August 10, 2011
To whom it may concern,
The following events have taken place:
I purchased a 1988 Sea-ray Seville boat and trailer, the 2nd week of June 2011. I new that it needed some repairs, so I began to examine the mechanics of the boat, noting that there was a growling sound coming from the rear of the boat when any attempt to start the engine was made. I than proceeded to put the boat in the forward position with the shift lever, and without the motor running, by hand turn the propeller to see if it would catch one way and ratchet the opposite way, it did, then I put the shift lever in reverse and repeated the actions with the propeller getting the same result, which told me that the forward and reverse gears were working correctly.
This being said, I decided to have the boat checked out further by a repair shop to find out about the growling sound, and have a tune-up done.
June 20, 2011 I left my 1988 Sea-ray Seville boat and trailer with Moto Medic / Travis Johnson at 266 W. Main in Lehi, Utah for a tune up special the was advertised on ksl.com that read as follows:
$199.95 Full Service Special !
Spring Tune Up Special - De Winterize Full Service Oil Change & Tune Up Including Drive Oil - Utah's Boat Repair Service !
The Spring Special !! 199.95 !!
Includes Change Spark Plugs, Perform Minor Tune Up, Engine Oil Service, Sterndrive Lube Change !!
( Thats over 75.00 off !! )
Full Synthetic 235.00 !!!
Service is The heart of our operations, Our Motto "All the Service - Half the Price"
To Schedule an appointment Call Shawn @ 801-882-1122
Visit are New Retail Store at 286 E Main Street in Lehi a Mile West off I15 exit 279 We have a Full Line of Water Toys Wake Surf and Wake Boards and More !
or are Website at WWW. TheMotoMedic.com
WHAT WE DO... We specialize in Gasoline Inboard, Outboard and stern drive maintenance and repairs We service most all makes and models. In addition to engine work, we also repair boat sub-systems (Electrical, Plumbing, Fiberglass, Upholstery, etc.) offer Detailing Services, Part & Accessory Sales and Installation, Wake Towers, Ballast Systems, Bimini tops, Used Boat Checkouts, Audio Installation and more...
Engine & Drive Repair
Engine, Sterndrive, Transmission, V Drive, and Generator repairs of Mercruiser, Volvo Penta, OMC, Yamaha, Westerbeke and more. Everything from Complete Engine rebuilds to Tune-ups and small maintenance items.
When I arrived at the repair shop I was greeted by Travis, and we discussed the features of his ad. I then told him that there is was a growl sound coming from the rear of the boat, and that I would like him to check that, as well as all of the functions of the boat, and trailer to make sure it was in proper working order, as I told him that I had just purchased the boat and wanted to make sure it was safe to operate.
Travis did a quick walk around, tried to start the engine, and told me that he thought the rear end noise may be coming from the bearing inside the top of the out-drive called the “gimble bearing” and that he would check it out and call me the next day. I asked him how long it would take to have the “ Spring special” done, he said a couple days, and at that time he would have more information on the source of the sound coming from the out-drive. I inquired if he had run across these problems before, and he said yes, and assured me that he was a “certified marine mechanic” with years of experience in these matters.
I waited 2 days and did not hear from the repair shop, so I called Travis to find out what he had learned about the boat, and he told me that the noise was coming from the top end of the outdrive and that the bearings in it were worn out and needed replacing. I asked how the gimble bearing was, and he told me that since the outdrive had to come off of the boat to replace the bearings, that he would recommend replacing the gimble bearing, as well as the exhaust bellows, and the water bellows, just to be sure everything was in working order.
I asked him the cost of the repairs to that point, and he told me that it would be about $900.00 to rebuild the “top end” of the including the “spring special” tune up, and if I wanted to replace the gimble bearing, and both bellows the repairs would cost me $1200.00, I told him that I would think it over and let him now how I wanted to proceed.
The next day I called Travis to let him know that I wanted to proceed with the repairs as recommended, and that I would be down the next day with a required $600.00 deposit. The following day I arrived at the repair shop to make the deposit, only to find the office in disarray, with many people coming and going looking for anyone that worked there.
After about 5-10 minutes a man came into the office and told me his name was Shawn, and that he was a partner to Travis, and that he could take my deposit. I payed him the deposit in cash and asked for a receipt, to which Shawn said he wasn't sure how to enter it into the computer and that he had to wait for the assistant to do it, so I waited another 5-10 minutes after he phoned her for her to arrive.
