Boat dealers

[ndfishin]

I have a question about boat dealers. I don't want to start a pissing match but in 40 years of buying boats I have yet to find a good dealer in North Dakota. When buying a new boat should you have to leave it at the dealer for 2 1/2 months to get some warranty work done? On new boat should your radio go out, power trim leak, put in wrong battery twice and have some knot head install a kicker on top of transom support screws so motor doesn't fit flush with transom. I was just wondering if I expect to much quality from a dealer. Sorry for the rant but this is two different dealers.

 

[guywhofishes]

good gravy!!

- it seems all industries are being drug into the ghetto of ##### service

 

[dodgeguy]

Can't get what u pay for anywhere any more. Promise the world till they get their money then its see ya baby

 

[SDMF]

I hope your warrantee work isn't dependent upon one of the manufacturers owned by Brunswick. Brunswick only wants to communicate with dealers and considers the end-user to be lower than snake-shit.

 

[Pheasant 54]

Wow this is like stock brokers to me , not a single one I ever used was worth a damn, only looked out for themselves, did much better myself

 

[Retired Educator]

I'm well past worrying about any warranty work with the age of my boat so don't have any advice along that line but I do know that some employers are right now struggling to find help. When unemployment pays what they are currently paying why go to work when you can sit back, collect your check, and fish all day with the rest of those of us who are retired? The desire to do a good job and quality work is rapidly declining. Too many in the work force are only interested in collecting their check and don't take pride in their work. The government is becoming enablers for laziness.

 

[eyexer]

That’s gonna end next week. Parties over

 

[Zogman]

good gravy!!

- it seems all industries are being drug into the ghetto of ##### service

Good service persons and mechanics are hard to find and they are not paid enough. My opinion only.

 

[ndfinfan]

I had a good experience with Blakes Marine in Devils Lake last year when I bought my Lund...but maybe I got lucky?

 

[ndfishin]

These are the kind of answers I was expecting to hear I was just wanting to confirm. I have owned boats for 40 years so not new to the game. I bought my retirement boat and yes it is a Brunswick product I was hoping things had changed but not so. I was going to mount the kicker myself but lifting onto transom was not an option. Also thought they could just use the screw clamps to hold in place but motor did not come with them. I feel sorry for the people who have to take there boat in for repairs service is a joke. I also had a bad speedometer when I got my boat they looked at it twice (read 1/2 speed ) when I got it back the last time it did not read at all. I lifted the cover and plugged in the sensor and now works fine just had reroute wires. I was an electrician in Navy and worked as a mechanic for over 40 years so most things I fix myself. I have had Lund and Yarcraft boats so not new to servicing my own stuff. This keep it local hype is a bunch of crap as far as I am concerned. It gets you nothing if they cant fix warranty items. Thanks for listening.

 

[RPNLPS]

Honest dependable work ethic went out the door when they said we couldn’t discipline our kids or we would go to jail for child abuse!

 

[SLE]

You say you’ve owned both Lund and Yar-Craft. I’m a Yar-craft person myself and both dealers I’ve worked with have been great. Bought one from Sherm’s Marine in wabash Indiana and he had it setup spot on. I had the radio antenna mount break which he sent me a new one immediately and out side of that the rigging was perfect. Great boat, great price, great dealer!

my last one came from North Country Marine in garrison. I’ve had a few minor issues and every single time, I’ve dropped it off Sunday night and picked it up the following Friday and warranty has covered everything. No questions asked, nice people, overall they do a good job. I will say I’m nice to them, treat them with respect, and make sure you understand the problem and what might go into fixing it and it goes along ways. I have had my 219 in 4 times for warranty over the past two years and they’ve put me back on the water with a week everytime!

With that said, I’ve also bought and had work done on other boats that didn’t have as happy of an ending. I moved my money and business elsewhere. That was after having a respectful conversation with them and still receiving no or little satisfaction.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

Nice to hear it when someone gets good service and then comes on and tells us about it and lists the dealerships name also. The ones that own and run a reputable business need to be rewarded with more customers wanting their service. This is the way it used to be back in the day. If you gave $hit service you went out of business fast!

 

[ndlongshot]

I second north country marine in garrison. I didnt buy there, but had a solenoid go out on my big motor on a friday afternoon while trying to camp at the state park foR the weekend. Couldnt trim my motor up. Big problem. Luckily it was high enough to trailer to garrison late on a friday. Called on my way and explained the situation, and their mechanic stayed after close up and installed the part in the parking lot for me. Saved the weekend for us. My only experience bit it was a good one. I didnt expect it, honestly.

 

[Petras]

I've never bought a bought from North Country Marine, but I did take my boat in once to get worked on and had a great experience. Was planning to leave it there for them to work on it. Guy came out looked at it, I wanna say he hooked a reader up to it, but it's been quite a while so I don't remember for sure now, and knew exactly what was wrong. Ended up being a disconnected wire, so he just plugged it back in and all was well after that. Literally 30 minutes and I was on my way with the boat instead of having to leave it behind to be worked on.

 

[Allen]

I think the tree we are not observing in this forest is that ALL dealerships have their "fair' share of good and bad outcomes. I've not yet bought a new boat, but have owned an Alumacraft (older, no dealer shit required), a Smoker Craft (again, never needed dealer help) and a nearly new Lund (once again, no warranty problems etc). Bottom line is that none of these dealerships would be in business if the shitty stories/experiences were the norm.

Note, all the above doesn't mean I haven't had my own share of good and bad experiences. For example, and I don't mean to throw them under the bus here so much as to simply highlight my point of good and bad experiences from the same dealer. A few years ago I had bought a nearly new tritoon from River City sports here in Bismarck. About 3 weeks later the damn 150 Merc 4S on it decided to add some ventilation through the block. River City mechanics and service dept had me up and running with a new powerhead courtesy of Mercury within 2 weeks. Super happy about the service level I received from them!

Around the same time, my other fishing rig needed a new water pump impeller and stator work. I decided to have them also do the wheel bearing repack. Jesus H. Christ! I didn't get 1,000 miles out of the fugging bearing service job that summer before I had to have the spindles replaced. Near as I can tell the tech didn't put any thought into tightening the bearings down and I burned up both spindles, one didn't even seem to have a cotter pin in the retainer. Cost me about $600, but since it's on a boat trailer and the crap they go through...I didn't think it was even worth bringing up with the service dept. Needless to say, I've once again picked up the bearing duties.

Other than that ONE experience, I've had nothing but good outcomes at that dealer. I'd think if the majority of quality that came out of there was akin to the bearing job, they'd be some out-of-work, hungry, SOB's.

 

[FlatTopPete]

I’m not here to drag anyone’s name through the mud when they can’t defend themselves so all I will say is I also had a horrible experience with a boat dealer in the Bismarck/Mandan area. I will never go back to that dealer again and I have darn near sworn off that brand of boat as well.

I don’t know if it’s arrogance or if it’s the type of industry they are in but boat dealers don’t seem to care about keeping customers happy in my opinion. It’s almost like they try to screw you as bad as possible and who cares if you come back because there’s hundreds of other suckers out there that will. Obviously not all boat dealers are like this but there sure seem to be a lot of them in North Dakota.

 

[Buckmaster81]

Customer service has really went to crap the last 10 years or so. I bought a new lund last year and overall a pretty good boat, but any issues Ive had have been like pulling teeth to get answers. 1st off boat didn't perform like it should on 1st outing. I did some quick research and the prop had 2 degrees to much pitch for my application. Called dealer on it and they said "no that prop will work great once the motor is broke in".... so i stick with it for a few more outings and it clearly is not the right prop as my motor could not achieve the correct WOT rpm. Call dealer "we can't swap you props cuz yours is used, but will cut you a deal on the one you need..." their "deal" was mercury suggested retail price.....

Now 4 weeks ago my thru-hull fitting for the front livewell broke and they've ordered me the wrong part 3 times and everytime "oops sorry that should've been right"

I've tried to speak with/ email lund and that get you NO WHERE as they only deal with their DEALERS....

 

[Migrator Man]

I have only heard good things about North Country Marine in Garrison. I know people who go out of their way to take their boat to them for service.