Useless service department...

[ThatJeepGuy]

This is just a rant. But if it help one person then I'll be happy...

Useless warranty ..... CYCLE SPRINGS

I bought this boat new from Cycle Springs in march 2017.

So 9 months later I brought my boat, 2017 AR240, to Cycle Springs in Clearwater Florida to have some warranty work done. I've bought 2 new boats from them. Great sales experience both times. I do my own services like most of the forum members so I'd never even seen the service department.

Since I bought the boat new I've noticed the steering has been "tight", like you need more force to turn the wheel compared to my previous jet drives. On January 27th we took our boat out and it took both arms (and some ass, which I've lost thanks to the gutbusters thread) to turn the wheel.

2 days later the boat is being dropped off at CYCLE SPRINGS. After talking to "DRAGON" I'm told from him that "that steering is a wear and tear item and won't be covered". Also I had other problems with this boat, seat latch, rusted lug nuts, and a rusted to hell bow anchor shock/strut, which won't be covered but he said he'd submit them anyway to YAMAHA.

After 3 weeks of no progress and my continued calling I'm told to call Yamaha customer service to check their progress. Why didn't Cycle Springs call?

So I call YAMAHA customer service and abracadabra the service is approved literally overnight!

So I call Cycle Springs watercraft service to let them know and they say "the parts are here and we'll have it ready by lunchtime tomorrow (Wednesday). Wednesday comes and no call, ok. Thursday at 5 pm I call for an update and I'm told that someone got sick and it'll be ready by morning.... at 4pm Friday I call and ask what's up. "Oh it's ready come get it"...

After a quick look over I see that bolts are still missing from my fenders, there's no anti pooling poles under my cover, and all my lug nuts on this 10 month old trailer are completely rusted.

"Michael" says the lug nuts are on order and sorry I didn't see the bolts missing, even though that was in my original complaint. Also in my original complaint was the bow shock. Now DRAGON SAID YAMAHA DECLINED MY CLAIM.

OK, not happy but happy my boat was back.

So I'm home detailing the boat and see they DIDN'T TIGHTEN THE NOZZLE BOLTS


Had I not seen this it could have been catastrophic. When I call, MICHEAL asks if I'm going to do I myself or bring it back down. At this point I'm not confident in their abilities nor do want to drag this boat nearly 2 hours 1 way to let it sit in a yard out in the weather...

So after aligning the pumps, which were facing two different directions, were ready to hit the water.

A week later I'm deleting voicemails and I come across the one from YAMAHA Customer service (not Cycle Springs) and the message says ("everything was covered"). But Cycle Springs said the bow strut wasn't covered?? So I call Yamaha and they say Cycle Springs never submitted it. FUCKING LIARS! DRAGON LIED RIGHT TO MY FUCKING FACE!

It's $18 bucks. Don't sweat the dumb shit. Buy it and don't lose sleep.

So... Awesome day on the water the next weekend. But I noticed the bilge pump turn on, no big deal as we hit a few waves over the bow and maybe there's water in the bilge. 2 more times of the bilge pump turning on and I'm suspicious. Look in the bilge through the swim deck and I see water pouring in! My boat is sinking!

Along with the factory bilge pump I have installed an additional bilge pump with a float switch connected directly to the battery. Concerned but no immediate danger.

So after a trip to CYCLE SPRINGS, by @ThatJeepGirl, no progress. Dan explains how he understands my frustration and why I don't want them to ever touch my boat again and claims he'll let his guys know how that work is unacceptable.

So now I'm stuck with a leaky boat and I'm working 12 hours a day 6 days a week....

 

[swatski]

Damn. These CYCLE SPRINGS guys make Yamaha customer service dudes look good! That's BAD.
But - a visit by @ThatJeepGirl - and no progress...????? That is REAL BAD.

Hope it's something trivial with the leak, but you never know.

