Guys, need a little help here. I recently bought a new boat from a dealership in Houston. I also purchased a GPS, VHF and a Stereo which the dealership installed. I have since moved the boat to Port O'connor where it is stored. When I took the boat out for the first time I realized that when I turn on the nav lights, all other guages go haywire and no longer work. The dealership says that they expect me to drag the boat all the way back to Houston to fix this problem vs. them sending a technician to POC to fix it. Mind you, that was a suggestion that one of their technicians told us might be a possibility. My question to you guys is, what is standard practice for this type of a scenario. People move all the time with their boats. I'm sure they don't have to take them back to the original dealer in order to take advantage of the warranty. The other piece of this is how do I determine if the nav/gauage issue is a Hull or Engine problem, or if it was something the dealer did. I fully realize that if it's an engine issue, I can take it to any certified dealer. Thanks for your help.

I can identify with and feel your pain. I purchased a boat from a nationwide dealer and had some gel-coat work needed done under warranty. Because of the proximity (250 miles) from the dealer I purchased the boat from I took it to the one closest to me (90 miles). The boat sat on the closer dealers lot for weeks. I eventually picked up the boat with the work never having been done. I eventually took it to a non-dealership, got it fixed and paid cash.

Warranty work is warranty work. Also warranty work usually pays slightly higher than across the counter service rates charged to walk in customers. Any authorized dealer for your particular boat should be willing to do your work and a smart dealer looking to increase his client base will work on it in a timely manner. If you keep on getting jostled to the rear, then it is time to get the manufacturer involved. A manufacturer wants their customers warranty problems taken care of in a timely fashion, no matter where you purchased the boat.

However you have several issues with the additional installations on your boat. If those installations are the cause of the nav lights/guage problems, then unfortunately a different dealer has no obligation to cover correcting installation errors from the first dealer. I can understand the hesitancy of any other dealer wanting to get into this, spend an hour of labor or more to troubleshoot the problem, find out is related to the additional installations and not have a way to charge out the labor. They can't charge warranty because th problem is the result of post delivery installations and their is no way the second dealer can charge the first for the re-do. The warranty for the additional installations only comes from the original dealership that performed the work.

As far as expecting the original dealership to send a tech to your location, pay travel, per diem, etc. is an extremely unrealistic expectation. You are responsible for all costs associated with presenting the boat for warranty work.

As far as the tech suggesting that this was a possibility, he was talking WAY OUTSIDE his level of authority. I'm sure if you talk to the shop supervisor who will refer it to the owner, you will find out that was never an option and the tech may be looking for a new job.

As far as the gel coat issue is concerned I will say that the dealer would have to "job it out" amd most fiber glass guys around here are working on the wind generators and making the "big bucks".
Sorry, didn't mean to still the post but, wanted to "flesh-out" what I wrote and I really couldn't afford to haul it to North Texas Fiberglass.