I had 2 Honda 130?s that I brought to my local Honda dealer over a year ago. They needed new power heads that were supposed to be covered under warranty due to the cracked block/head issue they had several years ago. The dealer?s General Manager seemed to be after the motors ever since I dropped them off in my opinion. I called several times over the last year to inquire how they were coming with my motors. Each time I was told that they were backed up and were having staffing problems as my motors sat. After waiting a year for them to get new power heads and several calls by me they finally started working on my motors. I was told by the dealers service rep that they had to check the motors out and make sure there was no abuse in order for it to be covered.
I was then called and told the district rep from Honda stopped by and after they showed him there was no abuse he approved the 2 new power heads. With that said I found new case parts to replace ones on the motor that were a little banged up to make the motors in like new condition.
Each time over the last year that I spoke to the dealer either through email, stopping by the shop or by phone the General Manager tried to hustle me to have additional work done that in my opinion was over priced such as selling me a used lower case or trying to rebuild mine. Each time I explained that I was selling the motors and was not putting any additional funds into them at his shop not covered by warranty. At one time he told me he had 3 hours in labor inspecting the lower case already and I explained that it was not authorized and in fact I had told his Service Rep not to touch the lower cases. He replied ok and that he did not know.
After being told that both motors would get new power heads I went to the shop one day and they had 2 new power heads on a pallet that were shipped by Honda. I then spent a good bit of money on parts I wanted to change out but did not buy them from the Honda dealer because I already felt he had tried to hustle me.
Each time I spoke with the Service Rep he agreed that the motors should not be taking this long and it was the general manager that I needed to complain to so he would put a tech back on them. His exact words were that if he was me he would be complaining also and that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
I then get a call from the General Manager who told me that because the motors would need certain parts not covered by warranty like new plugs and bolts they may be rusted or have corrosion that it was going to cost me about 500.00 per motor beyond what Honda pays under warranty. He then said and if you want me to rebuild those lower units I will do it for 700.00 for one and sell you one I have with low hours for 1200.00 or since he just so happened to be building a Honda 130 for himself if I would give him one my new power heads he would put the other motor together for free. I explained to him again that I did not want him doing ANY work or parts not covered under warranty and that I did not want to give him a power head. In his haste to hustle me out of a motor he seemed to forget how to add. He attempted to tell me that the total cost to put the 2 motors together that the new lower cases and 500.00 per motor parts would cost me a total of 4200.00. He simply made the figure up and did not realize the above quote if authorized would only come to 2900.00 not 4200.00. What he also did not realize at the very least I can order new Honda parts from boatsNET with an automatic discount from list instead of list like he charges. So I would not approve any additional work or charges not included by warranty.
I did call Honda customer service and spoke to Russell to ask them if the motors sat up for over a year in the shop the lower cases could have corroded just sitting and would they be willing to share in any cost of the lower units. They reviewed it and replied that they would not.
I then get a call a few days later from the same general manager from the dealer who now says that one of motors did not qualify for a new powerhead and Honda wants the one they sent back. I called Honda and verified it with their customer service (Russell) and he verified that the motor was being sent back because after second inspection one of the motors did not have a cracked block. Needless to say the inspection is still covered by Honda under the service bulletin. I was aggravated because I spend a good amount of money on additional parts such as case parts to put the motors back in new condition based on what the Honda dealer told me and even went so far to say was approved by the Honda district rep. I called Honda Customer Service again and spoke to Russell to complain and he said even though they are our dealer they were not straight forward with us when they ordered the new power heads and had not inspected them. When they realized we expected them to send the old power heads back for verification they wanted to send the power head back. Apparently the story they gave me that the District Rep inspected the motors and approved them was not a truthful statement by the dealer. I explained to Russell at Honda Customer service that at the end of the day it is their dealer and it should be Honda?s responsibility to make it right regardless of the word of their dealer. Russell said Honda will not get involved. And basically I would be out of the money I laid on parts for the second motor expecting it to be fixed. I told the dealer?s General Manage that I would pick it up when I picked up the other motor and just sell it for parts to try to recoup so of my money.
