liquid lounge

SCOTT B-
After reading all these posts, the only "laughs" I got were from the ones written by you. First off I'm going to assume that you are a DONZI owner, although you never stated this. All the blisters you say you "would take a nickle for" on your boat and others, do you really think this is normal? Imagine, Chrkr's "seat cushions must have been wet and caused blisters" Seat cushions wet in a boat? NO WAY- not in a boat!! IF you got blisters from that like you say, you ought to be teamed up with Chrkr. I personally have never seen blisters on a late model boat, but I boat exclusivly with the Bayliner & Larson crowd. Scott B. if it were my boat I would take it back to DONZI and have them fix all those blisters to my satisfaction. And to Rick S.: Just what was it the DONZI rep. said to satisfy you? AM I missing somthing? Beleive me , this is a PR rash on DONZI, thanks to the net, if they have a credible defense they would let it out. You guys that have DONZI's with little or no problms[ which I truley beleive there are many] keep speaking up- this only makes Chrkr's case stronger that his is the exception , not the rule. As for SCOTT B., quit dissing your boat if you really like it that much. Good Luck Chrkr!

Donzi 1

Gentlemen,
My name is Scott Boldt but I am not from FL. I own a 1969 18' Donzi Classic. I was not going to add to this thread because I feel that even if there is something about a product you don't like, you should not bash the product. How many times have we bought something only to find it was not what we thought we were getting. I for one would buy nothing but a Donzi. Just this past weekend, I took my boat down to Sarasota FL for the Donzi Owners 2001 Rally. We did a run on Saturday from Sarasota to Tampa across the bay. It was windy and the water was very ruff. My Donzi not only got me to Tampa, but returned me back to Sarasota with out a single problem other than some loose screws on the rub rail. Remember, this is a 32 year old 18' boat running in 3 to 4' swells. I loved it even though getting out of bed the following morning was difficult. My point here is. This man is not getting anywhere by bashing Donzi boats on this website. Donzi owners like myself know the boats are well built. Mine has brought me home many times when I was in conditions I had no buisness being in. Contact the company and first, listen to their side of the story and there offer to lay this issue to rest. If you still feel your not getting a fair deal, take the next step, but keep it off this site and your website. All your doing is making people mad. You ask me if I would buy another Donzi? YOU BET YOUR A**. Don Aronow knew what he was doing when he started Donzi. It's amazing how often the boat is copied. That's the best selling point available. Take a ride in one, you'll buy one the next day!!

Scott Boldt
Columbus, OH

[ 10-17-2001: Message edited by: Donzi 1 ]

Jassman

.My uncle ownes a 99 33zx. He also has problems with his hull blistering, the dealer is no help, the factory sucks and keeps jerking his chain. I mentioned earlier how I had problems with a dealer on a 38Daytona on this thread and am sure glad I decided to buy somewhere else. The boat design is drop dead gorgeous, the 9'3" beam and 6'3" headroom below is awesome, but their are major problems with some of the fit and finish. And damit all if you have the balls to charge Formula or Cigarette prices you best be that good. Im not going to get into all our problems with Donzi but they know they have problems on the line, and still continue to build the boats without change. If our problem is not resolved by the end of november they are aware of us going to court. **** like this hurts sales. DONZI1, YOUR BOAT WAS BUILT WITH PRIDE IN THE DAYS DONZI WAS ONE OF THE BEST. They have a long way to go, its an uphill battle when customer service and satisfaction comes last.

Scott B

Yup, I do. One of my boats is a 27 year old Donzi. I am not saying blisters are normal, just that they have a cause.

When the original owner sold my boat a couple years ago, the rear seat had no blisters. When I bought it from the second owner after 1.5 years, it had blisters. Also had soaking wet cushions, and mold under the seat. Hmm, coincidence? I think not. No, I am not saying that just having wet cushions can cause a problem, but storing the boat away wet will. Looking at the pictures of the seat area that is blistered, it has obviously been stored wet unless you are intimating that the moisture in the air caused the blisters.. I see this as an indication of the way the boat has been maintained, and it does not indicate it has been as lovingly maintained as the WebPages would indicate.

My point is, moisture causes blisters. Bertrams, Hatteras's, Morgans, Hunters, Donzi's, Fountains, they will all blister if abused. A clean and shiny boat doesn’t prove it has been properly maintained. Hell, I see clean and shiny POS boats every day.

Now, I realize that this is the first case of a boat owner and a manufacturer having a disagreement over a boat in all the recorded history of mankind. I realize that heaven forbid, we don’t want to go to court and maybe set a precedent here. Chris has stated his case, and Donzi has made an offer that he disagrees with. So, Chris will continue to try his case on the net, and the other manufacturers on this site and others will add fuel to the flames to try and degrade Donzi's name. Well, Chris I have been in your position. I fought a name brand manufacturer and won a new boat. However, I did not do it by blasting them on the net, and slandering their name. I did it the good old fashioned way: got in their face, told ALL the facts straight up, and proved my point beyond a shadow of a doubt. In the end, I received a complete new hull, and some serious concessions towards re-rigging a 3 year old boat.

Scott B

chrker

Scott B:

Have you even considered the fact that the extreme porosity of the defective gelcoat on the boat throughout (as confirmed by the joint survey) could greatly accelerate blistering even though the boat has been well cared for?

Again, the surveyors agree that I have taken "exemplary" care of the boat and that I have "made every effort to keep it in an as new condition". That is something that you cannot hide from a trained eye.

Chris

P.S. I’ll stand my boat side by side with yours any day if you ever want to see what a pampered boat looks like. Defective gelcoat and all.

stingray

Ok, we need a gel coat professional to explain to us how water gets under the gel coat with the exception of a deep scratch, but I'd only assume it would blister in the affected area...

