First, I never just take my boat to the shop and hope nor expect them to be able to work on it immediately, in fact I assmue they don’t really want my boat on their lot until they are ready to work on it. I will always call before I take my boat in to any shop.
If I was to call a shop (any reputable shop) to discuss when I can bring my boat in for service/repair, and I am given a date (3 days, 1 - 2 weeks later). Is it then unreasonable for me to expect them to begin to work on my boat that day? Would it be unreasonable for me to expect the shop to move my boat in front of any other boats that were brought in unscheduled?
I can see where you are coming from but on the flip-side of that; If someone calls and asks when they can drop their boat off for whatever and the shop gives them a date, I dont think it is fair to expect that shop to assume that everyone who calls is actually going to drop their boat off on that day. I don’t know for sure but I think that they get burned by would-be customers more often than we know.
Also, what if some of the parts for the repair are out of stock and must be ordered. Should the shop buy them beforehand “hoping and praying” that you will do as promised and bring your boat in at the appointed time?
Also got to look at the season. Is it peak season or off?
“Sometimes I think it’s a shame, when I start feelin better when I’m feelin no pain…”.
One car Made by Chevrolet, for the most part all of their systems the same… ONe boat hull could have many different systems, not to add in a number of engine variations… and sometimes a schmuck could have been the one to hang the motor… Unlike Chevrolet who installs it in the plant…
Just my opinion, like a rear end everyone’s got one.
“The Wet Dream”
20’ Pioneer 197
150hp Suzuki 4-Stroke
It would take me about an hour to explain all the reason boat repair is not like car repair. I’ve done both professionally. When I used to work for a boat dealership, the management kept bringing in all these ideas from the auto repair industry, I kept telling them it wouldn’t work, but they tried any way, and failed. Several major reason(there are lots of reasons) is 1. Salt water, it will screw up any estimate, simple jobs tend to snowball and become much bigger with salt water use. 2. there are thousands of good auto techs in the tri county area, there are probably less than 50 quilified marine mechanics in this area(probably less than 10 top notch). I realize the proportions to the numbers of cars are different, but with more car techsand options, its easier to keep up with schedluing if one gets hung up on a job, the next job gets passed to another tech, if theres no one free in that shop, it can go to another shop. And 3. Boat repair is very seasonal, shops get over loaded in the summer, rather than bringing your boat in for service in the off season when your not rushed, people contiually wait till warm weather to have annual maintance done on their boat, thats when you find all the broken things on the boat that the customer didn’t realize was broken. Customers allways say “ya’ll need to hire more mechanics” but generally, there isn’t enough work in the off season to support extra mechanics because no one wants to have their boat worked on during the winter. I could keep going on with at least 15 more reasons, but it still would’nt change anything. If you want your boat relatively trouble free, have it serviced in late winter before it gets busy, stay on top of scheduled repairs. Do preventative repairs before they become reactive. Look for item before they break ratehr than wait for them to break. Inspect your boat often, check everything before you go out. And try to be paitent with your repair shop, we are all trying to get to your boat as fast as posible and do the best job posible, at times it can
As a shop owner, I can say that it would be tough to set a certain day to drop off and the work be performed that very day. There is no way to judge correctly when the previous workload will be completed. If we set an appointment, we usally start on it the day it comes in, or within 48 hours. When you are two to three weeks behind, it makes it tough.
I have been relatively lucky lately with my boat servicing. Had a little bit of a wait for the repower but I was willing to wait a little longer for the job to be done right. I have always called ahead or stopped by to ask when is a good time to bring the boat in for whatever issue. I do not expect them to get immediately to work the day the boat gets in, but within a few days.I did have a real issue with a service guy years ago. Had a blown power head that he was supposed to replace. Tore the intakes off and then just stopped.Weeks go by and he’s nowhere to be found. Went to get my boat and take it to a reputable service center and found that he had left the batteries switched to “on”. All 4 now dead.Nuts and bolts rusting on the deck along with various cigarette butts and a few stray beer cans thrown in for good measure.Then he wanted to charge me for the work! I told him I wouldn’t charge him for the dead batteries and damage and he got the point. Unfortunately these are the realities of boat ownership.