Has anybody been denied a 25 hour service by a CC dealer?

[Hollywood]

Re: RE: Has anybody been denied a 25 hour service by a CC de

Correct Craft should promote free service for the first year at least.

You're high.

[HS]

I just went through this with MC. They wouldn't negotiate on price on a leftover 08
X15 when I told them I will shop elsewhere they said they wound only work on it
after their boats were done if they had time . That ruined all trust and I went to CC
and tested the 230 and 210 .

Last fall, I got a small taste of this from a CC dealer. When we started looking for boats, we went to see their used stock. At the time, I was looking at a 206 and didn't think a 211 was in the card$. After looking at it, we decided not to test ride the 206, but they had an '05 211 they offered us a test ride in. Sweet. By chance, about a week or two later I found a used one on PN. I called the dealer to say thanks and to tell him I found a used SV-211 with low hours that was for sale by a private seller. I said, well even if I do buy that one, at least I'll still be a service customer with you. Little did I realize, I'd insulted him. I was told "we take care of the folks who buy from us and the rest have to wait". I suppose that was meant as an incentive. A week later I flew to CA and bought the private seller's. (it was two model years newer, a Team Edition, super clean with 12% of the hours and about $3 k more. I thought it was an obvious choice)

What it I who spoiled the opportunity for a good dealer / service relationship?

Should I accept being a lower priority customer?

[SkiTundra]

Our local MC dealer places a high priority on excellent service, regardless of someone purchasing a boat from them or not and regardless of the make of the boat. Since my CC dealer doesn't do custom audio and lighting and the place he uses didn't have much interest in doing the lighting stuff, I called MC. They went out of their way to pull everything together for our new CC. These guys have a stellar reputation in the area with everyone I've talked to and this service oriented approach of theirs is why they sell more MC's than all of the CC's, Bu's, Centurians, and Tige's put together. The service they're performing this year isn't necessarily for this year's revenue, but for the revenue they hope to get in 2 or 3 years when it's new boat time.

[SuperSquirt]

I think Correct Craft should man up on labor hours and seriously monitor the customer service coming from their dealers. I know new boat owners get the detailed survey in the mail to grade dealers, but used Nautique buyers should also get this option. I have heard way too many bad customer complaints on this forum about their dealers and service depts (not including my own). Its sad that some of us are getting better customer service from an $8/hour employee at Chick-Fil-A than we do at our CC dealerships. If CC wants to maintain its superior brand image in this industry, its going to have to work hard to keep it.

[OHLNautique]

I took my new 210 in yesterday for 25 hour and to fix another problem and got it back this afternoon. They are family friends and I'm sure that helped, but that's still great service!

[kyarnall]

RE: Re: RE: Has anybody been denied a 25 hour service by a C

I own a 03 210 and am looking to sell and get a new ride. Looking at CC, MC, and Malibu. Really makes me question CC and especially from Smith Mountain Lake. They wont be getting my business and they are probably the closest dealer to me.

[SkiTower]

I own a 03 210 and am looking to sell and get a new ride. Looking at CC, MC, and Malibu. Really makes me question CC and especially from Smith Mountain Lake. They wont be getting my business and they are probably the closest dealer to me.

I talked to the dealer up there once, but I had my Gekko at the time and needed a prop. Wasn't ugly but wasn't helpful either (didn't tell me there was a prop shop right down the road).

"too far" is a matter of opinion, but I think you're close enough to Burlington NC (Whitelake dealership). I know I harp on them, but I can honestly say I own a CC simply because I was going to buy my boat from them and that's what they sold.

