Seattle Boat Co.

I really wanted to like this company, but their customer service, prices, and knowledge seem to not be in line with many other dealers and mechanics. It has been a long history of problems that has finally prompted me to write.
1. Jan 2012: I bought a used boat from a private seller. I had it checked out by another local mechanic, who said all was good. Yet when I got it on the water the next day under load, it was driving rough. So took it to Seattle Boat, who said I had a bad transmission. Took it back to original mechanic to verify, and he discovered it had 2 high pressure fuel pumps. Cost me $ 500, instead of the $ 5000 SB wanted.
2. March 2014: I decided to upgrade to a new boat and decided the Malibu VLX was the boat I wanted. I spoke to a a very nice sales woman, Abbey Lyons, in Seattle. She was stuck on a price of $ 105 000 without a trailer and with limited options. That was considerably more than I was seeing around the country, where they were in the mid to high $ 80 000 price. I asked if I might able to meet with sales mgr and negotiate, but she informed he was too busy and they don’t negotiate on price at all.
3. April 2014: I found I brand new left over 2013 Malibu VLX for $ 73 000, loaded with every option, including a trailer. I informed the sales rep when she called to followed up. But I asked her if she would like to help me learn how to operate the boat, seeing it is loaded with amazing technology and systems. She informed me that she would not help me learn to operate the boating seeing I was not buying it from her. I was like wow this is pretty surprising way to create a relationship, where I most likely would be in the market in another 3 years or have friends to refer to her or SB.
4. Summer 2014: I had some warranty issues to deal with and Seattle Boat is the only local dealer. So had to take it to them several times. They always seemed reluctant and/​or would always be slow to deal with the problems. As of today, I am still waiting for them to help me with a problem with the tower that never worked right from the first day I got the boat.
5. April 2015: I had tried to sell my other boat in December, but it would not start, so I took it to Seattle boat to get it up and running. As of today, Aug 21^st they have completely dropped ball. The head mechanic would keep calling me up through June, telling me they found another problem and I would keep telling them, «Okay you have my authorization to fix that too.» But they stopped doing anything since the middle of June.
6. July 2015: I informed them I still have an issue with my tower on my Malibu and yet that still has not been fixed either.
7. Aug 2015: Suffice it to say, after this kind of history, which there is even a lot more, but chose not to write, I am upset. I spoke to them today and they are refusing to doing anything until we meet. Yet the GM is very rarely available to meet with. Their service department manager also informed me that they don’t have to do any warranty work for my Malibu and I need to take it to dealer I bought it from in South Carolina.

They wanted to charge $ 5,000 for a repair that another mechanic only needed 800 to fix. I cannot attest to the quality of their work but for these prices it would need to make my boat fly and mow my lawn.
Try Pats Marine instead.

So yesterday I posted a negative review about Seattle Boat Company. It had to do with my experiences up to this point. I went in with a valid beef spoke with Joel and Tom about and Tom blew me away by simply saying, «We are gonna see each other around these docks and I don’t want to feel bad when we do. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding and I’m gonna go ahead and credit your full amount due.»
Totally exceeded my expectations and I’m happy to say that they reearned by business with good old customer service.
Shook hands like men and called it a day. Thanks Guys.

I totally agree with Greg B. Seattle Boats sold me the wrong spark plugs (too long, could have damaged my heads), and when I had them out (at a $ 145 trip charge to come to Bellevue from Mercer Island) to see what the problem was (after I installed the plugs), they told me there were the wrong size. They then quoted me almost 2 hours to replace the plugs. I saw the guy take them out, and it took him less than 10 minutes, The total time to remove and replace could not have been more than 30 minutes, probably less. I had never changed marine plugs before and it took me 40 minutes. I questioned the estimate, since they had sold me the wrong plugs to begin with, out of Bellevue Newport, and they said ‘we are connected in name only, you have to deal with them.’ They quoted me almost 2 hours to change the oil and almost two hours to of labor to replace the fuel pump. Interesting, the labor charge for all three items was about the same amount. I questioned the time to change the oil, saying ‘can’t you do something else at the same time while the oil is pumping out’ and he said ‘if you don’t want to deal with us fine.’ He was rude, and the time to quoted handle the repairs was far higher than the actual time it takes. You should avoid this company like the plague.