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M&S Drilling Gross misrepresenation of vessel Strandburg South Dakota
If Mike, the owner of M&S Drilling operates his drilling business like he does his personal business I would be extremely cautious in dealing with him. During January 2017 Mike and I had reached an agreement for me to purchase a fiberglass boat he had for sale. I was 8 hours and almost 500 miles away and have been burned from not so honest people in the past so I asked very pointed and specific questions regarding the boats condition prior to driving out to purchase the boat. Mike informed me it was in ‘great condition’ and noted the hull was in perfect condition in response to my inquiry about the hull condition of the boat. He mentioned the trailer tire had blown at some point and he had new tires installed but that the trailer was in great condition. Mike asked for a thousand dollars deposit from me to hold the boat 4 days to the weekend until I could drive the 8 hours to come purchase it. I agreed and sent him the deposit. Upon arrival, a very quick inspection of the vessel revealed that Mike had grossly misrepresented the condition of the vessel. The hull had a 2-3” crack in the gel coat where fiberglass was exposed. This was from an obvious impact. Upon asking Mike about this damage he said he didn’t know how it got there nor had he seen it before. As I quickly informed him what he told me over the phone, that “the boat is in great condition, looks new, hull is in great condition” he said he never looked at the hull prior to telling me the condition. At this point I was extremely irritated, I had just driven 8 hours, a hundred some dollars in gas and Mike didn’t have the common courtesy to even inspect the boat prior to telling me how great of condition it was in. I went on to further inspect the boat and found another foot long hairline crack at the nose of the boat where the u-bolt was mounted. Again, most likely the crack was from an impact. Lastly the trailer condition. The fender where the tire had blown, the fender was almost touching the tire on that side and was severly misaligned. I’m not sure whether it was solely a bent fender or a bent trailer frame or bent axle. Regardless Mike informed me “it trailers great”. At this point, the boat was nowhere near the condition Mike represented it to be to me over the phone. Mike also mentioned he had other buyers ready if I did not purchase it. I had a cashier’s check for the full amount of our agreement but told Mike I was not interested in purchasing this rig based on his severe misrepresentation of its condition. I asked for my deposit back and I would be on my way at which point Mike informed me that the deposit was “non-refundable.” This was never stated nor agreed to and several discussions followed. Mike did not have my deposit on hand as it was in his son’s Paypal account but he would refund me a portion of the deposit later that day. I left his place not having my deposit back and only a handshake agreement stating I would give Mike $100 for his ‘troubles’ and I would get $900 of my deposit back. The last thing I said to Mike as I left was I asked him if he was a man of his word of which he said he was. I waited 3 days and no refund of any money. Ultimately I had to try a few different things such as file a dispute with Paypal, filing a criminal complaint with Mikes local police department and calling the BBB. I talked to the sheriff at 6pm and by 8pm I had a note from Mikes son stating that they would be sending me back $700 for ‘my troubles’ and they were keeping $300 for ‘their troubles’. Their ‘troubles’ were that they held on to the boat 4 extra days and sold the boat to one of the other interested parties the day after I left. My troubles were driving almost 1000 miles, over a hundred dollars in gas as well as 16 hours of my time round trip. I don’t know if he falsely represented the condition of the boat on purpose, to get me to drive out there and not want to leave empty handed but the audacity of him to not even look at the boat but tell me very specifically how great of condition it was in and then to keep a portion of my deposit for ‘his troubles’ is ridiculous. The owner of M&S Drilling is not an honest man, a man of his word and I would never ever consider doing business with a person with such low morals. I wouldn’t trust Mike to drill me a hole for a fence post much less a well for my home.