[Ironfish]

I think Ted is guilty of not communicating.

1. He should have called you when the boat got dumped in the water.
2. He should have called you when they found that the engine was overheating.
3. He shouldn't have fixed the 2nd engine without approval.

I think you are guilty of overreacting to an unexpected bill. Put yourself in their shoes. The boat gets dumped in the water. As they should, they start it up an check to make sure things are operationally OK. Nope, it's overheating. Boat is now wet, and clogging up their ramp. Disregarding the poor lack of communication, here are the choices that Ted would have to give to you, had he called you:

1. Pull it back out of the water, and let it clog up the yard, and tell you you're gonna have to pay another lift fee to get it wet again.
2. Leave it in the water, so you can drive your overheating boat to some other yard, where you can pay another yard to haul it out, and you can rebuild the engine yourself.
3. Leave it in the water, and let you find out the problem when you show up to have a nice weekend on the lake.
4. Fix it, so you can actually use your nice Formula.

99% (if not 100%!) of Lakeport's customers would have said "fix it". You've really got no choice. You can't fix it yourself, because you can't pick it up. You can't drive it someplace else, because it will overheat. I'll bet 95% of customers would have taken the advice to do the precautionary fix on the other side.

If I were Lakeport, I would do the following:

1. Tell my service department to make sure they communicate better.
2. Send you 1/2 your money back, for the side they didn't "have to" fix.

If I were you, I would do the following:

1. Let it go. Had they made the call, you'd certainly have told them to at least fix one side.
2. If they don't call you first, call them, tell them that you're sorry it got to this, and ask them if they would be willing to reimburse 1/2 your bill.

If you both like the response, you can can both continue to do business together. If either one doesn't wish to settle it, than you won't have to worry about each other again.

My bet says they settle, if you're nice about it.