Complained about poor customer service...now I feel bad about it.

So, I call my nearest dealership to schedule my first service on my 2021 Supra SA 450, they are backed up a bit so I get a date 2 weeks out on Feb 4. It's a 2.5 hour drive for me, so I drop the boat off on a Saturday before, with a plan to pick up the boat on the following Saturday. All good so far.

Thursday Feb 4 comes and goes, no word from the shop... On Friday Feb 5, I call to find out where we are, and was told the service mgr was out giving a demo and would get back to me. Sure enough, late Friday I get a txt message saying "sorry, we got swamped and didn't get to your boat, will get it done Monday, hope that's ok".

WTF ? What annoyed me the most is that I had to contact them to find out they blew me off. Had they reached out to me proactively, let me know they were running behind and asked for moving the schedule out, I would have no problem with that. So, I replied back that it wasn't ok at all, that I was annoyed w/ their lack of communication and not keeping their schedule with me given I booked 2 weeks ahead of time.

It was after 5pm Friday (tonight) when the service mgr responded that he would go back in and service my boat and it would be ready in the morning for pickup. Although I responded that I appreciated the can-do attitude, I also said that it wasn't necessary give it was late on a Friday already, just slot me in when they can and please keep me up-to-date. I felt a little bad about it. And to be honest, I'm also concerned that if he does perform the service off hours like this it will be done hastily, not to mention it will probably damage our customer/provider relationship.

Sigh.

It's been an ongoing issue in the industry. We see our boats as high dollar memory makers, they see them as just another unit at the dealer. I've been in fights with dealers as well on not getting to my boat or keeping it for extended amounts of time then the work still wasn't done. My current dealer is so much better. Pick your boat up, check it out. If all's good, after a couple weeks, send the crew a couple pizzas as thanks. That'll repair any damage done.

No reason to send pizza, but when scheduling an appointment, it's also best to figure out a pickup date with the advisor at the time. Lots of boaters use their boats very little, and don't care when the boat is ready. So service gets used to that mentality.
Repairs may be a little difficult to time since ordering parts is in play, but there's no reason for them to not be able to provide a pick-up date. Let them know that time is of the essence too.

LOL....I think I am getting free storage this winter. Went in two weeks before Thanksgiving and still not ready. 5hr drive away and I email every week. They say it should be done next week. There was a manufacture defect of a 6 inch crack to be repaired, nut not sure if thats normal. Don't like to discuss the dealers name, as they have been great on everything else over time.

Keep in mind.......these are “dealerships”

I do my best to lower expectations, but be clear and concise.

All you can do.


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Well, good to their word, they got it done Friday night, and I picked it up today (Saturday) and will have it out on the water tomorrow. Every business in every industry messes up, sets wrong expectations and "stuff happens"... its how you deal with it that separates bad businesses from great ones. This one stepped up in a big way and exceeded my expectations. The service manager who did the work wasn't at the dealership today when I picked up my boat, so I left a nice thank you note with a gratuity (enough for many many pizzas) as I sincerely appreciate this level of customer service.

The dealership in question here is Germaine Marine in Lake Havasu AZ. I highly recommend them, needless to say.

The service manager was probably sleeping after working on your boat until midnight. But hey pizza should make it better.


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you must be here in sin city. go easy on the guys in havasu :) it's a new dealership to germaine. don't know if they took over an existing repair shop and started peddling boats or started from scratch but it'll take them a little to get the kinks worked out.
Hope it doesn't end up being ran like their location in SLC. great sales guys up there but service was poor back in '17 when we used them and have seen a few posts over on TO that it's not much better recently. germaine in LHC will be our go to if we need any warranty work done so here's to hoping they "get it".

Pizza can't hurt. . . .

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Originally Posted by sandm

you must be here in sin city. go easy on the guys in havasu :) it's a new dealership to germaine. don't know if they took over an existing repair shop and started peddling boats or started from scratch but it'll take them a little to get the kinks worked out.

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I’m sure that dealing with Havasu boaters means they are at whits end from a-holes and jackasses.

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Originally Posted by 2in2out

I’m sure that dealing with Havasu boaters means they are at whits end from a-holes and jackasses.

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yup. lots of california cash in that town that only come in on the weekends. not a town I would want to be in the customer service business in......
sure his pizza went a long way with the team. or likely ended up in someone's pocket as a tip..