A Boat Storage Story.
 

Two items.
Oil change.
Outdrive.

I am used occaisionally as the "ride" person. Drive down with boat owner so that boat can be driven home by boat owner. I drive the car back.

Expensive brand boat near Lakeport.
Neighbor bought new.
Somewhere above $80,000.00

Used it one Summer. Stored at selling marina in Winter.

Following Spring. Owner made an appointment to pick up boat. Owner makes arrangesments with me for the "ride".

We go down to marina in Lakeport.
Boat not ready.
Next week told. Way behind schedule. Very busy.
My boat neighbor notices that rear drive is off boat. Asks why. Told "normal maintenance".

Next week boat owner shows up and asks if boat is ready and that all maintenance has been completed. Yes.

My boat neighbor, previous autumn had marked on bottom of oil filter with an X. He goes out to boat and finds the same oil filter with the X still on engine. The service manager appologizes and hastily gets oil and filter changed right then and there. And states that the "mechanic" must have "forgotten".

The following year, the out drive disintergrates/breaks and has to be replaced. Very expensive repair.

I never said a word.

But I don't think that the out drive has to be taken off during routine maintenance. I surmise that the outdrive was taken and placed on another customers boat. That 2nd outdrive was "fixed" and placed on my neighbors boat.

That's not possible, is it?

drive maint.
 

It is plausible they took the drive off to grease the drive shaft or check engine alignment. Most new boats have a grease fitting for it though.

Some folks take the drive off for storage as they are easy to steal.

There should be a drive serial number to match up to the original sale paperwork.

Wow! That's really bad!
 

I agree with checking the serial numbers on the drive. I have my drives serviced by Irwins at MVYC every season and they don't remove them from the boat. I had a similar service "problem" with a Lakeport dealer (not Irwins) where said service department had me waiting three weeks to change a steering cable. When I complained about the delay, and a bunch more rediculous crap they pulled, I was told that the sales department's service work came first because they had to get those boats ready for sale and I would just have to wait. What???!!!! I ended up leaving that marina and bought a new boat from Irwins. I have NEVER been back to that place, not even for fuel. Bad feelings last a long long time. Poor business practices will always result in unhappy customers, and we don't forget

The Breeze
Wave 'cuz I'll be wavin' back

marinas outside of the state
 

Fellow boaters from Florida, NC, Arizona and California experienced the same situation with outdrive swapping. It appears that boaters want to be back on the water quickly. Marinas will take off defective outdrive and replaced with a rebuilt one. The defective outdrive is rebuilt for the next customer. This keeps down time to a minimum. I'm not surprised if marinas in the Lakes Region do the same thing.

My experience with a Gilford marina was when a new motor valves were tuliped. The marina replace the engine with a rebuilt motor of same year and type. Mercury approved it as it was under warranty. If I was to request repairs, my summer will be shot. Mercury can give me a new engine but it will take 6 to 8 weeks for delivery. I opted for a rebuilt with full 5 year warrantee. I was back on the water that weekend. At least the marina informed me of the situation.

Just curious
 

I can sympathize with you over the problems but why would the owner not call before driving down to find boat not ready.
When ever we have had our boats serviced we gotten a completion date, but even so we always called beforehand to make sure the boat was in fact completed.
Unfortunately the juggling act is common in all service work, cars, boats, bikes etc., even I will try to juggle things around to work a small job into an already full schedule and gain a new customer. Although it usually doesn’t interrupt work because I’ll just do it on a weekend.
No marina is perfect and there is not one out there that has not had negative feedback.
What I have found is it isn’t what the marina does wrong that clinches weather you use them for future work, but it is how they handle the situation that shows just how professional they are and how much they want to retain your business.

Honesty IS the best policy. Lose the public's trust and your days are numbered. I would hope that the short sightedness described in this thread does not reflect the intentions of the marinas' owners.