Business ProfileforSpillway Marine

Dear Mark, My name is Brian Pool. You attempted to service my 1998 Mercury Mariner 135 HP motor and 9.9 Mariner at your shop. It is on a 19.5’ GLS Gray Sea Nymph. I am writing this letter to inform you that the work you and your team did on the motors is not satisfactory and with unethical repairs. I am requesting a $1,800 refund for the inadequate repairs for the work performed on the 135 HP Mercury Mariner and 9.9 Mariner. I dropped off the boat and motor the last week of April 2023 asking that you review the motor and let me know what work it needs to be ready for the water. On 5.6.2023, you said motor was ready and invoiced us $1,649.32. You completed repairs on the motor without my approval and did not communicate anything with me either. For example, the wiring that burnt up on the motor and the fish finder transducer---I got zero communication about the repairs prior to picking up the boat. Even with these items listed on the invoice, the labor is extremely high for the work performed. The labor column on the back of the invoice is empty. Who knows the actual time spent working the motor? Completing a compression and firing test is not time consuming and doesn’t require in-depth review. I did not request these tests to completed. I asked the motor to be ran and reviewed. Ray who worked on my motor is not certified in Mercury Motors. You did not provide any quotes or communication. After picking up the motor, I took it immediately to West Branch for a test run. The motor did not operate correctly and was stalling out and not shifting. I was stranded on West Branch Lake. I called you to notify you of this and was told to bring it back for further review. On 5.17.23 invoice of $268.33. A fuel pump issue was identified as to why the motor was not running smoothly. Why was this not identified as the problem the first time I had at your SHOP? I specifically asked you to test and run the motor! I asked you to review everything on the motor and let me know. You ordered fuel pump parts from Amazon, and I waited for over a week to find out that the parts got “lost” and “Ray worked his magic” fixing the fuel pump issue by running the fuel line directly into the carburetor. This was the second time nothing was communicated to me about completing repairs before reviewing the work with me. You told me the part ordered was going to fix the fueling issues then the plan changes without me knowing about it. I took the motor immediately to West Branch for a test run. I experienced the same issues with the motor as I did the first time. The work performed was not satisfactory and inadequate repairs from an untrained, incompetent worker. I shared with you via phone the motor was still not working and was asked to bring it back a third time. The fuel line that was placed directly into the carburetor was flooding the carburetor causing the motor to stop working. This was from Ray’s “magic” On 6.23.23, I was invoiced $675. At this juncture, you no longer allowed any of your other workers to work on the motor. You personally said you would work on it. Adjusting the jet balls and “carb service”. Again, you did not communicate any quotes upfront about these repairs. The Mercury 135 HP and Mariner 9.9 both are not working. Only after the third time, you decided to run the motor in the pit with me present. When this took place, you only did high throttle run and when I handled the controls at a lower idle in front of you, the motor would shut off. You blamed this on the clutch dog? Mark, I asked you from the start to review the motor and let me know what repairs it needs to make it safe on the water. The electric fuel pump is not safe and the setup your team completed was not coast guard approved either. This was very frustrating because I have 7-year boy, 5-year girl and 9-month boy and taking them out on an unsafe boat is disturbing to me. I asked that a mechanical fuel pump be installed and remove the electric fuel pump. You declined because of drilling into the motor for the install. After my last visit with you on July 8th, 2023, I took the boat to West Branch again, to find out both motors were not working properly on the water. The 9.9 would not turn over and for the 135 HP motor, the fuel was flooding the carburetor. I was stranded again on West Branch Lake. I had to paddle myself to shore with electric motor. The 135 motor was flooding because of the electric fuel pump that Ray directly connected to the carburetor. This is unacceptable behavior and unsafe! At this juncture, I decided to have another boat repair facility review everything on both motors. They identified several things incorrectly done on the fuel system and the lower unit on the Mariner 135 HP was bad. When I first brought the boat into your shop, I asked you to look everything over and let me know what it needs. Why would I invest money into the motor when your incompetent team knew the lower unit was bad and never told me? This was unethical invoicing a customer for work. The first indicator on the bad lower unit is when the clutch dog was not working properly, like in reverse. You even noted the clutch dog on the invoice and never mentioned a bad lower unit. I did not approve any repairs in advance to you working on the equipment. You treated it as an open check book. You let your untrained, non-certified “helper” work on my motor, and we got horrible results because of this. With the number of years of experience you have, I had much higher expectations with the work being completed. I am very disappointed in the work you and your incompetent team have done. You took advantage of myself and my family. After taking the boat to a new repair facility, the boat is now fully functional with a new lower unit replaced by the shop. The new boat repair facility followed proper customer service protocol with quotes and upfront costs before performing any unapproved repairs. One of the primary problems was the red fuel line was not tightened enough for the 135 HP causing air to get inside the fuel line. This was one of the main reasons why the motor would not run properly along with bad lower unit. This was 100% avoidable and that’s why I am asking for a refund! The first step in my process is, I would like to give you an opportunity first, to correct the situation by refunding my money of $1,800.00. This is not an unreasonable request, especially that another repair facility knew how to properly fix the motors. If it was done right the first time, I would not have wasted my time on the water with my family or wasted my money waiting for your team to mess around cluelessly with the motors. The refund request is for the improper work on the motors. All the inadequate repairs performed on both motors; translates to an untrained staff, zero knowledge in the boating industry along with taking advantage of customers with unethical invoicing. I await your response on how you are going to resolve my concerns. Brian S Pool 330.466.2684