- Messages
- 3,223
- Reaction score
- 2,517
- Points
- 372
- Location
- Acworth, G.A.
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2014
- Boat Model
- AR
- Boat Length
- 24
For anyone who was following my Sea-Doo civil suit thread at YJB
http://yamahajetboaters.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=60742
Here is the update:
Ok, this is a LONG one. . . . But this is the statement of claim that I made during part 1 of the trial. There are additional details that I found out that I will list after this post that I learned of between the first hearing date, and the final one.
I, MY NAME of MY ADDRESS, do solemnly swear that the following statements and timeline of events are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.
This began on 7/25/2013, after I called the service department at MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS of MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. and spoke with Buck, the service manager, to confirm their ability to perform a starting system diagnosis and repair. I gave Buck the year make and model of my boat and advised that I was having starter trouble. They confirmed for me that they were well equipped to handle my challenges and I scheduled an appointment to drop the boat off the next day. Since the boat was going in for a repair, I left the secondary engine cover, and starter solenoid cover at my house, as both would be in the way of a repair.
On July 26th, 2013, I brought my boat, a 2000 Sea-Doo Sportster LE, into MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS Corp, at 21 Dunning Rd, Middletown, N.Y. I was written up by Buck the service manager, who took my boat in and scheduled it for service.
Within approximately one week of the date that I dropped off my boat I was contacted by Buck who advised me that not only was the starter in need of repair, but additional service was required. Buck indicated that to perform this additional work they would need to remove the engine from my boat, and that the cost would increase to double that of the original estimate.
Based on the diagnosis Buck provided, I authorized MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS to pull the engine and proceed with the recommended repairs, which included a new starter, drive gear, bushing, spring, & crankcase repair as indicated on the original receipt (Exhibit A).
After receiving a call from Buck who advised me that my boat was repaired, I arrived back at MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS on 8/23/2013 to pick up my boat. I went to the service department, and paid for the repairs they claimed to have performed and received a receipt (Exhibit A). Once I paid, I was brought back to my boat so that I could hook it up and drive off. The mechanic who serviced the boat started it for me so I could hear the new starter. It ran only for a few seconds, as they had not hooked up any water lines to it (as required when running a boat on land) and did not want it to overheat. It was at this point that I hooked the boat up to my car and left MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS with boat in tow.
At approximately 3PM I arrived at my destination, and shortly after began to prep the boat for the following day. This included putting the solenoid cover and secondary engine covers back in place. However, when I opened the primary engine compartment hatch I began noticing several irregularities with the components therein.
When I looked down the first thing I noticed was the solenoid box was broken loose and laying on the driveshaft. It was at this point that I called MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS and was directed to the mechanic (Marcus Molnar) who I was told worked on the boat. Marcus Molnar made the outrageous statement, "That is how I found it." While I want to be clear here that this was not how I brought it in, I also have to make the point that if that is indeed how they found it why would they not bring it to my attention? It was clearly sitting on where the driveshaft goes through the hull (see picture Exhibit B), and they admittedly saw it. So, if they were not trying to hide the fact that they broke it why not tell me? The fact that no one offered to fix what was "brought in broken" when found sitting on a moving component only shows ignorance, incompetence, or a lack of integrity.
After finding the box laying on the driveshaft I started to look a lot more closely at some of the other parts of the engine compartment. After finding several items out of place, including:
1. Vacuum hose not terminated properly (Exhibit C)
2. Exhaust baffling not correctly installed (Exhibit D)
3. Resonator left unsecured (strap found in bilge) (Exhibit E)
4. Various cables not tied off to appropriate tie point if tied off at all (Exhibit F)
5. Bilge siphon not installed properly (exhibit L & M)
I felt I needed to go outside of the service department and advise someone with authority what happened. So I called back to MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS and spoke to the General Manager, Ray Malley. I advised Ray of the issues I encountered, and told him that I was only letting him know because had my employees botched the job to that extent I would want to know about it. At that time it was nothing more than courtesy call to advise him so he could coach his staff. I told him I would remedy the items I had found up to that point, as they were closing and an almost an hour away.
