Beware of Billy Boats
 

William "Billy" Carroll aka Billy Boats. Had a recent bad experience purchasing used parts that were not as described. After discussing the issues he told me to return the parts and he'd refund the money. He had the parts back for 2 weeks before acknowledging that he had them. Unfortunately he still has the money also and won't return any further messages. Very nice to talk too but a very slippery individual. If you're considering dealing with him be very, very specific, assume nothing and proceed at your own risk. By all means do not send him money as a gift via paypal.

I know Billy Boats very well and there is another side to this story, which I know but will leave to him to tell if he so chooses. Maybe this deal didn't quite turn out the way you expected and maybe you have something to do with that, but you are way off base calling him a "very slippery individual". He just spent the last two years building my home and in all that time, there was NEVER a single minute that I questioned his integrity and we're talking about VERY substantial amounts of money here. He's a good friend and I would trust him with my life.

^^^^^ WOW, 2 years to build a home, how many sq ft???

Billy Boats
 

Glad it worked out for you. Yes much more to the story. Bottom line is he has 1/2 the parts and all of the money. As far as me having to do something with the situation my contribution was trusting him that I would get parts with no corrosion (his words) and that was not the case. Some of the parts I figured I could make work with some repairs. The others I wasn't comfortable with. When I asked if he had any other parts that he could exchange he said no but send them back and he'd return the money. I did sent the corroded parts back and after a couple weeks and a couple messages he finally said I thought you were sending everything how much do you want? The original deal was broken down on a $/ part basis that we both recalled so I asked for the value of the items returned. He then tried to make it sound like he was already making me such a great deal on the parts I kept as if I should be happy even if the other stuff wasn't going to work. He said send everything back and he'd return the full amount. I advised him that I had already invested quite a bit repairing the items I kept because I needed to keep my project moving. I told him I was at his mercy as he had the parts and the money and any help offsetting the cost of the new parts I had to buy to replace the unuseable parts would be appreciated. He never responded and after a couple more attempts to reach him over the next couple weeks have been unsuccessful. He originally asked me to send the money via PayPal as a gift which I did. Trusting him I did what he asked which means he got the money without paying the fee and I have no recourse to challenge a gift. To recap, he has half the parts that I returned at my cost, all the money, and I have no recourse. I'd say that's pretty slick.

A lot!

Obviously, I only know what I've been told and I won't comment further on that because it's not my story to tell. I am only disputing your comments with respect to his character. I've known him for years before he built my house; he's NOT a shady guy and believe me, he doesn't need your money. Billy is not the type of person that belongs in the Beware and Stolen section. Hope you guys can find a resolution.

Billy Boats
 

HyFive, if you feel that strongly about his character and he's that good of a friend then please reach out to him and have him contact me to conclude our dealings. He currently has the parts and the money so no matter how you look at it that's not a fair deal. The entire situation is unfortunate but at this point my only recourse is to post my experience. If we can reach a fair compromise I'll be glad to conclude this thread with those facts as well or ask to have it removed all together.

900

Close, you're just missing a zero, Otis.

Is that you, dad ? :lolhit:

Congratulations !

Nice pad, maybe when the check clears Billy can send my refund.

Since you decided to try this in the court of public opinion I will take the time to respond . You started a thread asking about dual cooler bellhousings . I sent you PM saying " I have 2 KE dual cooler bellhousings and 8 plate coolers". When you called me I was very clear that they were USED and came off a pair of KE 850's. I told you that I was certain that the coolers were never on an engine that had a failure . I also told you that I know one of the rubber water hoses needed to be replaced . When you asked me how much money I would take for them I replied " I'll give you the bellhousings for $400 each and all the coolers for $100, total $900.
I then took an hour of my time to go take pictures for you which showed close ups of the parts and measurements that you were concerned with due to rear engine plate . You were concerned about the measurement so much that I went back to my warehouse to take better pics for you. At that time you needed covers for your Gil sea strainers which by coincidence I had 2 brand new covers . I gave you the covers for an additional $50 for the pair. You paid in full though pay pal . When I dropped the package to one of the places I own to ship there was a delay in shipping . I was unaware of the delay because i rarely go to that location . When I was informed the package did not ship I offered to you to send it Next Day Air at my own expense . You said that it wasn't necessary.
3 weeks later you sent me a text saying " after disassembling and cleaning 2 of the coolers and covers are too far gone to use and the others are marginal at best"
I replied "do they leak?"
You responded " I didn't bother to check them , they just look bad so I don't want to put them on my new engines"
My response, " I'm sorry they are no good , send them back and I will refund your money"
You sent back only the coolers and covers which have been disassembled and sand blasted , all of the associated hardware is missing( AN fittings, cooler retaining nuts, o rings) the coolers all pressure tested and have no leaks.
When you contacted me to tell me that the parts arrived to a marina which I own but spend VERY little time there, I told you that I was expecting return of all the parts including the bellhousings for a
Full refund including shipping cost . You expect a $400 refund for the less valuable parts that you didn't like. I explained to you that I sold you the bellhousings at half the price of new and gave you 4 coolers and covers for $100.
You expect a refund of $400 for the coolers and keep the bellhousings at a cost to you of $200 each. So as I told you send EVERYTHING back and I will refund all of your money . I gave you a package deal. There is NO WAY I'm giving you a KE dual cooler housing for $200. So here I say it publicly you have 3 choices
1. $100 refund for coolers and covers
2. I send the coolers and covers back to you which are in usable condition
3. You send back bellhousings and I refund all your money including shipping.

