Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

[BoatY21]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

Aero -

With the limited time I will have with the boat I will just try to check where I can. Like I said I am on crutches and have a stupid knee brace that really limits mobility as far as odd angles. I am going to have them pull it down to check the work they have done but it is not like they will leave it down all day. They will probably be standing around waiting to put the boat back up and go on break from their 10 minutes of work. I have never done work on the motor before so I am spending tonight going through the owners manual to familiarize myself with what to look for. Found some exploded views of the engine online from marine parts europe and a couple of youtube videos that show removing the raw/seawater pump hoses that were helpful too.

To be 100% honest I hope more than anything I open the engine cover and there are drops of pink antifreeze on the inside of the hull and it was serviced. I am so tired of dealing with these idiots.

Thank you for your help.

 

[GilligansIsland]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

If you are going to fight, you need to build a provable case. It's all about documentation and what you can prove. Since you also don't have a proper receipt, ask them for a winterizing contract or whatever paperwork they do have thy defines "winterizing", that way your bill for "winterizing" will now have the dealerships definition of it.

Then have it commissioned by a reputable marina and tell them your concerns. If there is damage, the professionals testimony is invaluable.

If there is no damage, but work was not done that should have been done, then you can fight for a partial refund.

This is all about the contract. You need to be very clear going forward when you have work done and get EVERYTHING itemized on the receipt.

Good luck

 

[BoatY21]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

Well what a mess.

First off, nope the boat was NOT winterized. Did not even have to touch the boat, one of the techs just came out and said it. The tech I assumed seeing the look of me wanting to start pulling limbs off someone looked back at the office and the manager looked up and saw me. Mr manager did not expect to see until April and the look of surprise was like I just kicked him in the bad place. The tech saw this and back peddled and said he did not think they did then said he would go ask.

An invoice was duct taped to the trailer jack with storage fee's listed and guess what - winterization! As I whip out mr flashlight and start to climb up on the boat the idiot service mgr comes out and says nothing was done but they swear the boat has been inside since the day I dropped it off. I 110% positively know that is not true now due to time/date stamps on pictures I was given by a friend. I did get up in the boat to find a complete disaster. They said they would cover the top of the boat and tape it down to prevent any sanding dust (effng fiberglass) from getting everywhere in the boat, nope. From front to back is covered in crap from what I assume is the last 6 months of them working on my boat and boats around it AND being parked outside getting filled with water, drying out, dust becoming mud etc.

I felt the migraine start at this point.

I told them that I am coming back Friday of this week and I want the boat pulled out in front of the service bay and to wait for me to arrive. I want that engine hooked up to muffs and ran in front of me. This is enough of a lead time to have this done so no bs excuses because I want to see the motor run. Sure no worries. And they will buff out the boat and get it looking good. Yeah Im sure.

Then I start looking at the boat. The gelcoat looks like crap, I can not express how bad it looks. The myriad of curse words I could use would offend pirates. There is ZERO shine to it any more and this on a boat which has been detailed twice a season top to bottom and cleaned after every trip. Its only been in the damn water 5 to 7 times. It now looks like it has been oxidizing in the sun for 5 or 6 years. They stated the work that was supposed to be done months ago would take a few days, then their "fiberglass" expert told me he spent a week on it. I walked up to the boat with a surefire flashlight and found five spots they missed in less than five minutes. This genius has the balls to look at me and say the following (I swear to god, I can not make stuff this stupid up) "Man I wish I had a light like that, trying to work on a dark colored boat in a shop with hardly any light... Im sure I missed a few spots.."

The migraine at this point feels like someone has strapped a .50 cal on top of my head and is trying to melt the barrel. They have had the frigging boat for 6 months, 6 frigging months. I left at that point vs doing something that would land me in jail. I had a mini melt down on my way home but it was better than what I wanted to do to those incompetent, inbred, mouth breathing wastes of space.

At this point I have given up. The boat looks like absolute 100% dog crap, the nice shiny exterior that I have spent thousands of dollars in storage fee's alone to protect is dull and there are spots the guy told me he had to "shoot with paint" what ever the hell that means. My detail guy said he would have to see it but his normal rate of 20/ft would be out the window if it was bad and if the idiots working on it have sanded down too much of the finish there would be nothing he could do. I wanted to completely ruin my day so I finished it off by calling a couple of places to see how much it would be to re do (not sure of the technical term) and I was ballpark'd around 8k, 10 tops. At that point a battle buddy of mine showed up with a bottle of macallan 15 year so at least there was that.

Thanks for listening.

 

[GilligansIsland]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

ouch

 

[Scott Danforth]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

contact your lawyer

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

I think the tough part will be to determine if there has been any damage to the engine. Simply running it on the muffs will not necessarily show if there is a crack, unless it is quite obvious. A pressure check of the cooling system may be needed as a more positive way of checking for damage.

 

[aerobat]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

has the boat been subject to below freezing temperatures for consecutive days/nights with a not drained block ?

if yes you have in 99,8 % freezing damage.

it may be only a shot manifold or a thermostat housing , it may be a shot head or a shot block.

this whole story somehow sounds to strange to be true since when you are smart enough for having the money on a +40000$ boat you should be also smart enough to figure it out with the dealer and stay away from such dumb and stupid people and prevent your +40000$ toy to be destroyed.

however, assuming this is for real :

-keep your invoice for "winterization"
-call you lawyer
-try to involve a surveyor who confirms the damage

 

[BoatY21]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

Never claimed I was I genius, hell I almost got married last year...talk about genuine stupidity.

