First time boat owner. I am going on an extensive trip to Montana. It was suggested to me to have the trailer tires and bearings checked out. Unfortunately it was six days before I was to leave. Called over and talked to Rick in the service dept. I explained my problem and inexperience. He said bring the boat and trailer over and he would help me out and get to it between orders. I had my boat back the next day. I had tried the marine store where purchased the boat. Left a msg for someone to call me back. I never did get a call. I know they were busy but so is everyone else this time of year. Well I am now a life long customer of Ted's just for the fact they helped me out when I was in a bind. This small gesture gained them all of my future business. Thanks again Rick. Also Ella is awesome and so kind. read more

I had reached out to Ted's to purchase a Suntracker Pontoon. I was in touch with Tim the sales rep. He was actually very helpful! He didn't have the boat I wanted in but had one on order. He sent me documents showing the numbers and I sent him my card for a deposit. He didn't run it because after checking they "might not get that boat". I told him I appreciated working with him and for 2 days we corrosponded as he tried to find a boat for me, he said he went all the way up the chain on his suntracker rep and secured a boat from Bass Pro. Same boat! But, his boss apparently told him that since inventory was so limited I had to pay 1900 more for the same exact boat... Which... would be fair if I hadn't already tried to make a deposit on the same deal. He told me he would wait till morning for my answer. When I reached out I let him know I would buy the boat at the same deal as offered originally, he responded that there was already a deposit on the boat. What a horrible way to do business. Do your research! read more

I purchased a new Tracker boat through Ted's and took delivery in April 2020. When going over things the first issue presented itself. The motor would not tilt all the way up to hit the release point to be able to lower it! Yet, this was checked off by their service dept as working!!! It was impossible to tilt the motor all the way. Furthermore, I didn't know any better because it was my first new boat purchase in 2 decades. Salesman pinched the release manually to get it to go down and I thought this was normal! Obviously not! And I'm sure he knew it wasn't correct either! I also need to mention that I am 2 hours away - so a 4 hour round trip to the dealer wasn't happening. Luckily, I'm pretty handy and figured things out myself. The built-in handle on the 9.9 was physically hitting a strut in the back of the boat. CLEARLY this was not checked by the dealership even though they checked it off as being checked! Fairly easy fix - I took a dremmel and cut a slot in the handle and the tilt feature now clears and functions correctly. Second issue - livewell wasn't working. Come to find out the intake pipe wasn't properly tightened but I still am having intermittent problems. 3rd problem - the motor wasn't idling properly. And in fact sometimes it would go into a fairly high rev when going into neutral from forward gear. Took it to K&S Marine in Apple River and it too was a simple fix. Apparently the throttle cable was never properly adjusted from the dealership! I don't even want to repeat what my mechanic said about the folks that delivered this boat! All in all, Ted's would get a ZERO if I cold give it! I don't believe for a second that this boat went thru a pre-checklist by the dealership at all even though there were about a 100 items they supposedly checked for pre-delivery. Some rigging could have been "cleaner" (which I re-did myself for some things). All in all this dealership IMO was either extremely lazy or their mechanic hasn't a clue. Or both. Draw your own conclusions. They knew I was a long drive away and shame on them for NOT doing their job as they created a lot of headaches for me this boating season! Never again! read more

I took my boat trailer in for new tires and they found a major problem with my trailer and fixed it. Thanks to Jim and his staff. They do good work. I've always had good service. Thank you. read more