Quote:
Originally Posted by WinniMarine
I figured that with this post that I would finally sign on to the Winnipesuakee Forum and have my input. I do follow the forum and read many of the posts but I have never felt the need to jump in and say anything because most of the posts are very good about Winnisquam Marine. I can tell you that my family tries very hard and cares greatly about the customer.
My dad got into the marine industry because he enjoyed boats growing up and he had the opportunity 36 years ago to start Winnisquam Marine. I have grown up around the marina and enjoyed boats since I was a little kid. I started working at Winnisquam Marine when I was 14 years old and have worked in every aspect of the marina. This includes the Gas Dock, Rental Boats, Cleaning Crew, Technician, Showroom, Sales, Financing and Management. I graduated top of my class from UVM in Business Administration and Management Information Systems and had many different job opportunities and offers but knew that I wanted to be at the marina because boats are what I enjoy. I like seeing customers and friends get out on the water and enjoy it just like I do. I participate in the Marine Industry in many different ways including being President of the New Hampshire Marine Trades and going down to the State House on a regular basis fighting for what I feel is good for boaters. I have also helped manufactures put on seminars about sales or customer service as we have one of the highest Customer Satisfaction Indexes in the country.
I mention these things because I am an avid boater that enjoys being in the industry and I do everything I can to make the industry better. My Dad, Sister and I are at the marina daily overseeing everything to try to help as many customers as best as possible. We have a great group of customers and have very few complaints or problems. We do get very busy and can be running around like crazy but that’s just because we are trying to get as many happy boaters on the water as possible. We have hired more employees this year in all departments and we bought the old Adam’s Marine to have more space in order to better assist our customers. We have grown quickly because of the great brands we carry and the great customer service that we provide. This was the busiest spring we have ever had and we our doing our best to ramp things up to handle everything and are finally getting there.
Anyways, in regards to the first post about the part that I would not take in return… There were many factors that impacted my decision. First off, the parts were used and had been in his boat. There are no returns on used electrical components. The parts were looked up at our dealership based on the information that the customer provided to us but the person that he has do the work needs to look at the parts and make sure that they match up. When we are the ones providing the service, our technicians need to match the parts up and make sure that they are the same. The customer demanded that I just put them in another customer’s boat and sell them as new. I told him that is unethical which it is. Anyone here can agree on that!!! The customer also had no receipt and had picked up the parts last fall. He bought them at a discount price because he knew one of our employees and wanted to do the work himself to save money. We can’t be responsible for that. The customer was horrible to my employee. He set the used parts on the desk in a greasy box with a bunch of other used parts and when my employee told the customer that he couldn’t take them back the customer started Screaming and Swearing at him demanding his money back. He was being a bully which I would expect a lot more out of a Massachusetts State Trooper. He was threating and demeaning to both my employee and myself which isn’t acceptable. He asked me to do things that were unethical like putting the parts on other customer’s boats and demanded that because we are a huge corporation that we “eat” the parts for good customer service. We are a small family business that provides jobs to many employees and families. We can’t just give things away because a customer doesn’t match up a part when he installs them. That just doesn’t make sense in any respect. We give away parts/labor and do many other different things to provide good customer service but this situation it just would have been a bad decision. He told me that he would post bad things if I didn’t give him his money back which was just another way he threatened me to try to get his way. It was very unprofessional!!! His attitude and manners were so bad that I was going to call the police; my other employees that were present couldn’t believe the situation and have been talking about it since then. This type of customer is what makes it so businesses have to institute tighter policies and they increase the cost of doing business which will impact all the other good customers negatively.
Sorry my post was so long but I take everything personal because it’s a family business and I care. My family works very hard and we don’t want a few bad ones to affect our business negatively or any of our many great customers…
Ryan Crawford
Winnisquam Marine
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Ryan:
Thanks for your response. I agree that the historical posts regarding your business have been complimentary and you were certainly more than fair with me when I bought my boat in the spring of 2009. I'll certainly be back the next time I am in the market. Keep a positive attitude... unfortuantely you can't make 100% of the people doing business with you happy. No one can!