[J]

I don't know what's the big fuss.... it kinda all makes sense to me.
I know that if I buy a car/boat/equipment that if I don't buy it locally, it may be a pain to get fixed/warranted.
There is a huge mark up on boats (10-25%).......I own a company (not a boat company) and sell "stuff" for a living and service them too....and yes....I treat my buying / returning customers like gold. I don't however, deny other customers service, I just give them low priority and charge them more sometimes. What some need to understand is that warranty issues are not only a pain for the consumer, but for the dealers too. There is often a fine line between what the dealer pays for, and what the factory pays for......and the labour portion of the job is usually based on factory allocations, and theres also no mark up allowed on materials for these claims. This wont change if you buy a MC or Bu next time either.

It all comes down to making the right decision for yourself.
Me; I bought an 07 CC boat with 42 hrs on it last summer from Missouri, and I live in western Canada.
I know I saved a ton o cash, huge amount, enough to justify paying a little more when it comes to servicinig it, and to deal with the headaches of possible warranty claims down the road. That's why I did it. If I was only gunna save 3-4K, I prolly wouldn't have bought elswhere, but I saved alot more than that, and I'm happy I did.
Maybe next time my local dealer wont be as greedy.

[andyray]

I agree with SuperSquirt's comments.

I don't think it's reasonable to have third-class or "as available" service for a boat under warranty. I can see some *minor* additional perks available to customers who purchase from that dealer, but these should be "over and above" type things. (like waived dockside service fees, free oil changes, etc) But not the basic stuff, such as being able to get service. This should be the same, regardless of where the boat is purchased. I believe that it is Nautiques responsibility to ensure it's customers that the dealer network is performing consistently.

Behavior such described in this thread is just bad business for all parties....

For the dealer who is treating their customers this way, they really aren't thinking long term. First, they've already lost, or are about to lose the initial boat sale, so something is already fundamentally wrong with their value proposition. Their business is already sick, they need to figure out how to fix it. Second, why would they not be building a relationship and positioning the next sale, even if it is two years down the road? People who buy Nautiques usually buy more, and so do their friends. Frustrating them is a great way to build sales pipeline for Malibu and MasterCraft. For Nautiques as a company, this is bad for a bunch of reasons. Bad experiences with dealers won't sell more boats, and JDPower awards are hard to win with frustrated clients. From a resale perspective, warranty and dealer network is key.

The correct behavior should be clear - when you sell top tier boats, ensure your dealers are providing top tier service. I say name and shame these dealers who are providing substandard experiences, and contact Nautiques corporate for remediation. If I move out of Orlando, I want my Nautique to be supported! (It's also best for all of us to get this fixed from a resale/value perspective)

As far as the points made about dealers not making money on warranty work, I sympathize, but not much. That's the trade-off dealers have to make for a franchise, that's not our problem as customers. If the exclusive right to sell new Nautiques in their territory is not profitable enough for them while still doing warranty work and providing good customer service, time to close shop and give someone else a shot. I'm sure someone else can make the numbers work.

[jpski]

Re: RE: Has anybody been denied a 25 hour service by a CC de

I spoke to the owner of the dealership in VA, he is the one who personally denied me service, and gave me the explanation of why.

I bought the boat from Lake Cumberland Marine in Kentucky, great guys and yes, CC dealers.
Lake Cumberland were the ONLY dealership within 500 miles that would take my 38 ft Fountain in trade for a Nautique.

Correct Craft does not pay for 25 hr service and if you got the boat out of region they are going to have no interest in doing you favors. If i were you i would call up Lake Cumberland and ask them given the circumstances if they would pay for the 25 hour check.

[SkiTower]

Correct Craft does not pay for 25 hr service and if you got the boat out of region they are going to have no interest in doing you favors. If i were you i would call up Lake Cumberland and ask them given the circumstances if they would pay for the 25 hour check.

In 230konrad's original post:

I went to the CC dealer that is local to my lake home (Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia) and he refused to perform the 25 hour service on my 2008 230TE. The owner of the dealership mentioned that if he serviced the boat (service that I would pay for) they might find warranty items and it is not profitable for him to do warranty work.

He clearly stated he was going to pay for the service. They denied the service all together, not to provide free service. :?:

[230konrad]

You are right SkiTower, I offered to pay for the service.

