ComplaintsforMidwest Water Sports

• Initial Complaint

  09/15/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  On Sept 5th, 2023, I brought my boat into Midwest Water Sports to get serviced. Before I left my house to deliver the boat, I looked inside the boat to make sure nothing was loose in the interior of the boat and traveled to Midwest as I have done many times. Looking in the boat before traveling is common practice. As I arrived at Midwest, I dropped my boat off in their parking lot. Like I always do, I check the interior of the boat to make sure everything was in order. No life jackets laying around, water skis etc... I dropped the boat off, looked in the interior and the interior of the boat empty. All of the seats were in tact when I dropped the boat off on Sept 5th.Midwest did the service and I paid in full the invoice for the servicing that they did when I picked my boat ** in the afternoon on Thursday afternoon on Sept 7th. As I went to hook the boat up to my truck, I also looked inside of the boat before I left to make sure nothing would fly out as I drove home. This is common practice for me when traveling with the boat. This is when I noticed one of my seats missing.I believe that the seat was vandalized in their parking lot.

  Business response

  09/16/2023

  The customer had us winterize his boat.  When the customer picked the boat up, he said he was missing an interior seat cushion.  We explained that we do not remove cushions from boats in the winterization process.  The customer stated that he vividly remembers entering the boat at drop off to verify the keys were in the ignition so that we could perform the desired service and did not notice a missing cushion.

  The technician noted that the keys were not in the boat and used a master set to perform our service.  The customer acknowledged that it was unlikely that we removed and misplaced the cushion.  He stated it was his opinion that "someone messed with it" while it was parked waiting for service.  We do not find this likely as the missing cushion is unique to the customers boat and has no value to anyone besides him.  At this time, there were other boats that had $1000 surf boards and $10000 stereo systems which would have been more likely targets.  We have been in this location for 20 years and have never had a theft occur in our parking lot in daylight hours.  Our employees frequently ski and surf before work and leave expensive equipment out to dry in a weekly basis.

  Since the customer trailered the boat in uncovered, we told him it is more likely that the cushion blew out in transit.  Unfortunately, cushions blowing out while trailering is common on older boats where the cushions were not attached with hinges.  The customer discounted this could be a possibility based on his clear recollection that he entered the boat and verified the keys in the ignition without noticing a missing cushion.

  This is the first BBB complaint we have had in 51 years.  In an effort to move on, we have instructed the company that replaced the interior in the customer's boat to replace the cushion at our expense.  **************** has cc'ed on the email so that he knows the communication has happened.

  Customer response

  09/16/2023

   Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

  We appreciate the resolution.  Reading Andys narrative, it is clear that we view this situation differently.  I have driven/trailered my boat 100s of miles in windier conditions and through  common practice, I check the interior of my boat before traveling and never lost items during travel.  Regarding the keys, I had a knee jerk response when I brought my boat home. I was still upset regarding the seat and did not take ample time to look for them.  The keys were in the boats glove box where my son placed them without my knowledge when we dropped the boat off at Midwest to get serviced.  
  This had 0 impact on the situation.
  Midwest have serviced my boat for many years and we have not had a negative experience.  I believe we had a negative experience this time was because the service receptionist was unresponsive for over a week and BBB helped me get Andys attention which I had requested earlier.

  I hold no hard feelings towards **** and/or Midwest.  I do not believe that his staff interfered with my boat seat and would recommend them for future costumers.

  Thank you.

   

   

   

*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. ↩