In early July I took my 2002 Polaris Freedom personal watercraft in to Polaris of Nashville for repairs. It was running fine when cold, but would shut off and not start again when warm.
After a few weeks I received a call from Josh Londre, the service consultant at the dealership stating that they had diagnosed the problem as a bad coil and it needed to be replaced. He gave me a quote for this repair of approximately $300 and I told him to go ahead and fix it. I was told that the craft was repaired and went to the dealership on 8/8 to pick it up.
After paying the bill I looked over the invoice and noticed that the coil was not replaced as agreed, but to my surprise they had replaced the battery. This was odd since it had been working well for me all season. When I enquired about this to Josh he stated that it had tested bad and did not have enough amps to fire the coil. I was a bit skeptical, but trusted the dealerships judgement and headed straight to the lake.
Well, after riding for about 3 miles the Freedom again shut off and would not restart (same exact problem). After a long swim to shore and a longer drive to go get my truck and trailer I managed to get the Polaris back to the dealership before closing.
At this time I was introduced to Derek Leslie, who as it turned out was not only the mechanic who worked on my ski, but also the manager of the dealership, or so he told me. As you might guess I was upset and I asked Derek for a refund of my money since the battery obviously wasn't the problem. He told me that no refund would be given because the work had been done. I argued that if you have you vehicle in for repair and it is not repaired correctly or at all, then you are not charged. He disagreed with this policy. After several minutes of negations with him he offered to reinstall my original battery and refund me the price of the battery that had been needlessly installed.
Well, after a few minutes of "looking" for my battery in the shop he reemerged to tell me that my battery had been "damaged" in the shop and could not be returned to me, so I was stuck with the original bill and un-needed battery. After a few more rounds of negotiations Derek offered to try to make things right by keeping the watercraft and continuing to work on for free, up to 2.5 hours of labor, and try again to fix the problem. At this point he told me I had to decide in 5 minutes because he was leaving to have a good weekend, so I needed to make up my mind. Since I was already out almost $300 and had no way to recover it, I agreed to let him try to remedy his mistake.
After having the craft for several more weeks I called in to check the status of it. I again spoke with Derek who informed me that the problem has been traced to a faulty module that will cost $150 to replace, with no labor charge. I am relieved to hear that they found the problem and I am ready to get my ski back as the summer is winding down and I want to ride it, so I give him the okay on the repair. A few days later I again get a call from Josh telling me that it is ready to pick up and it runs great. He even went on to tell me that one of the mechanics actually took it out for a ride and all was well.
That brings us to today. I went in to pick up the watercraft, paid my bill, and hooked it up to the truck. Josh was helping me and he wanted to start it to show me how good it ran, but guess what? It wouldn't even start. Exactly as I had brought it in 2 month and $450 prior. Another mechanic came out and looked at it and tried to start it, but with no luck. Then Derek shows up and was no help. I told him what Josh had told me about it being test ridden and he said that was not the case and that Josh was confused by all of the different watercraft in for service. He also told me that it had started for him several times in the shop (which it had done all along, even before I brought it in). He told me that if I wanted to leave it again he would gladly continue to "work" on it for a charge.
I declined and decided to cut my losses with Polaris of Nashville and find another repair facility.
While filing my complaint against this dealership I noticed all too late that they already have an unsatisfactory rating with the middle Tennessee BBB.
My research also found the the part that they installed cost me $142.99, but had an MSRP of $119.99 from Polaris. Free labor, go figure...
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