By the way, the Lake Cumberland dealer called me to see how things were going and I shared the story with him. He offered to contact the local Smith Mountain Lake MasterCraft dealer and work out an arrangement with him to provide me with the service. Nice guys at Lake Cumberland.

[SkiTower]

now that sounds like CC Service.

[Ski-me]

Sorry for the long story…….skip it if you want.

I have to agree that a dealership treating someone poorly because they didn’t purchase the boat from them ultimately reflects on any future sales. We purchased our first boat that happened to be a 94’ MC that I found out of state. Excited to finally own our first ski boat, I promptly asked my local MC dealer (65 miles away) for some help on minor tune-up parts and a few repair parts. At first, they were a little confused on which parts went to my boat and then finally thought they got the right ones and mailed them out. When I received everything, a few items were incorrect…..wrong thermostats and wrong plug wires. A few days later we decided to visit the dealer in person to get the correct parts and start “gearing” the boat out. For some reason, there was definitely a lack of enthusiasm to help. I shrugged it off as the kids were excited to be there.

We started to look at 2 pairs of skis, some life jackets (12), a tube, a few wetsuits (5), gloves (2), rope, flag, fire extinguisher, paddle, etc. I also discussed getting a new prop, hot water shower and heater. Needless to say, I was ready to drop a lot of money in their shop.

My kids were excited at all of the new boats so they were climbing in and out of each boat having fun (also following their rules of no shoes and using the provided ladders). The owner said that the kids needed to get down as these were new boats. Huh? Talk about a wet blanket. Are the MC’s too delicate for kids to look around in them?!? They weren’t trashing them or abusing them, just excited to look around. I was a little surprised at his reaction.

As we were starting to collect the gear for a huge sale, I told him I didn’t need the new fuel gage pickup for the tank they mailed me as I found some adjustment screws that helped fix the problem. It was quite obvious that the part had never been installed with the gasket still taped to the side. The owner said that I couldn’t return it because it was electrical…..but don’t worry, I’ll need it later because they fail on a regular basis. Yes, technically I should not be able to return it but there should be a little discretion here looking at all of the gear I was about to purchase.

I decided that if the return policy was so strict, then perhaps we need to re-think this purchase. I certainly don’t want to have future problems if some of the gear I buy doesn’t work out and didn’t want to jeopardize their return policy (told this to the sales guy). So I told the kids to put everything back….tubes, skis, jackets, wetsuits, etc. I told the kids that we would do a little more shopping and check out another store that was just down the street. The sales guy heard this (and am sure he knew which one I was talking about) but said nothing as I suspect he was in agreement.

We drove down to the local BU dealer and dropped about $2,500 in gear that day and had a great time doing it. A huge difference in help! They bent over backwards to make ski recommendations, tube recommendations, etc. This is a way you treat customers. Haven’t been back to the MC dealer again and continue to drop more money at the BU dealer as a result. They also said they service all kinds of boats and would be more than happy to help on my MC anytime. That’s how you stay in business.

[JUST-IN-TIME]

reason why he dined the 25 hr is
no certified techs, shops only will get 50% pay of flate rate if they do not have up to date tech for warranty work
i know it sounds stupid but it is
the factory's wants somebody that knows what they are doing

that was plan dumb as a shop manager, how the heck turns business away?

we have had boats back logged cause we had to jump on PDI's
we told customer take the boat out this weekend and just come back, unless it was a major problem with the boat

oh ya, shops don not get paid for PDI's, they work it into your cost of the boat!

and all you guys that bought new boats, open up the owners manual and see if they filled out the PDI info, because i bet 99% of the shops did not!
i told my old owner saying, i need to go to the lake with the laptop to make sure everything is fine
he said we have never done that
i said well get the other tech to do cause I'm not putting my name on that boat
that went over good cause the other tech said me either, that is why we hired him (me)

and i have done over 200 PDI's this last year alone