Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

[JJS1]

I purchased my boat back in early February and I ordered a "bike/butt" seat for fishing which the dealership had to order. I told them at the time I didn't care how long it took for them to get it, just as long as I had it by May 29th. I called back a couple of weeks ago and they told me they had the seat, but the pedestal still had not yet arrived -you can probably tell where I'm going with this.

For the last month or so the dealership has been telling they're on back order, but, that I'd have it by the time I needed it at end of the month. Last Saturday when I called they told me that Lund was going to receive a shipement on Tuesday of this week and they were going to "expedite" my pedestal so that it would be here by today.

This afternoon I called the dealership and the guy told me it still had not yet arrived.

I asked if they'd received all of their shipments for today and the answer was yes. I said "so what you're telling me is that I'm screwed for my tournament."
"Yes - they told me they'd expedite it for you."

I asked if they said they'd ship it overnight, and the answer was "they didn't say overnight, but hopefully it'll be here tomorrow."

I reminded him that I "PAID" for this thing the 1st week of February and here it is the end of May and I still don't have the xxxxxxx thing.

I then asked for a number to call for Lund Customer Service which he provided me with. I called the number and the best I could do was leave a voice mail message with the guy in charge of the accounts in this area.

I told him I paid for this thing back in February and the (3 month back order) fact that I still don't have it is unacceptable. I also told him I expect them to ship a pedestal out overnight and that I expect to hear from him by the end of the day.

I was wondering if anyone else out there has run into delays such as this when dealing with Lund.

I'm not happy as I'm sure you can tell (thanks for letting me let off some steam) and I REALLY HOPE I never have to deal with these people again.
I wouldn't mind but I paid $350 for the seat & pedestal as well as over $25K to have an "aluminum" boat set up the way I wanted.

Sorry for the long post, and for getting all of this off my chest.

-John

 

[Pat Curtis]

Re: Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

Any updates? I have been thinking about getting one of those seats myself for a while now.

 

[cranksbait]

Re: Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

I feel your pain. I have been there.

I also own a retail store. Some things are out of the dealers control. They are the middle man. Even Lund cannot really be responsible. There is a chain for these things to happen. It starts with the manufacture and then down the line. The dealer cannot get it any faster if it is not there. Just because it was paid for does not mean it is going to magically appear. Yes it is frustrating because you need/want this one little item that you cannot get. If you need it that bad go somewhere else like Bass Pro and get one. There are others out there. The dealer is just unable to get it from their own supplier.

I have been taken to court over something like this. Had a customer order a jacket. Adament that it had to be here this day. I have no control over shipping, it gets here when it gets here. Long story short. I ordered the jacket. It was the last one in stock. The delivery truck was in a fatal accident and all contents of vehicle (including driver) had burned up. I could not deliver the jacket, physically impossible. I was taken to court because this guy treated it like it was a life and death situation. Judge through it out. I still ended up being the bad guy because I could not deliver.

Don't stress over the small stuff. You can still stand on the front of your boat. If you are that desparate make a temp one out of pvc pipe, I've done it myself. In the long run, I find it in the way so I have seat sitting at home that I never use because I like to use the whole dance floor. I never did get a pedastal.

 

[JJS1]

Re: Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

>Any updates? I have been thinking about getting one of those seats myself >for a while now.

No updates Pat. I haven't heard a thing from the Lund Regional rep, or from my dealership.

>The dealer cannot get it any faster if it is not there. Just because it was >paid for does not mean it is going to magically appear. Yes it is frustrating >because you need/want this one little item that you cannot get. If you >need it that bad go somewhere else like Bass Pro and get one. There are >others out there. The dealer is just unable to get it from their own supplier.

I paid for this boat the 2nd week of February at which time I ordered nearly $2K in options including the bike/lean seat and a cockpit cover that cost $850. At the time I purchased and paid for the boat I told him I needed the seat by the last weekend in May, and I got the "not a problem" and a laugh out of them.

I upgraded to a 90HP motor about a month later and when I paid for the upgrade the lady that takes care of finances at the dealership pulled out the slip with the list of options I had ordered. She was surprised to see it in my boat's folder and said "I'll have to make sure Stephen orders these right away." This was 5 weeks "after" I paid for everything! Right then and there I KNEW there was going to be a problem - that's why I'm upset about the whole thing, because I KNEW this was going to happen. Once again I reminded them that I needed this seat by the last weekend in May.

I brought the boat back 3 weeks ago because my trolling motor quit on me while I was fishing a rock pile and was on top of some boulders - a great time for it. I took the boat back to the dealership and he showed me a swich connected to my battery that had tripped - something that would have been nice to know when I picked up the boat.

I reminded him at the time that I "really" needed that pedestal/seat and he told me he'd have "everything" later that week.