--

 

[Britboater]

I feel your pain, it’s a common problem it seems nowadays, good customer service is very difficult to find and a lot of workshops employ primates to carry out what work they feel like doing at the time.
I never like to bad word people but future customers need to know. My local dealer, Sunsports, down in Fort Myers is exactly the same, I wouldn’t let them touch my boat and I definitely wouldn’t buy from them again. I fix any warranty issues myself, it just isn’t worth it and now my boat is out of warranty I accept what it throws at me.
I’ll be looking at another boat in the coming years but unfortunately it won’t be another Yamaha .

What have they done to cause your boat to leak so bad?

 

[jcyamaharider]

This " DRAGON" guy sounds like a real D bag!

 

[adrianp89]

I think they saw our previous discussion, as after I picked it up they gave me the old spark plugs, I guess to prove that they did it? I don't know why else they would give me old spark plugs. This time they also started the boat before hooking it up to my truck to make sure it runs. Probably because last time they left the battery on and it was dead by the time I went to take it out.

Went to take it out this weekend, looks like they didn't put the ladder all the way back in, so now a small chip in the fiberglass on anchor locker door. At this point I am cutting my losses and will live with it. I have already covered by previous issues so won't go any further into it.

I am pretty curious why your boat is leaking though. I wonder if it is the anchor locker? I had no issues with it, and then after my engine was replaced I had issues.

 

[Bluewater272]

What a nightmare.

 

[seadude]

Sometimes I think Yamaha dealers must enjoy annoying their customers!
I had the same steering binding up issue at the beginning of the second season on my 2016. Just inside the one year warranty but I have 5 years of YES so I wasn't concerned. Called the dealer and was immediately told steering cable failure isn't covered and I must not be maintaining my boat properly letting it sit in saltwater and the replacement would be very expensive. Well I told them I dry dock my boat during the week and probably over maintain it, but even if I didn't IMO the cable shouldn't fail after one year, but they insisted it wouldn't be covered! Since the steering continued to get tighter, I had no choice but to drop it off and hope for the best.
Turns out the binding issue was in the cable "gearbox" (which is part of the cable assembly) at the steering wheel, so the repair was covered vs corrosion which would not be.
With more "cooperative" communication from the dealer I also would have had the problem fixed immediately instead of dealing with steering issues for half the summer. FYI this may apparently be a somewhat common point of failure in the 2015+ 240's. Steering on these boats is smooth and effortless unless there's an issue somewhere.

 

[ThatJeepGuy]

I am pretty curious why your boat is leaking though. I wonder if it is the anchor locker? I had no issues with it, and then after my engine was replaced I had issues.

I wish it was. My bilge has always been dry. Looking through the acces cover in the clean out port area I can actually see the water coming in. Rather quickly actually. It’s coming from around the steering cable where they put a giant glob of silicone on the top of it but not all around it. I can only see the port jet. But I’ll be resealing both before we can hit the water again

 

[Drift Away]

I also got my boat from cycle Springs but I've had very different experience with the service department. I bought a brand new SX240 from Dan and mike. I've taken my boat there for the 10 hour service 50 and now 100 hour. They replaced my swim deck radio, Trailer Jack and side decal they were going to replace but i pulled all my stickers off. Granted yes they are very badd at returning phone calls, most of the time you have to call them but I've never had an issue with their work they've always treated me and @wallacerb solid.

 

[ThatJeepGuy]

I bought my 190 from Dan and my 240 from Scott. Awesome sales team! I was more than satisfied with that side of this dealership. Both times I bought boats from them they worked into the night to finish paperwork. The 240 purchase took a few days to finalize and Scott was more than helpful with communication everyday and night, even after hours

 

[Drift Away]

I bought my 190 from Dan and my 240 from Scott. Awesome sales team! I was more than satisfied with that side of this dealership. Both times I bought boats from them they worked into the night to finish paperwork. The 240 purchase took a few days to finalize and Scott was more than helpful with communication everyday and night, even after hours

Yea scott is who sold me my SX and @wallacerb his AR. Dan and him are good dudes

 

[Scottintexas]

I can understand all day long not resealing the cables or forgetting the screws or loose nozzles but originally automatically denying the warranty without checking and then not even calling, Lying is the part they can't recover from.

At least you listened when they told you who they are.

It is interesting about the gearbox issue as someone else with a new boat had hard steering a recently.