The 4 hours I have spent on trying to help out a fellow boater have cost me more than the original purchase .
Now as for your derogatory comments about me and my character , I have bought , sold, and GIVEN more things on OSO then you could ever fathom . It's funny how not a single person has joined you in your opinion of me. But you have succeeded in 1 thing , I will be less generous with my time , knowledge, and items to people I don't know . Please tell me which of the 3 options you would like to proceed with .

Doesn't matter how much you give. Always someone who is unhappy. That's why I am consistently a a sshole. Everyone knows what they get with me. No let downs ever!

Billy Boats
 

Billy, it's unfortunate that it took a post like this to get a definitive response. Apparently we have a different recollection of what the original item pricing was, and a difference of opinion of what you meant by "send them back". Neither of us has a way to prove the difference of opinions so it's a matter of he said / he said. The total for for 4 new coolers and covers was ~$1200, so based on the condition of the parts that I received I'd say $100 is about all they're worth. Half price bell housings that needed no work and had "no corrosion" wouldn't be a bad deal but that wasn't the case. Unfortunately I can't send the bell housings back because they've already been stripped, repaired and re-anodized. As for the strainer covers, they absolutely were not "brand new", no way, shape or form. I spent 2 nights sanding and buffing them to remove all of the scratches and nicks from their former life. I also bought new knobs and o-rings to complete a package that was supposed to be new. Like the bell housings I made them work but nothing arrived as described. Perhaps I should have asked more questions and asked for more pictures but I didn't think I needed to based on your enthusiasm for the condition. You have the money and parts, refund whatever you think is fair and we'll move on

I am confused your first post stated he had all the parts and all the money. Then your next post stated he had half the parts and all the money. Then the story goes you have the bellhousings and returned coolers ? And you cant return the bellhousings because you put work into them. Send them back and get your money. I do know Billy very well if you sent all the parts back from the beginning I am sure you would have gotten your money back. We boat in salt water, parts will show corrosion. New is New pay the price.

I never said he had all the parts. Yes I put a lot of work into fixing something that was described as no or zero corrosion. Where you boat is irrelevant. If he wants to pay for the repair he can have the bellhousings back and I will buy new.

If you do work on the parts you own them IMO.

Considering I paid for the bell housings I figure I do in fact own them. Unfortunately without the work they were useless. My intention was not to return the bell housings and I never complained about their condition although I feel I had a right too considering they were described as "no corrosion". I simply asked him if he had any other coolers or covers in better condition and after a brief text conversation he said send them back and I'll send your money back. Since we had never had any discussions what so ever about the not so "no corrosion" bell housings and our original deal included separate pricing for the coolers / covers / bellhousings it seemed logical to just return the specific parts we were discussing. In the mean time I dealt with the corrosion damage on the bell housings the best way I could. If I knew I was paying $800 for bell housings that needed work I would have sent them back too. Since I thought I was only paying $400 I figured it was worth the investment to repair them and move on. Now that they've been repaired it's easy for him to say just send them back. Everything was cordial up to the point that we confirmed he had the returned parts and I inquired about the refund. At that point everything went south and to this day, a month since he got the parts back, I still can't get this resolved one way or the other. I've been prompt on every aspect of this deal however like every other part of this deal I'm still waiting on Billy Boat.

