Complaint Review: Olympic Boat Center

We bought a boat several months ago with an upgraded motor and trolling motor and were promised extended warranties as part of the deal. All three were included in the sales contract that both parties signed.

Olympic Boat Center delivered to us a boat with a much cheaper motor and told us it was the one we ordered. We proved them wrong and attempted to resolve the issue over several weeks. Only when we threatened litigation did they relent and install the correct motor.

To date, we have never rec'd the extended warranties (only the standard warranty on the larger motor). Olympic Boat Center has said this is all we get, despite a contract to the contrary.

Details:
We bought a boat from them in late February 2004. The salesperson (Ken Turner) mentioned that the boat show special running at the time was a free extended warranty for all Mercury motors. We selected an upgraded motor. Instead of the standard Mercury 135 motor, we chose the Mercury 150 DFI Optimax - a more powerful and much more expensive motor. We also added a smaller Mercury trolling motor. All three - the extended warranty, upgraded motor and smaller trolling motor were included in our bill of sale and signed by both the salesperson and sales manager.

When we took delivery of the boat, a person from the service department walked us through the basics of the boat, including the insides of the motor. When Joe pointed out it looked like a carb'd motor and not the fuel-injected one we bought, the service person told him, "No, this is the fuel-injected DFI Optimax." At the time, we believed him.

The salesperson also told us the extended warranties would be mailed out to us directly from Mercury and to give it a few weeks because they has so many to mail out as a result of the special.

Over the next few days, we went through all of our manuals, etc. The motor manual included photos of both the carbed and fuel-injected motors to aid in troubleshooting. When we compared our motor to the photo, we realized we actually had the cheaper, standard motor.

We called and attempted to resolve the issue over the next few weeks. Our salesperson initially said we were wrong. Only when confronted with the proof did he relent. Olympic Boat Center refused to give us the correct motor unless we paid several more thousand dollars and then wait until one became available. They offered to send our bank a check to reduce the loan amount by approximately $2,000 - less than half the difference between the two motors. Only under the threat of litigation did they agree to swap out one motor for the other at no cost. Once we threatened litigation, they also found a motor in less than 24 hours. We finally took delivery of the boat we bought in February at the end of March - nearly six weeks later during which time we were making payments.

Since then, we have repeatedly asked for our extended warranties, only to be told (when they've actually called back) they're on their way and to be patient. In June I told the company I was losing patience. We rec'd the standard warranty (not the extended one) for the larger motor shortly thereafter. We never received any warranty for the smaller trolling motor.

To date, that's all we've received despite several phone calls, etc. The most recent call was last week, in which Olympic Boat Center said the warranty we received is actually the extended warranty and not the standard one (and they never mentioned the trolling motor warranty).

A quick check of the Mercury Web site proved this to be incorrect. The standard warranty on the DFI Optimax 150 is three years - until April 2007. The extended is supposed to add two more years - through April 2009.

The warranty issue is the last straw in a terrible business transaction. The motor-swapping history just gives testament to the fact this company is not dealing honorably with its customers. Their business practice appears to be cheating people in the hope they won't notice, and then dragging out the resolution process in hope they'll give up.

Robin
Kent, Washington
U.S.A.