FW Customer Service disappointment

ric · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:28 am

Cap'n Morgan wrote:

You actually expect us to belive this ?? :roll:

You have ZERO experience with buying a new boat from a dealer. Your cred's in this area are non existent.
My dealer took care of all the warranty, registration for ANYTHING that came with our new boat. (Everything in the packet) Including all documentation for the trailer.
All that was mailed direct to me a few weeks after we took delivery. That is how it should work when buying a new boat.

Maybe in his case it didn't. It didn't happen in the case of my Stingray in 2009 either. Nothing was sent in and the original owner wasn't even aware he had a 5 year warranty, he just paid someone $500 to replace the starter a week before I purchased it. I had to go through the whole process of registering everything as if I bought the boat brand new.

Gresh24 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:40 am

Cap'n Morgan wrote:

My dealer took care of all the warranty, registration for ANYTHING that came with our new boat. (Everything in the packet) Including all documentation for the trailer.
All that was mailed direct to me a few weeks after we took delivery. That is how it should work when buying a new boat.

That's the way it should be, but we all know not every dealer is doing it, and taking proper care of customers. If they were, these issues would not come up and guys with 2 year old boats would not be going directly to FW for issues and warranty questions.

Cap'n Morgan · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:02 am

I agree that my dealer did it right, and that some dealers don't. But when buying a new boat, it's always a good idea to insist the dealer does as much of the work as possible, so you don't have to worry about it. In my case I did not have to say anything, it's just how they do business.

LouC · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:09 am

Technologic80 wrote:

Well, while I have the chance to get on my FW soapbox, I really hate the new layout of the FW company site....errr the layout is fine but they have taken away all of the past specifications and past brochures. Up until 2 weeks ago, you could go and look up the exact specs (engine choices, options, speeds, GPH rates, etc) for EVERY FW boat made all the way back to like 1987.

Ok so its time to cut out the real old stuff, sure. Clogging up the site, not streamline, blah blah blah. But at least keep data up to a certain point (1995?) available on the site. geesh

I agree, it was that old information that helped me figure out for sure that my 88 H-200 had the wrong prop, I found that the V-8s used a 14.5x19 but the V-6s used a 15x17, when I went to the right prop it performed better and easily reached max specified rpms....

And now OK, this is just me, but if I was going to spend close to $50K on a boat, I don't want to see 5 pix of spmebody's feet dangling off a swim platform, or or water skis in the ski locker, I want to see what the engine compartment looks like....As I've said many times, these boats are all show and little functionality. They way they are designed causes people to get sick of boating because of maintenance cost. Instead researching why they buy boats (looks and cool features) they should also research why people GET RID of boats (cost of maintenance). Making them easy to maintain is so cheap, it's a win win for the companies. It costs like no money, put a mechanic in there for 2 hrs and he'll tell you how it should be....and then the engine doesn't have to get pulled to do a starter, and the owner stays in boating...and buys another eventually. That's how it works in the real world, not the fantasy world of know nothing marketing school graduates.

ric · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:22 am

LouC wrote:

And now OK, this is just me, but if I was going to spend close to $50K on a boat, I don't want to see 5 pix of spmebody's feet dangling off a swim platform, or or water skis in the ski locker, I want to see what the engine compartment looks like....As I've said many times, these boats are all show and little functionality. They way they are designed causes people to get sick of boating because of maintenance cost. Instead researching why they buy boats (looks and cool features) they should also research why people GET RID of boats (cost of maintenance). Making them easy to maintain is so cheap, it's a win win for the companies. It costs like no money, put a mechanic in there for 2 hrs and he'll tell you how it should be....and then the engine doesn't have to get pulled to do a starter, and the owner stays in boating...and buys another eventually. That's how it works in the real world, not the fantasy world of know nothing marketing school graduates.

I'm using stingray as an example because I own one, and stingray boats were designed from a former drag racer (not some french furniture designer or whatever).

My engine cowl doesn't lift up or whatever. It COMES OFF. The whole back of the boat dissembles and moves out of the way to service the engine. It's just as easy to access the starter as it is to grab a beer from a cup holder. All fuses are aircraft reset-able.

The difference is stingrays look somewhat utilitarian to accommodate for their ease of access designs . Four winns look sexy and stylish. What sells better?

Sexy and stylish.

LouC · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:36 pm

They get one sale, but maybe not too many repeat sales. The fact that they finally gave the market some OBs is good, but 90%of their sales will still be stern drives, all they have to do is look at their own older boats for how it can be done better, now with composites. I'm not buying a freakin sofa it's a machine that needs maintenance.

ric · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:43 pm

LouC wrote:

They get one sale, but maybe not too many repeat sales. The fact that they finally gave the market some OBs is good, but 90%of their sales will still be stern drives, all they have to do is look at their own older boats for how it can be done better, now with composites. I'm not buying a freakin sofa it's a machine that needs maintenance.

Sad truth: How many boat owners actually work on their own boat other then filling the gas tank and cooler?