After I removed the engine compartment cover entirely to have unfettered access to correct these issues I was able to remedy most of the items above, with the exception of the permanent mounting of the solenoid box. So, I temporarily secured the solenoid out of the way of the driveshaft. I then hooked up the water supply needed to cool the engine while starting the boat on land, in order to turn the boat over and ensure everything was good to go. I started the boat, let it idle to warm up and then put the boat into gear. I brought up the rpm's slightly while in gear and the engine started to shutter violently. I turned the engine off and inspected the compartment . . . . . it was at that point that I found that in addition to the exhaust baffling not being installed correctly, the exhaust itself was not secured and the strap was missing (still not found). Then upon further inspection I realized that the bolt in the starboard aft motor mount was not torqued down.
Upon closer inspection I found that not only was the longer forward bolt in the aft mount, which was bottomed out leaving the engine loose (see Video). But the shorter aft bolt was in the forward mount and barely catching the threads there. So in essence there was a hot 951CC motor mounted right next to a full 17+ Gallon gas tank being held by a single bolt.
This could have easily led to my engine turning over inside that engine compartment at full speed, breaching the gas tank and causing an explosion had I not found and corrected this.
Once I found the problem with the bolts, a clear mistake that should have been seen and corrected by the "mechanic" that had been working on this, it took me an additional hour to correct. There are pictures of the 2 different bolts used in the mounts as they sit on the transom (exhibit G), as well as a video I took of just how obvious the error should have been (link to Video below).
I wrapped up the repairs/corrections I could by around 10:30pm after 7 hours of my time on a boat I paid to have repaired.
I woke up in the morning, checked the temporarily secured solenoid box and remounted the engine compartment cover. We headed off to the public boat ramp at Swinging Bridge Lake, launched the boat and started it. I idled south for a short while, while we were getting the kids settled. I brought the RPM's of the boat up to get on plane, which I did and then she bogged down and stalled out. I attempted to get her restarted because at this point between idling and coming up on plane we were a good distance away from the launch ramp. I cycled the starter for 3-5 seconds in an attempt to get her rolling and heard a sound that was terribly out of place. It sounded like the gears were grinding heavily.
I was left stranded in the middle of Swinging Bridge lake with my wife, 2 kids under 4, and a boat I just dropped $1100 (along with almost 7 of the last 18 hours) into that does not work. Quite literally up the creek without a paddle. . . .
For the next 2 hours I paddled over to the shoreline using a boat hook. Then I spent the next hour walking the boat back along a rocky shore to get it over to the launch ramp.
After getting back to the shoreline and getting the boat back onto the trailer, I called back to MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS and spoke to Ray Malley to advise what had happened. Ray asked that I bring the boat back in so they could diagnose the problem. Ray also asked that I write up a detailed account of what transpired so that he may discuss with Jim Bannon (MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS owner). I dropped off the boat to MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS on 8/25/2013 and spoke with Ray about everything, showed him the boat, and pictures, and discussed the path forward. I wrote him a detailed email dated 8/26/2013 upon my return home. The email I wrote him would lead to an on-going email chain that occurred between 8-26-2013 and 8-29-2013 (Exhibit H).
During that email exchange I was told that the problems the boat was having were not the result of the work that was (or wasn’t) done, and that it could be attributed to either a bad Rotary Valve, or Flywheel Key being sheered. They claimed that it would be impossible to know/fix unless they pulled the motor again to check. They also explained that I was to pay for any of the repairs they deemed necessary to fix the issue. It was at this point that I decided to escalate even further based on the correspondence.
The correspondence shows that in Ray’s final email to me on 8/29/2013 at 12:23pm EST, he acknowledged the mechanic (Marcus Molnar), “Had someone helping him and that person did not perform up to par as expected”. Additionally, in Ray’s email to me dated 8/29/2013 at 11:36am EST he wrote “I do stand corrected, you did fix the motor mount bolts and we did not install them correctly as you pointed out” and “We did not correctly do some of the things you mentioned to me in person”
As a result of my desire to escalate, I was referred to speak to Jim Bannon (MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS Owner) regarding what the path forward should be. Based on what had transpired up until that point and what I was told needed fixing moving forward, we came to a gentleman’s agreement. Jim would take responsibility for the shoddy workmanship and refund me half of the bill totaling $550.00 on 8/30/13 via check #3353(Exhibit I), and we would part company amiably. However, I had only agreed to these conditions based on the information available at that time, including the diagnosis by his mechanic’s and assurance of his service manager, that the repair work that would be needed to fix my boat had nothing to do with their action (or inaction). Since I was assured the original work requested (starter repair) was in fact completed, and that the timing could be the only problem, I set out to a Sea-Doo dealer to have the work conducted.
