Fact: Purchased a 2019 Bennington from South Austin Marine (www.southaustinmarine.com) in Austin Texas. This boat was delivered as new in January 2020. I was sold on the reliability of the Bennington brand and the "customer commitment" that South Austin Marine "sells" to their potential customers.
See South Austin Marine's customer commitment link on their website.
Quality & Workmanship Facts:
Upon Delivery:
The interior lights were not working and required wiring repair.
The bilge pump was not working and needed repair.
The matt lining under the helm seat was prematurely wearing out with little to no traffic. South Austin Marine promised to replace this quality flaw under warranty but that never happened.
Other than no replacement matt, these other two repairs were made during the first warranty maintenance by South Austin Marine that cost me in excess of $400.00 for the first maintenance cycle.
Issues as of 70 engine running hours in June 2020
The Garmin Depth Finder had started showing signs of moisture leakage under the display. Now the unit works intermittent, of course not when you really need it.
About the same time, the faux wood (plastic) panel on right side of dash panel fell in my son's lap the other day while driving the boat. The panel's insert screws were poorly installed and failed mechanically. We have glued that back in place but one can tell the glue will not hold in place for long.
Then, we were out on the boat another time, and noticed both the swivel and front-back setting mechanisms on the captain's chair were broke. In fact, when I talked to the Bennington "Co-Founder", he was already aware of this quality issue. Yet, they continue to ship this to customers. Now, when you take off or stop, the seat flies backwards or forwards freely.
Last time out on the boat, the rear port side sheet metal on underside of rear (stern) decking came completely unfastened (roughly 6ea light duty aluminium screws missing). To eliminate further damage to the sheet metal, I went ahead and bought replacement stainless steel screws to secure the panel. In doing so, it was recognized that all screw holes had been tapped crooked, .....all in different directions making the repair more difficult.
In summary, every time, .....every time my family takes the boat out, another part of subcomponent falls off the boat.
Service and Repair Effort Facts:
No successful repairs or replacement efforts by South Austin Marine have been confirmed nor communicated, other than empty promises, since the first warranty service which involved $400.00 in revenue.
South Austin Marine appears only to be interested in supporting revenue based service requests, not repairs that include non-revenue warranty claims.
I then spoke to one of the "Co-Founders" at Bennington apparently. He was immediately defensive as to my comments on the quality of workmanship and failures I have experienced on this new Bennington product.
This "Co-Founder" then made promises that the parts needed were all on order (same thing South Austin Marine personnel kept telling me for a couple months now for some parts).
Guess what???? The "Co-Founder" did not do what he said he was going to do either.
Neither organization has shown good faith in proper warranty services and repairs.
Going Forward Facts:
Yes, I'm going to write the BBB about both organizations. This is poor business practice at best.
No quality assurances or efforts have been made to the customer after the sale of the boat, as promised on both vendor's websites (unless revenue is imminent).
Pathetic "Bennington" customer experience. read more