I trusted these people based on many factors, the largest being that they blew sunshine right up my axx and were supposed to be the sh** with all things boat related. I have no family to help with things when I need help in life. I left my family at 14 which they did not care because they all had substance abuse problems, my father beat my step mother like a drum and my step sister put herself in a wheelchair from drinking and driving. Moved in with a grand parent who passed then I moved in with an uncle who I later found out was selling drugs and guns from the semi truck he drove. Left there at 16 and finished high school living in a friends basement, barely graduated and found myself with limited options for college. Got some free money for a local school and took my EMT-B classes and did that for awhile. I talked to a recruiter at 21, took the test and I scored high in science and math. I figured if the Army would take me then maybe I could learn a few things and grow up. I have two people in the world that I trust. One is semi local to me (5 hours away and has a family so he cant just drop things) and the other is in Florida. And Areo, even though these people have my best interest in mind they were not available to baby sit my boat either.

After going through what I did growing up lets just say I have trust issues. I don't have a real support group where I live as I do my job, collect my check and do things I want to do with me and me alone. In a three and a half week span I had the following happen -

Broke off my own wedding and kicked my ex fiance out for her basic laziness unless you count going to the mall three or four times a week and blowing my money when she had no job and could not take more than one to two classes at a community college because "it was super hard"
Found out I was going back to Afghanistan
My home loan got approved and that got finalized
As well as update my POA, find a place for my dog to go, move, etc etc etc etc....

All this at the same time left little time to hang out and stand over grown men to make sure my boat was being properly taken care of. From my perspective the dealer knew best, I took their word they would take care of the boat and when I saw nicer boats than mine sitting in the shop and coming and going, well I thought these people must know what they are doing. Trust me I know how much of a colossal mistake I have made even if you doubt it. I hate the feeling of failure because I was told by my own family I would never succeed so this is a real kick in the nuts, feeling like I these people screwed me for something I worked my butt off for.

This story is entirely true sad to say. I will make sure to take lots of pictures of said bs on the boat since there might be doubt although I don't know why someone would troll a boat forum? I have been really thinking about contacting a lawyer but I have no experience with them so I might have to look into that at this point. I do not know what else to do. My friend in Florida thinks it might look worse that it really is being the areas that have sanding spots are just dull and now covered in dirt and dust. I will have to find the pictures of what it looked like the day I dropped it off last year after it had been fully cleaned.

 

[BoatY21]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

I think the tough part will be to determine if there has been any damage to the engine. Simply running it on the muffs will not necessarily show if there is a crack, unless it is quite obvious. A pressure check of the cooling system may be needed as a more positive way of checking for damage.

What they told me was it has been inside since september. I know that I have someone that has driven by the place and taken pictures of my boat sitting outside in october and the first week of november. This was at the end of the year last year and I was deployed so I am not sure what the night time temps were then.

I figured if it is on the muff's and ran up to temp and there is anything major it will show. As far as pressure testing I will ask if they can do that, if I have to pay for it then so be it. After I post this I will search how to pressure test a boat motor since I am not familiar with how to do that. I drove by the place today and checked their two lots and my boat was not outside. It is supposed to be mid 20's here the next couple of nights so I guess that is a good thing its inside since I know for a fact it was not winterized.

I got online today and found some places to order replacement parts for what is considered the "annual service." I thought for a moment that I might attempt it myself, doing the impeller change, etc but not knowing what has or has not been done I have just reconciled that I am going to pay the new place to do the service. They quoted me 250 for the annual service and 200 to do the impeller and said knowing where my boat is coming from and what I have been dealing with they might cut me a break but would go over the boat top to bottom.

In a perfect world I would like to find someone local to me with years of fixing their own boat that wouldn't mind swapping their knowledge to me on a Saturday for pizza and beers. I really do not want to pay 500$ + bucks a year for something I could do in a day but it is what it is at this point. Next year I will be another year older and less stupid.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

Post your location in your profile . . . If someone on this board is near you, they might offer to help.

 

[aerobat]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

Trust me I know how much of a colossal mistake I have made even if you doubt it. I hate the feeling of failure because I was told by my own family I would never succeed so this is a real kick in the nuts, feeling like I these people screwed me for something I worked my butt off for.

try to relax and think carefully what options you have now and what option is the best for you.

since it is was a little confusing :

- do you have an invoice for winterizing or just for storing ? please answer clearly.

-when the boat was outside in october and november but inside a ( heated ) storage for the real below freezing winter nights you may have luck and get away without any damage to the engine. it all boils down to the question if the boat was subject to solid freezing of the water inside the block or not.


-fire it up on muff ASAP and look if it somewhere leaks water into the bilge. when yes, shut down immediately, when not let it warm up and look if you have milky oil.

with a little luck all this discussion may be only some cleaning /polishing work and not a cracked block.

now you must figure out if and if yes whatkind of damage you have.

and let me repeat : do you have an invoice from this dealer about winterization or just storage ?

 

[akorcovelos]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

If your active military why can't you contact JAG or whatever the lawyers for your branch are? I've had friends on car forums have similar experiences leaving their cars with shops for work while they are deployed and cars get wrecked, driven without permission, stolen, etc. and they have used the military lawyers with success. The military does not take kindly to businesses taking advantage of troops on deployment. Pretty sure it's a free service too. Thanks for your service!

 

[sasada]

Re: Help. Do not think mechanic's winterized my boat

Holy crap!!! Really? Really? Where are your from? I have no doubt if you tell us where you are from someone on here will get you going in the right direction. Best wishes.