Report # 2 - How a bunch of "Shitheads" turned a simple 20 hour boat service into a four month fiasco.

"Our new boat was working great but we needed our first (20 hour) service, and a minor prop repair. Although we'd heard a few unsettling reports about St Kilda Boat Service Centre's performance from other boat owners, we weren't too worried. I even remember saying "What can go wrong? It's just an easy 20 hour service."

"Boy was I wrong... Our simple 20 hour service became a nightmare that lasted over 4 months..."

"We gave them a boat with two engines that worked great, but they gave us back a boat with one engine ruined... And then they denied any responsibility for it..."

And that's just the start of the saga, and it only gets much worse from here...

For some reason, after they completed our service, without telling us that the service was completed, and without asking us to come and collect it, they put our boat back into our pen. Because the weather was bad for the next couple of days, we didn't go to the marina or try to fire her up. But the Saturday following was a nice day, so I went down intending to get out on the water. I discovered that the starboard engine was dead and wouldn't start - so we were unable to use the boat that weekend. This was a few days before Melbourne Cup and we had plans to take a bunch of friends up the river to Flemington.

When we asked Andrew from St Kilda Boat Service Centre why it wouldn't start, he said that both engines had been working fine when they put the boat back into our pen after the service, and "he knew nothing about it." But the fact is that one engine that had been working fine, was now dead.

We got the guys from Volvo down on the day before Melbourne Cup day hoping that it could be fixed quickly but it only took them a few minutes to tell us the bad news. The starboard engine had water in it and had seized - and we would need a complete engine replacement, so the boat was out of action until it could be fixed. This was to be done back at the Service Centre.

When we asked the guy from Volvo how water can end up inside the engine, he explained that the most likely reason was that when the boat was reversed back into the water by trailer, (as it was) a ram-effect had been generated, forcing water back up the exhaust and into the engine.

I got down to the marina the day after Melbourne Cup to discover that our boat had been moved out of our pen and was now sitting on a stand over at the service centre. When I went over to have a look at it, I discovered a huge scratch and gouge over a metre long in the starboard side of the boat towards the front.

I immediately asked the guy from the service center what had happened to the boat and he replied "he had no idea and that they didn't do it." I was very angry and spoke to Andrew and demanded to know how such major damage could miraculously appear for no reason - and without anyone at their end knowing how it happened. I told them that the damage hadn't been there the day before, and we wanted answers.

He then said, look I don't know what happened, but we'll fix it.

My partner and I again said that wasn't good enough and demanded to be told what had happened. Then after first denying any knowledge of the damage, Andrew admitted that he did actually know what had happened. His explanation then was that the night before, "someone had come back from the Melbourne Cup on their boat pissed to the gills, and had hit our boat as they tried to berth". He said he knew who had done it, "but it wouldn't be fair to tell me"... I told him that was like a hit and run witness refusing to ID the car...

When I told his explanation to some people with boats berthed near to mine on F-Row, they told me that his explanation was a lie and complete bullshit, and that they had actually been sitting on their boat all evening watching the boats come back from the races - and that no-one had hit my boat. They even told me that as the wind had blown up quite badly, as someone on G-Row came in and had some trouble getting the boat back into their pen, they had run over to G-Row to help him pull it in, but that no-one had hit anybody. Further, they also said that the night before had been a very strong southerly, so how could a boat be blown south into our boat on F-Row, when the wind was pushing the boats north back into G-Row.....

Back to the engine....

St Kilda Boat Service Centre continued to deny any knowledge or any responsibility for the water in the starboard engine and told me that "as it is still under warranty, I should get Volvo to replace it, or put it through my insurance". When my partner in the boat spoke to Andrew to discuss the engine, Andrew then said that he had told me that as they hadn't tested the engine yet, it shouldn't be started until the next week, when they could test it.

Firstly, that's bullshit. Andrew never said that to me at all.

Second, if the boat wasn't tested or seaworthy, why did they put it back in our pen?

Third, why wouldn't they bother to stick a piece of paper on to the dash warning us both not to start the engines......

Fourth, if Andrew had actually told either of us NOT to start the engines, then why on earth would we?????

The situation got so ridiculous that later at a meeting, where I was there with other boat owners and Darren and Andrew, we had the amazing situation where Andrew was telling those present that he had also told Joe to tell me not to start the engines. But just as he said that, Joe walked in and in front of everybody denied that Andrew had ever said any such thing.

Andrew repeated that he had....

Joe said that's bullshit and again stated for the record that Andrew had not said anything of the sort, and then made the point that if Andrew actually had said that, then why would either of us start the motor when we had been told NOT to. The fact is that neither of us were ever told not to start the engines by Andrew.

As tempers began to flare, Greg Spooner then intervened and said that we were not there to discuss this issue, and the subject was dropped and we got back to other matters. But that doesn't change anything.

The boat then sat dead in the water outside St Kilda Service Centre for months over summer while we argued about who would pay for the repairs. They denied any responsibility for anything.

Eventually, we were so frustrated with the whole drama and all the bullshit and excuses that we decided to put the costs through our own insurance, just so we could finally get our boat back...

When we finally got the boat back we then discovered that for the time the boat had been in their care and moored outside their centre, they hadn't bothered to hook the boat up to shore power, or bothered to check the fridge... As a result the the fridge was rancid with spoiled food and the boat absolutely stank. Not only that, but as a result, juices had oozed out of the fridge and ruined the carpet.

And if that wasn't bad enough, as the boat had sat there pointing north for four months without them even bothering to provide a single rinse or clean, the front clears had become tarnished to the point that you could no longer see through them - and they also had to be replaced.

...so much for a simple 20 hour service, where we thought nothing could go wrong...

Note from Joe: As a sad footnote to the whole saga, one of the reasons I bought the boat was that Dad, who loved boats, was seriously ill and I wanted to be able to take him out onto the water while we still had some time left. But I only ever got to take him out a couple of times. Unfortunately, it was too late by the time we eventually got the boat back, as he had passed away...

"They're just a bunch of shitheads."