Alice
Milwaukee,#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, December 09, 2004
I don't know how old this complaint is or how helpful this might be, but as a former employee (sales to our dealer network) of a different marine manufacturer, I think I can help you to understand these manufacturers' business practices. Manufacturers such as Mercury sell their products through dealers (like WalMart) and their primary loyalty is to those dealers. In dealing with consumers, even though Merc and others have customer service, they will do everything they can to resolve issues through a dealership, and only work with a consumer if the dealership itself is unwilling to resolve the issue. With such a business model, your BEST recourse is to go through WalMart, and not contact the manufacturer. You stated that WalMart has been helpful, well, then ask them to take back the motor for a replacement, refund or discount on future purchase. Then let THEM deal with the manufacturer. Specific to your case, even though you were injured and had to break the motor lock, that does not clearly indicate a product defect, so I'm not too surprised that you didn't have much luck with Merc. As an experienced boater, I'm sure you know that motor locks are meant to be difficult to unlock/lock; it's meant as a safety feature which unfortunately in this case backfired. If you truly feel this is a larger issue of product design, then again advise WalMart (better if you can get together some other consumers) so they can stop stocking them; believe me, if WalMart stops stocking the product, that will force Merc to look at the design faster than any letter you write. I will say that had WalMart been a dealership in my sales area, and had I been told of your incident, as a company rep I would have at the very least gotten you some free product, and I'm sorry you were not given this courtesy by Merc. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope you've had a full recovery. Happy boating!