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Go Back   WakeWorld > >> Wakeboarding Discussion Archives > Archive through January 18, 2008

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Old     (blind)      Join Date: Jun 2006       12-11-2007, 6:52 PM Reply   
anybody have any boat buying horror stories with bad sales people?
Old     (tyboarder03)      Join Date: Nov 2003       12-11-2007, 6:55 PM Reply   
Just boat shows where MC guys do nothing but bash every other wake boat in attendance... That said I've also met some real cool guys from MC dealers. They just seem to put the douche bags on the floor for sales.
Old     (raketball)      Join Date: Apr 2005       12-11-2007, 7:52 PM Reply   
I hate to say but it seems like it is "part of the business". My personal feeling is that there is no need to bash anyone else if you honestly think your product is up to snuff.

This same question could also be asked in regards to people who are sponsored (in any sport for that matter) where their product is promoted and others are shot down.

Not saying I agree with this in anyway but it almost seems normal nowadays.
Old     (timmy)      Join Date: Jul 2001       12-11-2007, 8:51 PM Reply   
my experiences with the bashing and arrogant dealer tactics seems to be primarily MC dealers (on more than one occasion in more than one location) enough so that I'll probably never buy one of their boats. Of course I am not really in the market for a boat anytime soon so my opinion doesn't really matter! haha
Old     (mcwakerider)      Join Date: Dec 2006       12-11-2007, 9:01 PM Reply   
the only mc dealers i have ever been around are tony from nor cal mastercraft. And... he is one of the coolest guys ever. Doesnt say one bad thing about any other boats... Neither does brent at boat country (malibu dealer). Both are great guys. In my experience good salesmens let there boats speak for them. They show you what their boats have to offer you and thats it.
Old     (cavlxenvy)      Join Date: Aug 2007       12-11-2007, 9:33 PM Reply   
Brent from Boat Country is my hero... and so is Kellen but someone needs to check that boy's ID.
Old     (2007_x2)      Join Date: May 2007       12-11-2007, 9:56 PM Reply   
yeah Tony is an awesome guy! The only bad sales guy that i have come across was a guy at the boat show last year in the Malibu booth and he was bashing every company but Malibu, so i just walked away.
Old     (tyboarder03)      Join Date: Nov 2003       12-11-2007, 10:00 PM Reply   
Well we've been BU owners since our incident, but at the time we were looking at Centurions and MB' in particular, and the salesman didn't even push his MC lineup, because he was too busy telling us how crappy Centurions and MB' were. So we did like Mike and just kept cruisin
Old     (sacmule)      Join Date: May 2007       12-11-2007, 11:45 PM Reply   
I have no problem with a salesman pointing out advantages and disadvantages of various boat lines as they compare to the boats they are pitching. However, it can be a fine line and as long as it stays respectful I will continue to lend an ear. A sales pitch based on trashing competition says nothing more than your boats do not warrant discussion, a compliment, or my time. Good timing for this discussion board, with the new year comes the boat shows. For those that are in the area, be sure to catch the NorCal Boat Show in Pleasanton, CA the first weekend of 2008, January 4 - 13(?).
Here's a link: www.ncma.com/

