That's why I flush and squirt off the boat after every ride. If not you've got junk.

I Brought you the boat on 4/28 and discussed repair options and you indicated you could start on it Monday as your shop had openings and your glass repair person was caught up on work. We discussed how the K-plans were installed at that time and you indicated you use the same product to install K-plan mounts. A week later after the repair started we discussed that the K-Plans were becoming a challenge to remove and you had tools on order. At this time you indicated this probably added 2-3 days to the project. I had already agreed up front to replace the stringers along with the transom as part of the original estimate. Once the fwd bulk head was removed on 6/13 the front stringer next to the fuel tank was identified as damaged as neither of us where aware of prior to this. At this time you indicated this only added some material and a couple days to the project time line. When I brought you the boat on 4/28 we discussed that I had tentative commitments during the week of 7/4 and would like the boat back by then if possible. You agreed that this should be achievable. On 6/7, I asked you if I should start canceling plans as there were some delays and the project was not moving at the pace originally thought. You said NO. I told you I had commitments that I need to cancel before I lost “$” on them and you indicated the boat would be done. On 6/21 we discussed this again and you told me the boat would be done for 7/4. On 6/29 when it was obvious the boat was not going to be complete by 7/4 we discussed removing some items from the original estimate in consideration of it allowing time to complete the boat for 7/4 since now I could no longer cancel my prior commitments that you said not to cancel. I did not ask you to lower your work “ethic”. We discussed not painting the engine compartment and also not replacing the swivel pin seals as I would remove the engines and swivel pins over the winter and repair them then. We only discussed options to shorten the time to complete the boat and never discussed anything in regards to lowering your work “ethic”. I was about to lose a couple thousand on my prior commitments that could have been avoided as discussed with you on 6/7.
In regards to my wife (the customer) calling you upset, seems only reasonable to me considering the amount of “$” we were now loosing (and also paying you) for commitments we asked you multiple times if we should cancel. I don’t believe she went “ballistic” but, she (the customer) had every right to be upset. Especially, after you hung up on her. When I called you back on the 7/5 we did not discuss having the boat complete the following Wednesday. The last discussion we had was on 6/29 and you indicated the boat would be complete on 7/5 or 7/6 and this is also what you told my wife.
I was at your shop on 7/11 and that is when we discussed having the boat completed the following Wednesday (7/20, nine days later) for water testing. I did agree to that then and after further consideration felt that this date was not sufficient. This also would have required me to change other commitments and more lost time at work to this project and not having previously met any other prior completion time lines it seemed it was not worth the frustration. Therefore, I decided to pick the boat up on 7/15 instead of having more time wasted on unmet deadlines when there was nothing I could do about it even if the boat was not done by 7/20.
As you & I discussed previously my frustration was not that the boat was not done by 7/4, but, that you continued to indicate it would be complete and this was costing me lost deposit fee’s, vacation time for both my wife and I. All this could have been avoided. I brought my boat to you because; you indicated that you only work on off-shore boats and projects like mine. I guess my expectations as the customer are just too high.

Robert,
We never use 5200 for mounting large items on the transom. We use 4200 removable in those areas and told you that at the time it was going to be a problem. On the Monday after you dropped the off we did have the boat completely strip of its engines and all hardware except the K-Planes and that is when all the delays started. By the time the tools arrived to remove them the early spring rains had stop and our boating season was upon us.By then I had 17 boats sitting in my yard for work that were 1 and 2 day jobs that had to be done if I wanted any future business. I am sorry but those other boats were more important at the time than 1 huge project that should have been addressed during the off season. Had we been able to remove the tabs during the first 3 weeks this would have turned out much differently and been way ahead of schedule but it did not. You continued to make plans with the boat every week without it being done, that is not my fault but you kept blaming me while we WERE working on your boat every chance we could which most weeks over 80 man hours and some over 120.

Your wife had a nasty tone as soon as I picked up the phone and became VERY demanding. I tried to reason with her and she started to scream,.Thats when I hung the phone up and had enough ended my quest to get your boat done by the 4th.You were another issue with you downer attitude every time you came to the shop which considering our distance was way to much for my taste.When you would arrive I would just go about my work knowing your stay was only to bring gloom upon us and eventually you would go home.

I feel as most here would agree including all the customers that were after my time while I was doing your project that I did everything I could to get your boat done in a timely manor. Lets not forget that I finished it before anybody else you called would even consider taking it on.In your defense you did take it to the other shop in the fall but that has no bearing on the fact that I did not get it until 2 days before May. Poor planning on your part should not make me the bad guy and I feel your post yesterday was just an attempt to do that. I have been on this site for many years and your opening line of many members asking about your project by sending you PM's I feel was just a fabrication because I had already posted in the reply before your post that I had indeed taken on the project.

I am glad for you that you are boating and feel I am the main reason that you even made it in the water this year. Its just a shame that it was with bad feelings on your part and I had to go through all the hardship put on by you and your wife during the project that continues here still today.

By the way Rob please tell the members here how the project turned out quality wise. I would have made a complete pictorial of it on my site but I quit taking pictures after the project/customer became unbearable.

I still want to know who the very first shop was that left a transom with 2-2.5" thickness and uneven???

Why would members PM you vs ask you openly here? There was no hint of any wrong doing by him beforehand.

Or is that statement fabricated as a way of slamming brian41 knowing he would respond to defend himself, so you could reply?

I thought I read that when brian spoke with his wife that he would have finished the boat by 7/2 and that she got upset and told brian that wasn't good enough? 7/2 is still before 7/4 isn't it? Not sure at that point why brian stopped working on the boat and just didn't finish it up by 7/2 like he told the wife? It always sucks when things don't go as planned, thats boating though, get used to it. How long did gach own this fine piece of marine hardware?> Is he responcible for all the rot?

I stopped working on the boat and did not finish it for the 4th weekend the second I hug up the phone with her and decided to finish 3 other boats that were waiting patiently for me to finish the Gach's boat. Like I said in the previous post those 3 customers got use their boats for the 4th when they were not scheduled to be worked on until the following week because of the Gach's project. Her call was the last straw of weeks of gloom that Robert was giving me and I had enough knowing that nothing I did for them at that point would make them happy. Robert told me several times "I don't care about anybody else's boat" yet the other customers not being happy they had to wait understood.

I was in Brians shop a few times the week of July 4 and seen gach's boat in there. Every time I was there he was working on it. Brians work is amazing, probably the best I have ever seen. And I used to do fiberglass work at Brennan Marine (now skipper buds) years ago before I joined the USCG. I can't stand impatiant people either, some people have no idea how time consuming glass work is and not to mention how big of a job gach's boat was.

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend or imply that Brian did anything but outstanding work. I understand how it al works, unforseen damage and delays. I am not one of those PITA customers, up your azz all the time. it sounds like this guy was. It makes it worse when your bustin your azz to try and accomodate the customer, no matter how big of a DIC hes being. I hope you got paid for all your time and effort?

I hope you got paid for all your time and effort?[/QUOTE]



When it was all said and done I made about 20% of my shop rate for the hours I put in it. Because of all the gloom they were giving me I just wanted it done and gone and did it for less than the original estimate because the thousand upon thousands of dollars they lost in trips they planned during the time I had the boat.