I have posted about this before but quite a while back. A story I heard yesterday made me think it might be timely to post again.
Warning - long rant follows
Before Christmas one of my customers asked me to advise a friend of his whose twin diesel boat appeared to have suffered an engine failure. He was going to sell the boat after using it over the Christmas break so was gutted. After the failure he had been to a large service agent who had told him that one engine had lost a couple of cylinders. I know the service agent involved and suggested to the owner that I get another mechanic I know and use to give a 2nd opinion as I do not particularly trust this service agent based on quite a long list of people that I know (incl me many years ago) who have had bad experiences with them. He agrees and my mechanic goes to do some tests and confirms that the diagnoses was not 100% accurate, but close enough in that the engine would need to be rebuilt. Cost him around $300 to get the confirmation and as it turns out that was 'wasted' money in this case.
The owner gets an estimate from the service agent and I suggest that he double or triple any number he gets given as that is what often happens when using those guys. I suggest that he also gets a quote from my mechanics company which he does.
Since this is pre Christmas and the parts need to be imported he is going to miss the Christmas break. I talk to him a couple of weeks later and he tells me that he has hired the service agent to do the work as their quote was only a little more than my mechanics quote and they say they can have it finished in Jan for him where my mechanic thought that it might take a little longer. At that point I forgot about it until someone mentioned to me in March that the boat was still sitting up on the hard.
Travel forward to yesterday and I got the rest of the story. The circa $25,000 rebuild bill had blown out to $80,000, and Jan had become March. Not only missed the holidays but missed the remaining sales season to sell the boat as well. His $250k boat now also owes him another $80k that he will not see back. It is still a $250k boat. This guy is quite high profile and 'connected' so after some 'discussions' the service agent knocked $10k off their bill I am told. He still ended up with a $70k bill for a $25k job. I am not suggesting that the $70k was just cost over-runs for the engine rebuild, but what I believe has happened is that the service agent carried on doing lots of other work that someone going to sell a well used boat would not want to be doing as it added no value to the boat. All at NZ industry high service prices or about.
So lessons -
1) A big shop with a known brand does not mean that you are getting better or more trustworthy service. Don't be fooled by brand presence.
2) Stay completely in control of what is getting done on your boat. Do not in anyway suggest to the service agent that they are free to do anything beyond what you have specifically requested. How many people tell their mechanic - "fix anything that needs doing"?
3) Don't be scared to get 2nd opinions and challenge your bill if it looks too high.
4) Be the squeaky wheel if things are moving too slow. Stay in their ear and demand to know why you are being delayed. In this case the owner would have spent $1000's just in extra hard stand fees due to the delays let alone missing the sales season for his boat.
5) Always remember that the easiest money a shop makes is selling you new parts. They get a nice margin on the sale and the new part is warrantied by the manufacturer so no risk for them. That is why some very expensive parts are sometimes described by the service agent as 'unserviceable'. If they service it, they then have to warranty their labour vs selling you a new one for more money and with no warranty risk. Might not work for you but it sure works for them.
6) Be aware and be vigilant. Get 2nd opinions. It isn't always a safe place out there in service world and some people are definitely not looking after your best interests when their wife wants a new car or an overseas holiday....
7) If something expensive is about to be replaced, say that you want to see the old part before they remove it. Get them to justify why it needs replacing.
A few other quick examples of what can happen. A guy I know takes his 9m single engine/stern leg boat in for a service. Comes away a week later with a bill for $14k. He is almost in tears and doesn't know how to pay the bill. I suggested that he get the bill peer reviewed and challenge it but he never did. Thing was that he went in for a $1500 - $2000 service and never knew he was getting a $14k bill until it arrived. "just fix what needs doing please"
A Chinese friend of mine arranged for a friend of his boat to get serviced whilst his friend was back in China. Almost new boat with very few hours. Should have been a $2k - $3k service as it was just oil changes, anodes etc. Calls me distraught when he gets the bill for $27k. Same old scenario. I believe they guessed that he didn't know much about the boat (he is obviously a newish Chinese immigrant so easy to 'categorise') and suddenly that almost new boat needed huge amounts of parts replaced and extra service work. I went through the invoice with him and said challenge this, this this, and this etc. He got around $7k back from memory but a $3k service still cost $20k because he didn't manage it properly. But if the work could be justified by a peer review, why on earth would they give back $7k???
There's the forum member who got told he needed to buy a new $5k part. I eventually persuaded him to go and get the 'bad' part from the service agent so I could check it. Needed a $300 spot weld in a corrosion pin hole so I sent him 100m down the road to get it done. Rest of the unit was like new as I expected it should have been.
Then there's the other forum member who asked me where to buy a turbo for one of his engines. When I asked what happened to the old one he said the service agent told him that it wasn't on the engine when he dropped it off to them (engine was out of boat). I asked him if it pulled it off and he hadn't, so it obviously was on the engine. Told him that he was a big scary m**fer and he should go in and stand on their front desk demanding very loudly that they find his f'ing turbo that they had quite obviously removed from his engine without his permission. Suddenly they can find the turbo. More stuff in that story but that was the fun part of it.
Then there is the guy that got sick for a couple of years and left his twin diesel/stern leg boat sitting. Still sick but eventually able to get around he takes it in for a service so he can sell it as he is unable to work and has had to close down his business and needs the money. Says fix it so I can sell it and gets a bill for $90k+ on his ~$200k boat. I didn't see that one but for $90k+ there should have been 2 new engines and 2 new stern legs and he didn't get anything like that.
Last lesson - don't be a pussy if you feel you are getting ripped off. Get into challenging everything and ask them to justify everything item by item. Don't be intimidated or let them talk down to you trying to confuse you.
Rant over