are parts supposed to be this expensive?!
08-28-2012, 04:08 PM
#31
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In response to a PM from a guy named Travis who is not the Travis in the story below (I asked) and because the PM only allows for 2000 characters:
Travis was the name of the service manager at Smithville Marine a little over two years ago when I took my boat there after it bombed on me the first time I took it out for the new summer in 2010. My boat crapped out on me the latter part of summer 2009 and Smithville Marine "fixed" it and winterized it for me since it was so close to the end of the summer. That was my first lesson in boats. Dont trust a mechanic when they say its fixed.... take it for a test run and make sure its fixed. Anyway, when the weather finally got nice in 2010 I took the boat out and didn't even make it past the no wake zone before the port side engine hydrolocked. I took it back to Smithville Marine and they called me a few weeks later to tell me they couldn't figure out where the water was coming from and they assumed I had a crack in the block. I told them I didn't have money to buy a new engine that they wanted 7k for and they gave me the option of shipping the block off to have it magna-fluxed for a cost of 1,700.... still not knowing whether or not there was a crack I started my first thread on OSO. One of the members up in Omaha offered to sell me a low hour take out for 2000 and I jumped on it. I drove up to Omaha and back to smithville and gave the Long block to smithville Marine. It took them about 3 weeks but they finally got the motor in and called me to tell me it was ready. I took it out for a test run and it sounded like a freaking pogo stick when it cranked. I was startled at first but tried it again and it fired up and sounded normal.. so I went out of the no wake zone and jumped up on plane. Ran it a bit and noticed the foul odor of burning oil. I looked down at the gauges and they all read normal but I shut her down anyway just to figure out if we had a fire. I opened the hatch and could hear what sounded like the oil boiling. It literally sounded like a freaking pressure cooker was under the oil pan and was about to explode. Anyway, I took it back to smithville Marine and told them what had happened and from there through the rest of the summer I went up to smithville about every two weeks to go take the boat on another test run. It never worked and my wife got involved.... this is where it gets ugly. My wife threw a fit, bless her heart, and Smithville wound up giving us the boat back without charging us another dime. I was out 2k for a motor I'm still not sure I needed but smithville Marine didnt charge us for any of their labor or parts they threw into my boat. probably in the vicinity of 2-3k worth of labor charges and who knows how much in shop supplies and odds-n-ends. Travis (service manager) was stuck in the middle. Poor guy was dealing with my wife, the owner of Smithville Marine, and a mechanic who apparently doesnt know his front side from his back side when it comes to boats. (His name is Wendell, I'll come back to him later) So, in frustration I park my boat. (you already know that part of the story) and my wife tells me she doesnt want to spend anymore money on the boat. She was mad and taking it out on the boat, but she was right. We were pretty short on money at the time. She had recently lost her job and we were in pretty dire straights financially speaking. Anyway, my plan was to take the boat down to Performance Boat Brokerage in Camdenton. I figured if anyone could fix my boat they could. But my wife still wouldnt have it. She had been through enough with the boat and didnt want to go through anymore at the time. Well, as the winter came and went she finally got another job in February of 2011. We had moved into an apartment to save some money over the house we were renting and we all hated it. We were on the 3rd floor and the stairs sucked.... not having a garage sucked... everything just sucked... We were saving money for a down payment on a house from that point until late august of 2011 when we bought our house. I promised her I would get her a house if the first thing we did after was fix my boat. She agreed and so we bought the house. Well, buying a house and fixing a boat in the same calendar season doesnt really work very well. I am sure you can understand why. At any rate, I saved what I could when I could and scraped my pennies to come up with a reasonable amount of money but it seemed no matter what something would happen and we would need to tap it. It was one thing after another. A/C problems at the end of the summer, Furnace issues in the winter. I learned just how far a 500 gallon tank of propane goes when you have the heat set by a chilly wife and outside air temps under 20... Then things started looking up until my dog chewed a hole in the entry way floor. Thats a true story! I replaced that with ceramic tile. Good luck chewing through that! Anyway aside from that I was finally able to scrape enough together where I was comfortable putting the boat back in the shop. I had been to B&B before and they looked like an old family of fishermen sitting around selling fishing tackle from their bait shop so I didn't want to go there. There is a ford dealership in Smithville that sells and works on boats. I decided I would give them a shot after extensively searching for reviews. That search yielded very little in the way of reviews. But I figured no news was good news, and it wasnt Smithville Marine so I drug the boat up there. Upon my arrival I began telling the guy at the service counter all about what was going on with my boat 2 years ago and he said "hang on... let me call the boat mechanic up so you can speak directly with him." The guy at the counter got on the intercom system and said "Wendell, come to the service counter. Wendell, to the service counter, please." I said: "You know what?" as my eyes got really big, "I'll come back later!" And I drove across the street to the fishermen at B&B Marine.
