What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

[n-toe]

I bought myself and the wifey our first v-hull ski boat in january,our last one was a 71 ebbtide tri-hull with a 60 johnson on it.."it ran" ....I was shoping on craigslist and came across a 82 omc invader with a 3.0 gm I/O and the guy said that the starter was out and the floor was bad..I got the boat for 700 bucks.I told him I wanted to take it to my boat shop and have them look at and if it checked out we would do the deal.

the boat shop said the the starter was out and it needed a control box, I had them put a starter in and the motor ran out great,I then had them put the control box in too,they said it shifts great too..so I called him up and said hey lets do the deal. I took the boat home and 400 bucks at the shop later I had the boat tore down and managed to get the new floor set.so I decided to start the boat f0r the first time by my self, I bought a new battery as mine was shot, hooked the muffs up and bamm she fired right up..awsome I thought.. I looked at the motor and water was pouring out of the side under the intake,,so I called them and they said that the block was cracked and had been repaired with jb weld.

they said that it didnt leak when they ran it but Im talking 2- 12inch cracks on the block..I took it back to them and they welded the block..200 bucks later..now I take it home and start it up and I hear an awfull clatter..I shuter down and check the oil..WATER!!!!!!! IN THE OIL...Im am totaly crushed by all of this because I was excited and our clunker ran great..now the boat is in the shop again and the tilt motor has gone out and they are still trying to fix it.....my question? should I have to pay any more to this shop seeing how I paid them to do an inspection and they told me the boat was in great shape? and I have never even set this boat in the water? Help

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

i feel for you, but if you had done your homework 99% of the people on iboats would have told you run and run fast away from that OMC mess. the outboards are fine, but the OMC has not been built for over 10 years.

 

[n-toe]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

I didnt know about Iboats untill after I bought the boat and started having problems, I know better now

But do you think I should have to pay more for the water in the oil problem even though I paid them to inspect the boat..I told them upfront that the deal was pending there approval,,and even if they would have said hey this boat runs great but dont buy it I would'nt have got it..

this is the biggest can of worms I have ever opened..

 

[IVAZ]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

They should at a very minimum refund what ever they charged you for the inspection.They should have told you about the JB weld.
The bad news is that I dont think you will get anything for free out of them.
I feel for you.

 

[83 EbKo]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

I told them upfront that the deal was pending there approval,

i think that maybe them knowing that your already putting your trust in them that you'll come back to them. after inspecting the boat they should have seen 2 12in cracks and said something about it. $$$ thats just what i think

 

[J. Mark]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

You can fight with them til you are blue in the face, but unless they want to cooperate, nothing is going to happen until you find a way to turn up the heat.

I'd say it is time to talk to a local attorney and find out your legal position and options.

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

You should maybe consider cutting your losses on this one. Take it, part it out. Take the time to sell of the good stuff and pocket the money. You never know but you might start to break even if you put some elbow grease behind this effort.
Then read up on some of the threads regarding what to look for in a boat and how to go about getting it checked out.
Start again, its a great pass time if you go about the right way and a complete drag and drain if you don't.
My two bits.
BP

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

agree^^^, as far as the cracks and JB Weld it would depend on where it was, and is it readily visable. the previous owner may have change the oil before the inspection, and checking it did not show. seeing the motor did not run.

i do outboard prepurchase inspections. i give the findings to the buyer and it is there decision to buy or not. if i cannot take it for a run on the water, i note that.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

Can not really hold the shop responsible unless they guaranteed in writing that there was nothing else wrong than what they stated.
Sorry about your bad experience you have had. As said it could be better to cut your losses.

 

[rogerwa]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

What part of the country are you from. If it was checked out in Jan, was it rewinterized afterward??

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

It's all rhetoric and armchair QB'ing...
But when you took it for inspection, did you perhaps lead them to believe it only needed a starter & control box?
I'm sure that's exactly what they went to, found it needed to be replaced, did so, fired her up once, shut her off, hit the switch again..Viola, they shop says shes fixed and OK....