(Message edited by sacmule on December 11, 2007)
Old     (mkperceptions)      Join Date: Jan 2007       12-12-2007, 1:09 AM Reply   
I would have to say most boat dealers remind me of the slimey greasball used car lots. I mean you are interested in buying a boat and give them you card and say " hey if any specials or deals come around let me know" and they don't even keep your card or call you. Pretty lame to me. Then you go and find out they have a deal later on but they didn't tell you you had to find out for yourself. DUMB. I can honestly say I would have bought a glastron if they actually were on the ball over at tri-valley marine. Thank god I didn't and after that I checked out the maxim over at olympic boat centers and there lack of knowledge made me get on my hands and knees and put my head in the ski locker to find out it had wood in it which was something I did not want. The salesman had the audasity (not sure if that is how it is spelled) to say "What is your obsesion with wood, most people don't even keep there boats past 2-3 years so who cares" Are you F'in kidding me. I walked so fast it wasn't even funny. Wrote a nasty letter to Brunswick and low and behold I actually got a phone call. All they could do for me was say " hey if you do get a maxum I can send you a free hat or something . Kinda sad because I had done so much research and even became a part of the maxum forums. Oh well that had to go. So back to searay which I can say does make a decent product. You can tell now that I am not looking for 40k wakeboard boat I am looking for the all around bow rider. It was all I could afford and still can afford lol. I go there only to find that the boat they use to sell for 14999 is not 15999 and on top of that they took all the stainless hardware out. It's all PLASTIC. oh yea and no swing tongue. When I asked the salesman about it because the 06 models everything was stainless with a swing tongue, depth guage, tilt wheel etc. They said "oh they did it to cut cost" wait so they took out all the stainless hardware to cut cost, no swing tongue on the trailer to cut cost, but they are charging 1,000 dollars more LOL. I mean I can see taking all that stuff out to keep the cost the same but taking it out and raising the price is rediculous lol. So ok sea ray is still a option I just know i'm not going to get all the things it use to come with. On to fourwinns. Saw them on there website and they looked very nice. Came with a lot of standards that many other manufacturers don't. Trailer comes with swing tongue and trailer brakes standard. All fiberglass construction except for one peice of wood I found. came with the volvo power option which is great for the delta because the impellers are easy to change. Alot of stainless hardware, came in the seating configuration I liked. was 8 inches wider. 6 months sirius satalite radio, tilt wheel and a bunch of other stuff standard. I saw what dealers sold them and it was ultimate watersports which I had bought some jet ski's from almost 10 years ago and had a decent experience with them. At that point I didn't care. It was winter, I did through most of the summer without a boat so the winter was just time for me to pack away money and shop around. On my way home one day I was passing the ultimate watersports in livermore and I know what everyone says about cope etc. I don't like cope and have been in there before in santa clara and didn't like it so I understand all of you guy's pain. To be honest with you I didn't know that ultimate was a part of cope. Anyways on with the story. I wanted to see the boat in person. I met Justin over there that I talked to about all the different boats I had been looking for and he listened patiently as I vented my frustrations printed me out a list of options and matched the new sea ray price. Maxum went up to 15999 so did sea ray so I knew I was going to pay that and the fourwinns just went up in price but he matched the sea ray price for me. I did not buy right there because I was still shopping around and it was winter. After xmas goes by I am curious what the fourwinns model I wanted looks like in person and the santa clara cope store has my model in stock. Ultimate in livermore didn't and santa clara was closer. I go there and check it out. The sales man prints up the same price sheet that Justin did in livermore and asks me what option I want. So I circle all the options I want and I even have them take off the trailer brakes to see if they will match the price justin gave me. They come back with a price that is 1,000 over MSRP LOL In the middle of winter 1,000 over MSRP. Needless to say I walked, called Justin up and told him to sharpen his pencil. I was sick of looking and being jerked around. These guys all knew I did my homework and still tried to work me. I went in Justin gave me the boat show deal before the boatshow, treated me well and ordered my boat. At the boat show I see the glastron dealer selling the boat I was looking at for the price I told them I wanted to pay. He could have sold it to me 4 months before and made a sale before I got smart and didn't want his boat. Then the maxum dealer didn't want to sell me the 05 new boat he had for the 05 price he wanted to sell it to me for the 06-07 price so he didn't sell me a boat and thank god I got smart and looked at the wood. The Sea Ray dealer failed to close me because he didn't want to sell even at 15,999. that is three dealers that could have sold me before I did even more homework and realized there was better out there. When my trailer brakes locked up in sanleandro Ultimate brought me a trailer so I could get my boat out of the water and they took my trailer and had it looked at and taken care of. If I would have bought a boat at any of the other three places I would have been on my own and I know that. That is my bad dealer story with a happy ending. If anyone wants to see the nasty email I wrote your more than happy to it LOL
Old     (mcwakerider)      Join Date: Dec 2006       12-12-2007, 7:20 AM Reply   
haha... ryan you are so right!!!
Old     (helix_rider)      Join Date: Mar 2003       12-12-2007, 7:23 AM Reply   
That has to be one of the longest posts on Wakeworld I've ever seen. So long in fact, that I think my mind fizzled and I started to drool. Of course, I only got 1/3 of the way through before that happened
Old     (mofreestyle)      Join Date: Jan 2006       12-12-2007, 8:31 AM Reply   
Malibu and Tige dealers at the boat show last year.
Old     (timmy)      Join Date: Jul 2001       12-12-2007, 8:38 AM Reply   
There are also some MC dealers on this site "incognito" that are always bashing the other boats. Don't ask me to point them out, I'll let them represent their brand honestly if they ever feel like they want to.
Old     (ord27)      Join Date: Oct 2005       12-12-2007, 8:43 AM Reply   
my Malibu dealer won't get into discussions about bashing other boats
I've tried, just to see what he'd say
he won't do it
in fact, he only has good things to say about the top 3 boats
he does go on to say why he sales Malibu boats and why he enjoys his....all this without trashing anybody

but that's just the kind of guy he is
I'm sure that there are lots of dealers of other brands that are the same
Old     (alans)      Join Date: Aug 2005       12-12-2007, 8:57 AM Reply   
My competition does a lot of bashing, or so my customers tell me, and I get a lot of sales because they don't want to buy boats from them. Then again they do sell more boats than me. So maybe, unfortunately, it works for the average buyer. I consider my customers to be above average, experienced buyers. I also have very few first time wakeboat buyers. I think the bashing tactic may work well on people that don't know when to call BS.

