Now I want to clarify that I am not trying to cause a sh$t storm with my post. I am merely bringing to the forefront the response from the manufacturer I received. Am I pleased with it, NO. I feel that Formula should have gotten more involved with the process. They have been given all the evidence that there was a quality control issue at manufacturing. They chose to not get involved. I never expected Formula to fix my boat for free or hand me a stack of cash... I expected them to involve themselves into the process of repairing this boat by speaking "tech", "engineering"... show some care...not just say " its out warranty and we are not assisting you". Send me a freakin Tshirt....lol.

Formula as far as I am concerned has dropped the ball. They are a fabulous boat manufacturer....I would have not bought anything else. They are not showing their support for our loyalty of their brand.... As a business owner, regardless of time, if I have a client come to me whenever with a concern, issue, whatever...I tend to it and make sure they know I care and are willing to some sort of reality help them with their concerns..... DID NOT GET THAT FEELING....

Free T-Shirt would be awesome!

YOU GOT A FREE T-SHIRT! WTF I better make a call today! Chris, your post above makes me want to ask you a question because I was going to call them up to ask them some myself. Have you or glass dave asked them for advice on the repair? Have you asked them if we can call them up and get some engineering help in the repair. Not cash, not product just some sound advice to make sure we are not missing anything? For me it would be amazing if they could get some of their engineers involved to help us out with some time anyhow? Just wondering if that was ever proposed to them specifically?

Pretty easy to interpret that as Formula intends for their boats to have a structural life of only 5 years. Good to know.

I have a 2000 - 382 and it definitely has the plugs in the hull in the engine bay.
Possibly they were used for quality control, to check the plexus bond, and not necessarily used a repair point in every boat?
It would be an interesting question to ask Formula next time you speak with them.
I'll have to pop them all and have a closer look, now I have the engines out.
I have one missing and from memory it looks to more of an inspection point than an injection point, but I'll have to have a closer inspection.

[IMG][/IMG]

Jon, To answer your question, YES. I spoke with Scott Smith at Formula last June when we initially found the issues. At the time I had the boat at a repair shop in Annapolis , MD. They were attempting to figure out what happened and I with the shop were in constant communication with Formula....Did they help...NO. Not at all... Was told then to bring the boat to us and we will try to fix it....at a completely ridiculous cost to me of course. They walked around in circles giving possible causes and stating that we had delamination issues.... After realizing that the fellow that had my boat in Annapolis didn't know what he was doing and Formula had no intention to help figure it out without the boat going to them, I had the boat sit on it's trailer thru the summer at my house till I took it to Glassdave in November when Dave was able to take it into his work rotation. Dave and I had communicated and figured out our game plan back in July of last year. Dave has not had any communication with Formula...Genius has figured it out all by himself...lol

Chris

Hope you find no issues. Do not really think I'll be communicating with Formula anytime soon...

Chris

Good point...kinda sad,.... Don't really think that is the case but agree that what Scott wrote doesn't give much strength to their cause.... Makes me think of Washington Dc's slogan on their license plates....."Taxation without representation"....

I'll bet Formula consulted their legal team and were advised to do nothing.

By helping one boat owner in a small way would be a great PR exercise and a nice goodwill gesture but it would also be an admission of fault. It would send the message that they had made a manufacturing mistake and would open the floodgates to hundreds and hundreds of wary customers with all sorts of complaints related or unrelated. Imagine how many owners would come forward asking for assistance.

Sounds like a tough business decision, made to avoid setting any precedent that could cost the company a lot of money and legal problems.

I admire the attitude you two guys have adopted in dealing with the issue, get it fixed, cop it on the chin and enjoy your much improved boats.

As for asking Formula if they could help with any advice on the repair or other things to be aware of? I'd ask Glass Dave, I get the impression he knows more than they do.

Good luck guys, soldier on and thanks for the informative threads.

RR

i require no direction or advice from anyone . . . . lets face it you and i both know how they attempted to correct the problem. I believe in the very beginning of the issue Chris did seek advice and direction from Formula or at least the original shop was seeking this info. At that point i was contacted as the original shop had stalled waiting for correspondence that never came. My position is, while input would be appreciated, it is most certainly not required on my end and would only be used in making my decision on how best to approach this. Honestly, having an engineering background myself, i doubt any useful input could come from that end of it anyway. This could only be corrected by an analytical approach of surgically removing affected areas to a point where it could then be systematically reassembled and corrected. The problem is and was the disconnect between design, engineering, implementation, quality control, etc. As i have said before it is an extremely nice boat throughout . . . . except for fifty two inches of it. What is interesting is the issue is a combination of many small things that added up to one big problem.


but yeah . . . i want a T shirt to