This review is about the Liberty Marine Services, located at the Liberty Marina - not the Marina itself. I had to divert to Liberty during a recent trip when my throttle/ shifter assembly broke. The service department ordered a part that did not fit well as a direct replacement. They declined to look at the dimensions of the part they ordered vs. the space it was to be installed into, instead they preferred to wait for the part to show up and see if it would work. Not what I wanted to do, as I had a schedule to keep, but I was stuck. The part arrived, and - it didn't fit! After several hours of pondering the situation, they decided it "could" fit if they moved the throttle slightly aft and higher on the pedestal. The mechanic used the mounting template to mark the new location, which left part of the old installation hole exposed along the edges of the new throttle trim plate. I asked them to make up another trim plate to mount under the new throttle, and they agreed. It took about 2 more hours to find a rattly piece of discarded fiberglass for a trim plate. A different yard worker, who I was told was very experienced, made the cut int the pedestal - in the wrong place. The end result is that the new throttle does not mount flush against the pedestal. It overlaps a bolt and bracket that hold the pedestal guard in place. The worker, while making the cut, made several wisecracks about how horrible the installation was going to look, He was cutting the pedestal with a jigsaw that had a bent blade, holding the jigsaw out away from the surface like a reciprocating saw - no eye or respiratory protection, nothing to shield the inside of the pedestal or the cocpit & companionway from all the fiberglass dust he was creating. At one point the saw blade hit something metal, and I warned him about the electrical connections and hydraulic steering lines inside the pedestal, behind the area he was cutting - he made a joke about how if he hit those, I'd be even worse off than I was! Then he asked me if I had a vaccuum cleaner, so I could clean up the mess. The icing on the cake was when the service manager finally came to the boat to see the finished job. He suggested that if I was unhappy with the way it looked, I could just go out and buy another throttle assembly - never mind that there was now a 3.5x4.5 inch hole in the pedestal. I told him that for what the job cost - about $625! - I expected this throttle to last a long time. He stormed off in a huff, and said he was "sorry for trying to help me out." This was not a "favor - I paid a lot of money, and got substandard work in return. If you have a choice, don't have service done at Liberty.
I should say, in fairness, that Mike (the mechanic who connected the new throttle assembly) was very professional and did a good job for the part that he did. In spite of its looks, the throttle works as it should thanks to him. If he were at a different facility, I would trust him to work on the boat. But the rest of them - no way. read more