(Message edited by Alan-S on December 12, 2007)
Old     (hawk7)      Join Date: Apr 2007       12-12-2007, 9:18 AM Reply   
In my personal expirience it was my malibu dealer bashing other brands, and I really wanted to buy a malibu but i didn't want to deal with that guy. He was really condescending, but he didn't know what he was talking about. The Larson Natique Guys are really cool same with cope, and the vacacille Ultimate watersports [malibu], but this guy was a terrible sales person. I was still fairly new to the sport so I asked some fairly stupid questions, we were looking at the VLX, and he said, "no you don't want that one, here, this is the XLS" he said "it's much cheaper, 49 grand" I said "isn't this the VTX limited? it's more like 77 grand." later I asked him what the wedge does, and he said, "don't be a smart ass, it drags the ass of the boat in the water." a little later I asked what the wake looks like, he said "I don't know." all he could seem to talk about was the triple stiched leather. we said alright, thanks [guys name] we're going to think this over, but we are going to go look at the new MC's first. he says "oh you don't want one of those they have snap in carpet, it flys out of the boat." I said really, trying so hard not to laugh, because of all the brand bashing I had ever heard, that was the dumbest remark I'd ever heard. he said "yea I have a picture of it as my desktop [if you've ever been to this dealer, the boats are right next to the boats, i glanced over at his desk and it was a picture of a malibu and it said malibu boats, thats it. he than asked what other boats we were loking at, we said the nautique 210 team, he said " now I'll admit they handle well in choppy water, but that thing is tiny, will you be able to fit in that little toy? he said to my dad [the nautiques are kinda skinny but it creates steep wake that I like, and never make fun of a customers wieght].needless to say we probobly won't be buying a malibu very soon, and they ARE very nice boats and kick out a very nice wake. I'll admit i'd be pretty upset if some kid was messing up my sell, but, he was trying to sell it to us. also at the INT's the malibu booth was pretty much empty while the tige' booth was doin pie throwing contests and making tigaritas.

(Message edited by hawk7 on December 12, 2007)
Old     (mcwakerider)      Join Date: Dec 2006       12-12-2007, 4:59 PM Reply   
what malibu dealer did you go to? vtx limited? not really sure there is such a thing
Old     (njskier)      Join Date: Jul 2005       12-12-2007, 5:29 PM Reply   
Alot of salesmen try to BS their way to a sale, and bashing the comp. is one tactic, I suppose. It's a shame for the whole industry, but as one business owner puts it "an educated consumer is our best customer".

Buying a purpose-built boat for wakeboarding, skiing, etc. is way different than buying the average runabout, and most buyers of these boats are better informed about them, sometimes more prepared than the salesmen! (which is really fun at boat shows when they finally realize that you know what your talking about!)
Old     (mcwakerider)      Join Date: Dec 2006       12-12-2007, 5:59 PM Reply   
or know more about what they are talking about then they do
Old     (richd)      Join Date: Oct 2003       12-12-2007, 7:07 PM Reply   
I've got to give props to my buddy Ryan at Salinas Valley Marine (who posted above). Him and Tim have always taken care of us!

You won't get any BS from them during the process and the relationship DOESN'T end after they watch your new boat leaving their yard. Upload
Old     (sinkoumn)      Join Date: Jan 2007       12-12-2007, 7:52 PM Reply   
No doubt, if you do your research and don't go to buy something without ANY background knowledge on what you need or what is relevant you are setting yourself up to be reamed.

As the saying goes "a good salesman can read text that is upside down."
Old     (hawk7)      Join Date: Apr 2007       12-12-2007, 8:04 PM Reply   
the 2007 VLX special edition [oops],it was green? was like $77,500.
Old     (anodyne)      Join Date: Feb 2006       12-12-2007, 8:06 PM Reply   
rick ator delivered one of the largest solid-text blocks I have ever seen... that is truly impressive. You know you've reached the upper echelon when you no longer need to use line breaks...
Old     (unclejessie)      Join Date: Jan 2004       12-12-2007, 9:10 PM Reply   
I think anytime you have a negative experience you should write the factory direct and tell them exactly what happened. I honestly do not think they know how bad some of their sales people represent their product. If they do, I would be surprised and disappointed. Telling them how bad a dealership or salesperson is will hopefully make them evaluate the staff (and ownership) and get some changes made.

UJ
Old     (cavlxenvy)      Join Date: Aug 2007       12-12-2007, 9:25 PM Reply   
Thanks you the support Rich.
Old     (mkperceptions)      Join Date: Jan 2007       12-12-2007, 10:04 PM Reply   
I love text blocks :-)

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