I brought the boat to Rusty Palmers since they are the closest factory certified Sea-Doo mechanics.
I had spoken to Jason Hazen, the service manager at Rusty's, and advised of the situation. His recommendation was to remove the motor to do a thorough inspection as this was the only way to access the full extent of the repairs needed to make the boat function properly. I authorized the engine removal and inspection, and was advised of a far more troubling picture than that which was painted by the mechanics at MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS. The cost for this diagnosis, which makes up one part of this overall claim amount was $358.49 as seen on the bill from Rusty Palmers (Exihibit J)
While removing the Engine they found that the oil pump cable had not been hooked up to the oil pump which, since this is an oil injected 2 Cycle engine, lead to the engine not getting oil during any operation since the engine was re-installed.
As a result of not getting any oil, the internal components of the engine were damaged beyond repair. Additionally, the end of the crankshaft, & flywheel were either damaged from the woodruff key, or a loose flywheel that was not re-installed properly. This also lead to damage to the starter and starter drive gears, that I had been told were repaired and functioning prior to reaching the agreement with Jim Bannon at MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS. The cost to repair this damage and get the boat running again is $4079.75 as seen on the estimate from Rusty Palmers along with the notes referencing the findings (Exhibit K).
Since I have paid $1095.56 in good faith to MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS for these so called repairs, and to date have only received a refund of $550.00, I am asking the court to rule in my favor for the remainder of what I spent with them ($1095.56 spent – $550.00 refund) $545.56, plus the cost of diagnosis $358.49, and repair $4079.75, in the total amount of $4983.80.
Pictures and a description of each of the issues can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/113475345822469879919/posts/Noidafa5htM
Video of the engine mounting issues can be found here (Select the HD version for a better quality vid that illustrates my concerns):
https://plus.google.com/113475345822469879919/posts/WxkEz37YdYf
http://yamahajetboaters.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=60742
Here is the update:
Ok, this is a LONG one. . . . But this is the statement of claim that I made during part 1 of the trial. There are additional details that I found out that I will list after this post that I learned of between the first hearing date, and the final one.
I, MY NAME of MY ADDRESS, do solemnly swear that the following statements and timeline of events are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.
This began on 7/25/2013, after I called the service department at MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS of MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. and spoke with Buck, the service manager, to confirm their ability to perform a starting system diagnosis and repair. I gave Buck the year make and model of my boat and advised that I was having starter trouble. They confirmed for me that they were well equipped to handle my challenges and I scheduled an appointment to drop the boat off the next day. Since the boat was going in for a repair, I left the secondary engine cover, and starter solenoid cover at my house, as both would be in the way of a repair.
On July 26th, 2013, I brought my boat, a 2000 Sea-Doo Sportster LE, into MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS Corp, at 21 Dunning Rd, Middletown, N.Y. I was written up by Buck the service manager, who took my boat in and scheduled it for service.
Within approximately one week of the date that I dropped off my boat I was contacted by Buck who advised me that not only was the starter in need of repair, but additional service was required. Buck indicated that to perform this additional work they would need to remove the engine from my boat, and that the cost would increase to double that of the original estimate.
Based on the diagnosis Buck provided, I authorized MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS to pull the engine and proceed with the recommended repairs, which included a new starter, drive gear, bushing, spring, & crankcase repair as indicated on the original receipt (Exhibit A).
After receiving a call from Buck who advised me that my boat was repaired, I arrived back at MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS on 8/23/2013 to pick up my boat. I went to the service department, and paid for the repairs they claimed to have performed and received a receipt (Exhibit A). Once I paid, I was brought back to my boat so that I could hook it up and drive off. The mechanic who serviced the boat started it for me so I could hear the new starter. It ran only for a few seconds, as they had not hooked up any water lines to it (as required when running a boat on land) and did not want it to overheat. It was at this point that I hooked the boat up to my car and left MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS with boat in tow.
