A&E Marine is a clown show of an organization. My experience shows that they're in the business of "dartboard diagnostics", and try to throw parts at a broken boat until something works OR the customer gives up and leaves them alone.
I dropped my boat off in October of last year because my engine was stalling out on the water. They started by (wrongly) installing new low and high pressure fuel pumps and serviced the VST, but the issue was not fixed. Over the next 5 months, I proceeded to pick up and then return the boat to them 4 separate times because the boat was still in the same state as when I originally dropped it off in October. They replaced the fuel pumps multiple times, taking weeks or months each time and blaming "covid" and "shipping delays" but no, still not fixed. Meanwhile each time I returned the boat they put me at the back of the line after other customers, even though I paid up front after the first visit (so they had no incentive to continue working on my boat). I had to call and check in on the boat countless times, with no real updates, and the customer service and communication got worse and worse as the months went on.
After the 2nd or 3rd time returning the boat to them, they convinced me to buy a new $1000 ECM for the motor, and this didn't fix the issue either... I'm sure they'll respond to this with some smart@$$ comment about how I bought the ECM under my own will, but the truth is that their mechanic Neal told me he had diagnosed the ECM to be the issue with 98% certainty. When I asked what the remaining 2% chance was, he told me he never gives a customer a 100% chance, because "even if a boat sunk to the bottom of the ocean he would question if it was a submarine". Pretty convincing if you ask me.... but his diagnosis was WRONG.
I finally gave up after giving them 4 chances (5 months) to fix their mistake, and took the boat down the street to Randy's Marine, who had the boat up and running after 2 DAYS. Randy's Marine even waited after hours to sea trial the boat with me.
Hey Neal, Eddie, guess what? It wasn't the fuel pumps, it wasn't the ECM, in fact it wasn't the motor at all. It was a simple collapsed fuel line liner restricting flow from the tank. After I picked the boat up from you, I spoke with several certified Mercury technicians who told me the NUMBER ONE rule when starting to diagnose motor issues is to separate the boat from the motor, and after 5 months you guys still couldn't figure that one out.
I have a Mercury-certified second opinion stating that you lied to me about your supposed sea trials. Also, those splices you put in my fuel line to add the primer bulb and fuel-water separator leaked air like a SOB.
If you look through their review history, they tend to respond to negative reviews with very nasty responses about "non-boaters" which are almost certainly untrue. So, anyone who would like the facts, email or DM me and I'll share my collection of screenshots and written record of my conversations with A&E Marine.
TO CONCLUDE: I would caution anyone from ever trusting these guys with their boat. But if you do, make sure you use a credit card so you can dispute their charges, or lawyer up, because unfortunately that's where I'm headed with A&E Marine.
If Yelp ever updates to allow zero star reviews, I'll be back. See ya'll in court. read more