When the assistant arrived she entered the $600.00 cash deposit onto an invoice containing only the Spring special information, some instructions to check trailer and boat for all correct functions, and a note mentioning the $600.00 cash received, and gave it to me. No mention of the other repairs, parts or labor was mentioned on the invoice, so I inquired to her about the other repairs, parts & labor and she said that Travis hadn't had time to input then into the invoice yet but he would do that and have a copy waiting for me by the next day.
I went to the repair shop 2 days later to check on the progress of the work, and was told that they had gotten behind and that it would be a few more day's until they could get to the repairs, to which I told them that would be fine as long as they were finished with my boat by the July 4th weekend, I was assured the repairs would be finished in plenty of time for that, however the work was not done by July 4th.
After missing the due date yet again, I informed Travis, via many phone call's that I would be going out of town on business for 10 days, and that should give them plenty of time to finish the repairs, again I was assured that the repairs would be done upon my return.
A week into my business trip, I called the repair shop for a status report on the repair's, and Travis told me that they had torn down the top end of the out-drive, put in a rebuild kit, including bearings, shims, and O-rings, and that they had taken the gimble bearing housing apart, and were reassembling the upper out-drive unit, but that upon trying to attach the lower out-drive unit could not get the lower unit to shift into reverse, and that the gearing had been previously “messed with”.
He told me that he had taken the shifter inside the boat apart, which he would not charge me for(without my consent), to try to reverse shifting mechanism parts, to get the transmission to shift into reverse to no avail.
Travis then told me that he thought someone must have changed the gearing in the lower unit causing it to not shift correctly. This didn’t make sense to me as I new that the boat was shifting fine when I dropped it off, because I had check it out myself, but I assumed he knew what he was talking about, because he was the “certified marine mechanic”.
This caused my to start thinking, so I decided to called the previous owner of the boat, and inquire as to any repairs made previously to the out-drive of the boat. The previous owner assured me that the out drive had never had any other repairs done by them or by there friend the original owner from which they purchased the boat in good working order.
After getting back into town, I again went to the repair shop to check on the repairs, only to find the upper and lower units of the out drive off of the boat, and the boat not on site. I looked at the upper unit which they where trying to assemble the bearings by “smacking them with a mallet”, and the lower unit was sitting on the floor untouched.
A couple of days later I returned, and the upper unit was, what appeared to be, together and now the lower unit was on the table with the propeller off, but otherwise untouched. I called the repair shop a couple of days later to which Travis informed me that he was soaking the stubborn retaining nut on the lower unit because someone had put lock tight(a thread locking agent) on the retain nut, and that it wouldn't budge.
On August 4th, 2011 I returned to the shop to find that they had been able to finally remove the retaining nut, and were now trying to disassemble the gears. Travis then told me that he had to order the right “clutch dog” gear to reassemble the lower unit correctly. Travis told me that he would help me out and not charge me for tearing apart the shifting unit, and that he wouldn’t charge me for the parts to repair the lower unit, and that he would only charge me $25.00/hr for 10 hours of shop time to reassemble the lower unit he had taken apart(a $250.00 charge)
Again I was feeling that Travis and his repair shop had no idea what they were doing, and that I needed a second opinion as to the nature of the repairs. I proceeded to call a certified Mercruiser mechanic, and filled him in on my observations of the repair work being performed. He told me to get my boat out of Travis' shop immediately because just from what I had observed and explained to him was going on, that Travis' crew was in way over their heads, and didn't know what they were doing, but that he could only confirm this by a visual inspection.
At this point I called my attorney, and asked his advise, and what my right are. He advised me to get a bill, and pay for the work to that point, retrieve the boat, and get a visual second opinion of the repairs, and work performed. My plan was to follow this advise.
On August 5th, 2011 I went back to the repair shop and told Travis that I just wanted my boat back and that I needed an itemized repair bill so I could pay him, he simply said that it would cost me $1200.00 to get my boat back repaired or not. As I didn’t want to pay $1200.00 and not have the repairs done, I agreed to have Travis continue, and again asked when the repairs would be finished and he again assured me by August 9th, 2011 all repairs would be finished.
I then asked for an itemized repair bill again, and Travis went to the computer, opened my invoice, added the line “parts & labor $1,000.00” and said here you go... I told him that I needed the invoice to have the itemized parts listed with cost, and the labor broken down so I could understand all charges, he agreed and told me that he would have that done as well as all repairs done and the boat back to me on the following Tuesday(Aug. 9Th, 2011).