I then do not hear anything for a few weeks and call and check on my now one motor with the dealer again. The service rep says hold on you need to talk to the General Manager. The General Manager gets on the phone and explains that the fuel rails and injectors on the motor are bad and the ones on my second motor are bad also so they cant use them either. First I find it hard to believe that two motors wouldn?t have all of those parts bad and if so question if they could not have gone bad waiting on them for over a year to get to it. Needless to say the General Manager is now telling me the power head is mounted on the motor by not dressed out. He says to finish the now 1 motor they are being paid by Honda to replace the powerhead will cost me 3900.00 additional out of pocket even though the dealer replaced the power head and labor under the service bulletin. He said he wasn?t sure if I wanted to do that so if I wanted to stop and pick the motor up as it sits he has a few misc parts and 21 hours of labor not covered by Honda for a total of 2200.00 which does not include any repair to the lower unit. I did not sign anything when I dropped the motors off that I can recall and at each time I told them that I did not want to put any money into it not covered under warranty. I requested a copy of the charges for labor a d parts they were trying to bill itemized and received a 1 line statement saying 21 hours of labor without any description at all.
I called Honda Customer and spoke to Russell again. After telling him the story that I was apparently being billed for the same things they were paid to do under the warranty he said well they have not been honest with us since this started. He said they would look into it and get back to me. I spoke with Russell today and was told they paid him for warranty work and the amount and what they paid him for is confidential. I explained that since the inspection of the motor that did not have a crack the bulletin still pays for the inspection. The motor that was covered was paid to have the power head removed and the new one put on and dressed out with the parts from the old motor under the service bulletin so therefore there is no way for them to have billable hours especially in the amount charged. Second no additional work or charges were authorized. Honda Customer service replied that even though they are a Honda Dealer that they are a private dealer and that it is between us. I explained that it was an issue of apparently being double billed under their service bulletin and was again told that Honda would not get involved even after admitting that the dealer had not been straight forward with them. I then requested to speak to Honda?s District Rep and was told that he would not call me and they would not get involved. Honda has offered no help to make this right including refusing to show me an itemized statement of what they paid to compare and prove if I?m being duplicate billed. I called another dealer and asked them what it would cost if I wanted a new power head on my 130 for parts and labor. They told me a new powehead from Honda was 3500.00 and they would charge 1000.00 in labor to change it out. Using that amount of 4500.00 as a guess of what Honda?s expense would be and the additional 3900.00 the dealer wants to finish the job they would be paid 8400.00 for a USED 130.
I own 3 Honda outboards and a Honda car. I will not be buying anything else made by Honda. Please keep this story in mind when you purchase a HONDA product. The rumor is they go out of their way to make customer?s happy and in my recent experience this is clearly not the case. If any of you Honda pro?s out there have any suggestions please let me know. My motors are now being held as ransom for labor charges not authorized. I will be posting this info to spread what Honda did to others and ask other members to do the same.
The dealer is Metro Boating in Marrero, Louisiana and you more than likely may want to avoid them also .
I was then called and told the district rep from Honda stopped by and after they showed him there was no abuse he approved the 2 new power heads. With that said I found new case parts to replace ones on the motor that were a little banged up to make the motors in like new condition.
Each time over the last year that I spoke to the dealer either through email, stopping by the shop or by phone the General Manager tried to hustle me to have additional work done that in my opinion was over priced such as selling me a used lower case or trying to rebuild mine. Each time I explained that I was selling the motors and was not putting any additional funds into them at his shop not covered by warranty. At one time he told me he had 3 hours in labor inspecting the lower case already and I explained that it was not authorized and in fact I had told his Service Rep not to touch the lower cases. He replied ok and that he did not know.
After being told that both motors would get new power heads I went to the shop one day and they had 2 new power heads on a pallet that were shipped by Honda. I then spent a good bit of money on parts I wanted to change out but did not buy them from the Honda dealer because I already felt he had tried to hustle me.
Each time I spoke with the Service Rep he agreed that the motors should not be taking this long and it was the general manager that I needed to complain to so he would put a tech back on them. His exact words were that if he was me he would be complaining also and that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
I then get a call from the General Manager who told me that because the motors would need certain parts not covered by warranty like new plugs and bolts they may be rusted or have corrosion that it was going to cost me about 500.00 per motor beyond what Honda pays under warranty. He then said and if you want me to rebuild those lower units I will do it for 700.00 for one and sell you one I have with low hours for 1200.00 or since he just so happened to be building a Honda 130 for himself if I would give him one my new power heads he would put the other motor together for free. I explained to him again that I did not want him doing ANY work or parts not covered under warranty and that I did not want to give him a power head. In his haste to hustle me out of a motor he seemed to forget how to add. He attempted to tell me that the total cost to put the 2 motors together that the new lower cases and 500.00 per motor parts would cost me a total of 4200.00. He simply made the figure up and did not realize the above quote if authorized would only come to 2900.00 not 4200.00. What he also did not realize at the very least I can order new Honda parts from boatsNET with an automatic discount from list instead of list like he charges. So I would not approve any additional work or charges not included by warranty.