Lucky the JB weld gave way when & where it did, btw....

I do feel for you...the sea isn't always blue-er on the other side of the ocean...
Bet ya miss that 3hull beater ya had..

 

[v1_0]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

I didnt know about Iboats untill after I bought the boat and started having problems, I know better now

But do you think I should have to pay more for the water in the oil problem even though I paid them to inspect the boat..I told them upfront that the deal was pending there approval,,and even if they would have said hey this boat runs great but dont buy it I would'nt have got it..

this is the biggest can of worms I have ever opened..

I had a similar sort of thing happen with the Ford F350 I bought about a year ago. Took it to a Ford dealer, had them look it over. Said it checked out. About 1000 miles later, took it in for a state inspection (VA) and it FAILED because of a ball joint issue.
Started having some other issues with it - would buck when I cruised at a constant speed, but I could stop that by pulling over, shutting it down, then restarting - for the rest of the day it was fine. It also had a very hard time starting when it was cold out...
Did some research - found out that there was a recall that would fix the bucking issue, brought it into another dealer. Got it back - they serviced 4 recalls on it. First dealer didn't say jack about recalls.
Cleaned up the battery connections, tightened them down - starts great cold or warm.

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

The problem as I see it is your boat shop didnt do a good job checking it, but some shops have better mechanics than others. Your solution is to find another boat shop. They cant be held responcible unless they gave you a warranty.You cant expect them to fix a problem they didnt see can you? The guy that sold it to you KNEW there was more wrong than he told you,he wanted you to buy it. Once a guy that said he needed money real bad offered me a basket case motorcycle for 100 bucks. he swore it was all there and JUST NEEDED to be put back together. I said well "you put it back together and I will give you 200 bucks since you say it will only take a couple of hours" He quickly decided he didnt want to do that, BECAUSE HE KNEW MORE THAN HE WAS TELLING ME. and I knew it..

 

[Adjuster]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

Shop doesn't owe back anything. They would never crawl down in the bilge to try and look for a cracked block during any inspection unless they were first given some indication there may be a bad block. If it didn't leak when they started it up and no water in the oil then as far as their concerned all is good. Now it has a leak so they look and see the cracked block with JB Weld. Nothing wrong with that. They did their part. At the most they may be generous and offer a discount on the repairs. Can't even say the seller is responsible for anything unless you can proof that JB repair happened under his ownership.

 

[IVAZ]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

so I called them and they said that the block was cracked and had been repaired with jb weld.

The shop knew the block was cracked but failed to relay the info they found. To me that?s a big deal. They should refund their inspection fee. I?m sure they legally don?t have to. If it was my shop I would be so embarrassed that me or one of my guys didn?t mention something that important to a potential owner. A good mechanic knows JB weld is not an actual repair to a cracked block. They should have told him that it runs but it won?t be long until it takes a nosedive (two 12? cracks on an engine that turns 4000+ RPM, it doesn?t take a genius to figure that one out).
Is the shop now responsible for free repairs? No.

 

[v1_0]

Re: What do I do? I got screwed when I bought,now getting screwed at my boat shop!!

Whatever happened to that "sold a boat and it busted" thread by country bumpkin?

Sounds like this is the opposite side of the coin. In summary: the buyer of cb's boat bought it "as is", but went to court anyway and actually won when the engine died. (Possibly as a result of neglect, possibly it was time - in any case this was outside the cause/knowledge of CB.) There was much less a case than this - I would put a JB weld fix in the 'deception' category. Make sure you have the original ad, etc - my personal favorite would be to take the seller to court for the cost of a new engine. Logic: if he had mentioned the JB weld, you would have been responsible for accepting the fix or getting the existing engine really fixed. Since he didn't, when the weld broke during operation, you now need a new engine.

Of course, I'm not a lawyer so I am not giving you legal advise. Just advice to get legal advise..