Riverside Marine Services Walt Took my longshaft Honda in for repair and received the shaft washougal, Washington

26th of Sep, 2011 by User614911

My experience with Riverside Marine was not good and it's partly my fault this time because I should have known better than to go back to them. First of all let me explain that I have a bit of experience working on my own stuff so I know when someone is jerking my chain. I took my honda outboard to have it tuned up and the water pump impeller replaced (just over $300). I got it back, put it on my boat and went fishing. It wouldn't run at all. I took it back and left it again. This time I was told I needed the carb rebuilt. The cost came to around $300. When I protested that I could have bought a new carb for that I was told that they are over $600 new. I paid and left. The motor wouldn't run right after a short time. This time I looked at it myself. There was fuel shooting out of the bowl vent at the top...stuck float. To satisfy my curiosity I looked the cost of new carb ($95). The screws holding the bowl on were frozen so it was pretty obvious that they had never been taken out when they "rebuilt' my carb. I went down there with the outboard to voice my displeasure at being bent over. I spoke with Walt who told me he had no problem with charging me 3 times the cost of a new carburetor and not informing me prior that it would be to my advantage to just get a new carb. He asked where I could get a carb for that price and I told him online. He said he didn't know anything about what they do online and that he wasn't a Honda dealer so he couldn't get that price. I informed him that the MSRP was $115 and that I was getting a retail price whereas he would get it for wholesale. He said he could look at it for me but since it wasn't his fault he would charge me more money. I declined. Apparently he has a long list of regular clients who like being taken advantage of. That, or he gets enough new clients moving into the area where he doesn't have to worry about customer service, satisfaction or return business. Now the sad part is that I have no problem taking the carb apart and doing what needed to be done but I thought that this time I would just make it easier on myself and support a local business. Had I known that I could have replaced the whole carburetor with a new one for $95 in about 15 min. with two bolts and a fuel hose to mess with prior to getting long shafted for $300 I would have done so. Guess that's why I wasn't informed beforehand by Walt and the Gang at Riverside. Don't take your boat there. Go to Pacific Powerboats or somewhere else. At least when I had problems with their repairs they bent over backwards to make it right instead of bending me over forwards. Oh, post script.......They also called the Washougal Police on me because I was yelling and using bad language. Apparently they felt that was worse for business than their unethical business practices.

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