>If you need it that bad go somewhere else like Bass Pro and get one. There >are others out there. The dealer is just unable to get it from their own >supplier.

I have a nice one that I bought for my previous boat, but unfortunately it doesn't fit in the Lund's seat recepticle. The Lund's seat plate/recepticle is much larger than most of the other manufacturers I believe. It's something like 2 1/4" in diameter compared to the 1 1/4" recepticle in my previous boat. A co-worker of mine offered to let me use the one from his Skeeter, but that was only 1 1/4" in diameter as well.

I realize that Lund "out-sources" these things, but if that seat was ordered at the beginning of February, I'm sure I would have had it. It would have been ordered before the mad rush that occur on these items every Spring. I believe the guy at the dealership is using the Lund rep as a scapegoat for "his" screw up.

Everything worked out this weekend at the fishing tournament - "seat wise" that is.

The boat is so comfortable the lack of a bike seat really didn't matter, although it still would have been nice to have.

Oh yeah, our weekend ended with the switch ( he called it a breaker, but it's a push-button switch) attached to the battery tripping every 15 minutes or so. The switch was extremely hot, and I could smell something from the battery compartment so we called it a weekend a little bit early. I believe the switch is faulty since it ran fine for 1.5 days without issues before it began tripping for no apparent reason - nothing got wet and the load on the battery was the same.

I guess I'll get and "update" on the status of my pedestal when I bring it in for the switch issue 1st thing on Tuesday morning. They're gonna love seeing me pull into the lot I'm sure!

 

[SeaNymph Man]

Re: Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

Not exactly sure how to respond to this after reading your story about the seat problem and Lund not delivering on their promise of getting it delivered to you when you needed it,...especially after you had already paid for it three months prior at time you bought the boat.

I am surprised Lund would act this way,...but then again,maybe I am not,since they are owned by Brunswick and some of the stories I have
heard about Brunswick not standing behind their product very well.

As for your switch problem,...I cannot believe that would trip every 15 minutes. Poor quality control on Lund's part. QC should have caught that.
If Lund were still owned by Genmar,...I doubt if those problems would have occurred. I had a bad feeling that when Lund was bought by Brunswick
that quality of their product would go down. Looks as though it has,..but
then again,I could be wrong.

 

[JJS1]

Re: Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

SeaNymph:

I can't blame any of this on Lund really, I blame the guy who sold me the boat. I think he's using Lund as an excuse to shift the blame. He told me "I ordered it back in March," at which time I reminded him "I paid for the boat in February," EARLY February.

I think he took his time ordering the pedestal and then shifted the blame to Lund.

The trolling motor did not come with the boat since it was an "electronics delete" boat supposedly.

The salesman told me he had a Minn Kota in stock that was an "upgrade" over the standard (Motor Guide) trolling motor that normally comes with the boats, and he told me he could give it to me at a good price if I was interested. In fact, it was the salesman that did the wiring on it. I'm bringing it back tomorrow if I can get the pile of mulch that's in my driveway out of the way.

Oh yeah, I still haven't received a call about pedestal that they "expedited."

 

[JJS1]

Re: Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

I dropped my boat off at the dealership for the trolling motor issue this afternoon and I was told my pedestal had arrived earlier in the day, so know I don't know who is to blame regarding this whole fiasco.
The salesman asked me what the Lund rep had to say to me when I called last week and I told him I never got a return call. He said he'd talk to him about it but like I told him, it's too late now, I needed the seat last week.

I'm really disappointed with the issues I've had including the trolling motor issue. I brought it in once before for the same problem (breaker/switch issue) in addition to what happened with the pedestal.

It kind of puts a damper on the whole boat.

 

[Pat Curtis]

Re: Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

Man...I just don't know what to say to this whole thing....

 

[JJS1]

Re: Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

I gotta tell ya, the boat was great for the 2 day tournament we had last weekend, but these issues sure have left a sour taste in my mouth regarding the whole thing.

 

[Navy Jr.]

Re: Bike seat for Lund & Customer Service

I'm not sure the comments in this thread regarding Brunswick and Lund quality are fair. I toured the Lund factory in New York Mills, MN in the fall of 2007. There were workers that had been there for decades. And the one thing they take pride in is their quality of workmanship, no matter who the parent company is.

FWIW, we also have a newer model Lund ('08) and as of this writing (knock on wood) have not had one problem with it. One thing I learned early on from this forum while researching which boat to buy was that the dealer has as much if not more to do with customer satisfaction than the manufacturer of the boat. An example: I really liked Crestliner boats (and toured their factory, too), but their dealer network in the Twin Cities area was horrible in '07 & '08. Those dealers started disappearing in '08. Our dealer ended up picking up the Crestliner line of boats from the dealer that went out of business across the highway.