ROADHOG

How many of you on a 42 do not have your rub rail centered on the swim platform. I noticed it the very first time l laid my eyes on the rear end. I called Fountain the other day and they said that the boat has been repaired that's why the rub rail seam is not centered. Well I just got back from Florida where I was able to look at some Fountain's and to My AMAZEMENT I saw that Mine was not the only one off.

Is this the type of support that I should expect to get from Fountain, when I might have a issue. The boat is a 2005 and is out of Warranty but I took a shot in the dark that Fountain might not be like many other boat manufacture's and stand behind their product.

fountainracing42

bring it to the dealer you bought it from. did you buy it from a dealer?

35 fountain

Yup - this is about what you can expect. They totally screwed up when they installed the back seat bottom on my 04 35X during production. Hinges were way off. I sent them a letter and they sent me an E mail back totally blowing me off. Ok I bought it used with 37 hours and it was 18 months old but hey - THEY BUILT IT WRONG and the original owner didnt care enough or use it enough to notice it. I had my local trim shop fix it and ate the $150 bill. That short sighted decsion just shows that they dont recognize that the used market supports the new market and that the next boat I buy could well be new.

Oh yea - I tried to order a full storage cover from them - They tell me 4 to 6 weeks - I say ok. After 12 weeks they tell me we havent started it yet because (and get this) they didnt have a 35 in stock from which they could pull a pattern. I guess that after building the same boat for 16 years they couldnt possibly know what the dimensions are - I had to have that made locally as well.

ROADHOG

Bought boat off a private owner that never had it in the water. The boat was purchased originally from Shogrens last spring. Not really a big deal but very SURPRISED that Fountain would be so laxed on such a visable item.

RaggedEdge

What exactly do you mean by not centered, not being a smart a$$, just don't quite understand the problem.

yeehaw

Are you talking about where the ends of the rub rail meet in the back and is covered by an aluminum block that says Fountain on it?

35 fountain

I noticed that the seat was not sitting square the first time I was comming out of the cabin. If you look at the seat at eye level the starboard side was sitting about 2 inches further up toward the front than the port side. The bumpers on the seat bottom had been chewed up because it was sitting half on and half off the bumpers. After looking closely at the hinge I saw that the part of the hinges that screwed to the seat bottom were way out of line. I brought it to my local trim shop where they moved the starboard hinge back about 3/8" and the port hinge piece forward about 3/8". Since the original holes and the new holes would have to be so close together they drilled it out and put in T nuts so now it is straight and much more sturdy and actually closes properly instead of rubbing on the port side the way it did before the repair. They were even able to work the vinyl so the original screw holes were used. Hard to describe but really easy to see and definately a mess that was created during production. Instead of owning up to it they declined the repair on the technicality that I was the 2nd owner and the boat was 18 months old. AGAIN - THEY BUILT IT WRONG. Yea - I'm really believing in their ISO 9001 processes.

RaggedEdge

No, No, the rub rail deal, not your seat.

35 fountain

sorry - my bad - thought you were asking about my seat. Didnt mean to steal the thread

Fanatic

Fountain really needs to hire somebody with a strong mechanical aptitude and someone who is pro customer service. When problems like this pop up they should take care of it.
What businesses don't understand is how this effects the end user, many will NOT purchase another product and it really has on impact on business revenues over time. 1 disgruntled custer tells, on average, 13 people.