Cleveland Boat Center

[Kirk]

I am really ticked off right now. The entire ordeal with Cleveland Boat Center came to a head today when they charged me $223.90 and didn't fix anything wrong with my boat


A little history behind this and it will make more sense.

My boat has a 175 Evinrude FICHT on it. Ity had started to run rough and was loosing top end speed. I took my boat to Cleveland Boat Center on May 20th for service work.
I wanted the motor checked out, the kill switch fixed, and the gas gauge repaired. I left it and went on with my life. Missed some tournaments I wanted to fish but that�s life.

I waited until May 28th and called to check on the status. I was told �it had not crossed her desk yet�. Call back next week.

I called back on June 2, and was told it was ready for pick-up. The total sounded familiar but I didn�t think anything about it. A few minutes later my wife called and said that Cleveland Boat Center just called and my boat was not ready. The ticket they were looking at was from July 2008 (that had already been paid). It was for a boat I had for over 20 years and sold to Tophat in the fall. (I had new steering cables put on it and had the engine tuned up). They had not worked on my boat newer boat because they thought they already had it completed. No harm no foul, just get it fixed.

I get called the next day and I am told my 175 motor is blown. A spark plug insulator porcelain had blown off and was down in the motor.

I am then told my kill switch is fine it must be �operator malfunction�. I don�t know about any of you, but I am of the opinion that if a kill switch is detached and the motor still runs it is a defective kill switch. Not according to them, I am just not educated enough to use a kill switch.

The gas gauge didn�t work when I took it and guess what? It still doesn�t work when I picked it up.

I learned an expensive $223.90 lesson. Don�t use Cleveland Boat Center.

(You will love how the comments they entered on JOB #2 and #3)

1999 Stratos 285 Pro Elite
1999 Evinrude FICHT 175

Job #1

Kill Switch is broken needs a new one.

Correction:

Nothing wrong with Switch

Charge: $000

Job #2

Problem: Motor is chattering and is loosing top end speed. Runs rough may need spark plugs or something else. Gets worse each time it is used.

Correction:

Checked Comp it was not good. 125, 115, 104 Port 105, 120, 85 Starboard. Plug had porcelain off and electrode was bent like something had hit it. . Put new plugs in and ran motor. It sounded ok for a FICHT, Customer needs to run and when it blows it blows.

Charge: $147.00

Job #3

Fuel Gauge does not work

Correction:

Checked gas gauge Pulled plate checked sender and it was good. Gauge in dash is bad don�t have one like it.

Charge $47.50

TAX and shop supplies added the Total was $223.90. They didn't fix anything that was wrong with it.

 

[bob]

I don't see the big deal here. They changed plugs, checked comp, checked the fuel sender, found defective fuel gauge.

Are you suggesting they should have done all this for free?

 

[Kirk]

No I expected them to fix the problem. I don't care it had cost
3 times that much as long as they fixed something. Right now the boat has the all the same problems it did when I took it to them.

 

[medic]

Never cared much for Cleveland Boat Center.
Always got the feeling that they thought it was a privilege
me to be helped by them.

 

[Kirk]

Never cared much for Cleveland Boat Center.
Always got the feeling that they thought it was a privilege
me to be helped by them.

You summed it up perfectly. That is the exact feeling I had each time I talked to them on the phone or in person. I felt like I was not worthy of their time.

The bad part of this is they could have made a very healthy boat sale to me next year. Now I won't buy anything from them again.

 

[kdxdude]

I took my 1996 Sea Ray boat to Cleveland Boat Center in 1997 at the end of summer, told them to change the oil, oil filter & plugs. 2 weeks later they call & say boat is ready. I go & pick boat up & pay em $67 for the service. I use the boat the next summer & I mention to a friend that I am going to take my boat in for Oil & oil filter change & plugs again. He says he has equipment to do the service for me. So we start changing the oil & oil filter & plugs. What I discovered is that the oil filter, which is a white color, had black paint on the filter which meant it was the original filter that came on the boat when it was new in 1996, the black paint they had painted the motor with when it was brand new. Plugs had the black paint on em as well. Which means they never did the oil & oil filter & plugs change that I had paid them $67 for. I have never taken anything back there & I tell this story to those who are in need of boat repair.

 

[Kirk]

Sounds like a decade or more of deception.

 

[Football Hunter]

sux