Paint falling off my Brand new Lowe boat

[Grimace]

Paint starting falling off the hull of my brand new Lowe.

We told the dealer about it and he got on the phone for us right away. He talked to a Lowe rep and he assured our salesman that they would take care of us. They Havent. that was late April. We took the boat to the dealer ( 4 hours from home) so the Lowe guy could look at it. That was June 11th. we where originally going to use for the season and then have them paint it in the winter. Well when the Lowe rep saw the big yellow blotch on the side of it he decided it wouldnt be in Lowe's best interest to have it out on the water advertiseing bad paint. So he decided that a local guy from up here to paint it for us right away, and the paint would arrive June 15th. It didnt. we missed that week-end of fishing.

our salesman called them and they said the paint would be there for sure the next tuesday. it didnt. we missed that week-end of fishing ( bass opener here in Ontario). our salesman called them again, next tuesday for sure. it didnt.

It is Canada day week-end and i have no boat for the 3rd week in a row and the lowe poeple wont take our calls or answer our e-mails. The paint has now finally arrived thursday night at 4:30. funny i just got a hold of the lowe guy and now they say if the paint job doesnt take, it is between us the paint manufacturer and the paint guy in Canada.

I smell a rat. if it was up to me i would have my boat with the crappy paint, and they can paint it at the end of the season. they knew they couldnt get the paint here that quick, but they also knew they didnt want that boat on the water( bad advertiseing) so they lied to my salesman. now they are not going to take responsibility for the new paint job.....

I dont know what to do....

[wolfe]

Grimace,

I am no legal eagle, but certainly if the boat was purchased new and the paint is peeling you have a good case here. I would be pi$$ed -- especially with the (lack of) service you have received.

Pursue it, doggedly. I think you are being rooked.

Sorry for your troubles.

W.

[wolfe]

PS:

I know this is a bit different from what you're going through, but an example of how you need to be aggressive in your pursuit of "justice":

I bought my brother 2 Adirondack chairs for his new home as a house warming. He loved them & was getting many compliments on them. That was for about 2 weeks....then the paint started peeling and shortly thereafter, the wood cracked on both chairs!

I called the company to complain and they wanted my bro to disassemble, box up and return the chairs. LUDICROUS! I pushed harder and finally threatened to end all business with the catalog house. (There were several phone calls and email exchanges including pic's of the crappy chairs during all this.) Finally, the company issued a gift certificate for the full amount paid for the chairs to my brother, and he did not have to return them. He has a chance of fixing them up & keeping them now, but of course, this whole thing had me feeling awful for choosing such crud as a gift.

Well, just wanted to tell you to push the ticket with Lowe, because I smell a rat.

W.

[tinbanger]

start checking for similar paint issues with LOWES on the net. Chances are you aren't alone .Maybe strength in numbers

Tinbanger

[Peppino]

Grimace,

Ask the parties involved if they have heard of the " Better Business Bureau"

Good luck!

Peppino

[Badger Shark]

I had a similar issue with Legend last year. I bought a brand new Legend and things started falling apart right away , screws and rivets and the consol, bad paint and rust just about anything you could think of oh and motor problems. I bought it at Hurst. Legend did not reply to me or them. This went on for months, finally I told Hurst I was going to have to go a differnt direction if you know what I mean. Finally in August Hurst bought back the boat from me after we worked out a deal on a new Alumacraft which is so much better built, obviously they have quality control. Legend does not. It still cost me 2000 dollars loss. I guess the Legend was a Friday aft. special. I have heard similar issues from other Legend owners I have spoken to and they are quite upset. Its unfortunate because I would like to support a canadian company but if they have no quality I just cant do it and I would not recommend them to anyone. I do however recommend Alumacraft I am very pleased so far. Hurst has since dumped the line of legend.

SOMETIMES YA JUST GOTTA FIGHT TILL YOU WIN.

[ady]

that's outrageous, you wouldn't get that from a car dealer. post pictures - this is a large BB, you might get some notice. Also email Lowe with a link to here and the discussion it's getting from the fishing fraternity.

[spinner]

Have you called Lowe directly yourself to express your concerns?? Can't tell for sure but if you haven't, I highly recommend that you step in.

