Complaint Review: Harmony Marine - Bee Branch Arkansas

In April of 2015, I hired Danny Medine, owner of Harmony Marine, to diagnose and fix the starboard engine on my boat. It was determined,  after 5 weeks of back and forth,  that it needed a new cam shaft and lifters.  Danny gave me a estimate of around $1500 to complete the work and it would take two weeks to get the parts and complete the job.  I agreed and instructed him to move forward.

After several weeks of postponed appointments and no shows, Danny kept telling me he was busy with other customers boats, I was very accomodiating and told him that I needed mine fixed for the end of the boating season.  Danny finally got all the parts and completed the work in late July.  Danny was insistant that I leave a check for him at the marina but I told him that I would after I had inspected the work and confirmed that the engine was fixed. It was two weeks after he called me with the completed status that I was able to get the boat out and test drive it.  He in fact did replace the Cam Shaft and the motor did appear to be running fine, however I did notice that the throttle didn't allow for the same RPM as the Port engine. The max RPM I can run the Starboard engine now is 2900 RPM when is about 1000 less than what it would do before the repair.  Also the starboard engine idle's about 300 RPM higher than the Port side engine. 

I called Danny and told him about the issues and he said that the Idle issue was due to the break in period needed for the new Cam (which makes sense and I agreed) and he told me he would come back out to reset the idle.  I also told him about the max RPM range of the Starboard enging and he told me it was most likely the throttle cable needing final adjustment. I also agreed that this was most likely the case and he assured me he would be back in a couple days to make the final adjustments to complete the job.

I also asked Danny to bring with him a new fuel gauge and install it when he came to make those final adjustments and he said he would.  Danny asked me to go ahead and leave him a check and considering that he did replace the Cam Shaft, Lifters and complete service, I agreed but stressed to him that I wanted the idle and RPM issue addressed quickly. He promised that he would so I paid the entire invoice of $2139.59 in full  ($600 higher than original estimate).

As of September 1, Danny had not finished the work, kept promising to come back but never showed up. 

Interestingly enough on September 5th,  while I was cleaning the boat, guess who walks by, you guessed it, Danny from Harmony Marine.  I asked him why he hadn't been back to complete the work and he told me he was covered up with other jobs.  I told him that my boat was just as important and the fact that he cashed my check for full payment should be a good reason to keep me as a priority as he didn't have to chase his money and that my relationship with other boat owners at this Marina would either increase his business or would have a negative effect.  He told me that he wanted "me" to get him the part number of the throttle cable and call him with it and he would order a part..   Are you kidding me?  What nerve of this guy to say that and to just blow off a customer that would spend thousands more with him if he just exercised some simple customer service and do what he said he would do.

Because of my experience with Danny Medine with Harmony Marine, I would never recommend him to work on anyone's boat.   Shame on me for trusting this guy..  Never again.