That was a little over 2 months ago... Danny is going to look at my boat again on Wednesday or Thursday, so I am hoping for the best.
Travis was the name of the service manager at Smithville Marine a little over two years ago when I took my boat there after it bombed on me the first time I took it out for the new summer in 2010. My boat crapped out on me the latter part of summer 2009 and Smithville Marine "fixed" it and winterized it for me since it was so close to the end of the summer. That was my first lesson in boats. Dont trust a mechanic when they say its fixed.... take it for a test run and make sure its fixed. Anyway, when the weather finally got nice in 2010 I took the boat out and didn't even make it past the no wake zone before the port side engine hydrolocked. I took it back to Smithville Marine and they called me a few weeks later to tell me they couldn't figure out where the water was coming from and they assumed I had a crack in the block. I told them I didn't have money to buy a new engine that they wanted 7k for and they gave me the option of shipping the block off to have it magna-fluxed for a cost of 1,700.... still not knowing whether or not there was a crack I started my first thread on OSO. One of the members up in Omaha offered to sell me a low hour take out for 2000 and I jumped on it. I drove up to Omaha and back to smithville and gave the Long block to smithville Marine. It took them about 3 weeks but they finally got the motor in and called me to tell me it was ready. I took it out for a test run and it sounded like a freaking pogo stick when it cranked. I was startled at first but tried it again and it fired up and sounded normal.. so I went out of the no wake zone and jumped up on plane. Ran it a bit and noticed the foul odor of burning oil. I looked down at the gauges and they all read normal but I shut her down anyway just to figure out if we had a fire. I opened the hatch and could hear what sounded like the oil boiling. It literally sounded like a freaking pressure cooker was under the oil pan and was about to explode. Anyway, I took it back to smithville Marine and told them what had happened and from there through the rest of the summer I went up to smithville about every two weeks to go take the boat on another test run. It never worked and my wife got involved.... this is where it gets ugly. My wife threw a fit, bless her heart, and Smithville wound up giving us the boat back without charging us another dime. I was out 2k for a motor I'm still not sure I needed but smithville Marine didnt charge us for any of their labor or parts they threw into my boat. probably in the vicinity of 2-3k worth of labor charges and who knows how much in shop supplies and odds-n-ends. Travis (service manager) was stuck in the middle. Poor guy was dealing with my wife, the owner of Smithville Marine, and a mechanic who apparently doesnt know his front side from his back side when it comes to boats. (His name is Wendell, I'll come back to him later) So, in frustration I park my boat. (you already know that part of the story) and my wife tells me she doesnt want to spend anymore money on the boat. She was mad and taking it out on the boat, but she was right. We were pretty short on money at the time. She had recently lost her job and we were in pretty dire straights financially speaking. Anyway, my plan was to take the boat down to Performance Boat Brokerage in Camdenton. I figured if anyone could fix my boat they could. But my wife still wouldnt have it. She had been through enough with the boat and didnt want to go through anymore at the time. Well, as the winter came and went she finally got another job in February of 2011. We had moved into an apartment to save some money over the house we were renting and we all hated it. We were on the 3rd floor and the stairs sucked.... not having a garage sucked... everything just sucked... We were saving money for a down payment on a house from that point until late august of 2011 when we bought our house. I promised her I would get her a house if the first thing we did after was fix my boat. She agreed and so we bought the house. Well, buying a house and fixing a boat in the same calendar season doesnt really work very well. I am sure you can understand why. At any rate, I saved what I could when I could and scraped my pennies to come up with a reasonable amount of money but it seemed no matter what something would happen and we would need to tap it. It was one thing after another. A/C problems at the end of the summer, Furnace issues in the winter. I learned just how far a 500 gallon tank of propane goes when you have the heat set by a chilly wife and outside air temps under 20... Then things started looking up until my dog chewed a hole in the entry way floor. Thats a true story! I replaced that with ceramic tile. Good luck chewing through that! Anyway aside from that I was finally able to scrape enough together where I was comfortable putting the boat back in the shop. I had been to B&B before and they looked like an old family of fishermen sitting around selling fishing tackle from their bait shop so I didn't want to go there. There is a ford dealership in Smithville that sells and works on boats. I decided I would give them a shot after extensively searching for reviews. That search yielded very little in the way of reviews. But I figured no news was good news, and it wasnt Smithville Marine so I drug the boat up there. Upon my arrival I began telling the guy at the service counter all about what was going on with my boat 2 years ago and he said "hang on... let me call the boat mechanic up so you can speak directly with him." The guy at the counter got on the intercom system and said "Wendell, come to the service counter. Wendell, to the service counter, please." I said: "You know what?" as my eyes got really big, "I'll come back later!" And I drove across the street to the fishermen at B&B Marine.
That was a little over 2 months ago... Danny is going to look at my boat again on Wednesday or Thursday, so I am hoping for the best.
