I want to warn anyone who plans on doing business or is doing business with either of these companies.
Back in March I found out my prop shaft was bent on my Yahama 225 hp outboard. After doing some research I decided to purchase a rebuilt lower unit and started searching for one. I came across marineparts.com and they advertised they had the unit I need for a price that I could afford plus a 15 month warrantee which was the icing on the cake. I called them and asked lots of questions about the warrantee and so on and figured I would take the plunge and placed an order.
A company called Soutwest Marine Inc. Out of Fort Myers handles the rebuilds on their behalf and promptly sent me a box to ship my old disassembled lower unit to them. About a week later a rebuilt lower unit showed up at my door and I took it over to the marina where my boat was located and their mechanic bolted it on and I figured I was on my way. Fork lift dropped my boat in the water and I fired up the engine and imagine my surprise when I put her into forward gear and the boat went backwards and almost slammed into the sea wall
Long story short hauled the boat back out and called Southwest Marine immediatly. They apologized profusely and said a mistake must have been made when they put the unit together and they would take care of it immediately. I told them that I was now going to incure an additional haul out fee from the marina plus labor to install the next lower unit. They said no problem they would cover the charges and to simply fax them the bill from the marina/mechanic and acheck would be sent to me promptly to cover the charges
So the unit was shipped back and four days later another unit shows up. I was really impressed with how fast they turned it around and grateful that they were standing behind their mistake. Unit was promptly installed and the boat was dropped in the water. This time I put the boat in forward and no problems, boat went forward I figured that sometimes mistakes happen but they made the situation right so no need to be upset.
Well all the good feelings torwards Southwest Marine and Marinepart.com started to evaporate soon after that. I promptly faxed in the bill to Southwest for the additional haul out and one hour of labor the marina charged me. And then waited and waited and waited, no check showed up. Then all of sudden a letter arrives and in it is a invoice telling me I have store credit with SouthWest Marine and can redeem it at any time. Now I am pissed I immediatly called them and told them this was not what was agreed upon and I was told I would get cash back for the haul out and mech labor. The gentlemen I talked to said that the owner stated times are tough and that is just how it is. Now lets be clear we are not talking 10s of thousands of dollars here. We are talking about less then 200 bucks but it's 200 bucks I worked really hard for and had to pay out for their screw up.
So now it's the month of October and I've given up on ever seeing my money. I can't tell you how many times I've called SouthWest Marine and Marineparts.com over the past months about this situation and all I get is the run around.
Both of these companies have lost me as a customer and I am now going to spread the word far and wide about how they lied and screwed me out of my hard earned money
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