At approximately 3PM I arrived at my destination, and shortly after began to prep the boat for the following day. This included putting the solenoid cover and secondary engine covers back in place. However, when I opened the primary engine compartment hatch I began noticing several irregularities with the components therein.
When I looked down the first thing I noticed was the solenoid box was broken loose and laying on the driveshaft. It was at this point that I called MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS and was directed to the mechanic (Marcus Molnar) who I was told worked on the boat. Marcus Molnar made the outrageous statement, "That is how I found it." While I want to be clear here that this was not how I brought it in, I also have to make the point that if that is indeed how they found it why would they not bring it to my attention? It was clearly sitting on where the driveshaft goes through the hull (see picture Exhibit B), and they admittedly saw it. So, if they were not trying to hide the fact that they broke it why not tell me? The fact that no one offered to fix what was "brought in broken" when found sitting on a moving component only shows ignorance, incompetence, or a lack of integrity.
After finding the box laying on the driveshaft I started to look a lot more closely at some of the other parts of the engine compartment. After finding several items out of place, including:
1. Vacuum hose not terminated properly (Exhibit C)
2. Exhaust baffling not correctly installed (Exhibit D)
3. Resonator left unsecured (strap found in bilge) (Exhibit E)
4. Various cables not tied off to appropriate tie point if tied off at all (Exhibit F)
5. Bilge siphon not installed properly (exhibit L & M)
I felt I needed to go outside of the service department and advise someone with authority what happened. So I called back to MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS and spoke to the General Manager, Ray Malley. I advised Ray of the issues I encountered, and told him that I was only letting him know because had my employees botched the job to that extent I would want to know about it. At that time it was nothing more than courtesy call to advise him so he could coach his staff. I told him I would remedy the items I had found up to that point, as they were closing and an almost an hour away.
After I removed the engine compartment cover entirely to have unfettered access to correct these issues I was able to remedy most of the items above, with the exception of the permanent mounting of the solenoid box. So, I temporarily secured the solenoid out of the way of the driveshaft. I then hooked up the water supply needed to cool the engine while starting the boat on land, in order to turn the boat over and ensure everything was good to go. I started the boat, let it idle to warm up and then put the boat into gear. I brought up the rpm's slightly while in gear and the engine started to shutter violently. I turned the engine off and inspected the compartment . . . . . it was at that point that I found that in addition to the exhaust baffling not being installed correctly, the exhaust itself was not secured and the strap was missing (still not found). Then upon further inspection I realized that the bolt in the starboard aft motor mount was not torqued down.
Upon closer inspection I found that not only was the longer forward bolt in the aft mount, which was bottomed out leaving the engine loose (see Video). But the shorter aft bolt was in the forward mount and barely catching the threads there. So in essence there was a hot 951CC motor mounted right next to a full 17+ Gallon gas tank being held by a single bolt.
This could have easily led to my engine turning over inside that engine compartment at full speed, breaching the gas tank and causing an explosion had I not found and corrected this.
Once I found the problem with the bolts, a clear mistake that should have been seen and corrected by the "mechanic" that had been working on this, it took me an additional hour to correct. There are pictures of the 2 different bolts used in the mounts as they sit on the transom (exhibit G), as well as a video I took of just how obvious the error should have been (link to Video below).
I wrapped up the repairs/corrections I could by around 10:30pm after 7 hours of my time on a boat I paid to have repaired.
I woke up in the morning, checked the temporarily secured solenoid box and remounted the engine compartment cover. We headed off to the public boat ramp at Swinging Bridge Lake, launched the boat and started it. I idled south for a short while, while we were getting the kids settled. I brought the RPM's of the boat up to get on plane, which I did and then she bogged down and stalled out. I attempted to get her restarted because at this point between idling and coming up on plane we were a good distance away from the launch ramp. I cycled the starter for 3-5 seconds in an attempt to get her rolling and heard a sound that was terribly out of place. It sounded like the gears were grinding heavily.
I was left stranded in the middle of Swinging Bridge lake with my wife, 2 kids under 4, and a boat I just dropped $1100 (along with almost 7 of the last 18 hours) into that does not work. Quite literally up the creek without a paddle. . . .
