Winnisquam Marine

[NoBozo]

Some businesses, particularly those engaged in "Repairs," be it automobiles or boats, don't like it when you ask embarrassing questions of them. My last visit to a boat repair facility..16 or 17 years ago ended with the proprieter threatening to have me arrested when I asked him WHY a new gimbal bearing and a water pump in an Alpha 1, that he had just replaced, should cost $715. He had quoted me less than $300 a few days before.

I had asked him to save the old parts for me, which he did. I picked up the Old gimbal beariing ....which had a BIG gob of brand new grease smeared on it..no doubt to discourage me from touching it. I rotated the Old bearing in my fingers to FEEL the bearing as I rotated it. The bearing was PERFECT and didn't need to be replaced as they had done. I asked the guy about this. That's when he threatened to call the Police.

I PAID the bill, took the boat and left..and I've been TALKING about that place ever since. They are still in business....making a living ripping off unsuspecting boat owners. NB

[Happy Gourmand]

Originally Posted by NoBozo

Some businesses, particularly those engaged in "Repairs," be it automobiles or boats, don't like it when you ask embarrassing questions of them. My last visit to a boat repair facility..16 or 17 years ago ended with the proprieter threatening to have me arrested when I asked him WHY a new gimbal bearing and a water pump in an Alpha 1, that he had just replaced, should cost $715. He had quoted me less than $300 a few days before.

I had asked him to save the old parts for me, which he did. I picked up the Old gimbal beariing ....which had a BIG gob of brand new grease smeared on it..no doubt to discourage me from touching it. I rotated the Old bearing in my fingers to FEEL the bearing as I rotated it. The bearing was PERFECT and didn't need to be replaced as they had done. I asked the guy about this. That's when he threatened to call the Police.

I PAID the bill, took the boat and left..and I've been TALKING about that place ever since. They are still in business....making a living ripping off unsuspecting boat owners. NB

That's when I pay with my AMEX card. Then I dispute the charge on my card. The offendor is usually willing to negotiate at that point.

[WinniMarine]

Fellow Posters,

Sorry it took so long to get back to this post, it's been crazy busy and I have made myself take some time off during the week to spend with my wife and 3 boys...

We made the decision last fall to no longer service Anchor Management's boat but upheld our obligations to the boat this spring. There was a series of events that led to that decision but ultimately the husband got himself kicked out of the marina. It wasn't until afterwards that they offered to pay for things but at that point it was too late. We felt this decision was in the best interest of both parties. We believe in respect and reason and that just wasn't the case here towards us. Trust me, we don't like turning away any business and this was the only customer last year that we decided to turn away and I still think it was a good decision.

Last fall the boat was brought in for a running issue that they thought was warranty. This was done after we decided to no longer service their boat but we still took it in and looked at the problem. The boat was stalling under 2,000 rpm. We started with a full Tune-up and Adjusted Timing. We then completely re-built the carburetor and found fuel that had gelled in the bowl and filter causing the low speed jet to run lean. A fuel issue is not covered under warranty but we took care of it anyways just for customer service and to not make the situation any worse. When I talked to Alecs this spring she told me that we had done warranty work that was still not right and I told her that if that was the case we would take care of it. I looked up the work order from last fall and found that not to be the case and they are most likely having a fuel problem again. The Ethanol Fuels are just no good and can cause many different running issues. It wasn't Ed said no, it was the fact that we fixed their boat last fall at no charge as a courtesy and this spring we are sticking with our decision to no longer service their boat. We did take the boat in this spring and replace the rear bimini bow because that had been damaged by us and we owed that to them.

The customer has also been texting one of employees asking him to work on the boat on the side which isn't right just as they were texting one of our dock boys last fall asking to get back in. It's best to keep our employees out of it; this was a decision by management.

We service hundreds and hundreds of boats a year and do our best. Everyone in my family loves boating and we want as many happy boaters on the water as possible. We have a great group of employees that we treat very well and in turn expect them to provide great service. We are here daily and oversee the marina. We can't make everyone happy no matter how hard we try. We look at every situation and make an educated decision on what to do. We do care and we try extremely hard but some customers are unreasonable...

Ryan Crawford
Winnisquam Marine

[RailroadJoe]

I think none of us can really make an honest decision without being involved in all the meetings. I guess there is always at least two sides to a story. Sorry I was harsh in my original post. Rash decisions sometimes prove wrong.

[NoBozo]

Originally Posted by WinniMarine

Fellow Posters,


Last fall the boat was brought in for a running issue that they thought was warranty. This was done after we decided to no longer service their boat but we still took it in and looked at the problem. The boat was stalling under 2,000 rpm. We started with a full Tune-up and Adjusted Timing. We then completely re-built the carburetor and found fuel that had gelled in the bowl and filter causing the low speed jet to run lean. A fuel issue is not covered under warranty but we took care of it anyways Ryan Crawford
Winnisquam Marine

You know what: As I stated earlier...I have NO sympathy for the robber barons in the repair..industry. However.. the symptoms and discovery of GEL in the Carbs makes perfect sence. It's ETHANOL my friends. I have been there....not with my boat but with a motorcycle that was used infrequently....infrequently..THAT's the problem.. $800 to FIX. The motorcycle had 4 Carbs and they were a bitch to remove. I sold the motorcycle AS IS.

Fair and Balanced... NB

[Belmont Resident]

Originally Posted by NoBozo

You know what: As I stated earlier...I have NO sympathy for the robber barons in the repair..industry. However.. the symptoms and discovery of GEL in the Carbs makes perfect sence. It's ETHANOL my friends. I have been there....not with my boat but with a motorcycle that was used infrequently....infrequently..THAT's the problem.. $800 to FIX. The motorcycle had 4 Carbs and they were a bitch to remove. I sold the motorcycle AS IS.

Fair and Balanced... NB

I give up on the whole gas thing. If it is small enough to drain all gas out of it including the carb bowl for storage I do. If that is not an option I try and run it down to a low as possible and stabilize the crap out of it then fill it with fresh gas when it comes out of storage(boat). Bikes, sleds, mower, weed wacker all get stable in EVERY tank of fuel just in case they sit around for a while not being used.
An ounce of prevention for every ten gallons and it seems to work.
Can’t tell you how many people are having problems with power equipment that sits unused for awhile, I very rarely do.
2 stroke engines seem to be the most susceptible. I know between my wife and I we have gone through 3 2 stroke snowmobile engines when E-10 first came out.

[WakeboardMom]

Is "Anchor Management" the wife of "Electric Blue?" I apologize...I'm getting confused.

Ryan seems to be doing a good job of answering the concerns expressed here.

[tbonies]

Why does the screamer always leave key elements out of the story? Like others have said, it takes alot to get yourself kicked out as a customer of anything, especially of a marina. Congratulations. Sounds like it was very well deserved. I especially liked the text messages to the employees.

[Anchor Management]

Well folks i have already replied to Ryan's post and for some reason the post didn't get posted. Maybe because the webmaster decided this thread is getting a bit out of hand. Either way I really just wanted to say that when our boat was being worked on we didn't feel anything was done out of courtesy, if something wasn't under warranty then in my opinion the marina should have said so, that is their job. We were never looking to get anything for free, we just wanted our boat to work, it was new to us. We had spent nearly 20,000.00 on it of course we wanted it to run smoothly. We had no idea they had made the decision last year to not service us any longer. Ryan claims there were a series of events that had my husband kicked out, we would love to know what those were. I can tell you that we never texted any dock boys last year. Why would we need to? We were still under contract and still using the marina. And as for the mechanic that he is referring to, we called him to see if he would like a side job, and that was after they refused to service us and at the suggestion of a mutual friend. I didn't think that would be a crime in the boating world... Turns out we the engine was stalling because the idle was too low. I'm surprised they didn't catch that last fall. We turned the idle up and the engine been running just fine ever since.

Guys, just remember there are always two sides to every story, I respect Ryan for trying to keep up the image of WM. That is his job. The only reason for my post was to share my experience. This within itself has been quite the experience, funny to see how some of you react. I am a business owner myself and I always try to remember that the customer is always right, at least that's always kept my clients happy.

I hope this post will get posted, it will be my last one.

[Shreddy]

The cat must have Electric Blue and Anchor Management's tongue...Appears that Ryan's side of each story holds strong. So, what have both Electric Blue and Anchor Management accomplished? They've attempted to demoralize a business while giving them great publicity and a chance to prove that they are cognizant of the issues around them. Seems like a sound business practice to me. Unfortunately, you can't make everyone happy...

[Merrymeeting]

Three different extended family members have purchased three different boats from Winnisquam over a period of 20 years. We've also had them serviced there many times. When the time comes to by a forth, we'll go there again.

[Shreddy]

Originally Posted by Shreddy

The cat must have Electric Blue and Anchor Management's tongue...Appears that Ryan's side of each story holds strong. So, what have both Electric Blue and Anchor Management accomplished? They've attempted to demoralize a business while giving them great publicity and a chance to prove that they are cognizant of the issues around them. Seems like a sound business practice to me. Unfortunately, you can't make everyone happy...

I rescind my original statement as I received a PM that Anchor Management has attempted to respond but has been blocked from doing so. I cannot say I'm an advocate of this process on an open forum with a dispute like this in question. However, clearly this isn't my forum, but it surely is appearing to be one-sided.