I would never ever pay the prices you paid to have the stuff done that was done BUT although the parts charges were exorbinant it sounds like the marina just used Merc stuff and there prices are rediculously high on everything- 96$ for 12 quarts of NON-synthetic motor oil-thats 8$ a quart! The u-joints could be bought at any auto parts store for about 12-15$ each , not 60$ but again, no different than going to the ford dealer or something, sounds like they only use oem stuff and thats the price you pay to have a shop do stuff!
I own a repair shop that does transmissions, transfer cases and rear ends, we try to make 30% mark up on our parts but we also try to get the best parts at the best price so are customers will come back in the future , not leave feeling raped! I have always been told in repair business the parts mark-up pays your over head and the labor pays your labor/profit , Smitty
08-28-2012, 05:29 PM
#32
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Holy smoke, I don't know weather to laugh at you or cry with you , good luck with the boat!
I would never ever pay the prices you paid to have the stuff done that was done BUT although the parts charges were exorbinant it sounds like the marina just used Merc stuff and there prices are rediculously high on everything- 96$ for 12 quarts of NON-synthetic motor oil-thats 8$ a quart! The u-joints could be bought at any auto parts store for about 12-15$ each , not 60$ but again, no different than going to the ford dealer or something, sounds like they only use oem stuff and thats the price you pay to have a shop do stuff!
I own a repair shop that does transmissions, transfer cases and rear ends, we try to make 30% mark up on our parts but we also try to get the best parts at the best price so are customers will come back in the future , not leave feeling raped! I have always been told in repair business the parts mark-up pays your over head and the labor pays your labor/profit , Smitty
I would never ever pay the prices you paid to have the stuff done that was done BUT although the parts charges were exorbinant it sounds like the marina just used Merc stuff and there prices are rediculously high on everything- 96$ for 12 quarts of NON-synthetic motor oil-thats 8$ a quart! The u-joints could be bought at any auto parts store for about 12-15$ each , not 60$ but again, no different than going to the ford dealer or something, sounds like they only use oem stuff and thats the price you pay to have a shop do stuff!
I own a repair shop that does transmissions, transfer cases and rear ends, we try to make 30% mark up on our parts but we also try to get the best parts at the best price so are customers will come back in the future , not leave feeling raped! I have always been told in repair business the parts mark-up pays your over head and the labor pays your labor/profit , Smitty
08-30-2012, 06:33 PM
#33
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Holy smoke, I don't know weather to laugh at you or cry with you , good luck with the boat!
I would never ever pay the prices you paid to have the stuff done that was done BUT although the parts charges were exorbinant it sounds like the marina just used Merc stuff and there prices are rediculously high on everything- 96$ for 12 quarts of NON-synthetic motor oil-thats 8$ a quart! The u-joints could be bought at any auto parts store for about 12-15$ each , not 60$ but again, no different than going to the ford dealer or something, sounds like they only use oem stuff and thats the price you pay to have a shop do stuff!
I own a repair shop that does transmissions, transfer cases and rear ends, we try to make 30% mark up on our parts but we also try to get the best parts at the best price so are customers will come back in the future , not leave feeling raped! I have always been told in repair business the parts mark-up pays your over head and the labor pays your labor/profit , Smitty
I would never ever pay the prices you paid to have the stuff done that was done BUT although the parts charges were exorbinant it sounds like the marina just used Merc stuff and there prices are rediculously high on everything- 96$ for 12 quarts of NON-synthetic motor oil-thats 8$ a quart! The u-joints could be bought at any auto parts store for about 12-15$ each , not 60$ but again, no different than going to the ford dealer or something, sounds like they only use oem stuff and thats the price you pay to have a shop do stuff!
I own a repair shop that does transmissions, transfer cases and rear ends, we try to make 30% mark up on our parts but we also try to get the best parts at the best price so are customers will come back in the future , not leave feeling raped! I have always been told in repair business the parts mark-up pays your over head and the labor pays your labor/profit , Smitty
I have been searching around a lot, while doing so I found GKN lists and even they list Merc u-joints as unique parts.
08-30-2012, 09:53 PM
#34
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All i can say is "WOW". Might have been better/cheaper to pay someone to pull the boat to PBC. I am yet to hear a bad review on PBC and that is a difficult task and almost unheard of in the boating/repair world.
08-31-2012, 05:39 PM
#35
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Smitty, I am just curious about where you can find u-joints similar to the standard Alpha/Bravo versions. And I am not talking about external dimensions but needle diameter and length.
I have been searching around a lot, while doing so I found GKN lists and even they list Merc u-joints as unique parts.
I have been searching around a lot, while doing so I found GKN lists and even they list Merc u-joints as unique parts.
09-03-2012, 06:17 PM
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09-03-2012, 10:11 PM
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