For the next 2 hours I paddled over to the shoreline using a boat hook. Then I spent the next hour walking the boat back along a rocky shore to get it over to the launch ramp.
After getting back to the shoreline and getting the boat back onto the trailer, I called back to MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS and spoke to Ray Malley to advise what had happened. Ray asked that I bring the boat back in so they could diagnose the problem. Ray also asked that I write up a detailed account of what transpired so that he may discuss with Jim Bannon (MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS owner). I dropped off the boat to MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS on 8/25/2013 and spoke with Ray about everything, showed him the boat, and pictures, and discussed the path forward. I wrote him a detailed email dated 8/26/2013 upon my return home. The email I wrote him would lead to an on-going email chain that occurred between 8-26-2013 and 8-29-2013 (Exhibit H).
During that email exchange I was told that the problems the boat was having were not the result of the work that was (or wasn’t) done, and that it could be attributed to either a bad Rotary Valve, or Flywheel Key being sheered. They claimed that it would be impossible to know/fix unless they pulled the motor again to check. They also explained that I was to pay for any of the repairs they deemed necessary to fix the issue. It was at this point that I decided to escalate even further based on the correspondence.
The correspondence shows that in Ray’s final email to me on 8/29/2013 at 12:23pm EST, he acknowledged the mechanic (Marcus Molnar), “Had someone helping him and that person did not perform up to par as expected”. Additionally, in Ray’s email to me dated 8/29/2013 at 11:36am EST he wrote “I do stand corrected, you did fix the motor mount bolts and we did not install them correctly as you pointed out” and “We did not correctly do some of the things you mentioned to me in person”
As a result of my desire to escalate, I was referred to speak to Jim Bannon (MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS Owner) regarding what the path forward should be. Based on what had transpired up until that point and what I was told needed fixing moving forward, we came to a gentleman’s agreement. Jim would take responsibility for the shoddy workmanship and refund me half of the bill totaling $550.00 on 8/30/13 via check #3353(Exhibit I), and we would part company amiably. However, I had only agreed to these conditions based on the information available at that time, including the diagnosis by his mechanic’s and assurance of his service manager, that the repair work that would be needed to fix my boat had nothing to do with their action (or inaction). Since I was assured the original work requested (starter repair) was in fact completed, and that the timing could be the only problem, I set out to a Sea-Doo dealer to have the work conducted.
I brought the boat to Rusty Palmers since they are the closest factory certified Sea-Doo mechanics.
I had spoken to Jason Hazen, the service manager at Rusty's, and advised of the situation. His recommendation was to remove the motor to do a thorough inspection as this was the only way to access the full extent of the repairs needed to make the boat function properly. I authorized the engine removal and inspection, and was advised of a far more troubling picture than that which was painted by the mechanics at MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS. The cost for this diagnosis, which makes up one part of this overall claim amount was $358.49 as seen on the bill from Rusty Palmers (Exihibit J)
While removing the Engine they found that the oil pump cable had not been hooked up to the oil pump which, since this is an oil injected 2 Cycle engine, lead to the engine not getting oil during any operation since the engine was re-installed.
As a result of not getting any oil, the internal components of the engine were damaged beyond repair. Additionally, the end of the crankshaft, & flywheel were either damaged from the woodruff key, or a loose flywheel that was not re-installed properly. This also lead to damage to the starter and starter drive gears, that I had been told were repaired and functioning prior to reaching the agreement with Jim Bannon at MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS. The cost to repair this damage and get the boat running again is $4079.75 as seen on the estimate from Rusty Palmers along with the notes referencing the findings (Exhibit K).
Since I have paid $1095.56 in good faith to MAVRIX MOTORSPORTS for these so called repairs, and to date have only received a refund of $550.00, I am asking the court to rule in my favor for the remainder of what I spent with them ($1095.56 spent – $550.00 refund) $545.56, plus the cost of diagnosis $358.49, and repair $4079.75, in the total amount of $4983.80.
Pictures and a description of each of the issues can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/113475345822469879919/posts/Noidafa5htM
Video of the engine mounting issues can be found here (Select the HD version for a better quality vid that illustrates my concerns):
https://plus.google.com/113475345822469879919/posts/WxkEz37YdYf
Last edited:
