I Contacted Suzuki Marine direct at 714-996-7040 when Eric was not answering his phone when calling to check on my outboard on Thursday 7-25-19. Suzuki even tried calling him - we just got voicemail. Eric said he was out sick, it happens, I understand that. But if business stops completely when he is out sick, and during his posted business hours, you question both his concern for the customer, or his confidence is his crew to answer the phone and do business without him. We need to be able to reach someone, anyone, during business hours to give us a progress update on our expensive outboard.
For Honda Marine Customer Care - 770-497-6400
Talking with Suzuki Marine I explained I would drive up the next day and see whats happening. Suzuki asked me to keep them informed - (they do keep record, and care about customer issues with their dealers). When I arrived Eric had the lower part of my outboard on a table, severely damaged from a rope with a large metal clip on the end, that the prop picked up while in his water tank when they were running the outboard. A large chunk of metal was missing, and several chips, dings, paint damage, prop damage, and scuff marks which were not there before. My like new outboard in near perfect condition with no more than 25 hours on it, was just a mess. When Eric walked away his worker showed me the rope and clip that he pulled out of the test tank. Just UNBELIEVABLE !!! I'm still in disbelief, and so was Suzuki when I called to let them know what happened, and that I have pictures for them.
Worst Part - Eric was NOT saying "I'm very sorry this happened, I promise I will fix it to your satisfaction, and give it back to you in the same condition you left it with me" NOPE, just said he will fix it and it was their fault.
I'm attaching photos showing the damage, and how my outboard was returned to me, still with damaged areas, a horrible repair, scuff marks on the plastic housing, and prop not replaced like he said. Instead he said he had it professionally repaired. But as the pictures show it still has chips and missing paint, wavy cavitation plate where chunk came off.
Now Eric did not charge me for the impeller and it's housing being replaced, and rightly so. But he should have also returned my outboard in the same condition he received it - BUT it was cheaper for him to make me think I was getting something, a trade off for damaging my outboard - when actually the few hundred saved on the service I cannot use to correctly fix my outboard. Eric knows he got off cheap - compared to replacing the parts he damaged, a little liquid metal, bondo, and labor saved him hundreds. When I asked him if he had insurance to cover the damage he said he had a $5,000 dollar deductible, and the lower part of my outboard would cost him $1,500, and he made comment about that cost to him on a job that came in for impeller service. He didn't want to pay for his workers mistake, he said he could liquid weld back together the outboard - which he did - and you can see the repair.
My outboard had just been washed the day before I dropped it off, when I picked it up it was filthy.
And while speaking with Eric before the repair was done, he starts talking for some reason about getting out of this business, and how his rental properties are most of his income, not this business, and there is no one to take over - THANK GOD !!! I have never seen a case of burn out this bad before, and case of just not really giving a hoot about the customer. It's all about Eric. I ALSO DID PASS THIS INFO ON TO SUZUKI - THEY NEED TO KNOW THERE IS SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH THIS GUY.
When I picked up my outboard Monday 8-5-19 Eric says to me "I think I should be able to charge you our regular price now for service" "Since we fixed it like new" Which you can see in the pictures is not true. A tactic by him to later make me think I got a deal when he handed me an invoice with zero's on it. He asked me it I was happy now, which I replied I would have rather paid for the service and not have a damaged outboard returned to me. I also told Eric the only recourse I have is that I have been speaking with Suzuki all along, and that I use Yelp. I gave him a chance to say let's take your outboard inside and give it a real good going over inspection and let me keep it until it's right. I immediately pointed out the prop looked bad, and they painted over the chips. But I realized this was the best Eric was going to do, and I just need to pay him and go.
My outboard was here before for impeller and parts replacemnet 3 years ago, and that's what ended up needing to be done again. And 3 years ago there were no issues, so if you think your safe with a dealer you have used in the past I would suggest looking at their recent YELP reviews to see if anything has changed. And even contact Suzuki or Honda or Yelp the 5 star dealers and go to them no matter how far you have to drive. read more