Those blisters are quite uniform in distribution, pattern and size. If the interior portion is affected as well, essentially meaning the entire gel coat layer is hosed, how could this have happened? Did the dealer spray some sort of acid all over the entire boat? Okay, lets say the boat sat for a long time in water. So what. All you NORMALLY get is a dirty bottom that comes clean and yeah a lot of folks will use On/Off to clean it, DUH!

I've owned many a fixer-upper that were mostly older and hardly well maintained when I bought and honestly I didn't put a lot of effort into the exterior, except the occasional waxing. I just drove the piss out of them. His boat was only three years old! And by the sound of some posts on here it sounds RELATIVELY common. Warranty or no warranty that shouldn't be happening. Where their learning curve? But I can't be sold for one second that some diabolical thing was done to it prior to his buying. It had to be one bad batch of gel mix or glasswork or something on the assembly line that caused it to start decaying.

I'm not saying Donzi as a whole is bad because I've witnessed otherwise. But barring dramatic reasons yet to be announced (and I just can't fathom what it could be) I sense their drop in recent sales has made them take a bad stance on this case. I will always be on the owners side on any issue...

Rick
www.HRPA.homestead.com/homepage.html

Audiofn

BS!!! There is no excuse for a boat to blister top or bottom side PERIOD. It is an indications of poor lay up and cheap material. Glad you paid huge money so that Donzi can use cheap resins and glass and improper lay up timing so that they can make lots of proffit. I have a 1979 Formula. It has a horrible history of care from its former owner. The back Swim pad is ALWAYS wet. It has been left in salt water unpainted, you name it this ahole did it to try and hurt the boat. There is NOT ONE blister on the entire boat!!! 1998 30 Foot super boat race boat, stays in the fresh water all year, no bottom paint, not a blister on the boat. 1990 Baja 280 Stays in the fresh water all year, no bottom paint, no blisters. 30 foot Veloce same deal. I can go on and on and on till I get to everyone that I know that owns a newer Donzi. The older ones seem to be fine. The same buy that own the 280 Baja has had lots of the older Donzi's and I have never seen one blister on them, but that is the much older 16-18 footers. I have seen personally and heard nothing but horror stories about the newer boats. They obviously could care less as far as I see and that is too bad. They have been making boats that blister for a couple of years now and they will aparently continue to do so. I would never even consider the purchase of a boat like that. I have also been so happy with my Formula and thier customer service on a boat that is 25 years old that it will be hard for me to change. I have called up Formula with questions and concerns and they have always shown true concern and have been RESPONSIVE AND PROACTIVE for my quesions and or problems. They even went out of their way one time to find me a no longer made light control that is on my dash so that I could get my bow light working again!!! They were upset that after 25 years I had to put a new inner transom in there till I mentioned that the previous owner had made open holes and not filled them so the water could just go onto the wood, even then they were bummed for me. Do I see this concern for this poor guy? NO. I do not care if they have never made a boat that has ever blistered before and his is the only one they should take care of this for what they charge. However they know they have a problem and once the Donzi owners get together they are looking at one huge class action lawsuit. A court will not look kindly on a company charging what they charge and then treating their customers like they are, especially when there is a line of owners going out the door with the same problem. If this guy lived in Mass they would be screwed due to the very strong consumer laws that we have. I had IBM purchase back my computer after me having it for 2 years and yes I only had a one year warrantee. We did not even ever take it to court it was just a matter of me getting in touch with the correct person high enough up the lader of command that could make real decisions. Even in the end with what I went through with IBM due to how they handled things towards the end of my computer situation I would consider another one at sime time. I can not disclose the final settelment as it is part of the agreement but safice it to say I am happy, and this poor guy should be also!!!! Shame on Donzi for putting out such garbage and not taking care of thier customers.

Jon

[ 10-18-2001: Message edited by: Audiofn ]

Advantage_Rob

This is some very bad publicity for donzi, and they should take care of it, even if they dont agree, it will stop this from happening on this board which everyone all over the country seems to know about. I was at a friends last night, and logged on just to show him this blistered up donzi. I think I'd go rent a space right next to the donzi booth at the miami boat show, and see how they like you proudly showing off your high priced, high quality, z-warrantied, boat and how you've been treated by them. The squeaky wheel get the grease, and if you squeak enough it is better to fix your problem and eat the cost, than to let this continus and hurt future sales for a long time to come. I'd really like to hear donzi's explination as to why this hasn't been fixed. I know blisters aren't specificy covered under warranty, but I also know this is a P.R. nightmare, and they should have fixed it long ago. They are hurting themselves more and more with each person that reads this and see's that boat all blistered. What the... I definitely agree that if you are gonna charge cigarette, formula prices, take care of your customers as cigarette and formula do too!!

Audiofn

There is the best idea I have heard yet. Lets find out how much it costs for a booth at the show, or just park it in the parking lot with a big sign. Come See the Hunchback of Donzi!!! Man that is actually a very good idea. If they cought wind of that they would definatly move thier ass to take care of it. How many boat sales do you think that they would loose if that boat was parked out front. I am guessing they would not sell one of them.

Advantage_Rob

I have friends that do the detroit show at cobo hall and it's about $4,000. Im sure miami is more, though. I though of this last night after a few long islands, and was saying to myself, "I cant post that", but after seeing all of you guys mad about it too and thinking if I were in his shoes, I'd be gassin up the truck, and headin to miami from detroit. It's probably less than legal fee's!! You hear that advantage!! I better never need you guys to warranty anything!! So far so good, no problems at all and I left it in the water alot last year, and no blisters, imaginge that!!

[ 10-18-2001: Message edited by: advantage_ROB ]