On Tuesday August 9th I went to the repair shop at about 10am to pick up the boat, I asked the front clerk if the boat was ready, She said no. I calmly said to her that this was not acceptable, and told her that the following option were available to the repair shop:
A. The repairs would be done today by 3pm, and that I would have an itemized invoice so that I could pay the bill.
B. The repairs would not be done today by 3pm, but I was going to pick the boat up anyway. That I would have an itemized invoice reflecting that the business had failed to not only complete the repairs in a timely manner, but had failed to complete the repairs at all, and that the invoice would be adjusted accordingly. Then I would pay the bill, and take my boat.
The clerk told me that neither one of those scenarios was going to happen and that what was going to happen was that I would wait until the repairs were done according to the shops time frame.
I then calmly told her another option:
C. The repairs would not be done today by 3pm, but I was going to pick the boat up anyway. That I would have an itemized invoice reflecting that the business had failed to not only complete the repairs in a timely manner, but had failed to complete the repairs at all, and that the invoice would be adjusted accordingly. Then I would pay the bill, and take my boat. And that I would return at 3pm with a police escort.
She then told me that the conversation was over, and proceeded to escort me out of the building.
In a kind of shock of being treated that way I then proceeded straight to the Lehi Police Department, filed a complaint and asked for a “keep the piece” police escort to help me clear up the matter. After filling out a report and trying to call the Repair shop from the police station, I was asked by the police to meet them at the repair shop at about 6:15pm, as they had made arrangements for the boat to be picked up. Upon arrival the shop was locked, and the police officer then called Travis and told him to be there within 15 minutes.
Another couple was there to pick up there boat as well, only to find that they were having the same type of situation as I was with this repair shop.
Before I could load the boat, and parts on my vehicle I was told by Travis that I must pay the invoice as he had prepared it, and he left the office.
I was finally given a partially Itemized bill(parts itemized, labor not itemized). Before I payed the now $1,395.00 invoice I asked the clerk if all the repairs I was being billed were done, she said I would have to talk to Travis.
I proceeded to pay the nearly $1,400.00.00 bill with my VISA card only to be denied by Travis who insisted on a cash only payment. After a long hesitation to weigh the options, I finally very reluctantly paid Mot Medic in order to get possession of "my property". As I was loading the boat, I asked Travis, in front of the police officer, if the following items on the invoice had been done:
A. My Question: Was the “Spring Special” tune up done? Travis' Answer: Yes
B. My Question: Did you take off the upper out-drive housing, service and replace the gimble bearing, water bellows, and exhaust bellows? Travis' Answer: Yes
C. My Question: Did you correctly rebuild the out-drive upper unit with all new parts to OEM specifications? Travis' Answer: Yes
D. My Question: Did you reassemble correctly the forward/reverse shifting unit inside the boat. Travis Answer: No answer
E. My Question: Why is the driver seat not installed? Travis' Answer: No Answer
F. My Question: Why is the spare tire missing all of its tread? Travis' Answer: No Answer
G. My Question: Why is the upper out-drive unit not attached to the boat if you repaired it correctly as per the contract? Travis' Answer: You paid the bill, my obligation is over, so is this conversation, get off my property!
On Wednesday August 10, 2011 I met with a certified Mercruiser mechanic to find out what if any repairs had actually taken place. After looking over the the boat, the mechanic told me the following:
A. The tune up that I paid for was never done.
B. The upper out-drive housing was never removed or serviced,
C. The gimble bearing was never serviced and/or replaced.
D. The water bellows, and exhaust bellows were never serviced and/or replaced.
E. The upper out-drive unit was taken off, disassembled in-correctly using the wrong tools, causing severe damage to retaining nut, and other various parts, new bearings were used, old worn out “O-rings” were reinstalled, some of the shims were in the wrong place and installed in-correctly, all parts were not correctly assembled or torqued to match new parts or OEM specifications.
F. The universal joints in the drive shafts of the upper out-drive unit were installed backwards.
G. The lower out-drive unit was returned, disassembled, disassembled in-correctly using the wrong tools, causing severe damage to retaining nut, and bearing housing, Lower retaining nut is rounded off rendering it damaged and un-useful. New bearings are loose in box, and mounting retaining nuts and washers are missing.
H. The forward/reverse shifting unit inside the boat is disassembled, and missing parts rendering it useless and beyond repair.
I. Driver seat is disassembled.
J. Carpeting and upholstery inside boat has various oil & grease stains.
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