Tweet
I had a really bad experience with Attwood Marine Products this week....
I started working with customer service to look at getting a replacement for an Attwood product with a 10 yea warranty, that is just over a year old. At first the experience was pleasant, and not unlike my experience with other marine vendors. The wanted some proof of purchase, photos and info and said they would get a replacement out to me. I happily provided all this, and then the conversation with the customer service rep got strangely adversarial.
They started to deny that it was their product that failed, saying it had to be a fault somewhere else on the boat. When I provided proof that it was indeed their product, including a photo of a temporary replacement working just fine, they then seemed to acknowledge that their product failed, but started making up strange scenarios, based on no data, as to how it failed in a way that would be excluded by the warranty. I really could not believe it. Even with more information provided, more photos, etc. they just kept pushing back.
This was not an expensive product, especially when you figure what it probably cost them, so I am left scratching my head. After three days and 16 emails back and forth, they now want me to send the failed part back for "testing". In the meantime I have an inoperable boat.
As I told them, I really have no issue sending the part back - I have an issue with a boat not being able to be used while all this is going on, and while things are sent from the NW to Florida, tested and then eventually replaced from Florida to the NW (maybe). I have provided nothing short of 100% proof that it is their product that failed, showed that it was just failure and not caused by any other circumstance - and even ran it by a dealer to make sure I wasn't crazy. I am just going to count this as a lesson learned and install a competitors product.
It is up to Attwood to honor their warranty, and to set the terms, but I will NEVER purchase anything from them again and will likely remove their products from our boat over time (even the OEM ones) as I want to work with products I can trust, and companies that I can trust to stand behind them and get us back on the water quickly when there is an issue.
I understand things break or go wrong, and I am not upset by this at all. It is how a company takes care of their customers when things happen that is most important to me. In this case, Attwood Marine Products failed in a bigger way than their product did.
I started working with customer service to look at getting a replacement for an Attwood product with a 10 yea warranty, that is just over a year old. At first the experience was pleasant, and not unlike my experience with other marine vendors. The wanted some proof of purchase, photos and info and said they would get a replacement out to me. I happily provided all this, and then the conversation with the customer service rep got strangely adversarial.
They started to deny that it was their product that failed, saying it had to be a fault somewhere else on the boat. When I provided proof that it was indeed their product, including a photo of a temporary replacement working just fine, they then seemed to acknowledge that their product failed, but started making up strange scenarios, based on no data, as to how it failed in a way that would be excluded by the warranty. I really could not believe it. Even with more information provided, more photos, etc. they just kept pushing back.
This was not an expensive product, especially when you figure what it probably cost them, so I am left scratching my head. After three days and 16 emails back and forth, they now want me to send the failed part back for "testing". In the meantime I have an inoperable boat.
As I told them, I really have no issue sending the part back - I have an issue with a boat not being able to be used while all this is going on, and while things are sent from the NW to Florida, tested and then eventually replaced from Florida to the NW (maybe). I have provided nothing short of 100% proof that it is their product that failed, showed that it was just failure and not caused by any other circumstance - and even ran it by a dealer to make sure I wasn't crazy. I am just going to count this as a lesson learned and install a competitors product.
It is up to Attwood to honor their warranty, and to set the terms, but I will NEVER purchase anything from them again and will likely remove their products from our boat over time (even the OEM ones) as I want to work with products I can trust, and companies that I can trust to stand behind them and get us back on the water quickly when there is an issue.
I understand things break or go wrong, and I am not upset by this at all. It is how a company takes care of their customers when things happen that is most important to me. In this case, Attwood Marine Products failed in a bigger way than their product did.
Comment