Problem e-tec fixed, letter from BRP

As many of you read awhile back I had a fuel pump issue with my new 90 etec. I had problems getting it serviced and ended up taking a 2 hour 1-way trip to get my purchasing dealer to repair it. I wrote a letter to BRP stating the issues with the 2 local dealers and I also sent in my gas receipts for the 4 hours of driving. I got a respose quickly, but not as expected. I stated the make model and serial numbers and I also told them the story of what happened to the motor and what I was told by each dealer. In the end they apolgized and that was it. They stated ” all evinrude and johson dealers are not franchised by BRP, but are independent businessmen. They are responsible for their business practices and the issues regarding your repair are between you and your dealer.” Also “it is stated in your Operator’s guide that all expenses endured for transporting your vessel to and from authorized dealer for repair are to be borne by the owner.” Needless to say I have been very nice about all this with BRP and the local dealers. I have no gas reimbursement and no piece of mind. The motor is fixed. I hope it stays that way. I stated in my letter I have been boating since I was 5 and I’m only 26. I can’t beleive that BRP wouldn’t at least give me a coupon or a gift cert, or at least call the 2 local dealers that kept blowing me off because I didn’t buy from them!!! Needless to say I won’t buy another new Evinrude again, or a Skidoo or a Seadoo, or any thing they make unless I have too! This was the first time I’ve ever had any service done to one of my boats. I guess that extended warranty was a waste. For what it cost I probably could have bought the tool to diagnose codes myself. I will call and write back to BRP with a little different tone this round.

Wow! You are one tough customer!
You are young, and will have many other disappointments in your life. The first time you have an issue with a Yamaha, you will go to Merc. The first Merc you have issues with, you will go to Suzuki… You bought a motor that had an issue that was fully backed by BRP. Once you got to a dealer that was ready, willing and able to fix your motor, it was fixed. I assume to your satisfaction.(?) If you are looking for a freebie from BRP, show up at the Sport Shows this coming Spring, and make your case to the factory reps that will be there in force. But to bash BRP here because they did not give you gas money or freebies in my mind is a little out of line.
As far as the gas? Chalk that one up to experience. Let the performance of your motor be the real judge of BRP (Or any manufacturer.) and not your emotions right now.
Just my “Old Man” $.02.

Hey, if you want a hat, I gotta couple you can have.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Itleast the problem is solved.

I bought a 2004 Suzuki 150 and was not happy with the performance. I took it to the dealer and they tried everything to get the RPM’s up. Suzuki has a master technician that drives all over MN/WI. He came to me on lake Mille lacs and he spent a good 4 hours in my boat with a lap top. He had a service van that was like a shop on wheels. It blew me away. Needless to say I was more than taken care of..

I’m assuming you have it repaired now?
With the huge amount of dissatisfaction you have towards the E-TEC I think you should just sell it and buy something you will never have a problem with. You are just wasting time and ink writing to them, the have your money and aren’t giving any back, period.

There is never a easy answer when something like this happens. I also visit another site where a guy is having MAJOR problems with Tracker, this stuff happens all we can do is feel your pain.

My bit of advise……..you are only in your twenties, life is way to short to make this a major issue. Either live with the E-TEC, or sell it and move on.

Whatever you decide you will sleep better.

Good luck.

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With the huge amount of dissatisfaction you have towards the E-TEC I think you should just sell it and buy something you will never have a problem with. live with the E-TEC, or sell it and move on.

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Listen to you guys!

Correct me if I am wrong:
You had a Po-dunk dealer who wasn’t worth his weight in air sit on his hands when he should have been diagnosing and fixing the motor. Which, regardless of motor brand would have been the right thing to do.
BRP did not charge you for the repair, did they? It was fixed in short order once you got it to a dealer who was worth his salt, right?
The motor runs great now, right? (Your Dad has one too, correct?) How are they running?

This could have easily happened with any other engine maker. The dealer would have still been the issue. NOT THE MOTOR!

If I am missing something here, or you had additional problems with the motor, let me know.

