Do you like outdated high pressure sales tactics, grey moral areas, dealing with lawyers, and…read moregenerally wasting countless hours of your life? Then come on down to Munson Ski and Marine, where you too, can make the worse purchase of your life! I run a boat rental business in California, and we were recently looking to expand our business and purchase another boat. We finally found what looked like the perfect boat on Boat Trader from Munson Ski & Marine. We talked to Marc Biasco, one of the sales associate, over the phone and everything seemed to be perfect about the boat. So I told him I'll drive out to Illinois  over the next couple days, check out the boat, and if it looks good I'll buy it and drive it back. He then proceeds into talking me out of coming to see the boat (since it's so far away) and starts telling me about the "old lady" who's interested in buying the boat. I tell him that's fine, and to sell to the "old lady," even though I had my doubts the "old lady" existed. A couple days later I get a text message from Marc saying the "old lady" didn't end up buying the boat (surprise surprise) and they are willing to take some money off the price. At this point, I have already found another boat in Arizona, which is new and a little more expensive but is way closer to us. I tell Mark this and then he starts sending me long paragraph text messages about how I shouldn't buy the new boat, the brand is low quality, their boat is turnkey ready to go, and a high quality brand. I tell him no, I'm going with the new boat but thanks anyways. I then find out the new boat won't available for three more weeks, which is a problem for our company since the boating season here is so short and we would lose out on 3 weeks of rentals. I call Marc back and inquire if this boat is still available. He tells me it is, but now there's a "fireman" that's there right now and wants to buy the boat. Same selling tactic? Really? Long story short we negotiate the price down a little, arrange for expedited shipping at a premium cost through Uship and buy the boat. Three days later:  The boat arrives. The first thing that the guy who transported the boat says to me is that he had to tell Munson Ski and Marine to take some mussels off from the back of the boat so he could pass state inspection stations on the cross-country drive. BIG RED FLAG. I take the boat to our local inspection station, as required by law, and turns out there are Zebra mussels EVERYWHERE. These mussels are illegal in the whole state of California, dead or alive, and shouldn't even be crossing state lines. The boat gets immediately quarantined for a month and I have to start talking to our local game warden and other local agents about what I need to do to get the boat up to our state's standard. It turns out we will need to cut off the chimes on the side of the pontoons, clean them, unmount the motor, clean that whole mounting area, and the inside of the motor. I get quotes from local shops and they tell me it's going to be $10-20k to get all this done and even after all this, they aren't sure if it will be clean enough to launch in our lake. We reach out to Marc to ask him about last time the boat was in the water and what lake it came from, he says it hasn't been in the water since last fall and it was last in Lake Genova (a lake known for Zebra mussels). He says he reaching out to his boss, Matt Munson, and he should be in contact with me shortly. We get the phone call from Matt Munson, and told him what we learned about the boat he sold us.  Because the shipping company told the dealership about the mussels, Matt Munson was clearly aware of the condition of the boat and that this would be a problem for us in California. We told him that because he was negligent in advising us of a contamination, we wanted our money back. My business partner was kind enough to say we will eat the cost of shipping to California, Munson would just have to ship the boat back to Illinois and give us back our money, no hard feelings. Matt says he has to talk to his Dad about this and he will get back to us shortly. We don't hear anything else from him. I call multiple times over the next couple days and he doesn't reply. Eventually he writes me an email saying he checked with his lawyers and they did nothing wrong. They went to a lawyer first rather than working with us. In reaching out to our own legal counsel, we discovered that we did not have a solid enough case to pursue. That being said, this is morally reprehensible and this business should be held accountable for their shady dealings. We will be contacting the BBB and strongly recommend that other people go somewhere else for their boat purchases.

I just purchased a Mailbu boat from Mike Misch and I would not buy a boat from anyone else. He will…read morego to all lengths to fit you in the right boat in your price range. He is extremely professional and know his products. He actually skies and teaches as well so he understands which boat would best fit your needs. He really does his very best to make you happy and comfortable with your decision making process. He truly is an expert and has worked with Munson for 25 year plus. He is straightforward and super nice. I highly recommend him. Cindy L. Blue Spring Lake WI

This review is for the Santa Cruise. We took the Santa…read moreCruise at 5:20 on Wednesday night. The staff was all great, very welcoming and friendly. The Christmas Wonderland building you go to before the cruise was OK; a few displays you could take photos with and a ton of raffle items you could purchase raffle tickets for. We were rushed by staff to get into line even though we had hoped to stop by the bar first. After standing there for a while, my husband decided to go to the bar anyways and he still had 10 minutes to spare before we were rushed to the boat so I'm not sure why we were rushed. Pro tip; sit on the port side of the boat (left side) to see all the lights and decorations. We unfortunately didn't know and grabbed seats on the starboard side and had to strain to see everything. When we stopped at Santa's cabin, he came out and read off all the children's names, which was super cute to hear the kid cheering when they heard their name. It was a very quick ride, less than an hour round-trip and honestly the boat moved faster than the guide could tell us about all the light displays so that was a little disappointing, but overall it was a nice time. Dress warm, as the boat is heated but still pretty chilly. Also, the treat they advertise for the kids is the tiniest candy cane you'll ever see; probably not worth them advertising at all.

Ever since my last review, the employees of the pier service have all been helpful and gotten…read moreeverything right. We've had some great times out on the lake because of that, so adding on a star!

I purchased a used boat through Reed's recently. It was my first ever boat purchase. They had a…read moretechnician ride with my husband and I for 90 minutes to learn the boat, and to practice parking the boat, which was great. They also made sure my shore station worked with the boat. When I had a mechanical issue early on, they came out and addressed it promptly and professionally. I am very happy with the boat and the service before and after the purchase. I will not go anywhere else.

Called Reed to purchase and install a new Radio on our boat which was in a slip at the Abbey…read moreHarbor. I was quoted $175.00 for a new Radio and $88.00 service fee to install it. I was NOT told that there would be an additional labor charge! They were slow to come to do the install, repeatedly told they would be out there and did not show on several occasions. Finally, they installed the radio and sent us a bill for $686.66. Said that the other charges were for labor charges to install new radio, swap out old radio. In addition, (similar to the review below), they without communication, took it upon themselves to make a pvc trim plate, (which was on the boat had they asked about it prior to making one without authorization.) On top of all these billing overcharges, while installing our radio that does not work properly, they broke our bathroom light which is near the radio and refused to fix it! Spoke to Tara in customer service about these issues and all she was willing to do to resolve them was to remove a $10.00 service charge that she threatened would reoccure if we did not pay the balance in full today! I told her that this was not acceptable and ended the call as it was not productive. Minutes later received a call from the tech/service manager who told me that the bill was due now, they would not make any adjustments and would continue to tack on $10.00 per month service fees. Never would we have hired them install a $175.00 radio, if we were told we would also be charged an additional $428.00 for 1.8 hours of labor fees! Could have had one of our boys install it for free! Beware of their billing dishonest billing practices and poor service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything! We have had a boat for 53 years. Scott is the best person and repair we have ever…read moreworked with. Recomend him 100 percent !

called for some questions I needed a answers and they were straight to the point for me!read more

If you have a boat and need to get it fixed, do it here. They will take care of all your needs.read more

Mike and the team are knowledgeable, precise, meticulous and punctual…read more I came to them with a problem, which another shop could not get resolved for weeks. Here the problem was solved in one day and I was back on the water. Highly recommend.

Up top: Know what you're getting into. Lake Geneva Cruise Line offers cruises that range everywhere…read morefrom one hour to three-and-a-half hours. I think one hour is probably my limit on a boat, but I was on a group trip that was planned without my input, and I ended up on a cruise that was 2.5 hours. And I didn't find that out until I was seated and we were about to set sail. OK! I was in a dilly of a pickle, but it all turned out fine in the end. But the last 1.5 hours could have not existed and I would have been fine, to be honest. The first 45 minutes of my cruise were action-packed, though! I took the U.S. Mailboat Tour, which took us around Lake Geneva to some of the mansions on the lake that had mailboxes at their docks. I guess mail is still delivered this way, and Lake Geneva is one of the only places in the United States that has this kind of mail delivery. It was fun to see the mail jumpers leap off of the boat and onto the docks to quickly put mail into the mailboxes, all while the boat is moving forward. The mail jumpers have no time to stop -- they have to keep it pushing in order to jump back on the boat! I only saw one person eat it during our cruise, which I think is good. You can sit on the boat deck, which gives you the best views, but it's hella windy, and depending on the weather, can be cold. There's also seating below, which is protected from the elements. There are two restrooms on board, as well as a bar. At first, when I entered the boat and saw the bar, I thought that was weird that there was a guy behind a counter slinging alcoholic drinks. But once I set sail on a 2.5-hour journey, I understood. You need a little something, sometimes. The U.S. Mailboat Tour is very cool and a great way to learn more about Lake Geneva. I do think it could have been 1.5 hours shorter, but I'm an editor, and I'm always looking for ways to tighten things up. I think if you are kid-free and have a little drink (or two) in your hand, then a 2.5-hour cruise might suit you more.

We did the Santa Cruise and loved it! They made us so magical for the kiddos. The little village…read moreyou can wait in prior to your boat ride was adorable and well put together. The service was amazing, super sweet employees. The Santa cruise was a perfect amount of time and the set ups across the lake were spectacular. The story that went along with each light set up was so cute! My daughter was so excited when Santa said her name was on the nice list. The only thing I wish I knew was the left side of the boat is the place to be... we were on the right side and our window was facing the middle of the dark lake.

This has had to be the WORST experience ever. they quoted me $150.00 by the time I could get my…read moreboat out of there they charged me $2500.00 plus dropped my boat and left engine cover off and carburetor filter and it rained straight into engine. They also bullied us Brian and the manager. We finally had to get police over there to get our boat out of harms way. if anyone else is experiencing this maybe we can get a lawyer and take this guy to court and get damages. 414-517-9669 KC

Truly this place deserves zero stars. The business practices…read moreare horrible. This is the only place I have seen where the owner, Brian Read can bill what ever he wants. No matter what the contract says. If anyone reads this do your self a favor and store some place else.