zt260

Some of you may recall when I blew one of my GGB Mufflers with down tubes apart back in June. In that thread it was suggested I contact Lofty “Fionn at O’Neill Offshore”
I emailed him and he said he would help, but he was out of the country until July 5th. Since he was supposedly a marine business this should have set off a bell, but for whatever reason I over looked it. I shipped the mufflers to him by air. 10 days later I called, and it was clear he had done nothing with these mufflers yet. I again informed him of an upcoming vacation that required these mufflers, and he said they would be done. 10 days before my vacation I called, and found that he was once again closed for a week in July. I sent him private messages and email during that week with no reply. Once he was supposedly open again I start calling everyday with no reply (all I got was an answering machine) then 1 day before I leave he calls me. Nothing had been done. I asked for my mufflers back, and he returned them. I ended up spending another grand on other set of mufflers which did not make me legal. I could not use my boat anywhere near the area I wanted to or I would be ticked.

Over 4 weeks went by from the time he received them. I realize small businesses go through growing pains, but who in this industry closes their business for weeks in July, doesn’t answer their phone for days?

Its funny, Graham at GGB screwed my out of my warranty when he went out of business, and Lofty picked up right where he left off.

I’d think twice about dealing with Lofty on anything important.

Vinny P

Dave,
I didnt know you got them back. The last we talked about this, I understood that you were still waiting for them. As I am sure you painfully know, since then, other isssues have taken first place.
At least you got them back from him. Maybe you can find a local welder by you that can handle some stainless welding.
Why do so many people in this business suck????

Vinny

Quent

ZT, I bought a pair of CMI mufflers and have 25 hours on them. They are the kind that come open at about 3000 rpm. My wife has really enjoyed them because at cruise they are quiet.

They started to open way too soon after a while and I called Randy at CMI. In 3 or 4 days he called me back and ask me to send them back and they would readjust them and add a couple of updates at no charge. Its too bad that our industry has jerks and heros. Its hard to know on the front end most times. I am convinced that CMI is a straight group and I appreciate that. We need more of them. Quent

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

Zt,sorry to hear of your problems. Lofty sold me a set of ggb's,beat Tricks price AND had them direct shipped. It ended up taking 2 weeks instead of the 3 days we first talked about BUT it all hinged on GGB getting them built which he had no control of. There is no excuse for leaving you out hanging for 3 or 4 weeks,I know how you feel when your trying to get the boat back together and some key part is holding you up and in the end you give up and end up buying something else at the last minute after waiting indefinately,usually having to overnight air the part you settle on because you waited and listened to excuses from the original supplier.Maybe Lofty has too many irons in the fire,he is trying to start up his marine business plus run 2 or 3 other businesses too from what he told me last year.Either way,he did treat me well,sorry to hear how he treated you,maybe this will be a wake up call for him that he needs to get some full time help or concentrate on his marine business better,Smitty
how are your lower gears holding up,any metal coming from your oil?

Lofty

Dave,

Apparently you decided to make good on your threats to "slam me on OSO".

Let's lay out some facts;

You did not buy these mufflers from O’Neill Offshore but we DID offer to help you since you couldn't get anyone in your area to help you nor could you get a hold of Graham yourself. This kind of thing is normally handles through the vendor who supplied the product. These where CUSTOM made mufflers and have different internals to the standard Extremes. You also neglected to tell me that you didn't have all the parts. What you sent me was 1 complete muffler and 1 clamping collar. This meant we would have to fabricate 1 muffler from scratch.

I told you from the beginning I was in Costa Rica for 3 weeks and I couldn't do anything until I returned. I knew I would need to tend to your situation personally so I wanted to let you know there would be a delay. You where told that it would take some time as we would have to fabricate a 1 off replacement for you. I offered to do all this AT COST just to help you out. I suggested that you look at alternatives to the GGB's so as to get back in the water sooner. You told me that you liked the GGB's and that you didn't want to re-map your ECU to run a different set. Fair enough!

I NEVER told you the mufflers would be done prior to your vacation. I told you we would do what we could but no promises. You called many times and I told you each time the situation, we where waiting for some mandrel bent parts to be fabricated for you. This took time and was beyond my control. You called many times and spoke to Angela, not an answering machine. Remember telling her that you would slam us on OSO for not fixing your muffler? You in fact told her to return ship the parts to you. We did. I never charged you for the special mandrel bent parts we made for you and have no use for ourselves. I never charged you for anything so you did not get screwed by us.

The fact is Dave we would have sent you the parts we had made at no charge but after making threats to us I didn't feel like going any further.

As far as us closing for a week, I'm miffed! I make myself very available when I'm away on travel. Didn't I respond to your email while I was in Central America? I should point out; O'Neill Offshore was open while I was on business travel during that period. The end of July we shut down so the whole shop could go on vacation. Remember, we are boating enthusiasts too and have to enjoy the same summer months as everyone else.

I'm sorry that you didn't have mufflers on your boat for your vacation. I'm also sorry that you feel the need to slam our business when all we did was try to help you out of a bad situation.

Fionn O’Neill
O’Neill Offshore Marine

zt260

Fionn,

I have to commend you on your lying skills you’ll fit right into the marine industry.
I figured you would let this go, since there isn’t anything to argue, but so be it. This was never about the money. I was more than happy to pay anything reasonable. You said you could do the work, but you didn’t follow through. Talk is cheap!

A few points-

Not only did you know what parts I had left, but I sent you the pictures.

You told me the muffler modification would be done within two weeks so they would go out for the next batch of polishing. This would easily have been done inside the month you had them.

I spoke to you once after you received them, then I spoke to Angela once two weeks later and again to you after a month. Every other call was to the answering machine. During business hours I might add, and I only left one message. Which was not returned.

Threats? what threats are we talking about? I didn’t make any threats as they don’t help your cause. The ONLY thing I ever said was I wish I never sent them to you after it was apparent you had no plans to get these done within a month or more.

As for your work ethic. I still don’t know anyone in the industry that takes off weeks in the summer. A day or two here and there, but never closing the business completely. That’s your call I don’t care how you run things anymore.

Lets face it your just another guy in the industry that doesn’t care about the customer. And yes I’m sorry I ever contacted you. My bad….