I’m also sorry to hear about your ordeal. If you know me at all you know I’m far from an Evinrude backer. I however believe your beef should be with the Marine dealers, that really have no direct connection or loyalty with BRP. Like Tuck said, once you brought it in to get fixed, BRP fixed and paid for what was wrong with their motor and did it in a fashion that sounds like it was fixed and fixed in a timely matter. It also sounds like once you brought it to the dealer you bought it from things were handled in a proper fashion. Unless there is more to the story that I’m missing, I see no reason why you would have a complaint with or about BRP and this comes from a strong Mercury backer.

The two marine dealers that dragged their feet with helping you is just the way things go, if you did not buy your boat or motor from them. They are busy enough with their own customers. It would be a gift if they went out of there way for you. Not saying it doesn’t or won’t happen, just consider yourself lucky if it does. Next time you buy a boat and motor, they are all the same if you buy it form Dealer A or Dealer B. I would look more closely at the Service Shop of each dealer and make sure a) you trust the people working on your boat and b) you are willing to drive that distance if something does happen. If you own a boat these things (weather, moisture, days in the sun, etc) these things go through it is amazing they last as long as they do sometimes.

Without all the hammer guys pounding, my point is that any of the current engine manufacturers stand beind their products. I give a hard time to the Merc guys (Lip in particular! ) but truth be told, each of the major manufacturers really stand behind their product. I hate to see any of them get a bad rep for something a shoddy dealer did. Chances are that same dealer probably sells other motors besides Evinrude. Would the service had been any better if it was a Yamaha/Merc through the same dealership?
I really hope the motor gives you many years of trouble free use from here on out.

Too bad chrysler isn’t in buisness anymore. You could trade it in.

Do the two local dealers sell ONLY Evinrude/BRP? If not, you better not switch to Yammie or Honda or whatever else they sell as that too may have a problem that would require them to fix it.

Take all your documentation and turn it in to the better buisness bureau. Maybe they will blacklist the locals.

It seems you want revenge, not satisfaction. If thats the case, thats cool, just say so.

if i remember correctly in your oringinal post you staded that you had bought boats from your local dealer before but this boat you bought from a differant dealer (did your local dealer do some thing to urine you off? ) it didn’t seem to bother you to drive 2 hours to buy the boat and save a couple of bucks (looking back how much did you really save with your time and money spent) and now you expect your local dealer to give you the red carpit treatment? I always try to buy from my local dealers.
don’t create a situation if you are not willing to live with it. And this is not a matter of BRP standing behind there product or not, it is a matter of you turning your back on your local dealer then expecting them to take care of you.Anow you want every buddy to give something for nothing. get a glue kid

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if i remember correctly in your oringinal post you staded that you had bought boats from your local dealer before but this boat you bought from a differant dealer (did your local dealer do some thing to urine you off? ) it didn’t seem to bother you to drive 2 hours to buy the boat and save a couple of bucks (looking back how much did you really save with your time and money spent) and now you expect your local dealer to give you the red carpit treatment? I always try to buy from my local dealers.
don’t create a situation if you are not willing to live with it. And this is not a matter of BRP standing behind there product or not, it is a matter of you turning your back on your local dealer then expecting them to take care of you.Anow you want every buddy to give something for nothing. get a glue kid

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This post sums it up to a tee. What was the real cause for you to drive 2 hours to buy elsewhere in the first place…did ya save a few bucks? Now it doesn’t sound like that was the best thing to do. Point is that dealers take care of their paying customers first and now you should realize this. Continue to bash BRP products all ya want, but guess what…all brands have their issues.

Please sell your E-TEC and buy another brand, that should fix everything.

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With the huge amount of dissatisfaction you have towards the E-TEC I think you should just sell it and buy something you will never have a problem with. live with the E-TEC, or sell it and move on.

