My extended warranty

[Craigmri]

My Utopia purchase gets more interesting all the time. It appears Smith Powersports made a mistake when they sold me my extended BEST warranty.

The Warranty contract signed by the Business Manager and myself shows a "BEST PLUS" 36 month extension(totaling total of 4 years warranty coverage). I suspected something was in error because the price of this contract was very reasonable $999.

Recently I received my warranty card from Seadoo and it reflects a regular BEST warranty and only extends the warranty for two years(totaling three). Now the fun begins.....

I call BRP about this error and they state the problem is between me and Smith Powersports. They state that the dealers are not franchised like car dealers and that BRP has nothing to do with the contract I signed with the dealer. They sell the warranty to Smith and Smith in turn re-sells. They suggested I call Smith and straighten the mess out. Smith Powersports claims they never sold me the "Best Plus" because they claim it costs too much. I asked, why does this signed agreement state BEST PLUS??? They refuse to acknowledge the BEST PLUS. Apparently the "BEST PLUS" covers the scheduled services at 10 hours and annually afterward.

After two weeks of calls to Smith and BRP, so far they have extended the regular BEST coverage to 36 months(4 years total) but still have yet to concede the 10 hour service.

I called my local dealer who has been repairing all the problems I've had with my new Utopia 205(Barneys of St Pete.) and asked what my bill will be for the 10 hour service on my Twin Rotax boat. $590 plus tax!!! The 100 hour service will be $1500!!!!!!!!

I have two questions for you guys. I need your judgment and experience to help me make good choices here.

1) If I have a signed contract stating BEST PLUS what should I do? Stick to my guns? Accept that they may have made a simple clerical error? Negotiate reparation against the 10 hour service?

2) Providing I wont be receiving the BEST PLUS coverage, And considering I'm an engineer extremely mechanically inclined and a car guy, would you recommend against me doing my own services? I wouldnt hesitate changing oil, lube, coolant and what-not but worry that if I have any major failures Seadoo will look for every opportunity to not cover me in addition, the dealer wont go to bat for me because they did not make that service revenue.

$590 for the 10 Hour service and $1500 for the 100 hour service seems really high for stuff I feel I can perform for a fraction of that price.

Thoughts?

Craig

 

[jareaver]

Your concern about BRP not warranting the checks yourself is very valid. I'm almost certain that a dealer has to do the 10 hr check, as they hook up the boat to the BUDS and read the data about the engine performance, how it was throttled, etc.

If it were me, I would most certainly pay to have the 10 hr service done if Smiths is uncooperative honoring the BEST plan they sold you. Sometimes in business you mess up, and unfortunately Smith did and they need to honor the contract in its entirety and incur the loss as a 'live and learn' lesson.

As for the 100hr service, I think it depends on how many hours you put on the boat vs. the coverage period. If you have a hundred hours after 2 years, then I would bite the bullet and have the dealer do it for the aforementioned reasons concerning the 10hr check. If you don't put a lot of hours on your boat chances are your BEST warranty will run out before you reach the 100hr point.

 

[Seadoopilot]

Do you want a voided warrentee ?

My Utopia purchase gets more interesting all the time. It appears Smith Powersports made a mistake when they sold me my extended BEST warranty.


$590 for the 10 Hour service and $1500 for the 100 hour service seems really high for stuff I feel I can perform for a fraction of that price.

Thoughts?

Craig

First of all ,, You must get the 10 hour service done , they read the computer to see if you over reved the motor durring break in . or the warrentee is voided . unless you plann on never giving it full throttle ever?

Next thing is Smith has had complaints with the North Carolina BBB, so they have a habbit of screwing people when they can.

If you make a mistake they will and I mean WILL get you.

If you paid through a finance company contact them , they can deal with smith , If they feel the customer is not getting what they payed for they will refuse to finance any mor through them

You can go to small claims court and get a simple judgment that makes them honor the contract . . You have it in black and white.

Do not settle for a partial . If you concede anything they will make you concede everything .

They will say they are extending it for 3 years then when the 2 years are up they will deny it . They will do anything they can to get the paperwork from you offering to rewrite it for you .

Take them to small claims and I will pay the filing fee.

 

[Craigmri]

Guys,

You both make excellent points. I will without question have the 10 hour service performed at Barneys.

I did a BBB search Seadoopilot and see only one complaint. I may be the second. Part of me feels they should accept responsibility for the error but part of me understands that mistakes happen and dont be a jerk about it. I'm not sure what I should do in that regard. If they'd pay for half the 10 hour service I'd probably be good with that at this point. They've already extended the regular coverage to the 36 month extension(four years total).

