candyman35

Joe900sc,
I just got home from working on my 35'. I'm real sorry to hear how you are being treated. What happened at Fountain?????????

Back in November I started playing with the idea of trading my '97 for a '02. Same boat just new. Steve Harrelson always took care of any warranty issues for me. My calls were returned promptly. In August of 2001 I had some upholstery rip at the seams. The boat was out of warranty in 2000. I give Steve a call and tell him my story. He said to give him a few days and he would get back to me. The next day Steve calls with good news. He tells me the reason he had to check into it was that Fountain stopped using the material that was on my boat. The Factory was able to get some of the old material and would ship me replacement covers at no charge. How do you beat that? Check the Fountain archives. There are lots of stories like mine.

I found a left over 2001 35' at Raymond’s that was a great deal but hated the idea of my servicing dealer being so far away. I went to my original dealer, Riverview, and tried to work out a deal. His boat would be a 2002 ordered to my specifications. I decided to go with Riverviews deal with the addition of the ITS from mercury. We had an order all worked up. Only thing that was still needed was a price from Fountain on the ITS. Reggie was visiting the dealer the last week of November and was asked the pricing. He quoted $12,000.00 list. Since I would be the test boat for the system I was looking for a deal. I called Steve Harrelson, who had always been so helpful, and told him I was looking for some help on the price. He told me he had a meeting with Wyatt Fountain the next morning and would get something worked out. To this day Steve has never bothered to call me back or return any of my calls.

At that point I decided to fix a couple things that were bothering me about my current boat. The drive pick-ups were to shallow which was allowing air into the system. I purchased low water pick-up drives to cure the problem. It did. My water pressure is now at 45 lbs. I was told by Jeff Harris in 2001 that the low water pick-up would cure my problems. I called Jeff back many times over the past two weeks. Also I left messages with Gail. I got fed up with no return calls so I dialed the operator and asked for Reggie. He was not available. I then told her I needed to speak to someone immediately. I suggested Wyatt. I spoke with Wyatt about my pressure problem. He had a great idea of trading me out of my problem boat and into a new one. I then relayed this long boring story to him. I asked for him to have Jeff Harris please return my calls. The next day I get a call from Jeff and we discussed my problem with the boat. We came up with no solution. It’s a Mercury problem! Mercury says if the boat doesn’t over heat there is no problem. It doesn’t matter that my boat eats circulating pumps in 50-60 hours! My solution is to file a report with Boat US about engine problems.

A note to future Fountain owners. If your performance report shows the boat has 35 lbs. plus water pressure you will eat circulating pumps and possibly Head and Intake gaskets.


What happened to Fountain? From great customer service to this!

Good luck Joe. If there is anything I can do let me know.

Dan

candyman35

Reggie,

You can't win on race day if you don't have the $upport of your customers. If you can't win races you can't sell boats.

Most Fountain owners are very brand loyal. That is worth more than your advertising dollar can ever buy. My guess is that you don't know these things are happening or you would put a stop to them. I hope you do the right thing by these guys. I'd love to see a post that says, "Reggie saves the Day".

Dan

Breathe Later

Now that Jeff Harris and Wyatt Fountain are on the cover of Poker Runs America, they'll be charging for autographs let alone returning phone calls. These guys are in business for the play factor and haven't paid their dues in the real world of business. When Fountain went public, alot of money became available for Reggie to play with. Fountain hasn't really done anything new with their line except for those Formula clone windshields. Have a look at any of the boating mags. The Fountain stuff pales in comparison to the west coast offerings at the LA and Miami shows. Even Cigarette with all their financial woes has come up with awesome new models and graphics. I bought a Fountain because I liked the style and reputation. Never again!

Give Fountain enough rope and they'll hang themselves. I'd hate to be Reggie and son at one of their shareholder meetings!

rainmn

I just read this thread, and I am amazed at the patience you guys have. I can't come close to being able to spend $200K plus on a boat, but if I could, I know where I wouldn't be spending it.
Guess I'll have to keep this in the back of my mind for when I win the big one.
It seems my mental picture was way off for a long time now. I always figured if I was spending that kind of coin, it would come with some royal brown nosing. Apparently not from Fountain.
Good luck to you both, and I hope you're back on the water soon.

Wild

I took a tour of the factory a while back to buy and F-2 boat, so of course they contacted me every day, They also gave me there email, I have been in contact with Wyatt the last couple of months, if you need there email, let me know.

It is good documentation.

Randy

T2x

Remember the grief I got for

"And people believed him"........................?

GREAT MOMENTS IN VEE BOTTOM HISTORY -T2x 9/2001

FunHome

Someone on this board has to have an e-mail to someone at Fountain. Just send them a link, and let them see for themselves how doing this to a fellow boater piss's everyone else off!!!

Tbonepmp

TTT

Tbonepmp

Give us an update bro... still no e-mail or phone call...???

joe900sc

Thanks to the advice from the members on this board....

This morning I called Fountain and stayed on the phone until I talked to a real person (no more voice mail -I'm done with that).

I after some bouncing around I was put in touch with Steve Harrelson. I told him my experience as stated earlier in this thread. He apologized and said he was on vacation (too bad his operator didn't know that). I told him exactly what I think about Jeff Harris and that I did not buy into the "he's busy" BS.

Steve and I reviewed the work order and agreed on the work being done along with the approved warranty claims. He said the boat is being worked-on and reviewed the progress currently being made and the completion dates. He did note that the work order said completed by end of April and recognized that they are late. I agreed to the revised completion date (no choice really). It is now set to be completed on May 30th. I now have this in writing. I'll miss boating Memorial weekend.

My lawyer is still sending a letter to Reggie concerning our dismay at Fountains inability to communicate with me when they are holding $200,000 of my property. And are making sure somone at Fountain is held responsible if any commitments have been broken, quality of work is not acceptable, or any occured propety damage is found.

So I guess I'm pacified, I'll be following-up with Fountain and the board too...

To everyone thanks for your help. I'll catch a round of drinks AFTER the next Poker Run. Look for the boat "Thunderstruck".