ComplaintsforWilliam J Petzold Inc

• Initial Complaint

  06/06/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On June 4th 2022 I spoke to Jordan (Salesman) of Petzold's Marina. I found an in-stock boat that I wanted to purchase* * *********************************************************************** ) I found through *************. Upon speaking to his manager Jordan will not be able to sell a boat to someone that is not local. This is not only a waste of time, but false advertising. You either have a boat for sale on the WORLD WIDE WEB or you don't. States that they want to service the boat.

  Business response

  06/08/2022

  To Whom it May Concern,

  Our business policy is to be able to sell and service all of our boats. In addition, ********* is a new line that we are trying to develop in our immediate area. The best way to expand the brand is to sell locally and bring more business to our Ships Store, and our slips, and our winter storage.
  That being said, we can only promise that we will service what we sell.
  We cannot guarantee a local ******** dealer will service a boat that was sold by an out of state dealer.

  - Ken Petzold

  Vice President & Sales Manager of Petzold's Marine Center

  Customer response

  06/08/2022

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  

  1.) This does not address false advertising.

  2.) According to ***********, (Parent Company) ********* is a national chain that does warranty work "nationally" with approved vendors. This was already discussed with that vendor, and Jordan. (By the way I wasn't asking you to service it)  So your response is either mis-leading for the BBB, as it is ***********s/*********'s warranty not Petzolds. It is not my concern that you only want to sell locally with a recurring revenue (warranty work,and storage) model. (Which is fine of course) I'm just asking that you own it.

  3.) "That being said" Ken, I more than understand you can only promise that you will service what you sell, i'm not stupid. To be absolutely clear, I wasn't asking you to do that, and you know it. I even told Jordan that I didn't care about the warranty work. If this was a used boat that was out of warranty it wouldn't have been an issue, and you'd have sold it. So with the choice you made there was one of three scenario's that occured:

  1.) You didn't know that warranty work can be done by other approved vendors. As a ********* dealer yourself, it's your responsibility to know.

    2.) You knew that warranty work can be done by other authorized dealers, and you refused to share that knowledge. (My current choice as you wouldn't even speak to me.) 

    3.) or you were unwilling to put in the customer service required for an out of state deal.

   

  Time is money, the hours I put in searching, and discussing for the exact boat that fit my families criteria has been extensive.  (There were two that I could find nationally at that point in time.) I was looking for over three months.  When I called and asked if it was available, and if I could purchase it I was told yes. When your bind-sided salesperson told you I was out of state, the story changed. No where on your website, or national advertising did it state your business model, the listing only said "In Stock".

  To help other consumers not waste their valuable time as I did there is good news, it's a simple fix. Put on your website that you only sell local, as is your business model per the response email to the BBB. Take down your national advertising as you will not sell nationally, again per your own defined business model, and apologize to Jordan for sticking him in the middle unnessarily, and not performing your job duties and CC me.

  I feel that none of these requests are unreasonable, and will actually save your advertising dollars.

   

  Sincerely

   

  *** ******

   

   

   

   

  Sincerely,
  
  *** ******

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