LouC · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:11 pm

True but they pay the bills and when the feel they are getting ripped the get out of the hobby....

ric · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 7:13 pm

Again, it all comes down to customer education. Four Winns or any other brand isn't going to disclose on the showroom floor that it takes 8 hours of $120/hr labor to fix a $100 starter when you're signing the loan papers.

I mean, if you walk to a boat dealer totally green no idea about boats AT ALL except you have good credit and want a boat and that one looks sexy... whatever happens next is all on you. It's not the boat dealers fault. It's not four winns fault. You bought it. It's your responsibility to know what your buying. If people keep buying these super hard to work on designs, they're going to kept being made.

The only way it's going to change is customer feedback and sales numbers. This forum is such a small minority of owners that four winns themselves is fully aware of it and want no part or presence on it. Anything we say here makes no difference. That always kinda pissed me off. Other boat brands have brand sponsored forums where you can chat directly with the people that made the thing.

The best thing people can do that don't know much about mechanics and don't care to work on their boat: Buy an outboard.

TX H210SS · **Joined:** Thu May 27, 2010 9:10 am **Posts:** 1488

They didn't look after their customer...correct answer should a been, that part may be covered by the manufacturer of the unit.....the four winns warranty isn't in effect for that part, but let me help you reach raymarine......see sir, we buy 2000 units from raymarine a year and we can help.

Guinnydog · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:03 am

Ok, I guess the point I was trying to make was that when you spend your hard earned money and purchase a new boat from any manufacturer, you would expect some sort of customer support after 2 years, whether to solve the problem or point you in the right direction.

I purchased the boat in Seattle from a FW dealer that was going out of business. So my situation is a little unique since I do not have a "dealer" for customer service issues. There is a FW dealer in the Vancouver area, but easier to deal with the service dept. at my marina. As a note, the Seattle dealer did file all registration/warranty paperwork on my behalf and took care of everything.

I have had email conversations with Brian & Bill at FWCS on a few occasions. They have been great to deal with and took care of anything I needed, from trailer import documents, authourizing my marine mechanic for servicing/warranty work, warranty issues, shipping me parts direct, and general information.

This latest response was from someone different at FW. To quote the exact response, "Sorry it has taken so long to respond. Your warranty on components for your boat ended 03/2012. No warranty on these items". The context of the response led me to believe the factory installed VHF radio was out of warranty.

So as I stated, what I took issue with was not whether a component was still under warranty or not, it was about the lack of customer service.

Pedropup · **Joined:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 10:51 am **Posts:** 104

ric wrote:

Again, it all comes down to customer education. Four Winns or any other brand isn't going to disclose on the showroom floor that it takes 8 hours of $120/hr labor to fix a $100 starter when you're signing the loan papers.

I mean, if you walk to a boat dealer totally green no idea about boats AT ALL except you have good credit and want a boat and that one looks sexy... whatever happens next is all on you. It's not the boat dealers fault. It's not four winns fault. You bought it. It's your responsibility to know what your buying. If people keep buying these super hard to work on designs, they're going to kept being made.

The only way it's going to change is customer feedback and sales numbers. This forum is such a small minority of owners that four winns themselves is fully aware of it and want no part or presence on it. Anything we say here makes no difference. That always kinda pissed me off. Other boat brands have brand sponsored forums where you can chat directly with the people that made the thing.

The best thing people can do that don't know much about mechanics and don't care to work on their boat: Buy an outboard.

I love this post. I never would have ended up with a FW's, if I would not have walked into Liquid Wrenches when the Sales Dept was out on a test drive. Him not being there, got me to have the shop foreman help me. I spent almost two hours there, and he talked to me about all of the issues with Master Crafts, and Malibu's and how hard they were to work on. really opened my eyes to what made the most sense for the family...ESPECIALLY since I am not mechanical in nature, and would/will be depending on my Dealer for Maintenance and repairs.

Kvou812 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:52 am

My dealer went out of business 6 months after i bought the boat so I don't have a dealer within 200 miles...and Four Winns doesn't seem interested in growing their dealer network, they just lose dealers.

ric · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:20 am

Kvou812 wrote:

My dealer went out of business 6 months after i bought the boat so I don't have a dealer within 200 miles...and Four Winns doesn't seem interested in growing their dealer network, they just lose dealers.

No kidding. They lost all dealers in Florida except one. Four winns USED to be big in Florida you still see them all over the waterways but now my closest dealer is 422 miles away in the Florida Panhandle!! Up until 2-3 years ago there were two Four Winns dealers within 20mi of my house.

Regal, Searay(bayliner), Hurricane, Chaparral, Stingray, Glastron are the big names in Florida now. Searay being #1 in the cruiser market, regal in the runabout.

blue dragon · **Joined:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 5:01 pm **Posts:** 792

I went directly to the manufacture because the closest dealers to me are a 2 hour tow, or a 2 1/2 hour tow each way.

www.iFourWinns.com

FW Customer Service disappointment

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