This story is getting hard to follow.... :confused:

Money is money but you're not talking about life changing amounts, I'd suggest taking option 2 or 3 which Billy Boats proposed ("2. I send the coolers and covers back to you which are in usable condition 3. You send back bellhousings and I refund all your money including shipping.").

Both parties accept what they believe to be their losses and you move on. It's not worth dragging out and I'm not sure it even justifies a thread here.

You're an experienced boater, boats always cost us money, is this disagreement really worth the effort?

RR

Yes RR the whole thing is ridiculous and your points are well taken. Bottom line is he has the all the money plus some of the parts and I have even more money and time in the remaing parts to make them useable. At this time 1500 people are aware of this. I never demanded anything before or after this thread started and have been completely open to working out a fair compromise. Whether I'm out $100 or $400 the fact remains that if you deal with BB, based on my experience, you will be waiting and you might be out some money unless you go to ridiculous lengths. If any of those 1500 people are considering dealing with him they now know what might be in store, I wish I'd I've seen this post before hand. Hopefully this will prevent some else from being out $100, $400 or $225,000.

Why didn't you just send it all back from day 1 ?

Well, that's the logical question right?

The main issue was the coolers and covers. When I inquired about swapping them out for something in better condition he simply said send them back and I'll send you your money. Apparently there's a difference of opinion on what "them" is. Since the topic of discussion was the coolers and covers I thought that's what he meant by "them". I recall the original deal was $400 for 2 housings and $400 for 4 coolers and covers. Again I figured when I sent "them" back I'd get $400. Leaving me two housings for $400, not a bad deal. Once I got into cleaning up the housings, which was after the coolers were sent back, I realized that the housings needed work. I figured at a price of $400 for 2 housings I was in them at a fair enough price that I could make the investment to repair them and still be ok. As things would have it 2 weeks went by since the coolers and covers were delivered and in that time I had repaired the housings. Since everything was manageable to that point I figured the deal would eventually work out and no need for concern. After two weeks of him having the parts and no contact he finally responded to the 2nd inquiry and everything went south at that point. When he suggested sending everything back I told him I had already made the investment in repairing the housings and if he could help offset the cost of the new coolers and covers I'd appreciate it. I left the entire deal open ended at that point hoping to work out some type of fair resolution. I didn't expect him to buy me new coolers and covers and didn't even want any money back if he could simply send some parts in better condition. He didn't have any better parts, which I could understand, and when he simply said "send them back" I thought I was doing what he suggested. Apparently he got offended when I told him I thought I paid $400 for the coolers and covers and then decided he was no longer willing to do anything or at least that's how it seemed after not hearing from him for 2 weeks and him not responding to my messages. I don't understand why some think I should be willing to just give him back housings after I've made the repairs. They weren't supposed to need repairs in the first place. All he has to do is contact me and we'll come up with something between $100 and $400 and this will be over. Ball is in his court.

EZ, you don't sound like an easy person to do business with.

LMFAO, I don't put up with B.S. Call that what you want. All the f'n guy has to do is contact me and I'm sure we can work something out. How difficult is that?

Hard to sell used parts pressure tested manifolds I sold on here guy played the same game but tried not paying he failed:daz:

He has contacted you (in some way) through his earlier post.
I know nothing about him except a few small references on OSO but he sounds like a busy guy. He offered you 3 alternatives thinking it would put an end to this story. I understand he holds all the aces because he has some of the parts and all of the money. Meaning no disrespect to either of you, why not just take up one of the alternatives and move forward?

If you're fighting over principles, there will be no winner.
If you're fighting for an extra 1-200 bucks, your time is probably worth more than the effort.

Sadly, Judge Wapner passed away a few months ago because he could have solved this in 30 seconds.

