Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/04/2022

  Type:Service or Repair 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 had the lower unit replaced on my boat in April of 2021. I had 1 year of warranty on the lower unit. I took the boat back three times within 1 year because it had no reverse. They keep saying it was a linkage adjustment problem. Seven months later the lower unit strips some gears. They won't warranty it even though I had this problem for over a year. They are trying to charge me $5600 to replace the lower unit again.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/05/2022

  On 3/25/21 Customer came into our shop with a complaint that he hit something in the water and damaged his prop, we sent his prop off for repair.  Once we received it back, we installed the prop on the engine, took the boat to the lake to verify everything was good and we noticed that the lower unit was popping in and out of gear which is caused by the clutch dog internally in the lower unit being damaged.  We gave the customer a quote of $7068.12 to replace the lower unit.  Customer contacted his insurance company and they paid for the lower unit replacement.  Customer picked his boat up on 5/11/21.  On 1/3/22 the customer contacted us about having a loss of power with his engine.  Diagnosis found that there was an internal piston failure in the engine.  We rebuilt his engine, reinstalled all components and tested the engine, customer picked up on 4/13/22.  On 4/21/22, customer called and said that the engine would only idle and wouldn't take throttle.  Diagnosis found that there was water in his fuel, we drained some fuel out of the boat, replaced his fuel filter, and added treatment to the fuel to help remove any other water that may be in there.  On 7/18/22, customer called and said that the engine would randomly not accelerate at times.  He brought the boat into the shop, we found that the Throttle Position Sensor was failing and needed to be replaced.  We replaced the throttle position sensor, calibrated the sensor, and the code cleared away.  Customer was not charged for the part or the labor for installation of this occurrence due to the time frame in which the engine was rebuilt even though it had nothing in correspondence with the piston failure.  On 8/26/22, the customer brought his boat in due to still randomly sometimes not wanting to take throttle.  We found that the Throttle Position Sensor was out of range due to his throttle cable being stretched.  We adjusted his throttle cable, adjusted his hot foot and tensioning spring, lubricated the cable, got it back in the range and recalibrate the Throttle Position Sensor again and tested good.  The customer was not charged for any of the labor involved with this repair due to the Technician that installed the sensor originally should have caught the slack in the cable at the time the Sensor was installed, and it should have been addressed at that time.  On, 10/29/22 customer called and said that his lower unit was slipping out of Reverse gear.  He brought the boat in for diagnosis, and we found that the clutch dog was failing again inside of the lower unit that we installed on 5/11/21.  We called *** about trying to warranty the lower unit, they said there was nothing they could do because the lower unit that was installed on his engine had a 12-month warranty, in which now the customer is on month 17.  We reached out to two aftermarket companies that we use for replacement parts (*** and ***), trying to help the customer out with the price of having to purchase another lower unit.  Neither of those companies had any lower units in stock that would work with the customer's engine and didn't have an ETA of when they may be available.  The only option is to order and install another lower unit directly from Evinrude, in which are on back order as well.  We offered to discount the lower unit to help out with the cost and were willing to sale this lower unit to the customer for 10% over our cost instead of full retail, which is a total discount of $1463.19.  The customer himself never purchased the first lower unit, his insurance company did.  We do not own the warranty on these parts, the manufacturer does.  I have no records at all since he purchased the original lower unit from us that he was having any issues that involved the lower unit.  I think our offer/discount is more than fair due to the history we have had with this customer.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/07/2022

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.  I took the boat back 3 times for no reverse engagement. The first time sometime in November of 2021 . They were also suppose to check it in January when they replaced the engine. When put boat in water after engine replacement engine light was on and wouldn't run.They said was water in fuel remove filter no water they had left 3 wiring connectors undone one was to water in fuel light They were supposed to check no reverse again 4/21/22 when they checked for only idling. When I took it back on10/29/22 the girl in office said she seen where I had problems with reverse  previously. All I know is they were supposed to check for no reverse 3 different time after the checks it had reverse for a couple of months then no reverse again.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/08/2022

  Customer picked up the boat with the new lower unit installed on 5/5/21. There is only record of one instance that the boat has been back here to our shop which is on 4/21/22. In this instance there is no mention of any Lower unit issues. I attempted to attach this ticket for your review as well, however it may not be there as I can't seem to review it.There is no warranty left on the lower unit from the manufacturer and we did not put any promise of warranty to be upheld by Anglers Choice at the time of installation. It is not reasonable to expect us to pay for this lower unit. If the customer had mentioned these issues during the manufacturers wtty period, we would have gone back to said manufacturer and filed a claim, no questions asked, as we have done many, many times in the past. I do apologize for the inconvenience this has caused the customer. We have offered what we see as a fair resolution to this and to be honest , it is more than we have to offer in these circumstances. We want to do what we can for the customer keeping within reason.