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Every time you go out in your boat you are giving the boat and motor manufacturer free advertising. Your boat probably has a dealership decal displayed, this is also advertising. Problems with the company who built your engine? or problems with the dealership who sold you the rig? If you have a problem with the motor, sell it and quit advertising for the motor manufacturer, if you have a problem with the dealership tear off your decal. Go back and voice your dissatisfaction with you far away friend at the dealership and ask him to compensate you for wasting your time, cost of gas is not relevant here, I think your time is worth much more.

Interisting post. What is up with dealers not wanting to work on motors the have not sold? Dont the get compensated for the warrenty repairs they make. Brought my motor in to a local dealer because I didnt want to drive the 2 hrs to the dealer it came from and got a similar response to you. How old is the motor and where did you buy it from. Why would it mater where I buy it from? Its not going back there.
Do these dealers not get compansated for there warrenty repairs?

MikeW, I was thinking the same thing. Dealers make money on service too. When I sold cars, they loved to have people come in to get thier warranty work done for two reasons. First, they get the money from the company for the warranty work. Secondly, they also get the opportunity for the customer to come into the show room and look around, and hopefully buy something from them also. What if you had bought the boat used, and the motor still had some warranty on it? Do you have to drive it to where the original owner bought it from in order to expect decent service? Maybe not pushed in front of other people, but not to be told we don’t want to work on it. Either way, I’m confused as to why we shouldn’t be able to take it to the closest dealer and expect a decent experience. This way they never will get a chance at getting future buyers back through the door. For that I think you’re doing the right thing expressing your dissatisifaction with the two dealers who provided you with nothing other than frustration.

Problem may be that the dealers don’t make as mush $$$ when doing warranty work.Seeing as how you did not buy from them you are moved to the back of the list to start and now throw on some warranty pay type stuff and the dealer,if they are busy with customer pay and warranty from customers and you can see why they may have not been excited to take on a non customer warranty job.We don’tr know the whole story so its hard to bash the dealers.

I go through this scenario daily. I am a Service Manager at a new car dealer. If things are slow, we love taking other dealers customers. If things are busy, and you roll in with your vehicle you bought 2 hours away, cause you saved $100, you go in line behind all my car buyers. This is a fact of life. Somebody said earlier, you really need to know what kind of service department, you will be dealing with, before buying. I can tell you all dealers that are busy, will treat you a little different, than they will their loyal customer, after all, if you drive 2 hours to save $100, I think you are more than a little different (tight). Gas wasn’t a problem when you made the loop looking for the “best deal” Things are not always as they seem. JMHO.

big g

Well said….

I cant beleive you guys think this is the way it should be, if you are authorized to do warranty work you should do it, if you refuse to do it the manufacturer should stand behind the customer and MAKE the dealership do it, this does seem to be standard practice for boat dealers, Why maybe if you take care of someone they would buy the next boat from you, its not like they will be out any money, the manufacturer pays the bill, I have never been asked where my trucks were bought and have never had a problem with getting service for a vehicle why is it such a problem for boats.

I’ve got a 2001 90 HP Merc I’ll trade you even up !

no offense but………………stop whining.

you may have had some bad service from your local dealers but i fail to see how BRP is responsible for any of that. earlier this year i had a BRP warranty claim that was COMPLETELY my fault. BRP sent the $600 part no questions asked.
i just love it when a product breaks and automatically everybody is looking for handouts and gift certificates. its not good enough that they stand behind there product, which is somewhat of a rarety these days anyway.

maybe, just maybe, a little research into your options of service and repair *before* purchase would have been wise?, ie: what kind of reputation does your local dealer/service center have, quality of work?, customer complaints?, and so on?.

its called being an informed consumer.

cheers

I kinda ran into the same thing recently. Took the motor in to have a local dealership look at it. After they had, I started asking questions that I knew they should have been able to answer. They gave me answers that made no sense. Ended up making the drive to Smitty’s. Either the local didn’t know what they were doing or it was the fact that they didn’t sell the motor so they didn’t want to work on it. There’s something to be said about a dealership you can trust. Thanks Smitty’s.

By the way…. 327 hours on the E-Tek.