RR

Here is my FINAL response to you . You are an irrational person.
these are the original pictures that I sent you . There is NO visible corrosion on these bellhousings or cooler covers. You have some nerve saying that I misrepresented the condition in any way .
You had the parts for over 2 weeks before you contacted me to say the parts were "un usable". But you neglected to say that you had someone blast the **** out of them with a course media. Now you took them apart , damaged them by blasting , sent back some of the parts but missing hardware, attempt to defame me, question my character , try to derail the sale of my boat...... You expect me to work this out? Now that's some funny ****.
I gave you a package deal on all the parts., If you threw the covers in the garbage,the bell housings and coolers ( which are in perfect condition) are worth 4 times your total purchase price . This is not a matter of me misrepresenting condition or my unwillingness to resolve , it is a matter of you purchasing USED parts with unrealistic expectations then expecting money back for only the parts of a package that in your ultimate experience deem not to be worthy of use on your boat. If you had a question of these parts you should have contacted me right away before blasting the 4 covers and 2 anodized bellhousings. I have every text you have sent me including when you notified me that " 2 of the COOLERS to too far gone for use". So tell me how they are un usable. They are stainless steel so they aren't rotted, they hold 100 lbs of pressure over night, they have never been on an engine with a failure. So why are they unusable ??????????
Still I take the high road and tell you to send all the parts back for a full refund, but you have also done repairs to the bellhousings . Buddy you own them.
I will send the coolers and covers back to you Monday and will post the tracking number on OSO for all to see. I won't return any money out of principle. $100, $400, $900 ,$9000 or $90,000 would not affect 1 min of my life. Nor do I have the time in my busy life to bicker with you .

The last sentence from my response to his post "You have the money and parts, refund whatever you think is fair and we'll move on"

Irrational?

He's already told you in the post 2 above yours that he would refund $100. (Presumably because he thinks that's fair)
Me thinks you're having too much fun talking about it..... :party-smiley-048:

Note to self RR, click the little drop down box "thread tools", select option "unsubscribe from this thread" and enjoy OSO.
You won't have to read anymore posts from me, I promise.

Sincerely
Jon.

Here's the housings after the anodizing was removed. Not a grain of sand touched these, if that's what caused the damage the entire area would look the same. They were blasted with extra fine glass media to remove the remaining corrosion from the heavily pitted areas so they could be welded. The blasting didn't remove any base metal.

Nice home Neil...Congrats.

Chris

reading this thread is like 15 minutes of my life I'm never getting back!! Sorry Billy that you, an honest, straight shootin knowledgeable guy has to be subjected to such ridiculousness!!! I'm with ya on ths one!@! makes one wonder why do we help people?? Stay well and happy boating!!
BTW NICE HOUSE YA BUILT!!! :ernaehrung004:

EZRIZER hmmmm maybe there's something in that name he picked? lol

I'm siding with billyboats on this

Can we just start a thread BEWARE OF IDIOT CUSTOMER

Why didn't you just buy brand new parts? Hmmm....

I love these threads. Big ballers who don't pony up for new parts, then demand a refund from the seller.

I'm surprised at the criticism. His words from a previous post "the bell housings and coolers ( which are in perfect condition)". Perfect, a strong term. Why didn't I buy new? I considered that until he contacted me, and offered parts that sounded like they were in really nice condition. I never demanded anything, I simply asked if he had coolers and or covers in better condition, his solution was to return them for a refund. Apparently we had a misunderstanding about what was to be returned. After he received the parts back (at his request) I inquired about the refund he asked me how much I wanted, which led to a disagreement about the original sale price. Our last direct communication ended with me stating that I was at his mercy since he had the parts and the money, and left it up to him to decide what to do. I never heard from him again even after a couple attempts to contact him. In this thread he offered to return $100, I responded and said refund whatever you think is fair and we'll move on. He never sent a penny. He later said out of principal he's not refunding anything and concluded with "I will send the coolers and covers back to you Monday and will post the tracking number on OSO for all to see." I guess we have another misunderstanding because i thought he meant the Monday following his post (the next day) but apparently he was talking about a different Monday because were coming up on 3 Mondays and still no tracking number or parts.

I didn't make this post to get at odds with others. I didn't like the way he handled his end of the deal and posted my opinion which is what this section is for. If you support him that's fine. If you're thinking of doing business with him, one way or the other, this should help you make your decision. If you're still undecided you can look at these other posts found here on OSO:

Hey Bill,

See if the parts I bought and paid you for are up there . Still missing them here even after your emails saying they were shipped and etc. Getting old your refusal to answer emails, PMs or calls but you were quick to take my money.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/n...ml#post4470035

Bill,

Ever find the rest of the parts I paid you for this spring but still haven't received?
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/w...e-6-props.html

Hey Bill, have you found the rest of the parts I bought from you yet? Still haven't seen them.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...ml#post4456764

I've been as honest an accurate as I can be about my side of the matter. I've said about all I can and now need to move on. If he he sends the money or the parts I'll make a final post and maybe include some pictures. Until then he still has the money and the parts.

still want to side w/ him.

:party-smiley-004: