warranty protocol...

[tdc_worm]

hypothetical situation:

you buy a new boat and trailer from a dealership that uses trailer company x as their supplier of trailers. you then relocate to a different city where your local CC dealer uses trailer company y as their supplier of trailers. while under warranty, you have issues with trailer x, take the trailer into the dealership that uses vendor y, and the dealership refuses to assist you in getting your trailer fixed/warrantied.

does that sound like good customer service? how about fair customer service? maybe no customer service? i guess i got hosed on my warranty because the trailer manufacturer does not sell direct to the public and only works with dealers, of which my local one refuses to get involved. it sure is enough to make you reconsider what brand boat you buy when you cannot even get the dealership to help you out. i think MC may be on to something by building their own trailers. hats off to skiers choice whom only uses one brand, also.

[NautiqueJeff]

RE: warranty protocol...

Have you tried contacting the trailer manufacturer directly? Even if they say that they only talk to dealers, you might try calling them and explaining the situation. What happened to the trailer?

[tdc_worm]

i have contacted ramlin, and because they dont retail the public, they insisted that i have a dealer call them.

what happened to my trailer? this was taken from a previous post of mine:

i am probably just an odd instance but here have been my issues (most of them are related to one central problem), on a trailer that is now 1 yr, 1.5 months old:

1) tongue jack broke
2) coupler lock (inside the tongue) has somehow bent, making it nearly impossible to get on/off the ball
3) right rear wheel caliper blew (nothing like losing your trailer brakes on a 6k lb load)
4) coupler dampner blew (makes the trailer jerk when taking off)
5) buddy bearing flew off

the next issues are all related to what i perceive to be a design flaw which is the axles are not centered under the correct spot on the boat:
5) the trailer is so tongue heavy it makes an F250 squat like it has 1500 lbs of tongue weight. it will make a 1/2 ton truck almost bottom out.
6) the LED light bar on a crossmember under the boat broke off because we have to POWER unload the boat (reverse prop wash) no matter how steep the ramp or how far we back in
7) because it is so unbalanced, the tail wags the dog and absolutely kills my motivation to tow more than 10 miles.

for the record, i have owned several boats, so even though i am prone to being an idiot, my past experience should rule that hypothesis out. the best trailer i have had was boatmate under a moomba...you could try loading that thing from the side at full throttle with you eyes closed at night while simultaneously attempting a power turn and it would always load perfectly.

here is the best part: i have called ram lin several times for help. have given them my trailer VIN, etc. even though i offered to buy replacement parts in order to avoid the down time of warrantying the boat at the dealership, i was given the run around and ultimately told "no."

love my 220 and wouldnt trade it for anything other than a 220 with a differnt trailer...

[AirTool]

I don't officially have any problems yet....and I don't yet want to describe all my concerns. I'd like some "anonimity" (sp?) until I give them a chance to help me out with some "personal problems" that I'd like to fix with respect to my new trailer. The short of it is that I feel as though I was limited because you don't work more closely with Ramlin on specifying your trailer. I feel Ramlin is limited by their "boat" dealer.

I too am now in a similar position as tdc_worm. I'm >1000 miles from the dealer I purchased from. What my local dealer sells I don't know and don't really care. I want to talk to the factory trailer expert...not a boat salesman.

If they dis me, it will confirm they do not care about their customer.

I have a solution if I don't get at least "information" to my satisfaction. I don't mind purchasing repair/conversion parts through a dealer of any type. (And note, I will not be asking for anything for free. I plan on paying to fix my personal preferences myself. It will teach me a lesson. The message here is that maybe everyone can learn from others mistakes.

Finally, like their trailer or not....ditto the comment on Skier's Choice.

[BigBald]

you might talk to the dealer that you bough the boat from. Perhaps they could then talk to your current dealer...on big happy family after all.

Also, have you asked Ramlin who their local representative would be in your area? Perhaps there is another "non-boat dealer" that can handle Ramlin Warranty issues?

[ffmedic74]

I had some major issues with the first Ram Lin trailer I had. I spent about $400 at a local trailer shop and still had issues with it. I had the trailer shop call Ram Lin about the issues. Once both parties understood what was going on, Ram Lin gave them the correct parts etc to fix the trailer!