Buyer beware springwood marine

[Stuart]

Yep, trial by fishing forum. Many people on this site have lost boats, engines and lots of money to dodgie companies that disapear overnight due to no fault of there own, not suggesting you will. So you have to forgive us all if we look at this and think, where have we seen this happen before. I have had piss poor service at SM and no I wont be back. I run my own busniess and yes, its dam hard. Your right though, you cant please all your customers but you should at least try your hardest. Going that extra mile will quite often give you a customer for life. There has been something around for many years, its called the fishing telegraph and its still working today, good or bad.

[bennykenny]

i recently bought a small motor from springwood marine, and while i had a reasonably pleasent experience on the purchase side of things, this thread has made me think twice about returning for the service side of things. i cant see why an owner of a buisness would get into a debate on a public forum with over 100000 registered members. Some of whom may have been future potential customers, viewing a thread like this will turn them away weather you are in the right or the wrong Katcaddy, it makes no difference, i may just have to take the extra 15 minute drive to the next Merc dealer for my services.Cheers BK

PS if you google springwood marine this thread comes in at number 5 on the first page, not a good look for SM

[geoffmck]

TopBhoy,

No prosecutions that I am aware of. Pressure gets applied and a solution is forthcoming under threat of further action. One dealer in particular has done these sort of things numerous times.

Anthony,

The business I was referring to down here is still operating.

Cheers

Hey BM, I have a new bmt package on order from a large dealer in Melbourne and reading some of these posts makes me worry my new Etec might not be new? How will I be able to check?

[cormorant]

Hey BM, I have a new bmt package on order from a large dealer in Melbourne and reading some of these posts makes me worry my new Etec might not be new? How will I be able to check?

Geoff - ask the dealer for the printout of the ECU showing hours and updates as it will also serial number etc. It will show when motor was first started, current hours , error codes etc. Takes their mechanics 2 minutes when doing the install to do this if they know as all they have to do is hit the print button and have it stapled into your log book . Just ask. Ask at every service to have the full copy of the printout for your records.
Check serial number with paperwork and stamp on motor before you settle.

That record of when fitted and original owner , originating dealer ,updates, etc is held on the Evinrude database and avaliable to all dealers for warranty enquiries and for update checks etc.

Cheers.

Edit - here is a picture of a basic printout of a etec.
http://www.etecownersgroup.com/file?id=1286125

[BM]

Hi mate,

Firstly, don't fret! PM me if you want to give any further details as obviously publicly isn't the way to go.

To protect yourself, prior to accepting the package request the serial number of the engine in writing (email is a legal document) and you can cross check that serial number with the manufacturer and they will verify who that engine was supplied to and when it was supplied and any other relevant info pertaining to that engine.

Regards

[charleville]

Geoff - ask the dealer for the printout of the ECU showing hours and updates as it will also serial number etc. It will show when motor was first started, current hours , error codes etc. Takes their mechanics 2 minutes when doing teh install to do this if they know as all they have to do is hit teh print button and have it stapled into your log book . Just ask. Ask at every service to have the full copy of the printout for your records.
Check serial number with paperwork and stamp on motor before you settle.

That record of when fitted and original owner , originating dealer ,updates, etc is held on the Evinrude database and avaliable to all dealers for warranty enquiries and for update checks etc.

Cormorant, that is excellent advice. Many thanks for that.


However, what a shame it is when Joe Citizen has to resort to doing that because dealers cannot be trusted.


.

[TREVELLY]

KC don't think for one minute people will choose you because they are close to you geographically and will not drive to you if they are further away.

I live 10 minutes from Cunninghams marine but due to my experience and impressions I drove 1500km to buy my new $75K BMT from another dealer. Similarly I get my services done driving twice the distance from Cunninghams to get boat serviced by someone I trust. In the past two years I have spent about $95K on my boat - not one cent at a dealer i do not want to give my business too.

With your manner you are costing your business money.

Yes, Cunninghams have gone bust and I am sure they would have stood a better chance of being in business if they grasped every opportunity to either look after people or do the right thing.

No one disputes people make mistakes - but it is what you do to remedy them that counts once admitting an error and apologising.

20ran was offered a free service on his motor but when he arrived and got the service, he was given one hour off the service fee and still had to pay $580 - if that is your idea of doing the right thing - then be blown if i would be in your yard, 2m away or 1500km away.

You were given good kudos on this forum for offering to do the right thing by 20ran previously and that is the way a thread can and should end up - but when you then wipe them like a dirty rag afterwards, when you were to deliver on your promise, expect to be judged accordingly.

You were asked numerous times why you didn't stick to your word and you chose to ignore that too - don't expect us to ignore it aswell.

[GBC]

Our offices are at Dennis Rd Springwood (Yes, private enterprise) - I've been driving past SM's door to other dealers for years.

[Jarrah Jack]

You were asked numerous times why you didn't stick to your word and you chose to ignore that too - don't expect us to ignore it aswell.

Nothing more to say.

[finga]

So Katcaddy. A really easy question to answer.
Why was a number on the paperwork to one guy and not on the paperwork to the other guy?

