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Old 07-04-2011, 10:04 AM   #1
Mink Islander
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Default Say what?

Long Time Laker: you know nothing about me. And even less about credit cards, apparently. There's a not so subtle difference between not authorizing work to be done on your boat and telling a business to charge your credit card with no intent to make the payment. The latter is at least as close to fraud as the former. If Lakeport had your credit card number on file and used it without permission, the card company will reverse the charge. Those are not the facts here, however.

I have no opinion on the whole Lakeport Marine thing. My experience on this forum always leaves me suspect of any newbie member whose first post trashes a local business. There are always at least two sides to a story.
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Old 07-04-2011, 10:38 AM   #2
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Just my two cents, no ax to grind. I started dealing with Lakeport Landing in the 80's. Have had boats stored and serviced their. I have never had a problem with the service department in the past. It sounds like this could have been a simple lack of communication. One of the techs saw a problem and was told to take care of it and somewhere along the line you were not notified. Yes I am sure the shock of having a unexpected bill upset you but if the problem was not addressed you could have had more serious repairs or had to wait to have boat repaired. Try going down and talking to them, I am sure you can work something out or at least get some answers.
Years ago I kept a boat in Alton Bay at one of the marina's year round and asked for a full tune up on the motors. When I stopped in to pay bill I was told they did not accept plastic and could not use boat till bill was paid. That was my last summer at that location.
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Old 07-04-2011, 11:56 AM   #3
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I'll say it again. Going on this scenario....no authorization....No work.
The only favor that got done....according to this scenario....was to the Marina. If it had been me I would have asked for an itemized bill, paid the bill, with no intent to really pay..so that I could get my kidnapped boat back, and notified my CC company. (Maybe my lawyer the AG and BBB.) Luckily he did not pay with cash.
There are no such things as favors. Everything should be strictly business at a Marina. Most are no better than an auto dealership. They think they have you by the gonads and they do. And did apparently in this case as well.

Think about it this way. Your landscaper mows your lawn for a set price every week. That is all he is hired to do. Mow the lawn. But, one day you come home to find him standing there with a a bill stating he applied fertilizer under your rose bushes. You never asked to have the roses fertilized. So you don't want to pay because you didn't request it be done. So the Landscaper says, hey you can't go into your house until you pay me the $400.00 for the fertilizer. What would you do? Yeah...call the police and have the guy escorted away. Absolutely no difference.
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Old 07-04-2011, 12:53 PM   #4
Dave R
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Preface:

The correct course of action would have been for the Marina to call, describe the problem found, and get authorization for the work. Also, holding the boat hostage was a bad idea.

Some thoughts to ponder though:

How old were the impellers? Being a formula, I'm guessing it has Mercruiser Bravo drives. If they were more than 2-3 years old, they really needed to be changed, they age with time and/or use. It's not a pleasant job and doing it in the water is risky because the pump inlet hose will let water pour into the boat unless you pinch the hose off, but that's not really good for the hose. $406 for parts and labor on a pair of Bravo impellers is pretty reasonable. I know I would not change one in my own boat for less than $200, They are mounted low and are a pain.

I can see how a marina could jump to the conclusion that a customer would like the boat to be operating properly when the customer says to get it in the water ASAP. I know I'd be pretty disappointed to head up to Laconia for a day of boating and discover that my boat is in its slip, but is not useable, and probably needs to come out of the water for the work to be done (and who knows when they could get to it???).

Question to the OP:

If you had driven to Laconia to use the boat and discovered that it was not working correctly, would you have been willing to pay $406 for immediate repairs that "saved" the weekend?

If the answer is yes, then maybe it's not really worth the aggravation of pursuing this problem further. Just take your business elsewhere next time, if you are still bothered by it come Autumn, and enjoy the Summer.
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