted]. (There is a copy of bis original  purchase  agreement  attached  showing where he received  this.)In their statement it says "Mercury marine reserves the right to make coverage contingent  upon  proof of proper maintenance. Service must  be completed  by  a mercuryauthorized dealer and use genuine mercu ry parts, oils and lubes." Mr. [redacted] said he called mercury and they told him this was not true. When I spoke to mercury on 07/01/15 they assured me the above statement was true and not sure who would have told Mr. [redacted] otherwise.I have also supplied a copy of our most recent mercury customer service index rating based on all of our mercury warranty work surveys over the last year. We have a 100% rating. This does not come easy and complaints like Mr. [redacted] are extremel y rare. Mr. [redacted] also states on one of his "Yelp"rants that when buying the boat I gave him my cell number and told him to call me if he needs anything. I gave him my cell number so that he could reach me back while off site at the boat show that weekend to take advantage of the boat show incentives being offered. It was never intend ed to be used for anything else as we have a business phones here at work that I can be reached on. We have approximately 600 service customers and it would be impossible for me to field all of their calls on my cell phone. I am sorry that 'Mr. [redacted] took that as I am not "His best buddy."In conclusion I do feel bad that Mr. [redacted] has had some issues with his boat and appreciate that fact that he purchased new to try to avoid some of this. I know he feels as we are blaming him for the problems but I have been in this business for quite a long time and honestly believe that proper maintenance would have been able to prevent most of it not all of theseproblems. The small amount we charged was fair and customary. We could have recom mended mercury to not replace either injector under warranty due to the extreme salt water crusting of the engine. We did not do that but rather pushed mercury to cover them. As far as his request to pay him our regular rate to haul a boat out on our trailer with our vehicle and our driver to bring it to and /or from our shop (Which we would have had to do twice anyway as he knew the throttle body was back ordered when he picked the boat up the I51 time) is an un reasonable request.Especially considering all the documentation supplied that states this is the customersresponsi bili ty. We also feel bad the customer has lost confidence in the Mercury product and our service department. We do pride ourselves on being customer focused and taking care of our customers which we feel we have done. IfI felt any obligation in refunding Mr. [redacted] anything it would  be done. It is a small amount of money but after all of his trashing us on several social media sites, reports to the Revdex.com, calling Mercury and threating to contact other agencies. I am not interested in giving Mr. [redacted] anything else as he wi ll never change his opinion. I know he states that he will never be back here for service and that works out fine as we wi ll never do anything for him warranty or maintenance related ever again even if he changed his mind due to his unreasonable expectations and demeanor.Please feel free to contact me with any further questions relating to this matter.