Maintenance in East Bay, SF Bay Area

[Hogdog]

Anyone have recommendations for local guys that are known well for servicing Nautiques around Danville CA? I know the dealers but looking for something closer to home that knows Nautiques best.

[SBRS]

Unfortunately I'm not aware of anybody in the Danville area. Your best bet is Central Valley Marine or California Marine Sports. I would love to have your business, but I'm in Rancho Cordova. If you need parts or have technical questions, please feel free to call me.
Bob Bense
Superior Boat Repair & Storage, Inc.
916-638-3382

[DanielC]

Shameless plug here.
I believe Superior Boat Repair & Storage, Inc. is in the same building that used to be the regional service center for Correct Craft boats. Bob Bense was in charge of it then, when I was sent down there, when I worked at a local to me, Correct Craft Dealer, for training on servicing CC boats. It was a first class operation, then, and I believe it probably still is. You owe it to yourself to at least visit.

[wake_fun]

Yeah, I think Bob was Vice President/ General Manager for West Coast Correct Craft, Inc.

[migs]

I know of a guy who used to be a Nautique Tech for 20+ years and is no longer with the dealer due to the economy and now serves as a mobile tech around the bay area. PM me if you want his contact info.

[SBRS]

Thanks Dan & Wake Fun. For clarification, I'm not in the same building as WCCC. I'm about two miles away. My building is not as fancy as the WCCC building (I could not afford the cost with the economy)...but my standards, cleanliness, customer service and commitment to quality are the same.

[Mikeski]

I am in San Ramon. Shoot me a PM and I'll hook you up with somebody locally.

I would avoid Bob Bense at all costs. He handled my last service needs at WCCC very unprofessionally (let the counter boy do his dirtywork while hiding in his office avoiding me). He did his best trying to deny my warranty claim assuming I was abusing my tower without even investigating what was on my tower. Even after my hull thickness was measured and verified to be less than the specified thickness. PM me if you need additional info. Bob, you are welcome to PM me and apologize for the way you handled yourself too. I am also happy to layout the whole story here on Planet Nautique here too.

Mike
mikeskiw@gmail.com

[wake_fun]

..............

[GoBig]

Bob did some work on my boat last season after I couldn't fix the problem. Based on my experience, I would definitely recommend Superior Boat Repair. Fair, honest, fast, friendly, and knowledgeable. He was able to get me in and out same day whereas other shops/dealers wanted to keep the boat for up to a week. My vacation would have been ruined. So I totally appreciate his efforts.

Mike, that is bummer about your experience, mine was the polar opposite.

[Mikeski]

Update...

Bob and I finally talked today. He had sent me a note a couple days ago but today was the first time we managed to connect. Since the issues with my boat happened more than a year ago and since Bob processed many boats his memory of the situation was a bit foggy. Since the situation is still very clear in my mind I was able to layout the series of events over the first few years related to the cracks on my hull and how I was handled. Bob apologized for not speaking with me directly at that time and I accept his apology. He also gave me some insight to how Nautique handled warranty items similar to the ones I had and it appears that his hands were tied and that my true issues most likely due to some things coming from the warranty claims department back at the factory. Bob also talked about the warranty waivers similar to the one I was asked to sign (which I refused). These apparently were driven by an individual in the warranty claims department and this individual is no longer with the company.

Fast forward to 2011. If I were going to shell out my hard earned money on a new boat I would not give Nautique the clear advantage as I did prior to owning my 2005. The margin of product superiority with Nautiques has clearly eroded in the past decade. I would still give consideration to owning a new Nautique, but also give serious consideration to owning one of many other boats including Malibu and Mastercraft.

For service work, if I chose not to do myself, I would consider California Marine and probably give Bob an opportunity too if he were closer. Bob probably has more knowledge of these boats than anybody else currently performing service on the west coast.

[wake_fun]

[xrichard]

I had a number of great experiences with Correct Craft West when Bob was running it...again, the opposite of MikeSki's experience. I've never dealt directly with Bob on any issue, but his facility, staff, and work was fantastic. It was quite a blow to my service-satisfaction when CC West closed shop.

I have a number of warranty items to take care of this winter and I just talked to Bob about having him take care of them. I'm looking forward to giving him an opportunity in his new shop. I'll report back, but I'm very optimistic that his service will be much better than what I've had since CC West closed.

[migs]

PM's sent.

[xrichard]

Following up on my previous post....I dropped my boat with Bob Bense at Superior Boat Repair for a decent amount of warranty work and some troubleshooting. I just picked it up last night--only a week later. I think he had all of the work completed in the first couple of days except for the portion that relied on parts shipping from CC. That's light-speed relative to my former service option. The work performed looks excellent, Bob was great about communication--letting me know status of parts, work, scheduling, etc., and he even buffed out some gel coat nicks without charging me for it.

All in all, having my boat serviced by Bob was a welcome return to good service...and it is similar to what I experienced the first year of my current boat ownership while Bob was running West Coast Correct Craft (before CC shut down the distributor model).

One more point of reference: A friend of mine dropped his Sanger with Bob earlier this week--very extensive damage after hitting bottom at speed. His job is much more complicated than mine but, so far, his experience has been very similar. Within a few days, Bob had the engine + v-drive out, the gel coat guy out to take a look, is successfully working with the insurance company, and is providing status updates.

So this is my unreserved plug for Bob. I want him to be successful and stick around to service my boat--it's nice to have a good service option in the Sacramento area and I'd like to keep it that way.

[Stef_Jelos]

Bob Bense runs a first class operation, period. I used to take my 211 to WCCC (towing two hours each way) and now to Superior Boat Repair. Warranty claims, repairs, parts...you name it, I've had it done with either WCCC or SBR and have nothing but the best as far as recommendations.

Bob has gone so far as to personally call me and check on an issue I had called and asked about weeks before! Knows his Nautiques and customer service is definitely first.