Some of you seem to enjoy this, the accusation has been made that you have paper work with a serial number, show me or I will prove you to be a liar however never let the truth get in the way of a good story. And Rossco, I look forward to you calling me. Well done mate, you obviously are missing something in your life, look forward to catching up. It's about time you guys had a good look at yourselves, what I do know is that intelligent people make their own decisions and are not influenced by slander!

OK. I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed BUT.......
How do you know there are no numbers in the paperwork for the engine sent to Mack as a new one?

Rosco I know you have paper work with that serial number on it, I thought Mac chaser said that his paper work had that serial number on it, my apologizes to Mack chaser. Look forward to seeing you on thursday Rosco.

Seems to me there is something different happened with the paperwork.
One had numbers (the one that was new but turned out to be a reject)
One had no numbers (the one that was supposed to be new but was a reject from dude number 1 and sent to dude number 2)

There has to be an internal paper trail to prove it was a mistake.
But one lot of paperwork with numbers and one without??
Something seems drift to this blunt chisel (I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed remember)

Cheers Alfred

[myusernam]

give the guy A break. only the business owner suffers and he cant help it if his staff make a few mistakes. He righted the wrong. IN the end he got there once he got involved so give him some credit. It's his lively hood and his name. Poor business owners must shxt everytime they go away

[Drifty75]

lol @ "signing off"...


That says to me, I quit. I've been caught red handed and I have absolutely no excuse. My bulls*&t excuse I used is not cutting it and now I must run for the hills... Hopefully the fire will die off soon and I'll be able to continue as usual.


If you actually gave a crap about your business, you would post more than a response longer than the one minute it takes to write it. It goes to show that you really don't care about your reputation because if it were my business, I would have it all out in the open, for EVERYONE to see what went wrong and how we solved it. Hoping that people would see the effort I went to fixing it.. That is of course if it was a mistake, or unless you tried to scam somebody in which case, you're screwed...

But alas, you decided to no do any such thing, instead you are elusive with your information, not answering questions, will not address issues from other users and all while thousands of people are looking at you.


Poor form....



Either way, as you've signed off of this thread now, it seems you will never get to see this...

[finga]

Poor business owners must shxt everytime they go away

And good business owners won't.

Answering a few questions may go a long way in us gaining some faith back into the buying public.
There are some doozy (but simple) questions to answer like why was the offer of a free service renegued upon for starters??
Why did one set of papers have engine numbers and another (the dodgy one) didn't??
Why was the original booking date for fitting not booked into the workshop side of the business??


They're simple questions and a good business owner would tell us why/how this happened.
A good business owner would also put pen to paper and write down what safe guards are in place to make sure the customer gets what they've paid for from time of ordering to time of been happy as Larry.

A good business owner would delegate responsibility if they knew they were going to be un-contactable over an extended period of time especially if they had over 20 employees etc etc etc.
In this case a snap decision could have been made to chuck a new motor in the ute and race up to Origin Boats so the new motor could have been fitted with near to no delays.
Col could have fitted the motor either that day or the next. Macks would not have lost his time off. Everyone happy.
A good business owner would have better quality assurance in the way things are done.
Multiple checks should have been done to make sure that this easily avoidable occurrence never would have happened in the first place.
Engine numbers to cross reference on all paperwork would be a start.
Letting the owner of the engine, that's been paid for, his engine number would give the new owner peace of mind.
To simply blame the person on the delivery dock and call him a goose and blame him/her is wrong. Who hired him/her??

A good business owner makes sure his prospective clients are happy as word of mouth is the best form of advertising.
A lot of prospective clients need to have their fears squashed by answers.
Near everyone on this forum knows of at least 3 or 4 people who have lost big money because they trusted the dealer. People have generally lost trust in dealers in the marine industry as a consequence.
Near every month there is a story of lost money due to dealer stuffing up or doing a runner.
A good dealer will tell us what they can do for us so we, the clients who want to spend money, can be guaranteed to receive what we pay for.

In this case there doesn't seem to be a simple stuff up. There seems to be a continually expanding list of stuff ups.

Good news travels fast. Bad news travels faster.

Do you also own Motorama or is Springwood Marine affiliated in any way with Motorama Katcaddy??



Why was the dodgy motor simply strapped down onto a pallet leaking oil for delivery to supposedly Northern Queensland??
That can't be real good for an expensive motor can it??

[pipifin]

What I can't believe is there is no-one in the whole place (with a staff of over 20) who could not have made an on the spot decision in these matters when you were away Katcaddy.
Mobile phone? E-mail?
What would happen if you had the misfortune of having a heart attach and were out of action for months on end?
Someone must be able to make the big decisions whilst your not there. Is there someone there who can make the same decisions when your not there?

So Katcaddy...how does this all work?

Simple..... before you order anything from anyone, enquire as to whether the owner of the company is going to take any holidays in the foreseeable future and if so, who will be handling the situation..... and if they have any holidays planned..... and so on.

[finga]

Simple..... before you order anything from anyone, enquire as to whether the owner of the company is going to take any holidays in the foreseeable future and if so, who will be handling the situation..... and if they have any holidays planned..... and so on.

And get a full medical report??