"if the paint job doesnt take, it is between us the paint manufacturer and the paint guy in Canada"
That's totally unacceptable as by what you said in your post ,it was their decision to have it done that way so it's their responsibility!!!! Until they agree that it's their responsibility, they wouldn't get my boat.

Get after them!!!!

Good luck

[Grimace]

when i mentioned to the Lowe guy that I would start posting on the sites i belong to on the internet, he said in his rich southern missouri accent " I dont have to talk to poeple like you".. and hung up

now Lowe has called the dealer and is furious with me for that threat. ( a reality now)

the boat dealer is annoyed with me that i went to them behind his back.

everyone is mad at me and i am the one sitting here with paint falling off my boat i just bought for 30 large.

Geesh sorry, didnt mean to offend anyone.

gonna locate some billboards down there in missouri see how much some of them cost to rent for a month



thats how it started 2nd week of April. you should see it now all up the side. i dont have a picture because the boat is at the dealer across the province..

[JP]

Grimace, sorry to hear that you are having such problems. I worked with Lowe a couple of years ago before Brunswick Marine took it over and had no problems. Are you dealing with a marina in ottawa area or in your end?
I work at a marina in the Ottawa area and here is what I would do.

1. Go to the marina that you are dealing with and ask to speak to the OWNER not manager. If you already have done this then recomend that you have a loaner hull till the issue is delt with. The marina will bill Lowe for switching your engine and accessories over to the new hull.

2. If this doesn't work then suggest that you would like to trade the package at full value on a new package.

Give me a pm and I can give you more info.
Good Luck
JP

[wolfe]

post pictures - this is a large BB, you might get some notice. Also email Lowe with a link to here and the discussion it's getting from the fishing fraternity.

I was thinking the same thing, ady. That might get a little attention.

W.

[Todd B.]

Sounds like you could make one of those "priceless" commercials based on the service you've been given.

[Wallyboss]

Grimace you have a lot more patience than I have!!!!

But JP has it right. I would warn the owner of the Marina where you bought it and tell them that you will be coming to pick up a loaner in 2 days(at least they will have a heads up) And if your dealer is pee pee off because you went over his head just tell him that you are getting tired of the runaround and you want to get some fishing in this summer, letting him know that is the only reason you bought the boat in the first place.

Grimace something that the Hawktalkers might be able to do for you is, give us the most info you can and we will all send e-mails for you. might want to pass this by Bobber and Fishhawk( possible legal issues) but we can all say that we miss our fishing buddy and we can't wait to see him on the water with his new {Princecraft(hehe)}

[mikemicropterus]

The only thing that gets their attention these days is bad publicity. call a lawyer and get him to send them a letter to give you a NEW boat.

Sadly the paint will not stick to the baot if it is not done at the factory. The paint is heated and there is a special primer as well as an etching process thats has to be done that was not done properly.
The dealler doesn't want to do anything because it's expensive someone has to pay for shipping and derigging. Write the president of Lowe and JD power as well as cc to boating magazines(ie bass&walleye) you'd be amazed how fast lost sales get their attention.
This is not the first and certainly won't be the last, I have seen this with all tin boats from Princecraft to Crestliner. Just a Friday boat.
Good Luck I've been in this industry for more than 20 years and they only understand MONEY. Make them think you will make them lose sales and they will jump through hoops and quite quickly, the power of the internet. For 10 bucks a month you could have yoyur own web-site and just post the pictures and the story.
What may happen is they let you use the boat all summer and they take it back in the fall, derig it and send it back to the factory for painting. To send it back by itself costs too much but when they get a load of boats in the fall the truck is there empty. We did this many times with Princecraft as well as Crestliner and Legend. Thats how it's done, forget about hurting the paint any further the whole boat will have to be repainted. Hope this helps, Don't back down!!!!!

[Grimace]

Lowe has agreed to get it painted, take responsibility for the paint job, and they are gonna give us 500 smackers for the trouble.


although i have had to rent boats for the last 3 week-ends and 500 smackers doesnt cut it. especially since i was stuck in a tinny on a great big body of water and couldnt really go anywhere.

I also start to work saturdays in late July until christmas and really could have used those 3 weeks in my boat.