Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/28/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I purchased a brand new 2070 Lowe Roughneck DLX tiller less than 2 years ago. About a month ago the main keel in the center of the boat cracked, causing the front of the boat to lose all strength, Further damage had been caused as a result of the crack. I have reached out to Lowe many times via phone, email, and ******** with zero response or feedback. After finally getting a response from Lowe, they are not being helpful in any way and blocked me on ******** messenger which was the most recent point of contact. This boat is still under a manufacturer warranty, but they are doing absolutely nothing. I even assisted them in evaluating the boat by paying for a non-invasive boat assessment to find cause of damage. It has been weeks since they have had the report with no response in what they plan to do about this. After being in contact with several other Lowe customers this seems to be an on-going trend. I am still making payments on a boat I cannot use. I'm not looking for anything unreasonable, just the hull be replaced like it should be.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/15/2022

  We received your letter in regards to *********** ********* complaint of his service with Lowe Boats.

  Our warranty department was asked to look at some pictures of damage that occurred on a Lowe boat owned by *********** *******.  The owner of the boat stated that he was running the boat with several passengers on extremely rough water.  This boat is a river boat with a flat bottom not designed for extremely rough water.  When he got home he saw that there was severe damage to the bottom of the hull.  After reviewing the pictures with our team, this all looked like wave impact damage as we have seen before, and Lowe's denied warranty on the boat.  Our warranty specifically states if damage is caused by improper use, or abuse this voids the warranty.  It also specifies wave impact damage will also void the warranty.

  *** ******* insisted it was because of a factory defect and hired someone (not a marine vetted inspector) to write a report stating it was Lowe's boats fault.  After he gave me this report, I sent it and all of the photos I had to the engineering team.  It took a week or so, and they decided to bring the boat back for evaluation.  I informed ***** of this decision, and we are currently in the process of bringing his boat back.  I was in contact with ***** through this whole process, and never failed to return his emails as to our progress.

  At this time we are waiting for our transport company to pick up the boat.  I replied to an email just this morning from ***** letting him know where we are at.  His statement of getting zero responses is untrue and I have a very long email chain that can show I have been as helpful to him as possible.  We take our warranty seriously, and this case still looks to be customer abuse of the boat.  However, as a gesture of good will, we are going to have our team look at it on site at the factory at no charge to the customer.  At that time, our engineering team will decide if it was abuse, or a factory failure.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/15/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
   Never once did I state "extremely rough water", now putting words into my mouth to get out of the manufacturer responsibility to handle this.  I have owned boats for over 20 years, to say I abused a boat Is absolute blasphemy. I know how to operate boats in all types of weather. I have never had any boat damaged until now, this being my first lowe boat. To state something that the manufacturer is totally unaware of due to the fact they were not there is crazy. Lowe will go days without any response to any emails, calls, or voicemail left to them. I just called and left a message to call me back today in which im sure will not happen like every time before. I have been blocked from Lowe Boats ******** page in an attempt to hide my experiences with this manufacturer.  That is deceiving any customers buy keeping me quiet. I have been in contact with other lowe customers with the exact same problem. so if other people have the same problem, are you saying that multiple people across the country have all "abused" the boat? Highly unlikely. I have all email communications with days between answers. And a call log to prove no return calls. I'm being patient and reasonable. 
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  *********** *******