Bethel Marine

Big Mistake - do not use Bethel Marine

I purchased a boat that was in need of engine repair from and acquaintance. I am not a mechanic and initially wanted to use Bethel Marine to repair my 16 foot Bayliner Trophy fishing boat because they are privately owned and considered a small local business. I contacted Bethel Marine shortly ofter purchasing the boat by phone and described the issue that my boat wasn’t getting a spark and there maybe other issues that I am unaware of that need repaired. They asked me to drop off the boat and they would take a look at it.

I dropped it off and as I was checking in the boat for service the receptionist took down notes in the computer that described the problem. I then asked to speak to see the mechanic in person to describe what elementary tactics I used to determine the boat wasn’t getting spark. I specifically told the mechanic that looked at my boat with me and the receptionist that I wanted someone to look over the entire boat and call me with a price to fix any issues with the boat. Both the mechanic and the receptionist agree that what I was asking was acceptable and I left with a feeling of confidence the boat was going to be fixed correctly and I would have a dependable boat when I received it back. As a side note my comments were mentioned in the notes section of the receipt for repairs I was give after paying my bill so I know they understood what I was asking them to do.

Bethel Marine had physical position of my boat for 3 weeks. After one week I called after I when I left work at about 4:30pm to see if they had looked at the boat and found any issues. When I called the receptionist answered and once she knew my intentions placed me on hold to speak to the service manager. When the service manager picked up I asked how my boat was coming along and he said he would have to call me back once he had checked with the mechanic. The service manager didn’t call back so I called again the next day at about 5:00pm to see what was going on with my boat. When I called the receptionist answered and once she knew my intentions placed me on hold to speak to the service manager. When the service manager picked up he told me that they hadn’t had a chance top look at the boat yet and when they did pull it in the shop in the next few days they would give me a call.

The next week (week 2) I hadn’t heard anything back from Bethel Marine yet and gave them a call after I got off work. Again the receptionist answered, found out my intentions and placed me on hold to speak to the service manager. The service manager picked up and told me that they had my boat running but he needed to talk to the mechanic to get the specific issues and would call me back in a few minutes. Again he didn’t call me back so I called Bethel marine back on lunch the next day (about 12pm) and got the same response that it was progressing but he would have to call me back. He did call back this time about 30 minutes later to let me know the list of items that they had found wrong with the boat. After reviewing the issues and prices associated I asked them to complete the repairs.

On the next week (Mid week three) I called the marinea at lunch (about 12pm) to find out how the boat was coming along and spoke to the receptionist the same as before and then to the service manager who said he would need to call me back. I knew he wasn’t going to call me back so after not receiving a call I called the marinea when I got off work to inquire about my boat. He informed me they would get to the repairs in the next few days and call me when it was ready. I did receive a call about three days later letting me my boat was ready and the total charges for the repairs would be $1052.96. I picked the boat up that night, paid my repair bill and brought it home to park it in the garage.

My wife and I then planned a trip out on the lake to go fishing. We lined up a baby siter, filled the cooler, purchased bait, ect. Then as we were loading the boat for the first trip I figured I should try to start the boat before towing it all the way to the lake just to make sure everything was working as it should. I pulled the boat out of the garage and hooked up the muffs to the water intake and attempted to start the boat. After an hour of attempting to start the boat several times looking at the boat hoping it would fix itself my wife and I gave up on our trip.

The next day (Monday) I called Bethel Marine and told them what happen and they asked for me to bring the boat in so they could take a look at it. When I arrived I was pleasantly greeted by the service manager and the receptionist then immediately met with a mechanic to look at the boat. The mechanic (I found out later the mechanic was actually the owner) looked over the boat for about 1 ½ hours and found there was a voltage regulator failure, bad coil (it has 3), and a kill switch issue. Once I was inform of these issues I asked “How did you have the boat running the first time it was in your shop if it had theses issues?” He responded with “that is a very good question” then tried to side step the question by explaining what some of the parts do on the motor. Once he was finished with his explanations I asked the same question again. After I asked the question a second time he got very combative and defensive. I remained calm and insisted I get an answer to my question. After a minute or two of ranting the mechanic (owner) started cleaning his tools off the boat. I then asked “is the boat now running like it should”? He responded with “nope you need a coil and a voltage regulator”. I then just said “ok” and asked for his full legal name just in case I decide to pursue him or his repair shop through legal venues for the charges incurred at a different shop to repair the boat.

I expected to receive a boat in good working order when the boat was returned to me. I even gave Bethel Marine another chance to correct the issue when I brought it back to them a second time. If they would have admitted they made a mistake and just fixed the boat I would have left annoyed but forgotten the whole thing. I will now never return to and will urged everyone possible against using this repair shop and inform them of Bethel Marine’s inability to service the customer.