Black Thunder Purchase Problems- FYI!
 

I was at the Miami Boat Show and it was suggested I post the problems (NIGHTMARE) we had purchasing our 2007 Black Thunder. We were promised a fun purchase experience!
I was made an offer at the Annapolis Boat Show of 335k (all options) 46 SC for a new Black Thunder, I went to the bank in Oct/Nov got a loan and even received a Manufacturers Statement of Origin (dated 12/21/2006) with a Sale Contract and gave BT 300K in Jan 2007 with a promise of delivery in March/April, BTW, my Serial Number on all my paperwork was #1 for 2007 (according to the Boat Surveyor). It was a nightmare purchase! We picked a color scheme and was not told that another boat's color scheme could not be used for the basis of the color on our boat eight weeks after the 2007 Miami Boat Show! We were not going to directly copy. Finally picked colors in March 2007. BTW, BT says the last step is colors so it should not have held up my delivery! BT shows up in JULY (boat disabled in BAY with blown fuses and mis-matched throttle operation). BT waned to leave teh boat at my house and have me take care of the boat repairs! When they arrived in July, BT wanted me to use their Dealer TAGS which DNR says I can't do that! They delivered the wrong trailer; we ordered an electric brake trailer. We traveled to Missouri in January to work on colors and we traveled to MIAMI BOAT SHOW in 2007 at our expense to facilitate the purchase. Because I got the financing in 2006, I had to buy insurance and because we were told of a March/April deliver I also bought slips space. After many, many days of work, it was discovered by the GREAT PEOPLE at Offshore Performance (HATS OFF ! These are great people that took many hours during fourth of July GREAT PEOPLE!) that the boat had two different ratio drives 1.36 and 1.50 ITS Drives. BT wanted to swap PROPS to offset! Six attempts to deliver and a FOUR PAGE Defects list (I had to get the boat surveyed there were so many problems with the boat) and several trips by BT wherever including blowing out two of my trailer tires and damaging the brand new trailer(lights, fenders, wheels)! BT says they blew out two tires in Pennsylvania! Which they refused to fix! Boat was finally delivered with most of the problems fixed in September 2007 (almost one year after the order)! Colors were not what we requested. Filed complaints with NMMA, BBB and BOATUS this has not been successful! Boat had HULL VOIDS, Electrical problems, loose shelving, hatch won't seal, door gaps, leaks, we pulled four bags of construction material from the bilge (wood, ratchets, etc.),blistering, colors on top did not match side! BT took the boat back to the factory and worked on it for three months to fix all the above. BT has refused to paint the boat the colors we requested!
I don't know many people that would pay for a boat in advance!
BT is refusing to compensate me for the late delivery and/or refund my money! They delivered the boat expecting the customer to take care of all the issues on OUR TIME. BT expected me to move the boiat around for repairs when I could not even drive the boat! BT said they were having fuel injector problems with their delivery truck. Have taken numerous days off doing demo rides, meetings, etc.... Just wanted to warn you all what to expect! I had to get an attorney to help me make BT fix most of the issues! Do you guys offer lawyer referrals as I tried to be nice to them, but not working? Immediately after delivery I had to have the boat winterized , so have not used the boat except one time and the wind and water was so rough we had to put the boat away for the winter.

wow

I agree wow... Although we have yet to buy a BT we have been on many and have spent time with the BT group. hmmm

WOW! good luck,

What a F**kin nightmare.....Glad to here Offshore helped out...they are a good group of people.....Good luck...I'd get a team off attorneys....Boating/Boat purchasing should be fun not a corporate negotation....

Yikes, how do you put on two different drive ratios? That is scary you would think a small company like BT would have more attention to detail.

Hopefully they will wake up and fix the issues-- if they don't then it's going to hurt their business in the long run!

From what I've heard, both drives were delivered and stamped 1.50 by Mercury Racing.

If that is the case than that part of the ordeal isn't really on BT. If it is stamped incorrectly, how would they know. As far as the rest of the laundry list goes that is really unfortunate.

The few I have been on I have been impressed with the fit and finish. I hope they get everything taken care of for the owner of the boat. If I dropped 300k and had to deal with that I wouldn't have held off this long before making a post about the transaction.

are we all talkin the same Black Thunder or what?? Ive seen some BT's in pretty big water without missin a beat. always heard they were wavecrushers..


sorry to hear about your issue(s).. coming from a boat sales background, all i can say is that every dealer has had at LEAST one of these type of nuggets of joy leave the factory. Everyone makes mistakes, its just how well they deal fixing them that determines their dedication to customers..

this seems a bit ridiculous though.. good luck with it all.. thats a lotta money to have wrapped up sittin in storage with a list of defects 4 pages long. :(

My first Apache 41 had the same delivery problem: 2 different drive ratios.

They thought there was a problem with the tachs. Changed them out, without solving the problem.

Perhaps, not an unusual mix-up.

About the drives being stamped wrong is true! I am the tech that found the problem. After numerous boat rides and checking everything else under the sun, I then cheked the ratio. Both were stamped the same. What I did was put both in gear and turned the engines over by hand with a wratchet. One turned further than the other. A costly mix up indeed!

Sorry to hear of your nightmare. If you keep the boat and still need service dont hesitate to call.

John Smith
Master Mercruiser Technician
JAWS Marine
410-354-9100:D

I hope you get all this straightened out. Nothing like not being happy at something that is supposed to bring happiness!

Sorry to hear about your issues with BT. They screwed me out of $16K before I walked away from this builder. I guess I got out cheap in comparison to the headaches you received.

This builder makes a lot of promises they will not keep. Go take a look at Nortech and find out how a customer should be taken care of!

My 1st comment would be why so much cash up front on a boat that is being built?

I definately think you should hire a good lawyer. Wonder if this falls under the triple damages situation with all legal fees paid.(sounds like lots to recoup...interest,insurance,slip fees,travel expenses,etc) In my younger days I had onna dem shady used carlots do something similiar(promised to fix stuff and didn't). Hired a lawyer and was award triple damages!

Yep- chit happens, it is how it is dealt with that matters.

Good job Pwrbt33- glad you are in my backyard!!

Sorry 2 hear of your situation! Seems like this marine industry could use some serious AZZ WHOOP'N at times. Have had my share of bad CHIT also along w/ lotz of other people 4 sure!!! Good luck, Wrink

"jfnowli"

You would think that BT would do everything in there power to correct all issues immediately for their customer. By doing very little or nothing for you would be a big WARNING SIGN to any other potential customer's in the future. I would like to see BT address these issue's that have surfaced on the OSO Forum. I feel sorry for you and to what you have had to go through purchasing a new bout. BT what's your side of the story.

It is very unfortunate, its a great looking boat. I know they did have truck troubles that week. Not taking up for anyone. They even had troubles when we put the boat in the water and it would barely pull out of the ramp! Well, like I said if there is anything at all I can help you with feel free to call.

John Smith

Scott,

you are bringing up old memories (Some Good some not so good)

How are you and Allison doing ??

I miss hanging out with ya

Only one BT boat in my area of Clear Lake Texas that I know of located on Taylor Lake. My town home is on Clear Lake and I see the boat cruise occasionally but have not met owner. Beautiful boat and appeared in late 2006. Never observed it over about 50mph but I thought BT was a quality company. Of course one such ordeal does not mean company is screwy but sure is a blemish. Thanks for the info and hope things get better. Steve

Stop me sometime and we'll meet! But it appeared in late 2005. I did have a totally different build experience though. It was a true pleasure working with the BT company. Thanks for the compliments on the beauty - my wife designed the paint and matching vinyl layout. Tommy ps: I'm the only BT in Texas.

I agree 100%, when your in business and a customer has issues with something that you've either sold them or built for them the best thing to do is try and make it right. That doesn't mean you'll ever get a recommendation or be able to use that customer for a reference.

But the old saying is "Good News goes out to 10 people" & "Bad News goes to a 1,000". People will go out of there way to tell you about a horror story but most of the times will only offer positive comments when asked about a Company or Product.

Being in Contracting sometimes you have equipment failures or delays that are totally out of your control but that still doesn't change the fact that your Customer is unhappy and you should "bite the bullet" and do whatever it takes to make it right, even when it cost's you money!

Most companies are great to work with when things are going well, it's only when a problem arises that you really find out just how good or bad they are in taking ownership of their products.

The smaller a company is the larger the problem can be for them in the long run if they just try and ignore it. Large corporations can get by with providing substandard equipment and service but the small guys have to perform as close to 100% Customer satisfaction as humanly possible.

Sorry to hear of the problems you've had, it would make me stop and ask some very hard questions of a builder to see if they stand behind their product.

Wow! Never expected to hear that about BT. I went to the Lauderdale show to see them and their boats, I have the 46' on my radar for my next boat.

Sure makes me think twice and with much more hesitation/caution of the builder when you hear news like that.

I do not understand why Bob (Owner of BL) would not address the issues and rectify the problems without hesitation to keep a customer happy. After all they are a custom boat builder.

