bobingardner
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2003
- Messages
- 84
This is long and I'm only entering it to vent so you may not want to read it.<br /><br />I withdrew $2200 dollars from my savings account today and set out to buy a new motor. I had searched the web and found two places that seemed to be offering good deals. In case anyone from central Massachussettes is reading this, both stores were on route 20 in Shrewsberry MA. The first store sells Tracker Boats and I've been there several times before to check out their "Mercury motor blowout specials". Each time none of the advertised motors were available for one reason or another. Today was no exception. I was interested in two motors and as it turned out the first one was "not in the warehouse" and the second had just been bolted to a boat in the showroom. They offered to order one for me but that would cost an additional $200. <br /><br />The second place sells Nissan motors and I had called earlier in the week to verify that they actually had the motor in stock. I was told they did. It was a 2003 9.8hp two stroke long shaft. When I got there the salesman broke the news that it was actually a brand new 2001. When I asked why I was told it was 2003 over the phone he explained that someone must have misread the inventory sheet. Fair enough, things like this happen, so I asked to see the motor. He took me out the to repair shop and walked up to a box that looked like it had fallen off the back of a truck and been run over by a train, but that didn't bother me. Packaging is usually designed to take a beating without damage to the contents. The salesman then opened the box and showed me the new 2001. The botom of the skeg was roughed up as though it had been draged in the sand, the prop had a 1/4" wide , 2" long scratch, the paint on the lower unit was chipped in several places, the motor cowling was open and covered with a film that looked like oil, and some of the packing material was missing. I told him I thought the motor had been used and asked if it was a demo. He said "No, we don't do that".<br /><br />I gave up on the idea of buying a motor and came home but it bothered that things had turned out so badly. The fact that the first dealer didn't live up to his advertisment didn't bother me because as I said they have a record of bait and switch tactics. The second dealear bothered me though because I thought I had asked the right questions over the phone, and I had bought a motor from him before and was very happy with it. So, when I got home I went to the web and re-checked the site. The only description it gave of the motor was "new" so I figured it was my fault for thinking "new" meant 2003 or 2004. I then called the dealer and asked about if they had any 9.8hp, two stroke, long shaft motors. He said yes they had 1, and it was a 2003. I asked him to re-check the sheet and verify it was a 2003 and he came back and said it was a new 2001 that had never been used. I told him I had already seen the motor and believe it was used. As expected the conversation degenerated into an argument and in the end proved to be pointless, except that it verified my new-formed belief that boat dealers lack any human qualities.
<br /><br />I will move this to General Outboard, where it better fits.