I’m a little surprised by the responses here. Yeah, he didn’t buy his boat there, but they are an authorizer service center, and should behave like professionals. At a minimum, he should be given a reasonable estimate of time and cost, and updated periodically on what’s been happening.

If a Lexus or Cadillac dealership blew someone off because they bought their car elsewhere, they’d get their balls handed to them in a jar. You can stop into any dealership in the country and expect first-rate service, and GM and Toyota know that’s one of the major reasons people buy them.

Outboard companies don’t have that kind of influence over the local dealerships, but that doesn’t make it right for them to sit on his boat and give him the brush-off.

Just my .02 is where ever I bought the boat is where I would assume to take it for repairs for they are the ones that collected my big spend. Our local dealer pushes people off as well and they tell you str8 to your face I have enough work from customers that buy from me your 2 months out if you want us to work on it! Plus one does not go buy a rod at Cabellas and return it to Walmart when it breaks just because Walmart carrys the same rod. You take it back to where you bought it..

Caddy or lexus… your not understanding! Car dealers are huge they have big shops sell tons of cars every day.

Now compareing that to my local boat {MERC} dealer here in Red Wing, Smaller dealer they take care of there people first. If I walk in there door after I just bought my new boat somewhere else and Im standing next to a guy who just bought a new boat from them, Who should they help first?

Now thats saying there busy if they have nothing to do Im sure most dealers would be on it!

I cant say Ive ever been to a boat dealer in the summer that wasnt busy.

And about about being pissed at the e-tec, Im also a Merc guy and the more I hear about the e-tec the more Im leaning on getting one on my next boat. The gas mileage alone almost settles the deal! That and a buddy of mine who has been fishing tournaments for years and has always ran merc’s now hes running his first e-tec and says hes loveing every minute of it. He said he used to use 3 gallons of opti oil per FLW tournament with his e-tec hes used 3 all year…

Sounds like a money saveing machine!!!

So…. y’all think it’s okay that they wouldn’t even tell him when they’d work on it or get to it?

If you read the other post they did take it in but it took them to long!

I guess maybe im being to understanding but when I drive by any boat shops around here there are boats lined up to be worked on Im thinking its not going to be first on another dealers list!

Your best chance at a quick fix is going to be going to the dealer you bought it from!

Or be patiant… Now if I remember the problem is now a recall right!

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.. Now if I remember the problem is now a recall right!

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Yep.

Recall

You post is appreciated. I talked to a few people that own 90 E-TEC’s and the seriel #’s are in the 514’s and 515’s yet they never got a notice, including me.

Thanks for the link, I will be contacting my dealer tomorrow.

Hmmmmm I never got that one either.
I will have to check into it.

Thanks

First things first, wow what a response!!! Second I bought the boat 2 hours away because I stopped there on the way home from vacation and bought it. They had the boat, my dealer near me didn’t, they have financing, dealer by me didn’t. They had a nicer trailer that the dealer by me didn’t offer. They gave me 6 grand for my old rig that I figured was worth 5 or less. I could go on but I think the 2 hour drive was worth it. I plain and simply don’t understand how BRP would ignore issues like this. I was told straight out that the boat would be looked at and most likely fixed 3 days after it arrived at the 1st dealer. Then after I was blown off the 2nd dealer told me they didn’t want to “get Involved”. So I took the boat back to the purchasing dealer. They fixed it and its been fine. As for the recall we’ll see what happens. How can you make a bad fuel filter, idiotic. They’ve only been made for what, 100 years. We have recalls all the time on GMs I work on and most are because they’re trying to penny pinch and something fails. You guys with c/k trucks with strap, seat belt and abs recalls know what I mean. Good trucks but just a waste of people’s time to have to come in for this stuff that should be right from the factory! Ya know this new computerized stuff on outboards is great, when it all works! My 1982 15 evinrude is as reliable as the day it was built and I can work on it all! Think of this, since this issue has happened with me, 1 single customer, how many people won’t buy an e-tec? Or were on the fence and now will go elsewhere. Now that’s why BRP should’ve been more considerate.