Our first War Eagle

Crappie Stalker

Recruit
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
5
I want to share our War Eagle buying story:

We did a lot of research and drove a lot of miles and then finally decided on the War Eagle 861 Predator with a 115 Yammy 4 stroke. We were really excited - after 22 years of marriage and 10 boats, we are actually buying our first brand spanking new boat. Woo Hoo!!! Here's the timeline:

April 19 - Visit dealer, spec out the boat with the stuff we want - put money down. Per dealer the boat should be ready 2nd week in May.

May 13 - no boat yet, but it should ship next week.

May 20 - War Eagle had "transportation issues" but don't worry, the boat is finished and will be here next week.

May 27 - boat arrives at dealer. Dealer does not call us to say it's here, but I call him on Friday to see if it actually came in.

June 1 - Dealer owner/salesman says the boat is here and I've got extra help coming in tomorrow and your boat will be ready this week, no problem. Dealer promises to fax serial numbers so we can get insurance written and we plan to pick the boat up this Saturday - Yay!!!!

June 3 - 1:15 p.m. - No numbers faxed yet, so I call dealer. Owner/salesman is gone, won't be back til next Monday. Office manager doesn't have serial numbers and doesn't even know the boat has been delivered. I ask who is in charge since the owner is gone? Evidently nobody. She says she doesn't have another salesman for me to speak to. My reply - I don't need a dang salesman, I've already bought a boat, I need to speak to somebody who knows what's going on. She proceeds to tell me it's not her fault and I shouldn't be fussing at her. I then tell her I am hanging up (at this point I feel sure that my head is going to explode)

June 3 - 1:35 p.m. - Office Manager calls me back. She proceeds to tell me that the motor has not even been delivered yet. WHAT????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????? They hope to have the motor in by the middle of next week. Maybe it will be rigged and ready by next Saturday.

June 3 - 11:00 p.m. - The excitement over this boat has all but fizzled out. I've been patient and I've been nice until today. They have a large deposit paid in good faith and I have a headache and no boat.

June 4 - Called War Eagle at 12:30 today and explained the whole deal. I told them that at this point I didn't believe anything the dealer told me and I would appreciate some honest answers. Turns out that the War Eagle guy (his name was Nick) had talked to the dealer on the same day that I was told he was out til Monday. So, War Eagle guy has dealer's cell phone number and he promises to call to try to find out what the deal is. Takes my name and number and promises to call back. As of 3:30, no phone call yet.

Dealer: UNION CITY MARINE
UNION CITY, TENNESSEE
OWNER: JOHNNY GARRETT

June 7 - As of 1:30 today, no return phone call from War Eagle, no phone call from dealer. Went by the dealer since I had to be in Union City for work. He tells me, "We're waiting on parts." I tell him, "No, you're waiting on my motor." I also tell him that all it would have taken was one simple phone call to let us know what was going on and he couldn't even do that much. He calls Yamaha rep (I guess that's who it was) - motor will be here tomorrow. No apology offered, no explanations offered except that he didn't even look at the boat when it came in and he just assumed the motor was there. Apparently, he thinks I'm that stupid. So here were are, supposed to pick the boat up on Saturday. Of course, we were gonna pick it up last Saturday, too. There are only 2 War Eagle dealers in West Tennessee - I already knew I didn't want to deal with the one in Lexington and I thought that Union City Marine was going to be a good dealer to work with. That's what I get for thinking. This is the first and last time I ever deal with these people.
 

flyguy93

Recruit
Joined
Aug 20, 2010
Messages
1
Re: Our first War Eagle

Crappy service,

Had a siimilar situation. Nick at War Eagle is a tool. He should be fired for being terrible at customer service. He only calls you back after 50 phone calls and I think it is just because he gets tired of hearing that you have called so many times.

Most boat dealers don't seem to give a @#$% about their customers anyway. I could write volumes about what happened to me and War Eagle but your story is about the same. No communication at all. Dealer and War Eagle didn't communicate about anything hardly. Hard to see how they stay in business.

I asked them to put some I-command evinrude digital gauges in the instrument panel instead of the traditional ones and one would have thought I had asked them to wire the space shuttle. I finally just gave up and said forget it. Promised the boat in 4-6 weeks and after the trailer issue and everything else it took 9.5 weeks to get it. Absolutely rediculous. Again, the only people who took responsibility for the screw up in my situation was the trailer manufacturer (his name was Chris; was the owner) real classy guy.

Anyway, look at who most dealers employee and it doesn't take long to calm down and actually realize what and who you are dealing with. Just like getting the wrong ordered at the to go window at McDonalds...look at who is bagging it up and then you can't be mad.

Good fishing,
Mooresinar
 
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