Craig

 

[jareaver]

I know this sounds awful, and I try to treat people the way I would like to be treated, but my father has also said 'business knows no friends'.

A contract is a contract, whether it was an oversight on their part or not. If you had signed a contract to do engineering work for them, under-bid the contract, and realized afterward you had low-balled your fees, I'm sure they would expect your performance on the contract regardless of losing money or not. I would normally not take such a hard line on this issue be but it seems dealing with Smiths has been an uphill battle and any 'wiggle' room you may have considered giving is no longer an option.

 

[Craigmri]

I've decided to e-mail the owner one last time. If he pretty much washes his hands of this I'll file a BBB complaint.

 

[Sikiguya]

Sounds like a bluff on their part

If you have it in writing and it is a contract. Then you are good to go. Given what is at stake, I would think it is worth the time to contest it. Bummer for you..

What kind of problems are you having with your Utopia?

 

[Craigmri]

Sika,

The issues I've been having with my Utopia were mostly related to my boat sitting for two years at a dealer somewhere and poor prep from the selling dealer in NC. I still have a rattle noise that Barneys of St Pete will be addressing at the 10 hour service unless it goes away prior to then.

Most of the issues have been relatively minor such as a bilge pump, wire connection etc... Some of the more significant items were the Shifter/throttle assembly and some minor gelcoat cracks that needed repair(These were caused by poor assembly at the factory). So far everything has been fixed without challenge under warranty.

Craig

 

[Craigmri]

Update as of 3/12/2009

Received a call from the owner of Smith Power sports. Sounds like he is going to work with me on the cost of the 10 hour service. They will certainly gain a bunch of credibility with me should this go down. I'll follow up in a few weeks with the results.

Craig

 

[TVZ1965]

dealer

So Charles ccalled you. How is he working with you? The other guys could correct me if I'm wrong but the 10hr service is only about $200 or so. Don't let them act as if they are givin you alot.:boxing_smiley: He did that for me and the winterizing.

 

[Craigmri]

10 Hour service

Tony,

The 10 hour service on my Utopia 205 Twin Rotax is $590 at Barneys of St. Pete. I agree that it SHOULD be like $200 but $590 is what they quoted me. Charles says he's gonna call Barneys and take care of it. I'll let you know how it all works out in the coming weeks.

Craig

So Charles ccalled you. How is he working with you? The other guys could correct me if I'm wrong but the 10hr service is only about $200 or so. Don't let them act as if they are givin you alot.:boxing_smiley: He did that for me and the winterizing.

 

[TVZ1965]

A liitle help here guys should the 10rs service be this high? If you look in the manaul it says what needs to be done and it look to me as not much more than an oil change and inspect everything?

 

[Seadoopilot]

A liitle help here guys should the 10rs service be this high? If you look in the manaul it says what needs to be done and it look to me as not much more than an oil change and inspect everything?

there is a accepted amount of time that the 10 hour inspection should take , the thing is , each shop can charge what ever amount they feel their labour is worth. one shop may charge $35 per hour , the next $85

You must get the 10 hour done at a authorized dealer , Without it they can void the warrentee. They hook it up to the computer to see if you over revved it durring the break in period . It also tells the mech's hor the engine is performing . they can then correct problems before they become big problems like pre-ignition, lean, rich etc.

 

[seadoosnipe]

A liitle help here guys should the 10rs service be this high? If you look in the manaul it says what needs to be done and it look to me as not much more than an oil change and inspect everything?

You really can't look at the manual and compare what the price should be. There is a list of things that have to be done, including the BUDS survey on the condition of the engine and what you did for those 10 hours.

In the manual, they have time charged hours for each step, so that could be used in determining the total amount of pay. You can request an itemized bill from the service center too....

As I've read these posts, so many valid statements. First, yes.....the most important thing is the ten hour service. Do they just change the oil? Maybe, but for you, it's a document stating that you had the service, so if the supercharger blows at 14 hours because they did not do a proper inspection, that's not held against you.....they have to bite the bullet and fix it!

As for the 100 hour check....depends on how long it takes you to get to that point. From what I"ve read of your threads, then yes......you could probably do this yourself (Craigmri). With your mechanical background, then you know that if something is going to give, it'll do it before you reach 100 hours. In my book, if I can take it out and beat the crap out of it for a month, then it'll last me for the time I have it (except for the simple things you have to repair from time to time).

I hate to read how people spend tens of thousands of dollars on these boats just to be screwed over by the dealer. A dealer is suppose to be the one you can trust. I could see gettin screwed if you bought it from the Classified section of the Newspaper, .....but a dealer?......