I did call Honda customer service and spoke to Russell to ask them if the motors sat up for over a year in the shop the lower cases could have corroded just sitting and would they be willing to share in any cost of the lower units. They reviewed it and replied that they would not.
I then get a call a few days later from the same general manager from the dealer who now says that one of motors did not qualify for a new powerhead and Honda wants the one they sent back. I called Honda and verified it with their customer service (Russell) and he verified that the motor was being sent back because after second inspection one of the motors did not have a cracked block. Needless to say the inspection is still covered by Honda under the service bulletin. I was aggravated because I spend a good amount of money on additional parts such as case parts to put the motors back in new condition based on what the Honda dealer told me and even went so far to say was approved by the Honda district rep. I called Honda Customer Service again and spoke to Russell to complain and he said even though they are our dealer they were not straight forward with us when they ordered the new power heads and had not inspected them. When they realized we expected them to send the old power heads back for verification they wanted to send the power head back. Apparently the story they gave me that the District Rep inspected the motors and approved them was not a truthful statement by the dealer. I explained to Russell at Honda Customer service that at the end of the day it is their dealer and it should be Honda?s responsibility to make it right regardless of the word of their dealer. Russell said Honda will not get involved. And basically I would be out of the money I laid on parts for the second motor expecting it to be fixed. I told the dealer?s General Manage that I would pick it up when I picked up the other motor and just sell it for parts to try to recoup so of my money.
I then do not hear anything for a few weeks and call and check on my now one motor with the dealer again. The service rep says hold on you need to talk to the General Manager. The General Manager gets on the phone and explains that the fuel rails and injectors on the motor are bad and the ones on my second motor are bad also so they cant use them either. First I find it hard to believe that two motors wouldn?t have all of those parts bad and if so question if they could not have gone bad waiting on them for over a year to get to it. Needless to say the General Manager is now telling me the power head is mounted on the motor by not dressed out. He says to finish the now 1 motor they are being paid by Honda to replace the powerhead will cost me 3900.00 additional out of pocket even though the dealer replaced the power head and labor under the service bulletin. He said he wasn?t sure if I wanted to do that so if I wanted to stop and pick the motor up as it sits he has a few misc parts and 21 hours of labor not covered by Honda for a total of 2200.00 which does not include any repair to the lower unit. I did not sign anything when I dropped the motors off that I can recall and at each time I told them that I did not want to put any money into it not covered under warranty. I requested a copy of the charges for labor a d parts they were trying to bill itemized and received a 1 line statement saying 21 hours of labor without any description at all.
I called Honda Customer and spoke to Russell again. After telling him the story that I was apparently being billed for the same things they were paid to do under the warranty he said well they have not been honest with us since this started. He said they would look into it and get back to me. I spoke with Russell today and was told they paid him for warranty work and the amount and what they paid him for is confidential. I explained that since the inspection of the motor that did not have a crack the bulletin still pays for the inspection. The motor that was covered was paid to have the power head removed and the new one put on and dressed out with the parts from the old motor under the service bulletin so therefore there is no way for them to have billable hours especially in the amount charged. Second no additional work or charges were authorized. Honda Customer service replied that even though they are a Honda Dealer that they are a private dealer and that it is between us. I explained that it was an issue of apparently being double billed under their service bulletin and was again told that Honda would not get involved even after admitting that the dealer had not been straight forward with them. I then requested to speak to Honda?s District Rep and was told that he would not call me and they would not get involved. Honda has offered no help to make this right including refusing to show me an itemized statement of what they paid to compare and prove if I?m being duplicate billed. I called another dealer and asked them what it would cost if I wanted a new power head on my 130 for parts and labor. They told me a new powehead from Honda was 3500.00 and they would charge 1000.00 in labor to change it out. Using that amount of 4500.00 as a guess of what Honda?s expense would be and the additional 3900.00 the dealer wants to finish the job they would be paid 8400.00 for a USED 130.
I own 3 Honda outboards and a Honda car. I will not be buying anything else made by Honda. Please keep this story in mind when you purchase a HONDA product. The rumor is they go out of their way to make customer?s happy and in my recent experience this is clearly not the case. If any of you Honda pro?s out there have any suggestions please let me know. My motors are now being held as ransom for labor charges not authorized. I will be posting this info to spread what Honda did to others and ask other members to do the same.
The dealer is Metro Boating in Marrero, Louisiana and you more than likely may want to avoid them also .