Another black eye for the industry :angry-smiley-038:

I hope you get everything worked out and will have happier times with your new toy.

Good Luck,
JB

I have been talking with the factory for about 6 months and have never gotten that feeling at all. Everyone there is always so helpful.
I would like to hear the other side of the story, and then make a decision.

come on Jim, you bi polar twit...first you post this

then this;

and finally this, well what is it man?

gawd, why dont you just go away...

troubles with my black thunder
 

i bought a new black thunder and it had two holes in bottom of boat and they never told me and then they made a new boat for me and this boat is cracking on bottom of boat and fiberglass is falling off bottom of boat and bob new it had holes in it when he sold it to me i have a list of 30 things that need to be fix on boat .they put the old hin number out of first boat in new boat and put new hin numbers in old boat with holes and sold boat so if you have a black thunder and it is yellow and was in the movie big mommas 2 thats my old boat and it had holes in it

leilas wow have you run out of names yet?

Quote" I don't know many people that would pay for a boat in advance!"

I always found that to be a problem for a high dollar boat. If the boat company is sooooo great, you build my boat with at best a small deposit until I perform a sea trial. Time after time we read on hear about someone needing a lawyer for a boat purchase. :hitfan:

Yeah, Bob is a nice guy BEFORE the sale. Once he has your $$ things change :(

When we dealt with Bob (before going to contract), he would return calls and be very responsive. Once we went to contract and had a few things to address, he was no where to be found. I would call the 'factory' daily to get answers and no one would ever know where Bob was. Again, good thing we pulled out when we began to get nervous about thier business practices.

Boatme... all is well. As you can see we downsized in boats for the kids and are having a blast trailering to smaller lakes and rivers. Hope all is well with you.

BINGO..................semper paratis....

[QUOTE=CAP071;2450513]Quote" I don't know many people that would pay for a boat in advance!"





OK so he did put up more cash than most of us would have. That should not make a difference in the way the builder handles the customer and the problems that are encountered with the new boat.

With BL being such a small custom builder this thread will not do their business well... very sad.

[QUOTE=J.B. Marshall;2450574]too bad.....should have thought of that before he screwed up....this is a good time for a rebutal.....giving that much cash upfront...a new boater....or just havnt figured this boat buying stuff out yet...the computer is really a great tool.....

[QUOTE=el indio;2450598]To custom build my Cig I was asked for 10% down and another 10% when the boat came out of the mold, balance at delivery.

Let me explain - Cash Down issue
 

I know I should not have given him teh cash up front, but I cut a discount deal on a 1997 the same way and had no problems when Bob's Father ran the company, when we cut the deal in Annapolis, he says 438K boat for 330K, I went to BANK they approved the loan but told me that if I did not take the money it would expire after thirty days, then I would have had to reapply for the loan, rates were very LOW, I know I should not have given him that much down...plus I was suppose to have he Boat in March/April, which was three months down the road.
I want to THANK ALL OF YOU that have ressponded. Your support is very humbling to me as probably none of you know me yet you jumped in to help a fellow boater, truly the BOATER CODE (kinda of like helping a disabled get towed in).
I was stupid to give BOB that much money, I know it, but I thought I knew those guys and I thought they were my friends, have known then since 1995....plus I was dealing directly with BOB, we know wach others families and other issues. Yes, I have been around a while had a 1986 Nova XL23 Wellcraft for many years before the big plunge. US Navy for eight years. Some guys never learn and you are right to critize the down payment, but I thought if had my money it would put me at the top of the list for delivery instead they had my money and it put me last. BT definately has some sub-contractor issues, but not my problem. I am not rich this is a lot of money to me and has been very painful. Thanks again.
Each day you live and learn. I should have had an attorney review teh contract but I thought I was dealing with friends, my mistake.
Please stay tuned as there are going to be some huge revelations coming in the far not too distant future.
From my heart thanks! Together we can make the industry BETTER and TRUSTWORTHY.

sounds like a setup........they saw you comming....

Seems like a lot of businesses operate the same way. If you give them most or all your money up front they are not very responsive to your demands. They move on to the next customer or job (cash source) and put you on the back burner. I've found that money is the only leverage you have.

I have dealt with Black Thunder a ton of times at my shop and we have never had any problems and always call me back or Jason back asap. And get whatever parts needed also.

Sorry to hear about your experience, we've been on the 46's, they are a truely beautiful boat, one that I would love to own!!

That's because you sound like a cute college chick on the phone...

:hitfan:

QUICK, DELETE THIS THREAD THEN! Are you serious? This poor guy got totally screwed, and here come the cheerleaders!