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Cabelas Zero service after the sale! $42999.00 boat with Bimini top that flew off the boat! Thousands $ of damage. Boat leaves us stranded on lake when motor fails $800.00 tow bill! Fort Worth, Texas
I bought a new 206 deck boat Cimmaron by Larson from Cabelas. I paid $42999.00. When I arrived to pick the boat up after the sale I noticed the Bimini top was up right and in the boot. I asked the salesman if it was ok to trailer the boat with the top like that. He said yes that the boat was designed for that. I told him that this was my fifth boat and that I always trailer with the top layer down on the back deck. He said no that the tip was to be trailer with it up in the boot. I told him I'd be on the interstate transporting it to the lake. The next morning I loaded the kids and wife in the truck to head out to the lake. It's an hour and forty five minutes from my house. We made it approx five miles from the house and we heard a crash on the outside of truck. I looked in my mirrors and saw the Bimini top hanging off the boat on one side of the boat. There was an extensive amount of damage to the fiberglass on that side of the boat as well as the railing where the bracket was screwed into the body of the boat. The bracket actually came all the way out of the side of the boat. We were able to get the top all the way off and then headed to Cabelas in Fort Worth, Texas. When we arrived the service techs said that they had never seen anything like that before. They told me that because of the extensive damage it would take months for them to fix the boat. They said we could take the boat and use it but we wouldn't have the Bimini. In Texas it gets well over a hundred in the summer and bakes you while on water with no shelter. After thinking for awhile we decided to leave the top and then bring the boat back after the season to be fixed. If I would have left the boat behind I would have missed the first year of use since it was in lat eJune 2010. We used the boat without the top and of course baked in the sun! We also had some problems with the motor stalling on us as well. After the season was finished in 2010 I took the boat back and had all the problems addressed along with the motor problems. They kept the boat for over three months then I went to pick it up. I went ahead and had them do the break in service while they had the boat as well. When I gave them the boat it only had seven hours on the motor but I figured I might as well do the service now. When we put the boat in for the second season my wife launched the boat and I parked the truck. I came to the dock and noticed she was heading straight towards the dock. I yelled at her to hit reverse but she said the boat stalled and she couldn't stop it. The boat crashed in to the marina which sells gas! After awhile sitting at the dock a tech came out and asked if I had just had it winterized. I told him yes and then he said that whoever did the job disconnected the fuel line. By that time I had already cranked out twenty gallons of fuel into the lake. During that trip the boat stalled all the time. When July forth of 2011 came around the boat left use stranded in the lake and it cost us out of pocket $800.00 for a tow. Plus on that weekend the Bimini top fell off again causing thousands of dollars of damage, mind you this was the second time for this to happen. I had to hall the boat back to Cabelas again for more fiberglass repair then the motor problem.mi was told that the motor had a fault that in gauged and that's what left us stranded. I told them I wanted my money back or a different boat. Imtook this issue all the way to Cabelas corporate office where they told me NO! they only offered me the opportunity to spend three grand more to put a different top on the boat. They could have cared less that the motor left us stranded with my wife and two young kids in darkness! Then this corporate guy offered me another boat of lesser value and a year older. Of course this was going to require me to spend ten more thousand to make this happen. I went ahead and picked my boat back up as I got no where with Cabelas! I should have filled a suit and still might! I recently took the boat back to the lake and the top fell off again and the motor was stalling again. This boat sits in dry storage with no use as of now because it's a total piece of junk. I don't trust taking the boat out due to a motor that won't run and a top that won't stay on. Also through many friends they have said that the boat has the wrong Bimini on it. You can't lay the top down because it scratches the side of the boat if you do! I talked to Cabelas two days ago and told them that I was still having problems and asked them what they could do. The jerk told me I could trade the not even two year old boat for another one and that he would give $18000.00 for it!!! I paid $43999.00!! Word to the wise don't buy a boat from Cabelas!!!