All,

If you have a moment, I would like a 2nd opinion from some impartial bystanders on a controversy that has arisen between me and the local Moomba dealer.

Last fall I took my ’03 Moomba Mobius LSV to be winterized and have some odds and ends fixed. It was sitting in my garage, and when I called the mechanic told me that there were a few boats ahead of mine and so it would have to wait outside for a while before it was serviced. It was already cold, so I wasn’t crazy about that idea. So, I asked him to let me know when no one else was ahead of me. He called, I took it in, and everything was good. He told me that it would be indoors while it was being serviced. A few days later he called back and told me that the winterization was finished but that several parts needed to be ordered for the other work.

I said that was fine as long as the boat wasn't left outside. This place has a new storage area, and a large inside show room, and so he said that he would stick it in the corner and call me when it was ready. I jokingly told him that he could keep it stored out there until May if he wanted to, as long as it was ready for the summer.

We have had a number of conversations since then, always the same: telling me that parts were still ordered, confirming what kind of work that I wanted done, etc.
A couple of Sundays ago it was warm, so I took a drive by the dealership. What I found was that my boat had sat out in the back of their facility all winter long with no cover, no wrap, nothing. It was obvious that it had snowed in it, melted, frozen, etc, etc. I almost fainted on the spot.

Every one of their boats on the lot was covered. Only mine was left out. These people walked by my boat every day with snow in it and everything else and never once thought to even mention it to me. To top it all off, the owner became very belligerent when I asked him to look at it with me to determine if any damage was done as said “if you are implying that I might have any liability for anything that happened to your boat, we can end this conversation right now.” Then he told me “I learned a long time ago that no one is going to take care of my [expletive] the way that I will, and I’m sorry to be the one to deliver that message to you.” Until that point, I had been trying really hard to be civil. I am a huge Moomba fan, and I have no desire to have a bad relationship with the only dealer that is close to me. But that was too much to take. Perhaps he mistook my courtesy for weakness. The rest of the conversation went predictably downhill from there.

The question now is how do I determine my damages from this? Obviously, the boat suffered from all the exposure, but how do I put a price to that? My seats are covered in grime, the bilge area has water standing in it, etc, etc. I still owe him my repair bill, and unfortunately, I think we are heading to court with this one. I believe that he had a duty to treat my property with reasonable care while it was in his possession, and that by allowing it to deteriorate he was negligent in his responsibility. Small Claims has a limit of $5,000 here in Cincinnati, and so I will probably file there. What figure would seem reasonable to you, if no major issues are found? How do I get an estimate that would seem credible to a judge?

Thanks for your ideas.
Sick in Cincinnati