In short this boat shop does business in a very un-ethical way…read more
I took my boat to them with many concerns, Mainly the boat proposing and electrical. (Note they only take cash or check, and do not take credit cards because people challenge it, which makes sense because they tell you one price and charge you thousands more.)
Dana the owner walked the boat with me, seemed very knowledgeable explaining the order of repair we needed to do. ( Mechanical, Electrical, structural, then cosmetic) my boat is an older bay liner (1988), all that made sense. He quoted me $1,500.00, to do a yearly maintenance and swap out the prop and change the hub to the new square style. He said he will be in touch to give me a quote to get the Mechanical and electrical dialed in and to see if it's even a project worth doing.
I get a call on speaker phone with him and his son about a week later, about how the work is coming along and they have installed a new Binnacle, gages, done wiring, and was asking for me to come down to put a deposit. Being I was confused I told them I would be down the next day so they could walk me through what was going on. (I had not given permission to do any of this work they were talking about)
I met with Andy the following day, where he walked me through all the work they had done. I asked him all this work was included in the $1500.00? Long story short, He apologized acknowledging he should have called and there was a miss communication, that the boat was mechanicalyy sound, and they believed that it was good to start all the work. He was about 80% threw all the work and assured me all the mechanical work and parts were good they were waiting on the prop, and they were going to finish going threw all the electrical and if there was any further problems he would call me if they needed to do more work. The estimated total was $4,200.00. He acknowledged that I was up set that they did $2,700.00 worth of work with OUT approval, and apologized multiple times. At this point I felt it was a sincere mistake, Andy said the boat would be ready for pick up the next Monday, and he would call if any thing changed.
I show up to pick up the boat, going threw it with Dana and another tech, the boat still didn't have the new prop on it, on top of that it would die when the trim was actuated (they said the new Pinical was wired in wrong) and they would need to look at it. When I went in to pay the front desk didn't have the paper work, and said it would take some time to get the paper work together. I told them I couldn't wait / come back later. That I would have to pic up the next Monday. The front desk lady emailed me the final bill and it was now $5,400.00. I called her and asked her to speak with Dana and Andy to make sure there wasn't a mistake, she said she would and get back to me. (She never did)
When I showed up on Monday to pick up the boat, work was completed new prop was installed and I will say the boat ran well.
The bill was the same, so I asked Dana why it was $1,200.00 dollars more than a week ago, so we went through the bill. He pointed out that things were added like a key switch and blower motors and a host of other things that were not in the second estimate of cost, and stated they tried to get it close. I explained that's not close, and that I have been very nice and understanding, but I never approved this extra work, nor did I approve the first bout of extra work. That in fact I only approved the yearly maintenance and a new prop with the new style hub.
It was my hope being a business owner he would do the right thing and at the very least honor the $4,200.00. estimate since I was for a second time not notified of additional work. He refused, explaining to me "this is how its done" that additional things pop up when fixing older boats that need a lot of work, "its takes too long to call for every thing".
I may be wrong, but in 18 years as an automotive mechanic, Ive never done work that wasn't approved. In my personal opinion if work is done that wasn't approved, or worked outside of the budget, the business is taking on the cost at that point.
I want to be clear in this review, I am not up set with the work that was done, or the cost of the work that was done. I am up set that at no point was I called, at no point did I approve or say yes to any of the work done out side of the Maintenance, Prop and hub replacement. The sheer audacity to think it's ok, to perform over $4,000.00 worth of work with out asking, and expecting some one to be ok with it and pay that is ridiculous, and un-ethical.
Beware that when you go there not only do you have to pay cash / check, you may get charged for work you never approved. It's a slimy way of doing business, I would recommend every one take their business elsewhere, to a shop that has some ethical business practice.
I will be contacting the BBB, FTC, and the Arizona Attorney General reporting for unfair business practices and possible stolen
